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Autonomy Center in Krakow/Poland need help!

wielicka | 03.12.2009 21:37 | Free Spaces

Two months ago the rulers of Cracow made an eviction of the Independent Social and Cultural Centre, which was held in a squatted, old drive-inn on Wielicka Street in Cracow.

During the eviction, the officers repeated many times, that another building will be found for us for replace, for sure. We sent the proper documents and now, we are waiting for an answer.
The decision is supposed to be made soon. If you can, copy this text, sign it and send it to these addresses:
The President of Cracow, Jacek Majchrowski -  prezydent@um.krakow.pl
Communal Buildings Administration -  zbk@zbk.krakow.pl
In the title of the mail, write: “intentional letter due to the independent Social and Cultural Center”

This whole thing might seem quite exotic, but remember, that it can take you a few moments, but can really help.

If you want to receive information about this place send your e-mail to  wielicka2@gmail.com

Cracow promotes itself as a city open to new culture and social activities and ideas. At least that’s what the officials and big, mostly dependant from the autonomy, culture and social institutions. Unfortunately, as it shows in real life, those are only empty words, which has been proven by the eviction of the Independent Social and Cultural Centre on Wielicka Street, 2, which the Communal Buildings Administration have done on the 15th of September.

The Independent Social and Cultural Centre was held in an old drive-inn building of Saint Benedict, which due to the city’s lack of interest and care for the building, for years stood empty and was slowly falling apart. That’s why a group of people from Cracow created The Initiative for Social Space Revitalization and decided to regain this building for fulfilling the needs of the local habitants. The drive-inn’s rooms, in which the Centre was, were slowly getting adapted for social and cultural activity.

In the basements, there was a concert-room, in which concerts, plays and rehearsals for local groups were held. On the floor level there was supposed to be a day-room for the children from the Podgórze district. Connected with that, free language courses run by native-speakers were supposed to be held, free lessons and a free internet café. Besides that, there was also a library and rooms for reading with connection to the internet being planed.
The rest of the rooms were supposed to be adapted for a gallery and cinema. Other, bigger rooms were supposed to be for bike and furniture workshops.

Unfortunately, Cracow’s officials didn’t allow to make all these plans happen. During the eviction, the officers, many times, repeated the declaration, that another building shall be found for our needs, in Podgórze. I hope, that those weren’t only just empty words and the city will grant to the people of Cracow, taking part in The Initiative for Social Space Revitalization, a new building.

The need for this kind of building is significant, which all the people proved, those who were taking part in the initiative group, who disinterestedly spent their time and energy for creating the Centre itself, like those who took part in organising the events held there.
There was over 400 people at the official opening of the Centre, at which there were concerts, a painting gallery and other artistic actions. The existence of a place like this, clearly shows, that this is an effective way to activate the city’s citizen, which should be important for the people who run Cracow.
I think, that the people of Podgórze have a obvious right to use public space, for a real influence on its formation and bringing it back to it’s real, social role. That’s why, the autonomy official’s duty, is to give a place, where they can freely fulfill there ideas for the local society.

BUILDINGS AND WORDS CANNOT BE EMPTY!

wielicka