Birmingham Social Centre and Free School

Ok so I’m pretty excited about this, being a visiting UfSO professor based in the Midlands. In London, there are many free schools, social centres, squats, radical political groups, community activist meetings, etc, but all in all, it is pretty conservative here. But now there is a social centre/free school in Birmingham, a city that has been in the news because of the riots. Is there a link? Of course there is, but the government don’t want you to make the connection. Some people react to chronic mismanagement and raging neo-liberalism by smashing shit up and nicking stuff, others get together and occupy empty buildings in order to open up a space for the community to communicate, share (things and knowledge) and agitate. Here is their website:

http://birminghamsocialcentre.wordpress.com/

Please visit them online and in person if you live anywhere near Birmingham and get involved. More importantly, start your own social centre in the place you live; let’s make this a nationally organised and mutually supportive protest and anti-capitalist movement. Furthermore, if you are involved in anything like this in the Midlands or anywhere else, drop us an email and we’ll put it on the blog. If there are enough maybe we’ll do a massive post something like a directory, and write something critical about the whole thing. We at the UfSO are very much in support of these kinds of self-organised community initiatives.

Thanks to the Really Free School for spreading the word: http://reallyfreeschool.org/

Prof. G Riddle