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Thursday January 01 1970

Seomra Spraoi presents Scoil Spraoi - Social Centre gathering Friday 11 and Saturday 12 April

category national | miscellaneous | event notice author Tuesday March 25, 2008 13:34author 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.

Related Link: http://seomraspraoi.blogspot.com

Comments (12 of 12)

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author by Hilary - Seomra Spraoipublication date Tue Mar 25, 2008 13:47author address author phone

The gathering will take place Friday evening and all day Saturday

Unit 13, New Market Square, Dublin 8.

author by Hilary - Seomra Spraoipublication date Tue Mar 25, 2008 14:04author address author phone

....feel free to print and distribute this wherever you may be.

PDF Document leaflet.pdf 0.22 Mb


More details
author by Scoil Spraoi - Seomra Spraoipublication date Fri Mar 28, 2008 18:46author address author phone

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!

broadband?
author by redjadepublication date Fri Mar 28, 2008 23:36author address author phone

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
Közért in Budapest

map of venue
author by scoil spraoi - seomra spraoipublication date Tue Apr 01, 2008 09:21author email seomraspraoi at g dot mail dot comauthor address author phone

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
location new market square

no broadband yet
author by soundmigrationpublication date Tue Apr 01, 2008 13:25author address author phone

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

Custom-made map of Casadh location
author by Scoil Spraoi - Seomra Spraoipublication date Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:49author address author phone

Scoil Spraoi takes place at Casadh, 19 Newmarket Square. Click on the map to see a bigger version.

map_casadh.gif

Related Link: http://seomraspraoi.blogspot.com/
apres gathering gig
author by Eve - RAGpublication date Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:16author address author phone

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

gig_poster.jpg

CASADH
author by scoil spraoi - seomra spraoipublication date Sat Apr 05, 2008 17:19author address author phone

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.

Related Link: http://www.seomraspraoi.org
Timetable
author by Scoil Spraoi - Seomra Spraoipublication date Wed Apr 09, 2008 14:37author address author phone

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday

Fun and kid friendly action - to be discussed over the weekend.

Creative space & accommodation
author by Scoil Spraoi - Seomra Spraoipublication date Wed Apr 09, 2008 14:50author address author phone

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

Report back?
author by autonanonpublication date Mon Apr 14, 2008 09:43author address author phone

I know it's only monday morning, but any chance of a report back on how this went?


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