Zagreb: Social center BEK, new call for volunteers

Dear everyone, a year has passed already since BEK collective opened a new squat and social center in Zagreb, Croatia. It was a year of different struggles and challenges, some things changed and some didn’t, and we are still in process of learning and developing our social space. The basic ideas of a drug-free, free entrance and socially aware space are still on and will be on. Recently our old facebook page and riseup email had been hacked and a lot off misinformation sent around, so we apologize for confusion that was maybe made by that and are trying to fix it. Please note that the internet drama was made by people who are not part of the collective and heavy accusations and dramatic information in the text is all made up with purpose to discredit us, and here is everything in its ordinary function. As spring arrived, we are continuing to upgrade our gardens around the house, as well as other old projects like public kitchen, movie nights, rehearsals space and art studio, library, freeshop… [Read More]

Zagreb: Presentation about squatting in Croatia. Call for support by the BEK collective

Presentation and discussion about squatting in Croatia, during the Van sistema DIY fest, on 6 October 2018 at the BEK squat in Zagreb: “Our colleague squatter Damir Batarelo will have a presentation about squatting in Croatia, as well as about the squatting scene, its history and context. After his presentation, there will be an open-table discussion so – squatters of the world unite! Come and let us emerge in sharing experiences and let’s talk about the foundations of the squatter solidarity network not only in this area, but wider.” The festival program: https://squ.at/r/69vf

Call for support by the BEK collective, autonomous space for free social and cultural activities.

When talking about our story, first of all, we want to emphasize that one day, hopefully soon, this will really become OUR story. A story of all included, anyone who wants to participate, a story of a community that builds it’s own part of a creative and self-sustainable space, a story of no one left aside. We want to make a new spot for all of us who don’t have a place to create and invest their time into, and for us who don’t have money or access to social and cultural programs that we can be a part of.
We are BEK collective, a group of enthusiastic young people, emerged from the “Food not Bombs” collective, who squatted an old abandoned school at the beginning of 2018. The building is located in the heart of Croatia’s capital city Zagreb. It was built in the 1940’s and it has 2500m2 on three floors. [Read More]

Zagreb: BEK collective opens new squat-social center

International call for volunteers

On April 15, a new squat-social center in Zagreb was opened! Some members of Food not bombs Zagreb and other activists formed BEK collective which occupied an abandoned school for blind and visually impaired children. Building was closed for three years and not maintained properly for years before so we started working on smaller repairs to turn it slowly into a completely functional and different place. Our collective is organised on anarchist principles and main idea is to have a social and cultural center which is connected with people in real need and vulnerable social groups, in contrast to bourgeois squatting which takes not a small role in the movement, and is focused mainly on parties, drugs and empty theoretical discussions. This means we stand clearly against drug use, laziness, making profit from squatting and want to have a well organised place with hygiene standard. The projects we are starting right now are: public kitchen few times a week, free-shop, library, open artist studios, free music and rehearsals room, free cinema, donation based or free coffee bar, roof and vertical garden and various workshops. Our long term plan is to make place self-sustainable as possible by producing our own food and minimal waste, recycling and using solar energy. We already had few gigs, workshops, exhibition, movie nights and public kitchen a lot of times. [Read More]