May Day in Kreuzberg

May Day in Kreuzberg refers to the street fairs and demonstrations organized by leftist and extreme-left groups in Berlin's borough Kreuzberg on the 1st of May. Specifically, this term may refer to the 1st of May 1987, when particularly severe unrest hit Kreuzberg and the Berlin police had to retreat entirely from district SO 36 (a part of Kreuzberg) for several hours. Since then, Autonome (socialists) and Anti-Fascist groups have been organizing one or more so-called "Revolutionary 1st of May Demonstrations" almost every year. There can be riots in the night before or after the 1st of May.

Kreuzberg has always been a hotspot for street fights between squatters or socialist/anarchist groups and the police. District SO 36 in particular was a center of the Berlin house-squatting and punk movement. On Labour Day, Autonome, alternative people and socialists traditionally organized a street festival on Lausitzer Platz (), which sometimes led to minor fights with the police, demonstrations or other political actions. These were however considered routine for Kreuzberg at the time and hardly recognized by the public.

Next to these, the Confederation of German Trade Unions organized the traditional big 1st of May Demonstration in West Berlin. The Confederation of German Trade Unions and the new social movements (Autonome etc.) were at odds and sometimes the police had to prevent them crashing the demonstration.

The 1st of May 1987 was a historic event, which was covered by the worldwide press. At the time, the atmosphere in the leftist groups was tense for several reasons: the boycott of the controversial nationwide census of 1987, the perceived repression by Berlin's senate and the police's breaking into one of the leftist groups' headquarters Mehringhof at 4:45am on May 1st.

The street festival was peaceful until the police forced the new social groups to leave the trade union's demonstration. Around 4pm, Autonome overturned an empty police car near the festival and pushed two construction cars onto the street. . The police reacted by breaking up the festival using batons and tear gas. Following that, the visitors of the festival built barricades on several adjacent streets. From 11pm till the early morning, the police retreated to the area around Skalitzer Straße.

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Wikipedia