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Norwich social centre update - new name, opening gig, attempted entombment foile

Sophie al-Centre | 19.11.2007 17:27 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | Cambridge | London

Some quick updates from Norwich's exciting brand spanking new squatted social centre.

* We now have a name! I am proud to formally announce the existence of Section Six Social Centre.

* On Saturday we held our inaugural gig, a well-attended and extremely convivial evening of acoustic music featuring Paul Gill and Sam Choi, Spidermilk and Twisted Routes. The evening was made a little more stressful than necessary by kids breaking stuff in an adjacent building and the police trying to hold us responsible and gain entry, but we managed to calm them down and have a great evening.

* On Sunday evening and Monday morning workmen and security from Dardan Security announced their intention to board up the front door, thereby preventing several people including three young children from exiting the building. Thankfully on both occasions the police were eventually persuaded that entombment of living people had potentially embarrassing legal consequences and asked them to stop working.

* Come and visit! We could really do with more people to help out and keep the rota staffed, especially during these early days of security paranoia.


UPCOMING EVENTS

Thursday November 22nd, 4pm: Bike maintenance / repair workshop followed by bike related films New York Critical Mass and Belleville Rendezvous.

Friday November 16th, 8pm: '80s disco featuring the PortaParty.

Saturday November 17th, 8pm: Live bands Fletch Cadillac, Stem Cells, Skatabrain (tbc) +Ska DJ (tbc) + more (tbc)

Monday November 26th: Climate Change evening, including a showing of the environmental documentary "The Planet".

Coming soon (we hope...):

* More gigs
* Capoeira
* Hopefully we'll be adding some photos to this report when we can find the right cable for our camera....

Sophie al-Centre
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/wherewillitbe

Additions

Date correction

19.11.2007 21:23

oops. yes the dates were wrong. Correct dates are:

Thursday November 22nd, 4pm: Bike maintenance / repair workshop followed by bike related films New York Critical Mass and Belleville Rendezvous.

Friday November 23rd, 8pm: '80s disco featuring the PortaParty.

Saturday November 24th, 8pm: Live bands Fletch Cadillac, Stem Cells, Skatabrain (tbc) +Ska DJ (tbc) + more (tbc)

Monday November 26th: Climate Change evening, including a showing of the environmental documentary "The Planet".

sophie al-centre
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/wherewillitbe

Comments

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question

19.11.2007 18:02

all very well but wont people from that area be too busy having sex with their sisters andfarmyard animals to go?

jambo

Dates

19.11.2007 20:31

You sure those dates are correct?

Daf

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ok then

19.11.2007 22:03

surely everyone will be too busy to attend as they have t have sex with their sisters and farmyard animals

sherman

whose squats?

20.11.2007 12:03

"The evening was made a little more stressful than necessary by kids breaking stuff in an adjacent building and the police trying to hold us responsible and gain entry, but we managed to calm them down and have a great evening."

did you show any solidarity with the kids, or did you focus your attentions on placating the police? maybe i don't get what you mean but i get a bit worried that 'proper' anarchists seem to think that they're the only ones who should be allowed access to empty buildings sometimes. squatting should be about opening up spaces, not keeping them for the select few.

a kid

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..showing solidarity with some kids breaking up next door and drawing....

20.11.2007 14:38

...problems and heat?

Please just go away and fuk about if you must somewhere else would be the response I should think.

woef

Re: whose squats?

20.11.2007 17:31

a kid:

I completely understand where you're coming from and my post probably sounded a bit like "goddam kids, with their hoodies and their strange new drugs, get off my lawn grrr etc". However in this case I don't think we're particularly deserving of criticism.

I wasn't present for everything that happened, but my understanding is: after coming to our gig and behaving like dickheads for a bit, they decided it would be fun to break into next door and break some windows, considerately leaving broken glass strewn over the pavement for us to clear up and drawing heat from the cops. The cops subsequently showed up mobhanded with a battering ram, and (from what I understand) came very close to using it on our door. The next day the building's owners had all our ground floor windows boarded up.

Yes, we focused a lot of our attention on dealing with the police. That's probably why we still have a squat. No, I don't think we showed solidarity with the kids. I (speaking for myself) don't feel particularly guilty about that.

By the way, the complex of buildings we're occupying part of had been used by (mostly young) skaters and artists for a while before it got secured and then reoccupied by us. Some of those people have been involved with the social centre, and I think we're all getting along just fine. Speaking as a person of relatively advanced years, I've been extremely impressed with the contributions of the newer and younger people to making the social centre happen. The kids are (mostly) alright!

Sophie al-Centre
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/wherewillitbe

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IMC UK is an interactive site offering inclusive participation. All postings to the open publishing newswire are the responsibility of the individual authors and not of IMC UK. Although IMC UK volunteers attempt to ensure accuracy of the newswire, they take no responsibility legal or otherwise for the contents of the open publishing site. Mention of external web sites or services is for information purposes only and constitutes neither an endorsement nor a recommendation.

Re: ok then

20.11.2007 17:35

sherman:

Thanks for raising that important concern. In the morning I will go to the sex shop over the road from us and get some inflatable farmyard animals for the lonely. x

Sophie al-Centre
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/wherewillitbe

Nice one

20.11.2007 17:45

Always good to see stuff like this going on, keep up the good work, solidarity and that

Interested observer.

random comment

23.11.2007 13:27

why does all the cool stuff have to happen now ive left norwich :( boohoo

me

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