Five years ago the Youth Assembly and different neighbours from Gros decided to occupy an old cork-manufacturing factory. We did it in response to a great need we had in our neighborhood: a self-managed and diverse cultural facility. Five years later Kortxoenea Gaztetxea is a meeting point for different cultural and political groups, music bands and theatre companies.
We can see a clear clash between two ways of understanding culture. In less than 4 months San Sebastian will become the European Capital of Culture, and we think it is a seriours error from the City Council to demolish such a cultural space. We would like to denounce the speculative and elitist policy the City Council is implementig in cultural and social areas. They are conducting house evictions while more than 11.000 flats are still empty. The same week they are opening Tabakalera (a cultural facility costing +50M€), the same year they have brought back the bloody bull-fighting, they are trying to demolish our Gaztetxe to build luxury appartments without offering any solution for us.
September 4th the “owners” brought public-works machinery to demolish our space and destroy our dreams and projects. Without even trying to negotiate with us, and without meeting the formal requirements. Thanks to neighbours warning us, we could arrive on time and stop the works. We re-occupied the building and we are now defending it as long as possible.
Hundreds of different events have taken place in our Gaztetxe the last five years: concerts, theatre plays, political and social groups meetings, different workshops, the Alternative Cinema Festival…
Why is the City Council lead by PNV and PSE attacking the popular and self-managed culture?
We do know that self-managed projects like Kortxoenea Gaztetxea are the best way to develop our cultural ambitions, because the organised people know their own needs. We are fighting with joy and enthusiasm to defend Kortxoenea and every other self-managed cultural and social center, and we invite everybody to join us!
Kortxoenea Gaztetxea
Indianoene Kalea 16, Gros-Ulia, Donostia, Basque Country
http://kortxoenea.com/
http://kortxoenea.com/2015/09/11/kortxoenea-manifest-self-management-and-resistance/
