anything roughly equating to a social centre in US?

ABC NO RIO is kinda like an European social center. Albeit rather crust.

I know of a few places where trust-fund radicals have places they intend to set up as social centers...you know, old warehouses in low-income communities with public bike-shops, art classes, and various organizations (Food Not Bombs, stuff like that) running out of them, etc. Seeing as the US is the richest country ever it would be surprising if the facilities weren't available in many places even without a comparable squatting movement. The problem in the US isn't the lack of resources so much as the absence of interest from anyone outside of a relatively small group of activistoid-types and the 'radical'-hipsters that orbit around them. (There's no real working class radical culture on anywhere near the same level here.)

Also, I've never been to Europe so I have no idea what these 'social centers' are like, although from what I've heard, there's nothing in the states that can compare.

If you plan on coming to texas, PM me and I'll let you know about what facilities are available around here.

could someone describe what exactly a social center in Europe is like, such as the Italian ones? it would be easier thinking about whether there is an American counterpart if we knew what they were.

The nearest thing to a social center out my way would be the old "Labor Temple". Anybody have these where you live?

edit: Just to clarify... I know every place has its unions buildings, but do many have a singular building for all the regional unions by that silly name, "labor temple"?

There were such things in the US but they died along with the Left. In Baltimore, an IWW collective has done a very impressive job with their bookstore/coffee house and now is working toward social space in a former Methodist church. They already have events there.

Emma Goldman is kinda shit, did nobody ever tell you yanks?

Yeah, I never heard it was an IWW thing before. The website doesn't say that.

I know everyone is going to hate me for this, but the present Portland IWW hall is sort of a social center and was one before the IWW moved in. It has its own website:

http://www.liberty-hall.org/

The website is old. The space is run by IWW, The Martin Glaberman Library (partly owned by IWW/IWW project, it's Martin's personal library that was donated to us + our own sizable library turned into a public radical library), a construction workers collective business, and a central american solidarity organization. Like the wikipedia article says we have free computers and internet, the space gets rented out a lot, there's gardens, offices, library, child care area, etc.

Is that what people mean?

Obviously there's a point of sectarian grammar I don't understand. Would "a collective of workers who are IWW members" alleviate your ire? Or have your lordships cast the offending workers out of the IWW?

no cos this pisses on a UK social centre from a great height.

Nice one

I'm not sure what you mean about facilities - that the facilities a SC provide, like cafe, library, internet, meeting space, venue, are easily met by commercial or mainstream places? Or that it the resources are there to start SCs but the interest is massively limited to 'activistoids'?

Either way, you suggest something which is def important: space in european cities is much much more contested than in the US due to its age, higher population density and totally different city plans. This makes getting a place in a decent location very important, and if successful, gives the place huge profile. That people are advocating the end of capitalism from the belly of the beast is more significant here than in a country where new property is being built all the time.

That was a cheap shot out of irritation at the smug superiority in gd's tone. Goldman was a raviing egotist and her politics were simplistic. However the "you yanks" attitude some of English and Irish posters adopt gets under my skin. Hardly good internationalism, is it?

so what are european social centres like?