National - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970
Seomra Spraoi presents Scoil Spraoi - Social Centre gathering Friday 11 and Saturday 12 April
national |
miscellaneous |
event notice
Tuesday March 25, 2008 13:34
by Hilary - Seomra Spraoi
Scoil Spraoi is the Seomra Spraoi educational working group. This is our first event. We hope you like it…
Social Centre Gathering
A space to share our experiences and knowledge about Social Centres. By sharing these things and making them collective we can sharpen our tools, develop our ideas; create new forms of non-hierarchical and anti-capitalist organisation. Through collective discussion debate & action we create communities of resistance.
Social Centres
Social Centres have been an important and stable development of social movements. Social Centres create space for meetings, workshops, benefit gigs, not for profit cafes, libraries, internet access, craft activities, bicycle workshops, self-defence training: the list goes on. What more can we use them to do? What forms of collective activity do they make possible? What forms of resistance emerge form such a social space? What are their limitations?
We have part of the answers to these questions in our collective experiences. This is a chance to share, discuss and debate those experiences.
Seomra Spraoi
The Seomra Sproai collective was started three years ago with the intention of setting up an autonomous social centre in Dublin. We reckon we’ve been pretty successful…
Since our humble beginnings we have occupied three different spaces of our own, each bigger than the previous one. Our move to 4 Mary’s Abbey in July 2007 saw a huge surge in activity and an expansion of the collective. Over 20 groups held regular meetings or events there, with hundreds of people using the space on a weekly basis. After a month of bureaucratic dealings with the landlord, fire authority & police the collective decided to terminate the lease. From this experience we learned a lot...
We keep on learning. The collective is highly organised, with around 30 people managing the social centre, via working groups, and an open meeting of the collective every Thursday.
Europe wide days of action
This gathering coincides with a European wide call for "decentralized days of action for squats and autonomous spaces" - a weekend of discussion & action in defence of free spaces.
See http://april2008.squat.net:8080/
We want to make autonomous spaces and social centres more visible as a political movement. We want to develop interconnections and solidarity between social centres and autonomous spaces. We want to keep linking our spaces with new people and new struggles, and support the creation of autonomous spaces in places where there has not been a history of this kind of action.
Timetable to follow with details of discussion / workshop titles and times.
If you need somewhere to crash over the weekend please email us - seomraspraoi@gmail.com - and we'll try to sort you out. There is limited space so we can't guarantee space but we'll do our best to sort you out.
We will have food available on Friday and Saturday - please email us if you have special dietary needs we should know about.
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12The gathering will take place Friday evening and all day Saturday
Unit 13, New Market Square, Dublin 8.
....feel free to print and distribute this wherever you may be.
Hi all,
Scoil Spraoi here with more details on the upcoming Social Centre gathering to take place on April 11, 12 & 13th.
First things first - Friday
…will kick off around 7 and is shaping up to be a nicely chilled and fun evening.
Group presentations
So far we have individuals who will tell us about their experiences of working in autonomous spaces and social centre projects in Italy, Poland, Germany and Seomra Spraoi...more presentations to be confirmed.
Food
Dinner will be provided by the skilled 'Peoples Kitchen' collective. If you think you'll be arriving late let us know and we'll try to keep food for you or if you have special dietary needs, again, do let us know. Lunch and dinner will be provided on Saturday also.
Movies
While we're chowing down we'll chill out watching some short movies on various international social centre projects. If you have an interesting short documentary that you think we could show feel free to bring it along.
Saturday's discussion topics
Saturday will be broken into 3 discussion sessions – each session will deal with a variety of themes – we are currently working on the structure of the discussions to enable full participation so please mull over these topics – we wanna know what you think!
Session 1 - practical issues associated to running a social centre
1. From shaky ground to safer spaces
Can we make social centre spaces free from oppression? How do we deal with behaviour and language that perpetuate oppression?
2. Decision making by consensus
Why do it without leaders? How can we increase democratic participation in social centres?
3. Avoiding the ghetto and increase accessibility.
How can we broaden the appeal of social centres and not just serve the needs of the familiar activist scenes?
Session 2 - Discussion topics relating to viewing social centres as a political project
1. From autonomy to bureaucracy and back
Can Irish social centres remain truly autonomous in the face of bureaucratic challenges? How do we raise finances without being limited or diverted in our aims?
2. Creating spaces of resistance
How do we see the role of social centres in social movements and wider revolutionary currents? Are we just providing services that the government provides?
3. Developing aims & principles
How do social centres develop their politics?
Session 3 - Futures
1. Creating a social centre network - developing social centres in Ireland
What ways can we support each other in creating social centres and other spaces?
2. Social centres as places of skill sharing and popular education?
In what ways can we tap in to the full potential of social spaces to share and develop skills; inspire and create amongst each other?
3. Creating spaces beyond the social centre
How can we create temporary autonomous zones? What role can social centres play in campaigning and taking action to reclaim spaces?
Sunday's antics
A fun and kid friendly picnic marking the privatisation of public space. We're encouraging creative participation so get any costumes out and start making banners!
Accommodation
If you need somewhere to crash over the weekend please email us - seomraspraoi@gmail.com - and we'll try to sort you out. There is limited space so we can't guarantee everyone a place but we'll do our best to sort you out.
Over and Out!
I know that this seems like an irrelevant question, but will this new Seomra Spraoi have broadband?
I can imagine some Skype connections & events happening between Seomra Spraoi and Közért in Budapest if there is.
Közért in Budapest
Location map for the Social Centre's weekend...
(cheekily stolen from the Dublin Food Co-op website).
The Gathering takes place just opposite the co-op.
location new market square
hi
the venue is a temporary one, provided by a sympathetic organisation. Our search continues unabated, but the gathering will be another significant node in the trajectory of the Spraoi and associted projects
Scoil Spraoi takes place at Casadh, 19 Newmarket Square. Click on the map to see a bigger version.
Sat 12th April, 8pm, Lower Deck, Portobello.
Benefit gig in aid of the RAG Feminist Gathering (Mayday weekend)
Truck: Deinm-clad taco-eatin' whiskey-drinkin' demon cobra rock!
Party Weirdo: Furiously melodic blob pop noize!
Zing: Electrifying alt-rockin' three-piece
Clodagh Kerley: Bjork-influenced folk rock
€6 min donation / €5 unwaged
Please note that CASADH is a DRUG & ALCOHOL FREE SPACE, it is used as a drug rehabilitation centre during the week and drugs/alcohol are not allowed on the premises at any time.
Friday
7.30 Dinner by 'the peoples kitchen '& Movies with help from revolt video
9.00 Introduction to ‘scoil spraoi’ weekend
9.30 Presentations from folks involved in a wide variety of social centre and autonomous space projects both home and abroad
11.00 Drinks in the Liberty Bell, Francis st.
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Saturday
10.30 Introduction to 'scoil spraoi' day of discussion
11.00 Session 1 - The theme of session 1 focuses on solving practical problems associated with running a social centre
12.45 Lunch Break
1.45 Session 2 - At this point we will focus on the broader issues related to the social centre as a political project.
We will break into 3 discussion groups with the following themes -
1. From autonomy to bureaucracy and back - Can Irish social centres remain truly autonomous in the face of bureaucratic challenges? How do we raise finances without being limited or diverted in our aims?
2. Creating spaces of resistance - How do we see the role of social centres in social movements and wider revolutionary currents? Are we just providing services that the government provides - how can we use social centres to make capitalism and the state increasingly irrelevant in our lives?
3. Developing aims & principles - How do social centres develop their politics?
3.30 Break
4.00 Session 3 - Futures
Again, we will follow a similar structure to session 2 and break into 3 discussion groups with the following themes -
1. Creating a social centre network - developing social centres in Ireland. What ways can we support each other in creating social centres and other spaces?
2. Social centres as places of skill sharing and popular education? In what ways can we tap in to the full potential of social spaces to share and develop skills; inspire and create amongst each other?
3. Creating spaces beyond the social centre. How can we create temporary autonomous zones? What role can social centres play in campaigning and taking action to reclaim spaces?
5.45 Dinner & Discussion
9.00 RAG fundraiser in lower deck see above post.
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Sunday
Fun and kid friendly action - to be discussed over the weekend.
There will be a creative space running during the gathering providing a kids space also.
If you need accommodation please email us and we will try to sort you out seomraspraoi@gmail.com
I know it's only monday morning, but any chance of a report back on how this went?