Page - 49 - in Siting Futurity - The “Feel Good” Tactical Radicalism of Contemporary Culture in and around Vienna

49 (re)forming Vienna’s culture of resistance earned at least some of the occupiers’ admiration for coming out to the slaughterhouse to talk to them “mit Ihrem Chauffeur und ihrem Handtäschchen im Schneiderkostüm” [“in a tailored suit with her purse and chauffeur”] and who is on record as wanting to find a solution that “would give the young people the chance to actualize themselves” (Höllerl and Spanbauer 2012a, 102).15 The protest was the talk of the town, especially around the university area and was only displaced from the headlines by the tragic collapse of the Reichsbrücke on August 1. Fliers, posters and comics circulated about the events at the slaughterhouse, and people took to the streets to show their support. Besides the Schmetterlinge, most of the city’s folk and rock musicians per- formed for the occupiers, leading sing-alongs of protest songs adapted to the local dialect and situation. For example, the Civil Rights Movement’s protest song “We Shall Not Be Moved,” which was originally an African-American spiritual called “I Shall Not Be Moved” and became popular as “No Nos Moveran,” the translation done for the Spanish Civil War, was translated into “[u]nd wann die Polizei kommt, mia gengan nimmer fuat!” [“Even if the police come, we’re not gonna leave!”].16 When Leonard Cohen was in town as part of the European tour, he couldn’t help but hear about the occupation and, after his sched- uled concert at the Stadthalle, went out to the slaughterhouse to perform a Yiddish folk song as a show of solidarity for the oc- cupiers. The occupation came to an end after the Gemeinderat [Viennese city council] finally approved the sale of the property on September 27. By October 6 the occupiers had decided to leave peacefully (Weidinger 2012, 100), and they did so a few days later, but not before staging an “Arena Begräbnis” funeral procession from the slaughterhouse to City Hall, where mov- ing speeches were held and the Internationale sung (Höllerl and Spanbauer 2012b, 109). 15 The original reads: “[E]ine Lösung zu finden, die den „jungen Menschen die Chance geben [wollte], sich selbst zu verwirklichen.“ 16 Arena-Besetzung 1976. Martin Auer und BesetzerInnen singen “Mia gen- gan nimmer fuat!”is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=n7hC8tYzwUc.