Autonomy
Into the Maelstrom
Squatted project in Leeds
Subtitled ‘Prisons Without Bars’, Maelstrom was originally conceived as a two week squat project focusing on the ‘panopticon’ society. It transformed into a six month long experimentation in collective and individual experience of, and experimentation with occupied public/private space, orientating itself in confrontation to attitudes, individuals and institutions that we loosely described as making up the ‘control society’. The venue was an empty Post Office building close, but not too close, to Leeds City Centre.
Part of the inspiration for Maelstrom came out of a sense of despair at the terrain of ideas and analysis (or lack thereof) that we felt surrounded campaigns, such as ‘Defy ID’. Sick of isolated ‘issues’-based politics, which aim to simplify any attempts at getting to grips with our social reality (and therefore tear it apart!), the concept was to draw together the multifaceted aspects that make up this ‘prison without bars’ that we are living in.
Rather than merely focusing on popular current activist campaigns, we attempted to schedule a diverse mix of films, talks and discussions around issues such as mental health, surveillance, atomtechnology, the panopticon society, prisons, security culture and life on the periphery.
Of course, such subjects are not the crowd-puller a free party would have been, but we weren’t engaged with the project to please others, we didn’t want to be another (activist) service provider, we were not a ‘social centre’ as such. We were attempting to engage with each other and the space on our own terms in our own self-interest(s). The aim was to put on events we wanted to attend, advertise them, and hope that others would come too.
After two weeks we soon realized that we desired to stay longer, rather than go back to our isolated social units, indeed some of us had no place else to go anyhow. So we set about attempting to encourage others to use the space, planning more public events and generally making the place more comfortable.
Events over this time included an incredibly successful Surrealist evening, including the showing of a series of Jan Svankmajer films, a mental health focused weekend including films and a talk about the repressive new Mental Health Bill and a film and talk about adavasi struggles in India.
We occupied the building for six months (from October 04 till March 05), despite police and landlord harassment, an attempted illegal eviction thanks to a grass/informer and of course the grim Leeds winter. Throughout this time there were public events held, many raising funds for important radical activity, such as prisoner support. We charged for nothing except alcohol. Everything else was done on a donation basis. What we couldn’t afford to buy we stole, begged or borrowed.
No doubt mistakes were made during Maelstrom, we certainly heard rumors of criticisms, though few were made to our face. In terms of ‘success’, however one may judge such a thing within this context, it was interesting that some (though by no means all) of the usual faces that have frequented previous squat projects we have been involved with, such as A-Spire (long-running squatted social centre project. ed), were not present. However many previously unseen faces attended events, new friendships were forged, alliances made and affinities explored.