Wapping Autonomy Centre (also known as The Anarchist Centre) was a social centre set up in a rented space in Metropolitan Wharf, Wapping area of London Docklands from late 1981 to 1982. The project was initially funded by money raised by the benefit single "Persons Unknown/Bloody Revolutions", as well as benefit gigs by Crass and The Poison Girls and other bands and events.
Most of those involved with the project were anarchists who participated in protests and direct action against targets such as vivisection laboratories, the meat industry and the policies of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. During its short life, the Autonomy Centre became an important focal point for the anarchist-punk movement in the UK and Europe. Anarcho-punk bands - such as Crass, Zounds and Flux of Pink Indians - played live at the building and a large, informal anarchist support network grew up in partnership with other communities in London.
Unfortunately, the centre's open door policy also attracted a large number of drug users, petty criminals and unwanted police attention. These factors, combined with problems finding the monthly rent, ultimately led to its closure. Many of those involved with the centre went on to become active at the Centro Iberico, a squatted project with similar aims and ethos in west London.
Famous quotes containing the words autonomy and/or centre:
“When autonomy is respected, the two-year-old does not carry this unfinished task into later stages of growth. In adolescence, the youngster will again concentrate on independence, but he won’t have to blast the roof off the second time around if it is already well established.”
—Dorothy Corkville Briggs (20th century)
“Him, the vindictive rod of angry justice
Sent, quick and howling, to the centre headlong;
I, fed with judgements,in a fleshy tomb, am
Buried above ground.”
—William Cowper (1731–1800)