43-589: Wapping Autonomy Centre (also known as The Anarchist Centre ) was a self-managed social centre in the London Docklands from late 1981 to 1982. The project was initially funded by money raised by the benefit single Persons Unknown / Bloody Revolutions , as well as benefit gigs by Crass and The Poison Girls . The centre was set up in a rented space in Metropolitan Wharf, Wapping in 1981. The initial costs were paid using funds raised from
86-571: A housing co-operative . As well as providing a space for activities, these social centers can become actors in opposing local issues such as gentrification or megaprojects . Alongside protest camps, social centers are projects in which the commons are created and practiced. Western anarchists have long created enclaves in which they could live their societal principles of non-authoritarianism, mutual aid, gifting, and conviviality in microcosm. Some of these community sites include Wobbly union halls (1910s, 1920s), Barcelonan community centers during
129-494: A benefit single. It was a split single composed of Persons Unknown by The Poison Girls and Bloody Revolutions by Crass . The warehouse had been suggested by Andy Martin from the anarchist Little A printers who worked in the building. Like later squatted centres, it had no alcohol or music licences. During its short lifespan, the Autonomy Centre became an important focal point for the anarcho-punk movement in
172-479: A counterculture with a do-it-yourself ethic . These social spaces, as distinguished from regional intentional communities of the midcentury, often seek to integrate their community with the existing urban neighborhood instead of wholly "dropping out" of society to rural communes. The rise of social centres in the United Kingdom as cultural activity and political organizing hubs has been a major feature of
215-410: A local libertarian bookshop and library which then became based at the project. When the neighbours in the street made complaints about drug use and noise, the centre was evicted in 1989. It was resquatted, violently evicted, and then reoccupied again. Cox 18 concentrated efforts on making links with the neighbourhood and this ensured its survival. The T28 social centre was squatted in 1975 and houses
258-450: A loosely structured program that seeks to defy dominant institutions and ideologies under a nonhierarchical division of power and prefigure a more equitable world. Classes are run by volunteers and held in self-managed social centers, community centers, parks, and other public places. Free schools follow in the anarchist education lineage from Spanish anarchist Francisco Ferrer 's Escuela Moderna and resulting modern school movement in
301-473: A new building by 15 November. When this did not happen, the XM24 collective occupied a derelict barracks. The council responded by announcing a plan to demolish the barracks and to build a park. Genoa's LSOA Buridda , first squatted in 2003, offered open space for exercise, sports, art workshops, and other cultural events. It was raided and evicted on 30 July 2024. The self-managed Leoncavallo social centre
344-531: A postal mail delivery address for those who cannot afford a post office box or receive mail at a squatted address. In the 1990s, available tools ranged from no-frills photocopiers to desktop publishing software. Besides these print publication functions, infoshops can also host meetings, discussions, concerts, or exhibitions. For instance, as activist video grew in the 1990s, infoshops screened films and hosted discussion groups that, in turn, encouraged debate and collective action . The infoshop attempts to offer
387-419: A rental contract between the city and the project. From 1993 onwards, some squats began legalization processes and others did not. The social centres which did legalize successfully then changed their title from ‘CSOA’ ( Italian : Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestito – Self-Managed Squatted Social Centre), to ‘CSA’ ( Italian : Centro Sociale Autogestito – Self-Managed Social Centre). Owing to these changes, there
430-436: A reputation for being a centre of left-wing activism, but this has changed as the city gentrified. Atlantide was occupied in 1998 by Tute Bianche activists and was the last self-managed space in the centre of the city, used by many groups, including Antagonismo Gay (gay separatists), Quelle Che Non Ci Stanno (feminist and lesbian separatists), NullaOsta (punks), and from 2008, Laboratorio Smaschieramenti (trans*-feminist-queer). It
473-928: A result, infoshops and other marginal institutions are often short-lived, with minimal income to pay their short-term leases on rented storefronts. Infoshops sometimes combine the function of other alternative venues: vegetarian cafés, independent record stores , head shops , and alternative bookstores. But foremost, infoshops disseminate information, serving as library, archive, distributor, retailer, and hub of an informal and ephemeral network of alternative organizations and activists. Anarchists, in pursuit of freedom from dogma , believe that individuals must not be socialized into acceptance of authority or dogma as part of their education. In contrast to traditional schools, anarchist free schools are autonomous, nonhierarchical spaces intended for educational exchange and skillsharing. They do not have admittance criteria or subordinate relations between teacher and student. Free schools follow
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#1732783765609516-1129: A series of classes. All were invited to propose and attend classes, whose topics included: 1920s love songs , alternative economics , street art , critiques of patriarchy and how to combat violence against women . The longest running classes were those that introduced anarchism and related politics of syndicalism and libertarian socialism. The course instructors served as facilitators, providing texts and encouraging participation, rather than as top-down lectures. The free space also hosted art events, parties, and conversational forums. Other initiatives were short-lived or nonstarters, such as an anemic lending library and free used goods table. Another free school in Nottingham found skillshare-oriented classes with more traditional pedagogy more popular than sessions on radical education. Similar to free schools, free university projects are run from college campuses most prominently in Europe. Organized by volunteer student collectives, participants in these initiatives experiment with
559-530: A small library or reading room and serve as a distribution center for both free and priced/retail alternative media, particularly media with revolutionary anarchist politics. While infoshops can serve as a kind of community library, they are designed to meet the information needs of its users rather than to compete with the public library or pre-existing information centers. For alternative publishers and activist groups, infoshops can offer low-cost reprographic services for do-it-yourself publications, and provide
602-786: A social centre called Mezzocannone Occupato was formed. The Power to the People political party formed in 2017 as a left-wing coalition that included some social centres, such as the Neapolitan "Je so' pazzo" Ex OPG ("I am crazy" Ex Asylum) social centre. The first social centre in Rome was Hai Visto Quinto, created in 1985. Others in this time were Alice nella città, Blitz, Break Out, Ricomincio dal Faro, Intifada, and Zona Rischio. As of 2014, Rome had many social centre projects, including Acrobax, Angelomai Altrove, Cinema America Occupato, Nuovo Cinema Palazzo, and Teatro Valle Occupato. Metropoliz
645-502: A social centre which has existed since 2002, although its roots come from an earlier squatted social centre. 'XM' means 'Ex Market' ( Italian : Ex Mercato) and it is located at number 24 on Via Aristotile Fioravanti. Activities include the People's Kitchen (a vegan café), the Ampioraggio People's Bike Shop, and the People's Free Gym. It is run by a general assembly which meets every Tuesday. The three defining characteristics of
688-534: A space where individuals can publish without the restrictions of the mainstream press and discuss alternative ideas unimpeded by homophobia, racism, and sexism. Organized by political activists, infoshops are often independent, precariously self-funded, and unaffiliated with any organization or council. They too are often staffed by their own self-selected users as volunteers and like the anarchist media they distribute, operate on inexpensive, borrowed, or donated resources, such as secondhand computers and furniture. As
731-462: Is a refugee squat occupied in 2009 that took the unusual step of opening a contemporary art gallery in 2012 as a means for the artists to support the squatters. CSOA Forte Prenestino is an old fort in Rome which was squatted on 1 May 1986. It is a huge site which hosts a range of projects. CSOA Corto Circuito was a long-running social centre. It was squatted in 1990 and evicted in 2016. Over its lifetime, it experienced two fires, one in 1991 in which
774-600: Is defined as a place independent from dominant institutions and ideologies, formed outside standard economic relations , and fostering self-directing freedom through self-reliance. These nonhierarchical rules encourage experimental approaches to organization, power-sharing, social interaction, personal development, and finance. Social centers can be squatted, rented, or owned cooperatively. They are largely self-maintained by volunteers and often close for reasons of burnout and reduced participation, especially if participant free time wanes as their economic circumstances change. Since
817-506: Is no longer just one network of social centres, but several disparate ones. The institutionalized centres such as Leoncavallo then became associated with the Tute Bianche (White Overalls) movement of the late 1990s. Legalization can create problems, since forming an association imposes hierarchy on a previously horizontally organized collective and also contracts tend to be for a fixed time period and can be hard to renew. Therefore, in
860-862: The Spanish Revolution , and squatted community centers since the 1960s. They share a lineage with the radical intentional communities that have periodically surfaced throughout history and are sometimes termed Temporary Autonomous Zones or "free spaces", in which a counter-hegemonic resistance can form arguments and tactics. Anarchists outside the class-struggle and workplace activism tradition instead organize through autonomous spaces including social centers, squats, camps, and mobilizations. While these alternative institutions tend to exist in transience, their proponents argue that their ideas are consistent between incarnations and that temporary institutions prevents government forces from easily clamping down on their activities. A free, or autonomous , space
903-566: The 1980s, young Italians maintained self-managed social centers ( centri sociali ) where they gathered to work on cultural projects, listen to music, discuss politics, and share basic living information. These projects are often squatted, and are known as Centro Sociale Occupato Autogestito (CSOA) (squatted self-managed social centers). By 2001, there were about 150 social centers, set up in abandoned buildings such as former schools and factories. These centers operate outside state and free market control, and have an oppositional relationship with
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#1732783765609946-565: The 1990s, the rap group Assalti Frontali built a recording studio at Forte Prenestino and 99 Posse were associated with Officina 99 in Naples . The presence of a local university tends to be a factor in the creation of a social centre. From small numbers of social centres in the 1980s, in the 1990s there were around 120. By 2006, it was estimated there were 150 across the entire country, with many clustered in Milan, Rome, and Turin. Bologna has
989-409: The 2010s, some projects such as Teatro Valle Occupato (Rome), XM24 (Bologna), and Macao (Milan), have attempted to promote new, more flexible forms of legalization, with varying degrees of success. Social centres provide cheap DIY venues for many alternative forms of music, including punk and Italian hardcore . They have also provided a fertile breeding ground for homegrown Italian hip hop . In
1032-933: The Ambulatorio Medico Popolare, a free medical clinic that had treated over 5,000 people by 2018. A group called 'The Art Workers' ( Italian : Lavoratori dell’arte) first occupied the Galfa Tower for 10 days under the name Macao. Next, they squatted the Palazzo Cittiero in the Brera district before being evicted, and afterwards they squatted a former slaughterhouse in Calvairate in June 2012. Over five years until 2017, Macao hosted 2,000 artists making exhibitions, talks, workshops, and musical events. They also held assemblies and ran seminars on
1075-503: The UK and Europe. Most of those involved with the project were anarchists who participated in protests and direct action against targets such as vivisection laboratories, the meat industry and the policies of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher . The Kill Your Pet Puppy collective organised events. Some of the bands that regularly played at the centre included Anthrax , The Apostles , Cold War , Conflict , Rudimentary Peni . Hagar
1118-571: The United States and the United Kingdom . They are inspired by various left-wing movements including anarchism and intentional communities . They are squatted , rented, or owned cooperatively. Self-managed social centers vary in size and function depending on local context. Uses can include an infoshop , a radical bookshop, a resource centre offering advice, a hacklab , a café, a bar, an affordable gig space, independent cinema or
1161-508: The Womb were formed in the toilets. Albert Meltzer records that the centre was " Ronan Bennett 's brainchild." He goes on to say that "the punk support, especially from followers of Crass and Poison Girls, was substantial. Punk has lasted a couple of decades, long outlasting the proposed club. With the punks' money came the punks, and in the first week they had ripped up every single piece of furniture carefully bought, planned and fitted, down to
1204-779: The centre went on to become active at the Centro Iberico , a squatted project with similar aims and ethos in west London. The centre also inspired other squatted self-managed projects in London such as the Ambulance Station on Old Kent Road , Molly's Café on Upper Street and the Bingo Hall (now the Garage ) at Highbury Corner . Penny Rimbaud from Crass commented "It was a good try. We’d made all this money to defend Persons Unknown and it wasn’t needed. I think it
1247-569: The early 1900s, through the predominantly American free school movement of the 1960s. The American anarchist Paul Goodman , who was prominent in this latter movement, advocated for small schools for children to be held in storefronts and to use the city as its classroom. In one example, a free school in Toronto grew from the closure of a countercultural community café with the opening of an anarchist free space. It sought to share ideas about how to create anti-authoritarian social relations through
1290-457: The late 1980s and early 1990s, with more than 100 projects spread across the country. Two factors which helped the wave spread were the well-publicised eviction resistance (and subsequent resquat) of Leoncavallo in Milan and the Panther student movement. What linked these political and cultural projects was the fact that they were squatted, their focus on self-management and self-financing, and
1333-419: The lavatory fittings that had been installed by Ronan from scratch, and defaced our own and everyone else's wall for blocks around. In the excitement of the first gigs where they could do as they liked, they did as they liked and wrecked the place. Loss of club, loss of money, loss of effort. End of story." The centre eventually folded when the benefit parties failed to pay the rent. Many of those involved with
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1376-501: The mid-1970s in cities such as Milan by groups of young people, both students and unemployed. The social centres in Milan were used for diverse activities such as concerts, films, yoga classes, discussion groups and counselling for drug addicts. They often affiliated themselves with Autonomia Operaia (Workers' Autonomy) and suffered when social movements were repressed following the Years of Lead . A second wave of social centres began in
1419-647: The police, often portrayed by conservative media as magnets for crime and illicit behavior. The Italian cultural centers were sometimes funded by city cultural programming. In the United States, self-managed social centers primarily take the form of infoshops and radical bookstores, such as Bluestockings in New York City and Red Emma's in Baltimore. Since the 1990s, North American anarchists have created community centers, infoshops, and free spaces to foster alternative cultures, economies, media, and schools as
1462-814: The process of learning and are not designed to replace the traditional university. Self-managed social centres in Italy Self-managed social centres in Italy exist in many cities. They are part of different left-wing political networks including anarchist , communist , socialist , and autonomist . The centres ( Italian : centri sociali ) tend to be squatted and provide self-organised, self-financing spaces for alternative and noncommercial activities such as concerts, exhibitions, farmers' markets, infoshops, and migrant initiatives. Over time, some but not all projects have opted to legalize their status. Self-managed social centres were first occupied in
1505-472: The region's radical and anarchist politics. For example, the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford provides a café, a children's play area, a bar, an infoshop , large meeting areas and concert spaces. Infoshops are multi-functional spaces that disseminate alternative media and provide a forum for alternative cultural, economic, political, and social activities. Individual infoshops vary in features but can include
1548-477: The space are antifascist activism, support for migrant initiatives, and collective self-management. Events such as 'Anti-MTVday,' a farmers' market, and meetings of the Critical Wine network have all been held at the centre. Famous street artist Blu has been connected with the centre since its beginning and supported it in the fight against eviction by painting a huge mural on a neighbouring building which
1591-690: The theme of the fair treatment of cultural workers. In 2017, the city council decided it wanted to sell the complex of buildings known as Ortomercato (which includes the Macao site) for redevelopment. Macao asked to be able to buy the building for themselves. The group submitted a proposal endorsed by the German Mietshäuser Syndikat . CSOA Officina 99 in Gianturco, Naples , was first occupied in December 1990, but quickly evicted. It
1634-419: The use of the space as a social venue for the local community. The differences tended to stem from whether the project was primarily anarchist, autonomist, communist, or without ideology. This then resulted in a later debate about whether to legalize spaces or not. Legalization denoted two things: firstly, the formation of an association so that the squatter collective could have a legal form; secondly, setting up
1677-400: Was evicted on 9 October 2015 by the order of Mayor Virginio Merola. Làbas was occupied in 2012. Young people worked as volunteers to create various projects, such as a vegetable garden, an organic pizzeria, a bike repair workshop, a microbrewery producing organic beer, a volunteer-run creche, and a dormitory for migrants, refugees, and homeless people. The project was evicted in 2017. XM24 is
1720-474: Was first occupied in 1975. The still-extant centre defines itself as of 2019 as 'Leoncavallo Self-Managed Public Space' ( Italian : Leoncavallo Spazio Pubblico Autogestito). The Cox 18 social centre was born in 1988 in a building squatted in 1976. It is a three-storey complex located at Conchetta 18, in Porta Ticinese . Its influences were originally punk , trade unionism , and Calusca, the last being
1763-444: Was scheduled to be demolished. The mural was later covered up by Blu in 2016, in order to protest the city council organising an exhibition called 'Street Art: Banksy & Co: L’Arte allo Stato Urbano,' which used Blu's works without permission. XM24 was evicted on 6 August 2019. The eviction was resisted, but the protest was called off when negotiations with the city for a new building were successful. The council undertook to provide
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1806-776: Was something in the region of ten grand, which was a lot of money in those days." 51°30′24″N 0°03′10″W / 51.50658°N 0.0527°W / 51.50658; -0.0527 Self-managed social centre A self-managed social center , also known as an autonomous social center , is a self-organized community center in which anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venues affiliated with anarchism , can include bicycle workshops, infoshops , libraries, free schools , meeting spaces, free stores and concert venues. They often become political actors in their own right. The centers are found worldwide, for example in Italy ,
1849-624: Was then reoccupied in May 1991 by 500 people. The people were from different groups such as homeless and migrant, of all ages. The occupation built upon a previous occupation in 1986, which had lasted six months. Officina refuses any form of legalization and is critical of centres such as Leoncavallo, which have chosen to legalize. As of 1999, other social centres in Naples included Lo Ska (Laboratorio Occupato di Sperimentazione e Kultura Antagonista) and DAMM (Diego Armando Maradona Montesanto). Around 2012,
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