Civil War In Denmark

In early September forty people occupied an artificial island in the middle of Oeresund, Denmark. Up until it was occupied it was part of the construction of the Oeresundbridge, an ecologically damaging bridge construction project.

The new republic was named ‘Ecotopia’ and there was then an official declaration of independence made as well as an application for membership to the UN. The machinery was nationalised and offered to scrap dealers at a cheap price. The inside of the huge island (five kilometres long) was still filled with water so they commandeered a motor boat and went for a ride watched by some very unamused police. They stayed on the island for six hours and the police had difficulty getting rid of them.

When they were eventually taken off the island they were arrested and have since been fined, but as they say “it was well worth it!”

As well as everyone having great fun, work on the bridge was stopped, it raised a lot of attention in the media all over Denmark and Sweden and it also brought together lots of groups that had never worked with each other before.