Social Centres Gathering on April 11th-13th in Dublin

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, Denmark and Seomra Spraoi and we would very much like to hear from the rest of you!
So, if you have or are currently working on a project in Galway, Belfast, Cork, Rossport Solidarity camp, a community garden or anywhere else home or abroad can you tell us about it? We'd specifically like to know about the history, organisation and lessons learned from the experience.

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 action and 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!

Facilitation
We will meet this Thursday – April 3rd – to discuss the facilitation structure of the gathering. If you are interested in facilitating any of the discussions, great - please let us know before then.

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.