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:
“I’m tired of earning my own living, paying my own bills, raising my own child. I’m tired of the sound of my own voice crying out in the wilderness, raving on about equality and justice and a new social order.... Self-sufficiency is exhausting. Autonomy is lonely. It’s so hard to be a feminist if you are a woman.”
—Jane O’Reilly, U.S. feminist and humorist. The Girl I Left Behind, ch. 7 (1980)
“Old politicians, like old actors, revive in the limelight. The vacancy which afflicts them in private momentarily lifts when, once more, they feel the eyes of an audience upon them. Their old passion for holding the centre of the stage guides their uncertain footsteps to where the footlights shine, and summons up a wintry smile when the curtain rises.”
—Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990)