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Date: Wed, 02 Jun 2004 21:12:36 +0100
From: worthing@eco-action.org
Subject: autonomous social centre
Organization: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter

23TOPIA - autonomous social centre

BREAKING NEWS

ANTI-G8 protesters have this week set up a new autonomous social centre in Worthing, West Sussex. Supporters of the Shut The G8 group, part of the national Dissent! network, are opening the 23TOPIA squat to the public on Friday June 4. And from June 8 to 12 they are planning a Festival of Resistance to coincide with the G8 summit in the USA.

Explained a spokesperson for the group: "Next year the G8 will be meeting in the UK and our aim is to show them that they are not welcome here. The message is loud and clear - expect thousands of us to be gearing up for massive protests against the capitalist scum, everywhere from Scotland to the English South Coast."

23TOPIA is in Chapel Road, Worthing, in the spacious landmark town centre building previously housing the 3TO nightclub (previously known as Area 51 and Flappers). The space will be opened up to campaign information and meetings, art installations, music workshops and lots more stuff still being planned. The group is making three general call-outs -

1) For people to come along and help out in what ever way they can, even if it's just for an hour or two after work. There is an infinite amount of cleaning and tidying still to be done!

2) For individuals and groups to make use of the space and bring plenty of literature, posters etc to get a positive message across to the people using the centre. If your group has some spare leaflets or papers, please consider donating them to 23TOPIA. You can also give talks, run workshops or just come and meet others.

3) For everyone to spread the word as quickly as possible. Please post this info on websites and pass on via e-mail. Tell people by word of mouth. This is a glorious opportunity not to be wasted!

Postal mail should for the moment be sent to-

c/o The Porkbolter
PO Box 4144
Worthing
West Sussex BN14 7NZ

email can be handled at - worthing@eco-action.org

Shut The G8 website is at http://www.freewebs.com/shuttheg8

*******************************************************

Date: Sun, 06 Jun 2004 20:51:34 +0100
From: worthing@eco-action.org
Subject: Festival of Resistance

Worthing Festival of Resistance

DETAILS have been finalised for this week's Festival of Resistance at the new 23TOPIA squat social centre in Worthing's Chapel Road. The special events coincide with the G8 meeting in the USA. Tuesday evening, at 7.30pm, sees a "Worthing is Revolting!" theme, with talks on big local issues such as the threatened Titnore Woods development, the proposed Asda store in Durrington, the controversial Tetra police masts and the crisis at the Dome cinema. On Wednesday there are talks and discussions about the G8 itself and on Thursday there is a "Boycott the Ballots!" day to mark the EU and local elections, with a "Never Mind the Ballots!" band night in the evening. On Friday there will be a radical video evening and on Saturday (June 12), from 2pm to 5pm, the group will be drawing attention to the disused Teville gate shopping precinct over the road with a Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, complete with juggling and entertainers, presenting a vibrant alternative to the current neglect and decay.

Website - http://www.freewebs.com/shuttheg8  and  http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter
National network - http://www.dissent.org.uk
Email - shuttheg8@hotmail.com or worthing@eco-action.org

Full programme for 23TOPIA Festival of Resistance

Tuesday June 8, 7.30pm.
Worthing is Revolting! News and discussion of burning local issues, include the Save Titnore Woods, the anti-Asda battle, the campaign against Tetra masts and the current Dome cinema conflict.

Wednesday June 9, 7.30pm.
Why we are against the G8. Presentation by Shut the G8, including latest news from anti-G8 protests in USA.

Thursday June 10. All day.
Boycott the Ballots! Centre used as base for anti-election activities.

Thursday June 10. 7.30pm.
Never Mind the Ballots! band night.

Friday June 11, 7.30pm.
Radical video evening.

Saturday June 12, 2-5pm.
Multicoloured Swap Shop in Teville Gate, Britain's ugliest derelict shopping precinct over the road from 23TOPIA. With juggling, entertainers and stalls.

Plus 23TOPIA open 11am-6pm daily.

*******************************************************

Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 22:24:54 +0100
From: worthing@eco-action.org
Subject: Two news items

23TOPIA is dead! Long live 23TOPIA!

The 23TOPIA squatted social centre in Chapel Road, Worthing, has now closed. The following statement was issued by the group -

23TOPIA is dead! Long live 23TOPIA!

23TOPIA was never a place, never an organisation, never anything that could be categorised, authorised, criminalised or sanctified.

23TOPIA was an act, a beautiful act of defiance, an explosive device spraying colour shrapnel across the monotone wastelands of the great ghetto of chronic consumerism and terminal TV dependency we know as Worthing.

Our act of resistance had a beginning and an end, but for the most considered and timely acts, the end is always in fact the beginning.

An act, like 23TOPIA, can never be undone, expunged or evicted. 23TOPIA is now a reality that has forever left its imprint.

23TOPIA lives on, and will always live on, in a multiplicity of unfathomable ways.

23TOPIA lives on in every tiny act of assertion and defiance of arbitrary authority, in every momentary thought-crime that passes through the mind of the slave who knows, deep down, that freedom can never be eradicated.

23TOPIA lives on in the breeze on Cissbury Ring, in the spray of the waves at Splash Point, in the ancient woodlands of Titnore, where the birdsong even now falls silent in anticipation of the murderous violence about to be unleashed by the slavemasters and their money machines.

23TOPIA lives on in the nexus of new friendships and understandings born from its creative flash and the collective will that its alchemy has conjured from the disparate despairs and frustrations of a small army of lost souls, dreamers and champions of the human spirit against the Goliath of global greed.

23TOPIA lives on in the rising tide of certainty that another world is not just possible, but necessary.

23TOPIA has been and gone!

23TOPIA is here to stay!

Keep in touch -

http://www.freewebs.com/shuttheg8
shuttheg8@hotmail.com



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