There is something deeply magical about social centres, for that matter any space utilised primarily for the community without any underhand purpose. In this capitalist society we are so used to our social space being a soulless void that only cares while you can pay.
Social Centres change all that. They are the hubs of their communities and the gathering points for rebels and revoltutionaries. These bastions of liberty provide an inestimable service to the people who use them. They should be supported at every turn, utilised and enjoyed,
Some these venues are also resources centres, art houses, cafes and even cinemas, with their voluteers and staff using their labour to build and maintain vital centers of culture for their communities. others act as critical points of protest and mutual aid, truly existing at coalface in the ongoing conflict with the capitalist state.
Many of these centres liase through the Social Centres Network (SCN) who aim to provide a portal to the world of social networks and aligned spaces as they inevitable ebb and flow. The SCN helps to keep the members and organisers linked in and communicating, in turn helping to keep these spaces alive and thriving.
Together with The Anarchist Party and Punx UK we are developing a global Anarchist Initiatives Database to help foster new links and build a stronger international culture of resistance. The first stage or this is developing the technology using British datasets, namely building a map of Social Centres.
For the purpose of testing we have kept a very strict definition of what a “Social Centre” is tho we have included the SCN database and venues with a specific Social Center remi. If we’ve missed one out, please add it via the website below.
Very shortly we shall be adding community cafes, solidarity centres, protest sites, co-ops etc until we have a full and robust map of our revolutionary community. ■
To see the WIP map for social spaces check out:-
organisemagazine.org.uk/social-centres
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