Infoshops are places in which people can access

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 ...

autonomist Autonomism or ''autonomismo'', also known as autonomist Marxism or autonomous Marxism, is an anti-capitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose ...

ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop,

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

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 ...

community centre A community centre, community center, or community hall is a public location where members of a community gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may be open for the whole community or for a sp ...

. Typically, infoshops offer flyers, posters,

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is, as noted on Merriam-Webster’s official website, a magazine that is a “noncommercial often homemade or online publication usually devoted to specialized and often unconventional subject ...

, pamphlets and books for sale or donation. Other items such as badges, locally produced artworks and T-shirts are also often available. Infoshops can also provide printing and copying facilities for people to produce their own literature or have a meeting space. Infoshops can be found in many cities in North America and Western Europe, and also in other locations around the world such as Australia, Israel and New Zealand. They are oftentimes self-managed spaces run by volunteers which vary in size and function, depending on local context.

Radical spaces

An infoshop (the word being a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of information and shop) is a physical space where people can access radical ideas through flyers, posters,

, pamphlets and books. It also provides a space to meet other people and in some cases to organise events such as meetings or fundraisers. Some infoshops have computers, copy machines and printers so that pamphlets, position papers, articles, magazines, and newspapers can be created and then circulated between the network of spaces. Academic Chris Atton describes the infoshop as a "forum for alternative cultural, economic, political and social activities." For example, in a flyer announcing its planned activities, the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh (ACE) stated it would make available locally produced arts and crafts, records, T-shirts, badges, books, zines and information. When it opened the following year, ACE provided flyers, leaflets, newsletters, magazines and journals about causes such as antivivisectionism,

anti-monarchism Criticism of monarchy has occurred since ancient times. It can be targeted against the general form of government—monarchy—or more specifically, to particular monarchical governments as controlled by hereditary royal families. In some cases, ...

, hunt sabotage and jobseeker's allowance advice. Like social centres, infoshops vary in size and function depending on local context. Many contemporary anarchists first come into contact with radical politics through an infoshop. Infoshops tend to be run on a voluntary basis by a non-hierarchical collective. The spaces are non-profit and self-managed.

Antecedents

In the United Kingdom, early antecedents of infoshops were the radical presses such as Giles Calvert's printshop (1600s) and John Doherty's coffee house (1830s). More recently, infoshops were associated with squatted anarchist social centres such as the 121 Centre in Brixton, London and the Free Information Network (FIN). Writing in Maximumrocknroll in the 1990s, Chuck Munson placed North American infoshops in the lineage of peace and justice community centres and acknowledged the influence of European social centres. Munson also stated there were over 60 infoshops (infoladen) in Germany which were connected to the

squatting 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 ...

and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

movements.

Around the world

Self-managed social centres in Italy, such as Forte Prenestino in Rome, often contain infoshops.

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 und ...

often contain infoshops, such as for example the Cowley Club in Brighton and 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. There is also the 56a Infoshop in London. In the mid-2000s, as well as these spaces, there were infoshops in Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and Nottingham. In the 1990s, there were the following infoshops in North America: 223 Center (Portland, Oregon); 404 Willis (Detroit); A-Space (Philadelphia); Arise! Bookstore & Resource Center (Minneapolis); Autonomous Zone (Chicago); Beehive Infoshop (Washington DC); Blackout Books (New York City); Crescent Wrench Infoshop (New Orleans); Croatan (Baltimore); Emma Center (Minneapolis); Epicenter (San Francisco); Long Haul (Berkeley); Lucy Parsons Center (Cambridge); Mayday Books (Minneapolis); Who's Emma (Toronto); Wooden Shoe Books (Philadelphia). Elsewhere in the world, projects include Jura Books in Australia, Salon Mazal in Israel and Freedom Shop in New Zealand. Related projects include anarchist archives, bunkos in Japan and community libraries.

Notable infoshops

References

External links