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Social Centres In The United Kingdom
Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom can be found in squatted, rented, mortgaged and fully owned buildings. These Autonomous social center, self-managed social centres differ from community centres in that they are self-organised under anti-authoritarian principles and volunteer-run, without any assistance from the state. The largest number have occurred in London from the 1980s onwards, although projects exist in most cities across the UK, linked in a network. Squatted social centres tend to be quickly evicted and therefore some projects deliberately choose a short-term existence, such as A-Spire in Leeds or the Okasional Café in Manchester. Longer term social centres include the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton and the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, which are co-operatively owned. The projects draw influences from Self-managed social centers in Italy, self-managed centres in Italy, working men's clubs, and anarchist clubs such as the Rose Street C ...
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UK Social Centre Network Map
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of List of islands of the United Kingdom, the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering . Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. It maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London. The cities o ...
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Free Shop
Give-away shops, freeshops, free stores or swap shops are stores where all goods are free. They are similar to charity shops, with mostly second-hand items—except that everything is available at no cost. All goods are freely given away, although some operate a one-in, one-out–type policy (swap shops). Free stores constitute a form of constructive direct action that provides a shopping alternative to a monetary framework, allowing people to exchange goods and services outside of a money-based economy. History The anarchist 1960s countercultural group the Diggers opened free stores that simply gave away their stock, provided free food, distributed free drugs, gave away money, organized free music concerts, and performed works of political art. The Diggers took their name from the original English Diggers led by Gerrard Winstanley and sought to create a mini-society free of money and capitalism. Similar phenomena Another recent development in the give-away shop movement i ...
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Robert Owen
Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist, political philosopher and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement, co-operative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditions, promoted experimental socialistic communities, sought a more collective approach to child-rearing, and 'believed in lifelong education, establishing an Institute for the Formation of Character and School for Children that focused less on job skills than on becoming a better person'. He gained wealth in the early 1800s from a textile mill at New Lanark, Scotland. Having trained as a draper in Stamford, Lincolnshire he worked in London before relocating at age 18 to Manchester and textile manufacturing. In 1824, he moved to America and put most of his fortune in an experimental socialistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, as a preliminary for his utopian society. It lasted about two years. Other Owenite c ...
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Charles Fourier
François Marie Charles Fourier (; ; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker, and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of his views, held to be radical in his lifetime, have become mainstream in modern society. For instance, Fourier is credited with having originated the word ''feminism'' in 1837. Fourier's social views and proposals inspired a whole movement of intentional communities. Among them in the United States were the community of Utopia, Ohio; La Reunion near present-day Dallas, Texas; Lake Zurich, Illinois; the North American Phalanx in Red Bank, New Jersey; Brook Farm in West Roxbury, Massachusetts; the Community Place and Sodus Bay Phalanx in New York State; Silkville, Kansas, and several others. In Guise, France, he influenced the . Fourier later inspired a diverse array of revolutionary thinkers and writers. Life Fourier was born in Besançon, France, on 7 April 1772. Serenyi 1967, p. ...
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Utopian Socialist
Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often described as the presentation of visions and outlines for imaginary or futuristic ideal and socialist societies that pursue ideals of positive inter-personal relationships separate from capitalist mechanisms. However, later socialists such as the Marxists and the critics of socialism both disparaged utopian socialism as not being grounded in actual material conditions of existing society. Utopian socialist visions of ideal societies compete with revolutionary and social democratic movements. Later socialists have applied the term ''utopian socialism'' to socialists who lived in the first quarter of the 19th century. They used the term as a pejorative in order to dismiss the ideas of the earlier thinkers as fanciful and unrealistic.''Newman ...
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Landless Workers' Movement
The Landless Workers' Movement (, MST) is a social movement in Brazil aimed at land reform. Inspired by Marxism, it is the largest such movement in Latin America, with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 million across 23 of Brazil's 26 states. MST defines its goals as access to the land for poor workers through land reform in Brazil, and activism around social issues that make land ownership more difficult to achieve, such as unequal income distribution, racism, sexism, and media monopolies. MST strives to achieve a self-sustainable way of life for the rural poor. The MST differs from previous land reform movements in its single-issue focus; land reform for them is a self-justifying cause. The organization maintains that it is legally justified in occupying unproductive land, pointing to the most recent Constitution of Brazil (1988), which contains a passage saying that land must fulfill a social function (Article 5, XXIII). The MST also notes, based on 1996 census stati ...
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Diggers
The Diggers were a group of religious and political dissidents in England, associated with a political ideology and programme resembling what would later be called agrarian socialism.; ; ; Gerrard Winstanley and William Everard (Digger), William Everard, amongst many others, were known as True Levellers in 1649, in reference to their split from the Levellers, and later became known as ''Diggers'' because of their attempts to farm on common land. Due to this and to their beliefs, the Diggers were driven from one county after another by the authorities. The Diggers tried (by "levelling" land (economics), land) to reform the existing social order with an agrarian lifestyle based on their ideas for the creation of small, egalitarian rural communities. They were one of a number of Nonconformist (Protestantism), nonconformist English Dissenters, dissenting groups that emerged around this time. Their belief in economic equality was drawn from , which describes a community of believe ...
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Warzone Collective
Warzone Collective was formed in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in 1984. It is an anarchopunk group which set up a self-managed social centre called Giro's in 1986. The project moved to a bigger premises in 1991 and became known as the Warzone Centre. The project closed down in 2003 and the collective folded, only to reform in 2009 and open another iteration of the social centre in 2011. This project closed down in 2018 and the collective continues. Background 1980s Belfast was greatly affected by the Troubles, a sustained military conflict between many different parties. The name ''Warzone'' is a reference to this background. ''Giro's'' is a reference to the Giro bank transfer by which unemployment benefit was distributed. The punks of Warzone took a stance which was indifferent to religion and anyone was welcome at the social centre, whether they were atheist, Catholic or Protestant. In the early 1980s, punks would meet at Fountain Street and Cornmarket in Belfast, and at the sho ...
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Wapping Autonomy Centre
Wapping Autonomy Centre (also known as The Anarchist Centre) was a self-managed social centre in Wapping 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. Project The centre was set up in a rented space in Metropolitan Wharf, Wapping in 1981. The initial costs were paid using funds raised from 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 (English musician), Andy Martin from the anarchist Little A printers who worked in the building. Like later squatted centres, it had no alcohol or music licences. Activities During its short lifespan, the Autonomy Centre became an important focal point for the anarcho-punk movement in the UK and Europe. Most of those involved with the project were anarchists who participat ...
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Centro Iberico
Centro Iberico, London, in the early 1970s was an international anarchist support centre founded and presided over by Spanish Civil War veteran Miguel Garcia. After leaving Chalk Farm in 1976, and moving into a squatted school building in Notting Hill, London, it became a self-managed social centre, venue and studio for the Anarcho-punk scene, surviving into the early 1980s. Origins Centro Iberico was established in central London in 1970 by Spanish Civil War veteran, and twenty years a prisoner of Franco, Miguel García García. While in Madrid’s Carabanchel Prison, Garcia had met Stuart Christie, a Scottish anarchist who was serving time for his part in a plot to assassinate Franco. Pardoned in 1967, Christie returned to London where, when he won his own release in 1969, Garcia joined him in the work of the Anarchist Black Cross'','' an anarchist prisoners’ aid organisation. Garcia first created the Centro Iberico as a meeting space for Black Cross, and other, anarchist ...
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121 Centre
121 Centre was a squatted self-managed social centre on Railton Road in Brixton, south London from 1981 until 1999. As an anarchist social centre, the venue hosted a bookshop, cafe, infoshop, library, meeting space, office space, printing facility, and rehearsal space. Organisations using the space included Food Not Bombs, Anarchist Black Cross prisoner aid chapters, an anarcho-feminist magazine, a squatters aid organisation, and an anarchist queer group. Regular events at 121 Centre included punk concerts, a women's cafe night, and a monthly queer night. The centre kept a low profile and was one of the longest-lasting squats in London. Original occupation 121 Railton Road was first squatted by Olive Morris in 1973. Sabaar Books was established there before moving elsewhere. The centre then became an anarchist social centre. Activities During the 1981 Brixton riots, the centre was left untouched. In 1983, the centre hosted people coming to London for the Stop the City demons ...
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and most of List of islands of the United Kingdom, the smaller islands within the British Isles, covering . Northern Ireland shares Republic of Ireland–United Kingdom border, a land border with the Republic of Ireland; otherwise, the UK is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea, the English Channel, the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. It maintains sovereignty over the British Overseas Territories, which are located across various oceans and seas globally. The UK had an estimated population of over 68.2 million people in 2023. The capital and largest city of both England and the UK is London. The cities o ...
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