London Action Resource Centre
Encyclopedia
Queeruption
Queeruption is an annual international Queercore festival and gathering where alternative/radical/disenfranchised queers can exchange information, network, organize, inspire and get inspired, self-represent, and challenge mainstream society with DIY ideas and ethics...
and Indymedia in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. It also functions as a planning and information centre for Peoples Global Action. It was originally known as the Fieldgate Action Resource Centre. In 1999 the building became the property of the 'London Action Resource Centre Limited'. The building is situated in Whitechapel
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...
, in the East End of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. The building was formerly a synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
and at one time housed the Louise Michel
Louise Michel
Louise Michel was a French anarchist, school teacher and medical worker. She often used the pseudonym Clémence and was also known as the red virgin of Montmartre...
International Modern School.
History of the project
LARC was purchased in the autumn of 1999 by people active in Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim the Streets
Reclaim The Streets is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport.-Protests:Reclaim The...
, just after their success in the Carnival against Capitalism
Carnival Against Capitalism
The Global Carnival Against Capital took place on Friday, 18th June, 1999. It was an international day of protest timed to coincide with the 25th G8 Summit in Cologne, Germany. The carnival was inspired by the 1980s Stop the City protests and the Global Street Party, which happened at the same time...
which occurred June 18, 1999. It was rebuilt over three years.
The library was set up to run on the principles of the Antisystemic Library on June 18, 2003. A split in the User Group over claims of institutional racism
Institutional racism
Institutional racism describes any kind of system of inequality based on race. It can occur in institutions such as public government bodies, private business corporations , and universities . The term was coined by Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael in the late 1960s...
and of fascist infiltration of Peoples' Global Action
Peoples' Global Action
Peoples' Global Action is the name of a worldwide co-ordination of radical social movements, grassroots campaigns and direct actions in resistance to capitalism and for social and environmental justice...
. of which LARC is one of the founding info-points, led to the expulsion of the No Platform group West Essex
West Essex (disambiguation)
West Essex can refer to:* West Essex in the USA* West of East Saxony in Germany* West Essex in England* West of the East of the Kingdom of Essex* Wessex* Wessex culture in Ancient Britain* Essex West , Ontario, Canada...
Zapatista
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
at the December 2004 AGM
Annual general meeting
An annual general meeting is a meeting that official bodies, and associations involving the public , are often required by law to hold...
of the company. This led to the forced departure of the Voice Refugee Forum
Voice Refugee Forum
The Voice Refugee Forum was founded in 1994 as The Voice Africa Forum by four refugees in a detention centre in Muhlhausen, Germany in order to aid resistance to the military dictatorship in Nigeria...
http://www.metamute.org/en/node/9214 and eventually the relocation of the Antisystemic Library. Many of the books and resources, however, were retained by the LARC library.
External links
- LARC website
- London RTS website (historical interest, not updated)
- Louise Michel International Modern School