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BASE (social centre)

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BASE
Map
Former namesKebele Social Centre
Kebele Kulture Projekt
General information
StatusSelf-managed social centre
Address14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JY
Town or cityBristol
CountryUnited Kingdom
Coordinates51°28′11″N 2°33′46″W / 51.4696°N 2.5629°W / 51.4696; -2.5629
Opened1995
OwnerBASE Community Co-op
Website
basebristol.org

Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton, commonly known as BASE, is an anarchist community co-operative and self-managed social centre in Easton, Bristol, England. Formerly known as Kebele, the building was squatted in 1995.[1]

History

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BASE, previously named Kebele, was squatted in 1995. The squatters resisted eviction attempts and negotiated with the owner (a bank), forming a housing co-operative which then bought the building for £19,000 in 1997.[2][3] By 2008, the centre had paid off its mortgage and had become a community co-operative.[4]

Name

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The original name, Kebele, was based on the Amharic word used by Rastafarians in the Grenada Revolution of 1973 to refer to the community centres that were the focus of resistance.[5][3] It became known as BASE (Base for Anarchy & Solidarity in Easton) from March 2018 onwards. The reason given for the name change was that "it no longer felt appropriate to be called Kebele" because no-one involved in the project at that time "had links to Ethiopia", and "to make it clearer that we are an anarchist social centre".[6]

Activities

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BASE is organised by collectives which take responsibility for certain activities, such as the bicycle workshop, cafe, infoshop, finance and radical library. All participants are volunteers and the cafe is organised on a donation basis.[2][7] BASE is part of a network of self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom which includes The 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton and the Sumac Centre in Nottingham.[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Our Story". BASE Community Co-op. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b Firth, Rhiannon (12 March 2012). Utopian Politics: Citizenship and Practice. Routledge. pp. 58–61. ISBN 978-1-136-58072-7. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  3. ^ a b Simpson, Will (11 August 2015). "Kebele comes of age". Bristol 24/7. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Ourstory". BASE Community Co-Op. Archived from the original on 29 November 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  5. ^ Tim (2008). "The Kebele, Bristol". In Chatterton, Paul (ed.). What's This place? Stories from radical social centres in the UK & Ireland. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. ISBN 9780853162704. Archived from the original on 24 March 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  6. ^ "We have a new name…". BASE Community Co-Op. 16 April 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
  7. ^ Nielsen, Wicki (5 August 2011). "My kind of town: Bristol". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 28 May 2020. Retrieved 16 February 2021.
  8. ^ Donaghey, J.; Boisseau, W. (2015). ""Nailing Descartes to the wall": Animal Rights, Veganism and Punk Culture". In Nocella II, Anthony J.; Cudworth, Erika; White, Richard J. (eds.). Anarchism and Animal Liberation: Essays on Complementary Elements of Total Liberation. McFarland. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-7864-9457-6. Archived from the original on 16 February 2021. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
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