Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton, commonly known as BASE, is an

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

community co-operative and

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-authoritarianism, anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venue ...

in Easton,

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

, England. Formerly known as Kebele, the building was

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

in 1995.

History

BASE, previously named Kebele, was

in 1995. The squatters resisted eviction attempts and negotiated with the owner (a bank), forming a

housing co-operative A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity which owns real estate consisting of one or more residential buildings. The entity is usually a cooperative or a corporation and constitutes a form of housing tenure. Typically hous ...

which then bought the building for £19,000 in 1997. By 2008, the centre had paid off its mortgage and had become a community co-operative.

Name

The original name,

Kebele A ward (; ; ) is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia: a ward, a neighbourhood or a localized and delimited group of people. Somali word that has meaning of collected people where water is fairly sufficient and available to prolongue thei ...

, was based on the

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

word used by Rastafarians in the

Grenada Revolution The People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) was proclaimed on 13 March 1979 after the Marxist–Leninist New Jewel Movement overthrew the government of Grenada in a revolution, making Grenada the only socialist state within the Commonwealth. I ...

of 1973 to refer to the community centres that were the focus of resistance. It became known as BASE (Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton) from March 2018 onwards. The reason given for the name change was that "it no longer felt appropriate to be called Kebele" because no-one involved in the project at that time "had links to Ethiopia", and "to make it clearer that we are an anarchist social centre".

Activities

BASE is organised by collectives which take responsibility for certain activities, such as the bicycle workshop, cafe,

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

, finance and radical library. All participants are volunteers and the cafe is organised on a donation basis. BASE is part of a network of

self-managed 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 self-managed social centres differ from community centres in that they are self-organised under anti-authoritarian pri ...

which includes

The 1 in 12 Club The 1 in 12 Club refers to both a members' club and the building in which it is based, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. Owned and run by its membership as a collective based upon anarchist principles, its activities include social and po ...

in Bradford, the

Cowley Club The Cowley Club is a left-libertarian self-managed social centre in Brighton, Sussex, England. It opened in 2003, providing resources and meeting spaces for groups and individuals active in areas such as workplace and unemployed struggles, inte ...

in Brighton and the

Sumac Centre The Sumac Centre is a self-managed social centre in Nottingham, UK. It provides resources, meeting spaces and workshops for groups and individuals, and supports campaigning for human rights, animal rights, the environment, and peace. It is part ...

in Nottingham.

References

{{Authority control 1995 establishments in the United Kingdom Social centres in the United Kingdom Anarchism in England Legalized squats Squats in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Bristol Infoshops