Centro Iberico

Last updated

Centro Iberico, London, in the 1970s was a Spanish anarchist support centre, which after moving into a squatted school building in Notting Hill, London became a self-managed social centre, a live venue and a studio.

Contents

Origins

Centro Iberico was initially established at Chalk Farm early in the 1970s by Spanish Civil War veterans, principal among them Miguel García García, twenty years a prisoner of Franco. [1] Garcia and his comrades were active in the prisoner-aid group, the Anarchist Black Cross. Later, when also known as the Anarchy or Alternative ‘A’ Centre, it met in a parish hall in Holborn, before moving in 1982 to the school building, 421 Harrow Road, Notting Hill. [2] [3]   [4] Its original political activity would have wound down following the restoration of parliamentary government in Spain, and Garcia's death in 1981.

Bands

The centre in Notting Hill put on anarcho-punk gigs by the Mob, Conflict, Poison Girls and the Subhumans. [5] Throbbing Gristle played and recorded at the centre. [6] Future Madonna producer William Orbit began his recording career and Guerilla Records whilst living there. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Anarcho-punk is an ideological subgenre of punk rock that promotes anarchism. Some use the term broadly to refer to any punk music with anarchist lyrical content, which may figure in crust punk, hardcore punk, folk punk, and other styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iberian lynx</span> Species of mammal

The Iberian lynx is one of the four extant species within Lynx, a genus of medium-sized wild cats. The Iberian lynx is endemic to the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe. It is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. In the 20th century, the Iberian lynx population had declined because of overhunting, poaching, fragmentation of suitable habitats, and the population decline of its main prey species, the European rabbit, caused by myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease. Fossils suggest the species has been present in Iberia since the end of the Early Pleistocene, around one million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Meltzer</span> English anarcho-communist (1920–1996)

Albert Isidore Meltzer was an English anarcho-communist activist and writer.

Anarchism in Spain has historically gained some support and influence, especially before Francisco Franco's victory in the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, when it played an active political role and is considered the end of the golden age of classical anarchism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ladbroke Grove</span> Human settlement in England

Ladbroke Grove is an area and a road in North Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, passing through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue.

Stuart Christie was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo, General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged to be a member of the Angry Brigade, but was acquitted of related charges. He went on to found Cienfuegos Press, an anarchist publishing house, as well as radical publications The Free-Winged Eagle and The Hastings Trawler, and in 2006 the online Anarchist Film Channel, which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and libertarian socialist themes. His memoir Granny Made Me an Anarchist was published in 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1936 in the Spanish Civil War</span>

The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) broke out with a military uprising in Morocco on July 17, triggered by events in Madrid. Within days, Spain was divided in two: a "Republican" or "Loyalist" Spain consisting of the Second Spanish Republic, and a "Nationalist" Spain under the insurgent generals, and, eventually, under the leadership of General Francisco Franco.

Miguel García García (1908–1981) was a Spanish anarchist and writer. A veteran of the resistance to Francoism he was 20 years a prisoner in Spain. He died in exile in London, where through the Centro Iberico and the monthly Black Flag he helped raise funds for his imprisoned comrades and to sustain an anarchist critique both of the Spanish dictatorship and of the Marxist left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvador Puig Antich</span> Spanish militant anarchist (1948–1974)

Salvador Puig Antich was a Spanish militant anarchist from Catalonia. His execution for involvement in a bank robbery and shooting a police officer dead became a cause célèbre in Francoist Spain for Catalan autonomists, pro-independence supporters, and anarchists. After fighting the Spanish state with the militant organization Iberian Liberation Movement in the early 1970s, he was convicted and executed by garrote for the death of a police officer during a shoot-out.

The Durruti Column, with about 6,000 people, was the largest anarchist column formed during the Spanish Civil War. During the first months of the war, it became the most recognized and popular military organisation fighting against Franco, and it is a symbol of the Spanish anarchist movement and its struggle to create an egalitarian society with elements of individualism and collectivism. The column included people from all over the world. Philosopher Simone Weil fought alongside Buenaventura Durruti in the Durruti Column, and her memories and experiences from the war can be found in her book, Écrits historiques et politiques. The Durruti Column was militarised in 1937, becoming part of the 26th Division on 28 April.

Wapping Autonomy Centre was a self-managed social centre in the London Docklands from late 1981 to 1982. The project was initially funded by money raised by the benefit single Persons Unknown/Bloody Revolutions, as well as benefit gigs by Crass and The Poison Girls.

Autonomism, also known as Autonomist Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism. Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tendencies became significant after influence from the Situationists, the failure of Italian far-left movements in the 1970s, and the emergence of a number of important theorists including Antonio Negri, who had contributed to the 1969 founding of Potere Operaio as well as Mario Tronti, Paolo Virno and Franco "Bifo" Berardi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Second Spanish Republic</span> Government of Spain, 1931–1939

The Spanish Republic, commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic, was the form of democratic government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931 after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII. It was dissolved on 1 April 1939 after surrendering in the Spanish Civil War to the Nationalists led by General Francisco Franco.

Stanley George Payne is an American historian of modern Spain and European fascism at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He retired from full-time teaching in 2004 and is currently Professor Emeritus at its Department of History.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom</span> Self-organised anti-capitalist communal spaces in the UK

Self-managed social centres in the United Kingdom can be found in squatted, rented, mortgaged and fully owned buildings. These self-managed social centres differ from community centres in that they are self-organised under anti-authoritarian principles and volunteer-run, without any assistance from the state. The largest number have occurred in London from the 1980s onwards, although projects exist in most cities across the UK, linked in a network. Squatted social centres tend to be quickly evicted and therefore some projects deliberately choose a short-term existence, such as A-Spire in Leeds or the Okasional Café in Manchester. Longer term social centres include the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford, the Cowley Club in Brighton and the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, which are co-operatively owned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1936 Spanish general election</span>

Legislative elections were held in Spain on 16 February 1936. At stake were all 473 seats in the unicameral Cortes Generales. The winners of the 1936 elections were the Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), Republican Left (Spain) (IR), Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC), Republican Union (UR), Communist Party of Spain (PCE), Acció Catalana (AC), and other parties. Their coalition commanded a narrow lead over the divided opposition in terms of the popular vote, but a significant lead over the main opposition party, Spanish Confederation of the Autonomous Right (CEDA), in terms of seats. The election had been prompted by a collapse of a government led by Alejandro Lerroux, and his Radical Republican Party. Manuel Azaña would replace Manuel Portela Valladares, caretaker, as prime minister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camp Vernet</span> Concentration camp in Le Vernet, Ariège, France

Le Vernet Internment Camp, or Camp Vernet, was a concentration camp in Le Vernet, Ariège, near Pamiers, in the French Pyrenees. It was built in 1918 as a barracks, but after World War I it was used as an internment camp for prisoners of war. From February 1939 to June 1944, it was used:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchist Black Cross</span> Anarchist support organisation

The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for class struggle prisoners worldwide. It commonly contrasts itself with Amnesty International, which is concerned mainly with prisoners of conscience and refuses to defend those accused of encouraging violence. The ABC openly supports those who have committed illegal activity in furtherance of revolutionary aims that anarchists accept as legitimate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">121 Centre</span> Evicted social centre in London

121 Centre was a squatted self-managed social centre on Railton Road in Brixton, south London from 1981 until 1999. As an anarchist social centre, the venue hosted a bookshop, cafe, infoshop, library, meeting space, office space, printing facility, and rehearsal space. Organisations using the space included Food Not Bombs, Anarchist Black Cross prisoner aid chapters, an anarcho-feminist magazine, a squatters aid organisation, and an anarchist queer group. Regular events at 121 Centre included punk concerts, a women's cafe night, and a monthly queer night. The centre kept a low profile and was one of the longest-lasting squats in London.

<i>The Spanish Civil War</i> (book) History book by Hugh Thomas

The Spanish Civil War is a book by British historian Hugh Thomas, first published in London by Eyre & Spottiswoode. It won the Somerset Maugham Prize in 1962. A second revised edition was published by Penguin Books in 1965. A third, revised and enlarged edition was published in 1977 by Harper & Row, which was printed again in 2001 and 2013. Thomas said that the excellent reviews the book got on its release were a determining factor in his own life and career.

References

  1. García, Miguel (1972). Franco's Prisoner. Hart-Davis. ISBN   978-0-246-64070-3.
  2. "Notting Hill History Timeline - 16 - Notting Hill Babylon (Early 1980s)" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-12-28. Retrieved 2010-08-31.
  3. Meltzer, Albert (1996). I couldn't paint golden angels: Sixty years of commonplace life and anarchist agitation. AK Press. ISBN   9781873176931. Archived from the original on 2 May 2019. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  4. Chatterton, P; Hodkinson, S (2006). "Autonomy in the city". City. 10 (3): 305–315. Bibcode:2006City...10..305H. doi:10.1080/13604810600982222. S2CID   143032260.
  5. "Counter Culture Portobello Psychogeographical History - Tom Vague". Archived from the original on 2010-09-10. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
  6. "Centro Iberico, London, England, 21 January 1979". Brainwashed. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  7. Staff (23 June 2015). "Shine on: William Orbit". Cold War Nightlife. Archived from the original on 3 May 2019. Retrieved 3 May 2019.

51°31′33″N0°12′18″W / 51.5259°N 0.2051°W / 51.5259; -0.2051