Disgraça – a story about an anarchist social centre

9 years ago, we decided to break the boredom that haunted our routines and get together to open an anti-authoritarian space. A space where we could discuss and create collective solutions to problems that we had been individualising. Today, in a city devastated by real estate speculation, the housing crisis and the elitisation of culture, we have come together in resistance, this time to put an end to the monthly extortion we are subjected to and collectively acquire the space of Disgraça. A space where we and so many others have been organising, conspiring, dreaming and having fun for the last decade – for a future based on solidarity and mutual support, as opposed to one based on the property market and private property, hostage to landlords. 

It all started on 11 September 2015. Atop one of Lisbon's hills, the doors of Disgraça opened. From the vapid white walls, from the empty, echoing rooms, from the multitude of wills that converged in that place, this restless project blossomed. Walls fell, walls rose, walls were scribbled on. And as if it were a spring of insubordination from the depths of the city's subsoil, we materialised, room by room, each one's community potential. Moved by common dreams, desires and needs, we built a canteen and community space, a library, a DIY concert hall, a workshop where chaos reigns, a rehearsal room and a screen printing room, a gym (the tidiest place in the building), the free shop Desumana, and, from the memory of an empty shop front, a cosy anarchist bookshop – Tortuga.
 

Since then, we have devoted endless hours, individually and collectively, to the almost daily demands of the project. Demands haunted by needs for conflict management, waves of exhaustion, the thankless metronome of rent, high expenses, and life in a city that is emptying of life with each passing day. While self-management is our bulwark, we are yet to arrive at a place where we can do so sustainably. By collectively acquiring the Disgraça space, all the resistance collectives and social movements that depend on this social centre will gain greater sustainability and autonomy. Without a rent and a landlord, we can focus on continuing to create the future we envision together.

An informal laboratory of anti-authoritarian practices

The city of Lisbon, like all big cities, is increasingly hostile to ways of life that go against the mercantile logic. Many of us have been expelled from the centre to the margins by tycoons, entrepreneurs and digital nomads. And, even though their uselessness translates into a dependence on our work and the daily movement of our bodies to that same centre, they don't tolerate our involvement in the political, social and cultural dynamics of the luxury amusement park they call a city. Every month, many of us lose our homes or are at risk of losing the associative spaces where we weave affinities (let's remember our fellow resistants in Sirigaita and Zona Franca, for example). In the face of the violence of the forced displacement of people and spaces, we have organised ourselves into anti-displacement collectives, in the occupation of vacant buildings that come to life with our entry, with the collective mobilisation of the occupation of "public space" in squares, alleys and gardens.

 Disgraça, this informal, often clumsy but always obstinate, laboratory of anti-authoritarian practices and ways of thinking, is organised horizontally, by volunteers who, among themselves and with those who go there, experiment, care, think, decide, make mistakes, antagonise, transform, catalyse, shelter and come together in getting closer to trying out a world shaped neither by capital nor by the exhausting rhythm of the drum of the empire, but by self-organisation, self-determination and expression, mutual aid, (de)construction of community and subversion of that which constrains us.

 Over time, Disgraça has become a place of convergence and organisation of struggles in the city of Lisbon and beyond, providing space for meetings, preparation of materials, events and fundraising. Among the intricacies of maintaining and organising the space, there have been conversations and reading groups on anarchism, anti-racism, anti-colonialisms and the most diverse indigenous, queer and feminist struggles. Bridging the gap between theory on Tortuga's shelves and practice – in our lives, there have been roundtable discussions on prison abolition and prisoner support, on housing struggle and squatting, as well as strategies for resisting green capitalism, climate collapse and extractivism.

 Hundreds of bands have played in the space's abysses, mirrored by the countless evenings of cinema cycles and donation-based vegan canteens. Here, DIY learning spaces based on mutual aid grow alongside workshops on anti-authoritarian health practices, food sovereignty, self-defence, free software and hardware, DIY art, recycling materials and zine production.

Now what?

In order to continue these desires and struggles, we have drawn up a one-and-a-half-year plan to secure, once and for all, this space that is so important to all of us. We've already done the first steps – on 19th of September, we signed an agreement for the space to not be sold to anyone else and put down 10% of the total amount. Now, it is time to raise up our sleeves and get down to work: we've got until the end of summer 2025 to raise the remaining 247,500 euros to secure the space for the immediate long-term sustainability of Disgraça and all the collectives that use the space.

 The plan includes securing interest-free loans, fundraising events, a caravan tour all over Europe, non-state-affiliated grants and, of course, this crowdfunding. The more we can raise here, the quicker we can be rid of financial obligations and dedicate our time to supporting resistance struggles, learning from one another and organising together.https://www.gofundme.com/f/disgraca

If you can't support by donation, there are of course also other things you can do:

• We're looking for comrades willing to give us medium/long-term, interest-free loans. These loans will be essential for securing the space and will be repaid upon request with a 6-month notice period.
• We're asking collectives (and folks who are both part of and not part of collectives!) who have been sharing space with us for the last decade to help us publicise this through your networks and affinity groups. We want to do this together!
• We're going to organise various benefits inside and outside the space in the coming year. We invite people around us to come and help us organise the events and/or providing support during them (like helping with groceries, cooking and cleaning). We challenge other groups in solidarity with Disgraça to do the same in their geographies.
• We want to make a caravan that passes through various anti-authoritarian spaces and festivals throughout Europe, to organise events and talks to spread the word and raise funds.

If you'd like to join this effort with any of the above ideas or others, send us an emai

See you soon :)

Love & Rage.