A-Infos (en) Australia, sydney, New Squatted Social Centre - The Balloon Factory

[dr.woooo <dr.woooo@nomasters.org>]

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The people who brought you the midnight star are back with 'The Balloon
Factory'. This Social Centre is now open in Newtown for parties,
meetings,forums etc. Reclaimed space: Use it or Lose it! A new social
centre has been successfully opened in Newtown, for YOU to use!
The space has been decorated by wall artists and will host meetings,
parties, film nights, dumpster cafe and more. It is a political space for
use by community groups who are unable to afford the high rents charged by
commercial venues.
All around us public space is disappearing. Instead we are forced into
corporate, where the only options are working or shopping. But we are
fighting back. All around the world social centres are created so that
activists and community groups can have space to organise events in a
democratic way. Now there is a social centre in Newtown, in a building
that lay abandoned for over a year. We aim to make this space a working
alternative to the everyday system of violence, war, boredom and
capitalism. It will be a community centre that is autonomous from state
control and challenges the system of property relations, which keeps us
broke and enslaved to a landlord.

The network responsible for reclaiming the space is SCAN (the Social
Centre Autonomous Network) - the same people who brought you the Grand
Midnight Star Social Centre in Homebush (now sadly defunct). We are
activists and autonomously organised groups who make decisions through the
network to occupy and organise around squatted social centres. We aim to
liberate property from the inequities inherent in wealth accumulation, and
make spaces beyond the boredom of work and consumption - spaces for
creativity and social change beyond the symbols of dissent like petitions
and rallies. SCAN occupies property in order to have political space to
organise against capitalism.

Social centres make use of self-managed space through autonomous
decision-making.Social centres are the result of occupation movements that
reappropriate property for activist and working class community space.
These kinds of squats are part of an international matrix of squatting
movements with histories of supporting worker, peasant, student and
community uprisings critical of private property systems and government
power. Our current project in Newtown is a reaction to the rapid erosion
of real public space in the area. Newtown is a suburb with a long history
of militant, working class resistance (for instance, the Unemployed
Workers Movement of the 1940's), however this history is currently being
diminished by gentrification and rising property prices.This reflects a
broader pattern throughout Sydney, where inner urban areas are stripped of
their working class roots, and those without money are pushed further out
into the suburbs. Through a social centre, we want to reactivate a
genuine, dynamic community, a real alternative to an area that is
increasingly orientated towards passive consumption.

The sorts of activities we envisage using the social centre for are
information sharing, free/cheap cultural space, libraries, multimedia
resources, meetings/forums and parties. Providing social services such as
free food and resources to people increasingly disenfranchised by the
stripping of the welfare state is prioritised. Free Yoga, theatre, net
access and art exhibitions are also on the cards...

The aim of a social centre is to create a space that is free of racism,
sexism and homophobia. In order to do this, it is important that the space
is free of state control, and that we organise in a way which respects
autonomous movements and establishes real links with communities. We
acknowledge that any space we appropriate in this country is already
occupied territory, forcefully stolen from indigenous communities, and
that indigenous people are the most marginalised through the politics of
property. As both national and international space becomes increasingly
militarised and restricted, the prevention of indigenous communities from
free movement within their own land is echoed in the forced detention of
those who cross borders without state sanction. In creating a space
outside of the state, we are attempting to resist border control and
militarised policing.

We exist to demonstrate the capacity of people to organise themselves
outside the systems of state and market which increasingly control our
lives. By providing our own social and political spaces we are empowered
to express our marginalised voices and take control of our communities.

Drop round to check out the art exhibition or just to have a chat and sit
down.

Contact SCAN on 0402 522 485, or check out http://scan.cat.org.au

New Squatted Social Centre in Australia [Sydney-Newtown]

[ Also check out http://sydney.indymedia.org/ ]

http://squat.net/en/news/balloonfactory270803.html

New Squatted Social Centre in Australia



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