STIRCHLEY SPEAKING

A new squatted social centre in Birmingham is up and running and - with permission to remain looking likely until the building is due to be demolished in several months time - it looks set to establish itself as a radical hub in the Midlands city.

After securing the Ivy Road site in Stirchley on the 15th July, the group have been setting up a free shop, free school with visiting lecturers and musicians, café, meeting space and have further “ambitious plans” for the space.

SchNEWS’s contact described the motivation for the project: “We’re a group of activists from the local area and further afield who were sick of a lack of social centres and liberated spaces in Birmingham, sick of Birmingham having one of the highest rates of homelessness in the country alongside one of the highest number of unoccupied buildings, and sick of capital dictating the layout and activities of our neighbourhoods.”

The building, the disused Whit Marley factory, had been empty for over a year. The council is considering plans to use the site for a new ASDA when the factory has been demolished.

The new project has garnered “overwhelming” support from the local community.For more info see http://birminghamsocialcentre.wordpress.com