Over 50 organisations support the establishment of the Autonomous Social Centre in an abandoned building

In its Public Declaration, the Autonomous Social Centre takes a firm stance against the gentrification of working-class neighbourhoods in the southwest of Montreal “as they are invaded by profit-hungry developers”. Point-Saint-Charles’ ASC roots itself in the rich tradition of grassroots groups that took the future of their communities into their own hands, by organizing and providing their own community services. Meant to be open to all, the ASC of Point-Saint-Charles will take over an abandoned building in the neighbourhood in order to establish a permanent location for its activities.

Since the spring of 2008, the Autonomous Social Centre has been organizing cultural and political events in spaces provided by local organisations or in unused, temporarily squatted spaces. The ASC notes, in its Public Declaration, that “attempts to create autonomous spaces within the present social system have had to deal with serious difficulties related to high rents and funding problems”. Accordingly, the ASC plans to appropriate a space that has been left vacant in order to establish itself and to launch its activities on an ongoing basis.

The ASC will forge ahead with its autonomous projects in this new space, including a concert hall, a café-bar, a cinema, a vegetable garden and a collective kitchen, an independent media centre, popular education workshops, and work-skill workshops (ie. woodworking, welding, and bike repair). Other projects may spring up subsequent to the take-over of the building: spaces for holding any kind of political or cultural event will be available for free, so long as the principles of the Autonomous Social Centre are respected and there is active participation in the given project.

The Autonomous Social Centre of Point-Saint-Charles will take matters into its own hands, in an autonomous fashion: without asking for permission from those in power or real estate speculators who adhere to the bottom-line logic of so-called “profitability”. The ASC affirms that local communities must not be sold out to private interests, “and have to remain under collective control”. It calls for the governance of local communities by the very people who live in them, relying on mechanisms of direct democracy, voluntary participation and non-hierarchical organisation.

All are welcome to come out to the family-friendly and festive demonstration in support of the opening of the squat. The rendez-vous point is Saint-Gabriel Park (just by Charlevoix metro), at 5:30pm on Friday, May 29th, 2009.

For further information, or to arrange interviews: http://petition.centresocialautogere.org/index.php?petition=2

Updates of our list of endorsing groups is available at:

www.centresocialautogere.org/en/content/des-groupes-appuient-le-csa

The Autonomous Social Centre of Pointe-Saint-Charles:

www.centresocialautogere.org

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