The Greater Pittsburgh Anarchist Collective’s social center is now fully open to the public. We are an anarchist social center whose goal is to further the anarchist movement in our city. The center is open to holding events whose purpose is to directly challenge the state and capitalism. We have a free store, literature, and space for meetings and movie viewings. Our open hours are:
M-F: 1-6
Sat: 3-7
Sun: Closed for meetings
If you want to use the space, send us an email at [email protected]
Some info about GPAC and our space:
WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE COMING FROM:
The Greater Pittsburgh Anarchist Collective is the realization of impassioned desires to collectively create anarchy. GPAC exists primarily to promote the anarchist ideal in an open, inclusive manner. We are based out of the East End of Pittsburgh. We seek to support all resistance against the state and all tendencies and hierarchies that alienate and oppress the people of our city and the people of the world.
We are students, workers, un-employed workers, immigrants, ex-cons, current cons. We have a working critique of activism, identity politics, and do-it-yourself subculture. We are not people who are looking for white middle class activist approval. We are honest with ourselves and others, and this is where we draw our approval. Our realness may not please everybody, in fact we might be offensive at times, but we are not going to hold back with what we say or do. We don’t give a fuck about the “City Paper”, nor do we measure our success in terms of media exposure.
We come from a cross cultural perspective, which is to say that we have a lot to learn from other cultures including radical struggles in Mexico, Spain, and Greece among others. We are conscious of our privileged position as radicals in North America. We are not the ones with the answers, we are not professionals. Our everyday personal struggles hold the same weight as larger struggles against institutions. We find connections between taking out a high-interest loan from a check-cashing store in the U.S. and accepting a microloan from a bank or NGO in Bolivia, which is loan for a small business that is impossible to pay back.
GPAC is part of the Anti-Racist Action Network: a decentralized network of militant Anti-Fascists that are dedicated to building a fun, diverse, liberated and explicitly anti-racist, anti-sexist and anti-homophobic youth culture. In GPAC, every person has the same say in every issue. If something needs to be decided upon by the group as a whole, we get together and discuss it until we reach some sort of resolution or consensus. Then we put the decision in action.
WHAT WE SUPPORT:
We seek to support others in their journey for a classless free society and to provide a voice with our publication and a physical space for organizing central to the east end of Pittsburgh. As anarchists, we seek to attack the things in life that limit our freedom. If we can do something to limit state power in our lives, we will. This includes struggle against bosses, police, politicians, and developers who want to build condos and push us out of our neighborhoods. Those who choose to use crime to support themselves and their families and those who choose to work outside the set of laws imposed by the government are just as deserving of our support as those who struggle in more traditional ways. Whether it is by the literal assertion of the value of creativity over the sanctity of property via graffiti or by the commitment of a handful of volunteers to feed hungry people twice a week via Food Not Bombs, we are with them.
This is not to say that we are in favor of antisocial behavior, such as unwarranted assaults, murder, or property crime against the exploited or those who do not come from money. We support attacks against corporations and the economically well-off in pursuit of a life that many of us from working class or working poor backgrounds cannot attain. Although it may be easy for some people to advance within this system, we support those who lessen their participation in exploitation to create space to define new relationships with each other and the world we live in. We are open to all who want to be involved, so long as there is agreement with the kind of work we do and an urge to work in a way that is not controlling of others.
WHAT WE DESIRE:
We are creating space for the future world that we want to live in through a physical venue and through ideas expressed in our publication. In this space, we are building power to connect with people similar to and different from us, inside or outside of our friend circles to build real community. By using space as a weapon, we desire to bring together all that experience oppression. We’re not imposing on others one method of ending oppression. We’re acting in a way that works for us. There is common ground between self-determination and a critique of what we see as counter-productive. We encourage self-criticism.
If any of this information has interested you, if you want to learn more, or if you simply want to stop by and meet some Pittsburghers who are down with wrecking life as usual and finding new ways to get and stay free, stop by 5001 Penn Ave. or e-mail us. We try not to be too heavy on process and meetings. We have movie viewings, food, and open discussions. We are interested in collaborating with individuals and groups who want to contribute to the space, publication, and/or work together with us on actions.
GPAC
5001 Penn Ave. Fl 1.
PGH, PA 15224
[email protected]