Spaces for a new kind of citizenship: Feminist Social Center
la eskalera karakola | 14.02.2003 11:57
La eskalera karakola throws down a challenge to the madrid city government: expropriate and rehabilitate an autonomous feminist social center
Dear friends and admirers, all those who have expressed interest and support for La Karakola (Occupied Feminist Social Center in Madrid) and a few who have not (yet)...
We are currently in an exciting moment. The crisis of last summer (in which we feared immanent eviction) gave way to a surprising process of negotiation with the Madrid Department of Urban Management in which we convinced them not to condemn the entire house but rather to separate the partially-ruined back-area from the relatively-stable front area. The back-area they have demolished (leaving us with a lovely patio) and the front area they have secured with massive pillars.
During the several months that the house has been closed due to the construction, we have dedicated ourselves to writing a complete proposal for the expropriation, rehabilitation and cession of the house, and its conversion into a fully-equipped feminist social center. It has been a long, difficult autumn/winter, but now
a) the proposal is finished, printed, and in our hands
b) the construction (demolition) is finished
c) the house begins to function again: seminars, workshops, films, more... and
d) we are hustling everyone we can think of -- associations, politicians, unions, actors, the press -- to visibilize and garner support for the proposal. It is going to be a long haul.
As part of this process, we have finally gotten our website up to speed; we hang new things on it almost every day. I encourage you to check it out (it is presently almost all in spanish, but a few texts are available in english, more forthcoming).
http://www.sindominio.net/karakola
In this thrilling and difficult process of creating public spaces in which to develop more active, more critical, more quotidian forms of citizenship,
we need all the support we can get: diffusion, letters (especially from associations or institutions), and especially cash.
Please spread the word. Pass the webpage on to whomever it might interest. Make a link to it, hang it on a bulletin board. If you know of any organizations or foundations that might be interested in funding an autonomous feminist project, please let us know. If you know any journalists who might be interested in featuring us, let them know.
Ideas, questions, proposals... Be in touch.
Love and more,
La Karakola
karakola@sindominio.net
We are currently in an exciting moment. The crisis of last summer (in which we feared immanent eviction) gave way to a surprising process of negotiation with the Madrid Department of Urban Management in which we convinced them not to condemn the entire house but rather to separate the partially-ruined back-area from the relatively-stable front area. The back-area they have demolished (leaving us with a lovely patio) and the front area they have secured with massive pillars.
During the several months that the house has been closed due to the construction, we have dedicated ourselves to writing a complete proposal for the expropriation, rehabilitation and cession of the house, and its conversion into a fully-equipped feminist social center. It has been a long, difficult autumn/winter, but now
a) the proposal is finished, printed, and in our hands
b) the construction (demolition) is finished
c) the house begins to function again: seminars, workshops, films, more... and
d) we are hustling everyone we can think of -- associations, politicians, unions, actors, the press -- to visibilize and garner support for the proposal. It is going to be a long haul.
As part of this process, we have finally gotten our website up to speed; we hang new things on it almost every day. I encourage you to check it out (it is presently almost all in spanish, but a few texts are available in english, more forthcoming).
http://www.sindominio.net/karakola In this thrilling and difficult process of creating public spaces in which to develop more active, more critical, more quotidian forms of citizenship,
we need all the support we can get: diffusion, letters (especially from associations or institutions), and especially cash.
Please spread the word. Pass the webpage on to whomever it might interest. Make a link to it, hang it on a bulletin board. If you know of any organizations or foundations that might be interested in funding an autonomous feminist project, please let us know. If you know any journalists who might be interested in featuring us, let them know.
Ideas, questions, proposals... Be in touch.
Love and more,
La Karakola
karakola@sindominio.net
la eskalera karakola
e-mail:
karakola@sindominio.net
Homepage:
http://www.sindominio.net/karakola