Infoshops are places in which people can access

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

autonomist Autonomism, also known as autonomist Marxism is an anti-capitalist left-wing political and social movement and theory. As a theoretical system, it first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist and anarchist tend ...

ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop,

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

, self-managed social centre or

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

. Typically, infoshops offer flyers, posters,

zines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very sma ...

, pamphlets and books for sale or donation. Other items such as badges, locally produced artworks and T-shirts are also often available. Infoshops can also provide printing and copying facilities for people to produce their own literature or have a meeting space. Infoshops can be found in many cities in North America and Western Europe, and also in other locations around the world such as Australia, Israel and New Zealand. They are self-managed spaces run by volunteers which vary in size and function, depending on local context.

Radical spaces

An infoshop (the word being a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordszines A zine ( ; short for ''magazine'' or ''fanzine'') is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images, usually reproduced via a copy machine. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very sma ...

, pamphlets and books. It also provides a space to meet other people and in some cases to organise events such as meetings or fundraisers. Some infoshops have computers, copy machines and printers so that pamphlets, position papers, articles, magazines, and newspapers can be created and then circulated between the network of spaces. Academic

Chris Atton Christopher Frank Atton (born 10 March 1959) is Professor of Media and Culture in the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University. His work focuses on Alternative Media where his contribution has concentrated on the not ...

describes the infoshop as a "forum for alternative cultural, economic, political and social activities." For example, in a flyer announcing its planned activities, the

Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, also known as ACE, is an infoshop and autonomous social centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1997, although it follows on from previous groups. Antecedents ACE formed out of the Edinburgh Unemplo ...

(ACE) stated it would make available locally produced arts and crafts, records, T-shirts, badges, books, zines and information. When it opened the following year, ACE provided flyers, leaflets, newsletters, magazines and journals about causes such as antivivisectionism,

anti-monarchism Criticism of monarchy can be targeted against the general form of government—monarchy—or more specifically, to particular monarchical governments as controlled by hereditary royal families. In some cases, this criticism can be curtailed by le ...

hunt sabotage Hunt sabotage is the direct action that animal rights activists and animal liberation activists undertake to interfere with hunting activity. Anti-hunting campaigners are divided into hunt saboteurs and anti-hunt monitors to monitor for cruelty a ...

and jobseeker's allowance advice. Like social centres, infoshops vary in size and function depending on local context. Many contemporary anarchists first come into contact with radical politics through an infoshop. Infoshops tend to be run on a voluntary basis by a non-hierarchical collective. The spaces are non-profit and self-managed.

Antecedents

In the United Kingdom, early antecedents of infoshops were the radical presses such as

Giles Calvert Giles Calvert (baptised 1612 – 1663) was a prominent printer during the English Revolution, developing a catalogue which included such notable preachers as John Saltmarsh. References English Dissenters English printers 17th-century p ...

's printshop (1600s) and John Doherty's coffee house (1830s). More recently, infoshops were associated with squatted anarchist social centres such as the 121 Centre in Brixton, London and the Free Information Network (FIN). Writing in

Maximumrocknroll ''Maximumrocknroll'', often written as ''Maximum Rocknroll'' and usually abbreviated as ''MRR'', is a not-for-profit monthly zine of punk subculture. Based in San Francisco, ''MRR'' focuses on punk rock and hardcore music, and primarily featu ...

in the 1990s, Chuck Munson placed North American infoshops in the lineage of peace and justice

community centres Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

and acknowledged the influence of European social centres. Munson also stated there were over 60 infoshops (infoladen) in Germany which were connected to the

squatting Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

and

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

movements.

Around the world

Self-managed social centres in Italy Self-managed social centres in Italy exist in many cities. They are part of different left-wing political networks including anarchist, communist, socialist, and autonomist. The centres ( Italian: centri sociali) tend to be squatted and provi ...

, such as

Forte Prenestino CSOA Forte Prenestino is a large self-managed social centre based in a squatted fort in Centocelle, Rome. It was occupied on May Day 1986. Forte Prenestino is an "important node of production of cultural and political events" and hosts many grou ...

in Rome, often contain infoshops.

Social centres in the United Kingdom 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 pri ...

often contain infoshops, such as for example the

Cowley Club The Cowley Club is a libertarian self-managed social centre in Brighton, England. It opened in 2003, providing resources and meeting spaces for groups and individuals active in areas such as workplace and unemployed struggles, international soli ...

in Brighton and the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford. There is also the 56a Infoshop in London. In the mid 2000s, as well as these spaces, there were infoshops in Leeds, Manchester, Norwich and Nottingham. In the 1990s, there were the following infoshops in North America: 223 Center (Portland, Oregon); 404 Willis (Detroit); A-Space (Philadelphia); Arise! Bookstore & Resource Center (Minneapolis); Autonomous Zone (Chicago); Beehive Infoshop (Washington DC); Blackout Books (New York City); Crescent Wrench Infoshop (New Orleans); Croatan (Baltimore); Emma Center (Minneapolis); Epicenter (San Francisco); Long Haul (Berkeley);

Lucy Parsons Center The Lucy Parsons Center, located in Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts, is an radical, nonprofit independent bookstore and community center. Formed out of the Red Word bookstore, it is collectively run by volunteers. The Center provides readin ...

(Cambridge);

Mayday Books Mayday Books is a volunteer-run, non-profit collective bookstore in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Established in 1975, its organizational mission is to provide leftist political books and magazines and a space for political organizing for the Minneapol ...

(Minneapolis); Who's Emma (Toronto); Wooden Shoe Books (Philadelphia). Elsewhere in the world, projects include

Jura Books Jura Books is an anarchist bookshop and infoshop located in Sydney, Australia. The shop was named after the Jura federation, the federation of workers of the Jura region that associated with Bakunin in the First International. It has operated s ...

in Australia, Salon Mazal in Israel and

Freedom Shop The Freedom Shop is the name of an anarchist infoshop which distributes books and information, based in Wellington, New Zealand. It operates on a non profit basis, injecting any income back into the project. The shop has been based in different loc ...

in New Zealand. Related projects include

anarchist archives Anarchist archives preserve records from the international anarchist movement in personal and institutional collections around the world. This primary source documentation is made available for researchers to learn directly from movement anarchi ...

, bunkos in Japan and community libraries.

Notable infoshops

References

External links