Call for international solidarity
The Klinika Autonomous Social Centre celebrated its first anniversary,running a space on legal loan in Žižkov, Prague. Activists occupied the house, which laid derelict and full of rubbish for five years, at the end of November 2014, and after police interventions and negotiations on the contract with the Bureau for Representation of the State in Issues of Property, the Centre, called Klinika, began its varied program in March 2015.
During its first year, Klinika has become a lively meeting point, a social centre with a wide scope of help. The activists cleaned out the house and made elementary repairs. Lectures, debates, language courses, theatrical and musical productions and manual workshops are all organised regularly at Klinika.
There are functional workshops, a freeshop, library and café, a children and parents’ club, Mamatata, and a room for broadcasts by Streetculture Radio. Future plans include a laundry, community agriculture or a pottery workshop. The program, which runs practically every day, is entirely free and works on a donation basis.
“We want to show that much can be accomplished without money and striving for profit,” say members of the Klinika collective. “In a society in which profit comes first, we are trying to nurture social ties which allow people to conceive of themselves and others according to a different logic than that of the market. Here, they can develop relationships, values and subjectivities based on sharing, agreement,
cooperation and mutual help,” they add.
Klinika also raised public interest with a collection to help people fleeing military conflict. “We organised the collection as a reaction to the xenophobic proclamations and behaviour of a certain vocal part of Czech society. We wanted to speak against this and show solidarity with people in need,” say the members of the collective. Thanks to the
collection, both financial and material, 150 cars, lorries and trucks could be dispatched to help at the borders.
The operation of the Klinika Autonomous Centre is based on minimising costs, recycling and reuse, mutual help and sharing. The Klinika collective rejects grants, state sponsorship and wealthy benefactors who would subsidize the operation of the autonomous centre, because it increases dependency on the donors and limits self-administration, which is an important element in Klinika’s endeavour.
Presently, Klinika is discussing prolonging the loan with the Bureau for Representation of the State in Issues of Property. From the available information, it seems that GIBS (the General Inspection of Security Forces, which owns the building in which the Centre resides) is reconsidering their original demands for the relocation of their offices.
However, the Local Authority Building Control announced that
they wouldn’t prolong the current contract for another year. The future of Klinika is now uncertain, and there is a threat of the activists having to leave the space on 3rd of March.
For this reason, we ask associated collectives and media internationally for voicing their support in the matter of extending the contract for another year. The support can take any form, few sentences, sympathetic pictures or an article in media or demonstration in front of the embassy ort he consulate of Czech Republic.
On Saturday, 27th of February, at 2 pm, the march for Klinika will take place in Prague, to support not only Klinika, but also other autonomous projects and activist initiatives in Czech Republic. The Klinika collective has also created a short publication about its activities, a video calling for support and a music compilation.
Update:
Our contract end at 2th of March, then we will be considered
ilegal, and praxis of czech police is not very promising. Therefore we call for increased pressure on Czech state, which is owner of our building. Make protest actions, happenings, be creative!
In solidarity
Klinika
http://klinika.451.cz/english/let-klinika-breathe/
