PRESS RELEASE – For immediate release

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

Point-Saint-Charles, May 14, 2009. The opening of Point-St-Charles’ Autonomous Social Centre (ASC), planned on May 29th, 2009 in an abandoned building, has garnered the support of over 50 community, political and social organisations, all of which have signed the Public Declaration in Support of the ASC. Most of these organisations will be mobilizing their members and within their networks to participate in the family-friendly and festive demonstration in support of the opening of the ASC.

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: media@centresocialautogere.org

Endorsing organizations, networks and national coalitions:

Front commun des personnes assistées sociales du Québec (FCPASQ)
Regroupement des comités logement et des associations de locataires du
Québec (RCLALQ)
Front d’Action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU)
Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ)
Mouvement québécois pour une décroissance conviviale
Entraide logement Hochelaga-Maisonneuve
Collectif des locataires de Villeray
Popir comité logement (St-Henri)
Comité logement Trois-Rivières
Comité d’action des citoyennes et citoyens de Verdun (CACV)
Comité de base pour l'action et l'information sur le logement social
(comité BAILS)
Association de Défense des Droits Sociaux (ADDS)
Comité chômage de l'Est de Montréal
Organisation populaire des droits sociaux - Maison Aline Gendron (OPDS-AG)
Organisation populaire des droits sociaux de la région de Montréal
(OPDS-RM)
Comité populaire Saint-Jean-Baptiste
Infringement Festival
Laboratoires Theatral Optatif
Collectif Artivistic
Association Étudiante des Cycles Supérieurs en Sciences Politiques de
l'UQAM (AECSSP-UQAM)
Association facultaire des étudiants et étudiantes en arts (AFÉA-UQAM)
Association générale des étudiants et étudiantes du collège Lionel-Groulx
(AGEECLG)
Association générale étudiante du cégep du Vieux-Montréal (AGÉCVM)
Association Étudiante du Cégep de St-Laurent (AECSL)
Groupe de Recherche d'Intérêt Public de l'UQAM (GRIP-UQAM)
Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia (QPIRG - Concordia)
Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill (QPIRG-McGill)
Coop les Jardins de la Résistance
Projet MUCS - NDG
Le Frigo Vert
People's Potato ( La Patate du Peuple )
Café-Coop Touski
Café-Coop Chaos
MAV - Montréal à vélo
Institut de Recherche et d'Information Socio-économique (IRIS)
Maison La Virevolte
Centre d'écologie solidaire et appliquée (CESA)
Montréal-Nord Républik
Regroupement Autonome des Jeunes (RAJ)
Tadamon!
Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie
Centre des Travailleurs et Travailleuses Immigrants
Solidarité Sans Frontière
Personne n'est illégal/No One Is Illegal-Montreal
Documentation, Information et Recherhe Anarchiste (D.I.R.A.)
Apatrides Anonymes
La Conspiration Dépressionniste
Cazelais Libre / Cazelais Free State
Le Campement Autogéré
Réclame ta rue
La Pointe Libertaire
Reclaim!
Communauterre (Drummondville)
Union communiste libertaire - Montréal
Collectif Emma Goldman (UCL-saguenay)
Collectif opposé à la brutalité policière (COBP)
Liberterre
Centre des médias indépendants (CMI)
Masse critique, collectif écosocialiste au sein de Québec solidaire
Industrial Workers of the World, Section Montréal

The Public Declaration is available at:
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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