Where: MKZ, Eerste Schinkelstraat 16, Amsterdam
When: Monday 6th of December, 19:00.
Statement of the coordination group
We, the coordination group, began about two years ago. We felt that the Vrankrijk had the potential to be something more than just a bar, so we started thinking of a new concept for the space and how it could be run. We took special attention as to how we would choose to organize a politically and culturally active communal space. It is not very often that a group is able to start afresh in terms of structure, so we took up the challenge of creating something not currently existing and in our opinion much needed in Amsterdam.
We would like to note that we, the coordination group, are not by ourselves the new Vrankrijk. The new Vrankrijk will be from its roots collective and therefore built upon mutual responsibility and decision making. At the moment we are facilitating the process to create this space, but this does not mean that it is solely our project. The space will ultimately be what we as a community make of it. We hope that what we are building will reflect this community and give space to our initiatives, therefore we seek the involvement of our movement, our community and those with whom we share political solidarity.
September 2008 and afterwards
It is important for us to talk about the history we have inherited by making our project in the Vrankrijk. The space will be run by a new collective, there is a new concept and a new structure. However this new project springs partially from the same scene and because of this we choose not to distance ourselves from the events of the previous years.
In September 2008 there was a fight outside the Vrankrijk that escalated and became an infamous talking point for the movement across the Netherlands. As a result of this fight, Jochem received serious injuries and Jacob and Carlo received prison sentences. All three of these people are members of our community and the outcome of this fight was in all respects tragic.
The events that took place on that evening were completely irrational and quickly span out of control. The level of the violence used was both unnecessary and disproportionate. We would like to state clearly that we will always have these events in mind and will do our very best to prevent such things from happening in the future.
Combined with expressing our disapproval with the events of that evening, we also want to raise the issue of an inadequate response from our scene. We as a community failed to solve the situation and we were not even able to hold constructive meetings on the topic.
Discussion and communication
Our community found it very difficult to cope collectively with such an event and its consequences. This is comprehendible, but to give up was an easy way to refuse our communal responsibility. As we see now, the results of this decision, to not take decisive action or to not continue to try to come to a communal response, fragmented the scene and helped no-one.
Because of this we feel it is important to begin to collectively analyse them and where possible to draw conclusions and then to use this knowledge and experience to help us in both the present and the future.
We feel that with more space and time given to these discussions, it will contribute to the prevention of unnecessary and escalated violent situations. Whilst this is a longer during mechanism, close attention will be paid by the new collective to the safe running of the space, door policy will be given careful consideration and there has been a collective decision made to not sell hard liquor. While we may not yet have the answers for every problem, nothing will be brushed under the carpet or ignored in any way.
When open, we would like to offer space for a critical assessment of both the events preceeding and succeeding the fight.
There is a lack of public discussion and issue-engagement within our community in Amsterdam. The majority of discussions about issues important to us all take place in bars or living rooms instead of us coming together as a community to talk, debate and search out solutions.
It is our intention to offer the Vrankrijk as a platform, to the community and the movement, where we can collectively engage with both our communal problems and political issues. When open, we will hold regular discussion evenings as we feel this is a crucial contribution we can make. We believe that through open discussion we can create healthier communities where people take responsibility for themselves as well as care for others.
Our idea and proposed structure
Our goal is to be a progressively thinking, radical-political social centre. Radical in the sense that we wish to work towards a complete shake up of society and the destruction of all forms of authority, but to begin with we would hope to become a home-base for anti-authoritarian political movements in Amsterdam.
With the newly imposed "kraakverbod" we feel our project is all the more essential to a free-thinking community. Holding on to squatted social centres for a longer period has been problematic in recent years, and with squatting becoming more difficult there will be an even bigger need for a space where we can come together to plan, to plot and to relax.
The old Vrankrijk was mainly focused on the running of the bar, and while it certainly benefited the movement in its own way, this will not be the same with the new collective. Our doors will remain open to benefit events, however our main focus is the facilitation of activities both political and cultural.
Structurally it was logical for us that the users of the Vrankrijk, those engaged in the activities, should decide together how the space must be run. We propose a horizontal organisational structure where groups organizing and participating in activities form a larger collective. Each group within the collective will have an equal say in and about topics discussed, as will each person within their own group. This is to say an anarchist structure, based on consensus with all decisions made collectively.
Functionally for this to happen we designed the structure based upon regular delegate meetings. Agenda points will be proposed in advance, each user group of the space will discuss these points within their own groups and then send delegates to the big collective meeting. The reason to hold these meetings on a delegate basis is to avoid over-crowding and to increase functionality. In this way everyone involved in the meeting has already discussed the agenda points within their group, therefore already having formulated ideas about the subject matter and issues, thus improving the chances of having an efficient and productive meeting.
We find it very important that we are as transparent as possible in the running of the space and we feel that this structure gives this transparency. We wish to be accessible for groups and individuals and to be open to new initiatives.
Summary
While doing our best to learn from the mistakes and actions of the past we do not want to remain stuck there, but to look forward. In the future of the Vrankrijk we see, and are working towards, a political social centre that reflects our community, stands by our egalitarian principles and helps to facilitate our individual and collective progressions as a movement.
Practically we are busy building a kitchen, redesigning the interior and preparing a library, a graphic space and other activities.
We wish to bring together both the political and cultural aspects of our community and to move towards a future without authority figures or hierarchical structures and institutions, but towards a future based upon mutual aid, skill sharing, cooperation and equality.
Lets push things forward!
E-Mail: info@vrankrijk.org
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