Opportunistic social centre
Aug 25 2006
Heya all, glad to see these forums are back online.
There is a student group in my town which is basically anarchist. They serve free food on camupus to hungry students, made mainly of stuff that would have been thrown away from green grocers.
Having recently aquired a substantial bit of funding from the Uni, they are looking to upgrade their cooking facilities from renting church kitchens to renting their own restaurant space in a working-class neighbourhood, and also serving to the local community rather than being ghettoised in the university.
They will probably only be using the kitchen to cook in the mornings, maybe during the day, but I have been thinking of some sort of social centre-type place. Details are a bit sketchy but I was wondering if anyone here had any experience with opprotunistic social centres like this?
A lot of my friends and I all live in and around the same neighbourhood, so I don't feel like an outsider. I was wondering what the best thing to do would be. It's being gentrified somewhat by a neighbouring affluent nighbourhood known for lots of highend government types. There is a lot of obvious crack use in the neighbourhood. My buddy down the road saw a shootout outside his house a while ago. Would the best place to start be a survey? What would be good to ask? Also how to mitigate the hippie factor of people who serve free (often tasty) vegan food? Like how to avoid alienating non hippies in the neighbourhood.
I know this is a vague question but there seem to be possibilities here, although I'm not quite sure what they are... thoughts?
Aug 27 2006
#2
The first thing you should do is have a meeting with all the people who are currently involved and look at how much time they are putting in and how much more they could manage. Don't try to do too much, I'd say work out who you would be feeding and why. And limit it to that, at least initially. You can also expand by contacting existing groups. For example you could contact mother and baby organisations, helping people socialise and make friendships within the community, the same with the elderly/unemployed. You also might want to look at limits to who can use your service and if/how you'd impose them.
Surveys are a great idea, but you must remember that people tend to not know what they want, or what would help them. They also have a habit of giving responses to surveys that they think the person taking the survey wants. So bear that in mind when you look at your results.
Also it's best to decide what you think you can offer and then find out which of those things people want, as well as asking them open-ended questions.
Sep 2 2006
#3
how's it goig with your social centre? I find that the best social centres tend to just be local pubs which if you're lucky aren't pub chains, so have home made home grown food and beer...I find the social centres I've been to tend to be "groovy hang outs" adopting a snobbish attitude, rather than anything which they claim to be.....Certainly the Cowley Club in brighton is like that, they've had their windows smashed many times 
Sep 2 2006
#4
tea leaves wrote:
Certainly the Cowley Club in brighton is like that, they've had their windows smashed many times
er, what?
Sep 3 2006
#5
Yeah I would rather go down a decent pub and chat with fellow workers than hang around a social centre with a load of middle class students.The reason they are so obsessed with these laughable institutions, with their inevitable "veggie burger" cuisine, and their fucking roll ups, to prove how down to earth they are, is that they are bohemian marginals with no contact with the local population.
Sep 3 2006
#6
Oh how prolier than thou you both are. So the working class can be found pubs....wow. 
Sep 3 2006
#7
Quote:
I would rather go down a decent pub and chat with fellow workers
alienation is a two way process. the anarcho-ghetto is one, and you are the other.
Quote:
hang around a social centre with a load of middle class students
i am a funded research student. i receive a wage in exchange for the production of my intellectual goods. that relationship is called being working class. many of the students i know had to work for several years to get enough money to go to university. that is also called being working class. stuff your purism. anyway, most people involved in social centres i've ever met have not been students.
Quote:
with their inevitable "veggie burger" cuisine
i have never once seen a veggie burger being eaten or made in a social centre. if you are referring to vegetarianism/veganism, i believe JDMF has written an excellent piece on anarchism and the meat economy that he'd happily share with you.
Quote:
and their fucking roll ups
i used to smoke rollups. they are tastier and cheaper.
Quote:
they are bohemian marginals
some are, yes. but a lot are pretty ordinary folk who scrape together enoguh to live off, they do quite a lot of other stuff outside social centres, and help out with the social centre when they can. they eat, sleep, work, get cross, go to the toilet, enjoy a nice book, and so on, just like you.
Quote:
with no contact with the local population
this can be true, and it is the first valid criticism you've made. but have you ever tried to find an empty, enterable building, with good enough facilities to run a social centre in, with electricity, water, plenty of space, AND in the local community that everyone involved in the centre is part of? you're living in a dream world mate.
this is just prolier-than-thou rhetoric that appeals to 1980s visions of social centres coupled with 1930s visions of the working class.
Sep 3 2006
#8
Not that i'm a big fan of "social centres", I'd say that, especially post-thatcher, getting on a majority of people have no contact with the "local population"
Sep 3 2006
#9
i don't see why people are so keen to romanticize pubs either - most of them these days are part of huge corporate chains, they're either depressingly grey and full of depressed alcoholics or startlingly spangly and full of mindless narcissists.
The brewing industry also actively tries to encourage people to get into alcohol as much as possible (unsurprisingly), which for those people it is successful with leaves little room for considering routes through which to acquire greater autonomy and avoid domination (in fact it leaves little room for considering anything at all).
I don't see what is wrong with creating non-corporate public spaces where people can meet, talk, share (vegan) recipes, etc.
Sep 3 2006
#10
yeah, all this talk about authentic working class culture is just a pile of charciatured bollox, and generally spouted by middle class wankers who relate to the working class in the manner of 19h century colonial adventurers.
Sep 3 2006
#11
john wrote:
full of depressed alcoholics or startlingly spangly and full of mindless narcissists.
I have never heard anyone romanticise pubs like that before. I mean I wouldn't go into a pub and start talking to the locals, i generally just chat to my friends.
I think anarchists in general give things like "spaces" way too much emphasis because of the low level of struggle.
Sep 3 2006
#12
what is libcom if not a "space"?
p.s. I didn't say in what way I thought people romanticized pubs, so I don't know how you can compare it to how other people romanticize them?
Sep 3 2006
#13
pubs are romanticized - i work in one and its a grimy shithole that makes $$$$$$ out of some very troubled people.
I personally dont see this as much of a starting point for a revolution.
Sep 3 2006
#14
I wish I always lived in easy reach of an anarchist social centre; I'd welcome a veggie burger and a well thumbed copy of any old anarcho magazine! Let's have one on every street! As long as we can get a few real beers in for gig nights.
Sep 3 2006
#15
john wrote:
what is libcom if not a "space"?
It is, but we're not obsessed with it.
Sep 3 2006
#16
John. wrote:
It is, but we're not obsessed with it.
Sep 3 2006
#17
John. wrote:
It is, but we're not obsessed with it.
John
Posts: 8927
Sep 3 2006
#18
I knew you were gonna do that! It's posting at work, mostly in the site development forums. I'm not dropping everything to dedicate my life to it, nor selling it as revolutionary strategy, or pretending it's autonomous from capital like social centre types are wont to do.
Sep 3 2006
#19
well predicted!
libcom may not be autonomous from capital, but it is nice to have somewhere to discuss things with people of a relatively similar mind.
Sep 4 2006
#20
Quote:
I knew you were gonna do that! It's posting at work, mostly in the site development forums. I'm not dropping everything to dedicate my life to it, nor selling it as revolutionary strategy, or pretending it's autonomous from capital like social centre types are wont to do.
Ha ha John fell for my cunning trap he has built his own Wickerman, time to light a match!
Sep 5 2006
#21
tea leaves wrote:
I find the social centres I've been to tend to be "groovy hang outs" adopting a snobbish attitude, rather than anything which they claim to be.....Certainly the Cowley Club in brighton is like that, they've had their windows smashed many times
You'll be pleased to here that things aren't going to well. There's a meeting on the 11th sept, it's a "where does the club go from here" meeting.
The club has to address it's failings and fast, the ghetto can't support itself!
Sep 5 2006
#22
BB wrote:
The club has to address it's failings and fast, the ghetto can't support itself!
What, even in Brighton?
Sep 5 2006
#23
Jack wrote:
What, even in Brighton?
There must have been a defection 
Sep 5 2006
#24
jef costello wrote:
Jack wrote:
What, even in Brighton?There must have been a defection ;)
Blame the trees https://www3.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/08/349557.html
First things first, what's wrong with feeding hungry students?
If you are looking to expand your group's activies beyond providing free food (and if you have abuilding that only partially used that makes sense) perhaps you should start with what you as a group want to do and discuss why you want todo it.
Finding out what the nieghbourhood wants can be a good idea, but only if this fits with your objectives.Other wise you run the risk of meeting some needs/wants of some of the members of the community but little of your own besides feeling worthy.
Im not sure what opprotunistic means if you meant opportunistic i'm still not clear?
You also need to take into account your funding requirements, how likely is the funding going to last (esp if stop feeding students) as this will partially define what possibilities you have.
IMHO you should as agroup agreed on some regular events to get the ball rolling (be wary of starting too many things in a fever of exictment) at a level you can sustain. Once you have people using the space offer it out to be used by others. You will need to define what's acceptable and be clear why. It's your space, take responsibility for it.
AS for the hippy thing just be striaght with people, aviod preaching the evils consumerism etc, explain the vegan thing as important to the gruop for personal reasons or if you aren't all vegan then explain it's the lowest common denominator food that most people can eat and that's it the cheapest.
Also try to avoid too much political jargon. Hope this is helpful, i will try and answer any specific questions good luck. By the way where are you?