Autonomous house project in southern Saepmie/Sápmi

Support our efforts to buy a house on the country side of Swedish-occupied Saepmie to create an autonomous space for anarchists and activists.

WE ARE A NETWORK OF ANARCHISTS involved in grassroots struggles in Saepmie. We have long felt that the movement lacks autonomously organized spaces in Saepmie.

OUR PROJECT is to buy a house to try to fill up this void and create a space where we can come to connect, plan, create and organize, but also to play, rest, heal and regain our strength. This is not just a space for people based in Saepmie and fighting for the land up here (even though that is a big part of it), but also for people coming from and struggling elsewhere. The house will be there to support anyone acting to defend themselves and their communities against attacks by business and government, locally and globally, and those acting in solidarity with them, through direct action, campaigning work, education, sharing skills and resources. The longevity and the potential of this project depends on people’s engagement, wishes and needs. This can become whatever we make of it together.

WE ARE DREAMINGLY INSPIRED BY land-based projects (like la zad, zapatistas, ellos deatnu, coconut revolution, etc.) that combine actions to try to stop the destruction of the living world while also striving to become a socio-ecologically healthy functioning community which live from and with the land. We also find inspiration from the german house syndicate movement, which started in the seventies, where they bought a house through donations, and then the rent went back into the organization (until the house was paid off) to make it possible to buy a new house and so on. In this project, we don’t want people to live indefinitely or permanently in the house, but instead for it to be used collectively in various ways.

POTENTIAL USES FOR THE HOUSE
- different workshops (art, music, printing)
- courses, skill shares
- feminist building camps
- gatherings
- storage spaces
- short-term living

THE HOUSE we are hoping to buy is quite big with four rooms, a big entrance hall, a kitchen, toilet and a lot of storage space downstairs, in addition to a large attic that we want to insulate and use for workshops. It is located 4 km away from a small anarchist community that has existed for over a decade. The area in general has seen different green waves of hippies, punks, and people wishing to live closer to the land since the seventies. It has a history of land defense against logging, wind turbine industries, mining, and cooperations with Sámi communities resisting the ongoing colonialism and ecocide. We are hoping that this house could help strengthen the resistance in Saepmie and build greater resilience for the struggles to come.

OUR STRUCTURE is made up of two groups. A non-profit association of locally based anarchists will be the legal owner of the house and property (at least on paper) and be responsible for the general day-to-day maintainance of it. The decisions about the usage of the space will be coordinated by another group of people actively involved. We want the organizational structure to be built on trust and direct relationships rather than on any networks or organizations. If any groups or individuals want to use the space for something they first need to ask the coordination group. With that said, all initiatives using the space will have full autonomy over what they do as long as they are in accordance with the space's ground principles. We have a wish to start small and expand slowly. We believe in consensus

THE MONEY will primarily go towards buying the house, in addition to necessary renovations and costs for upkeep in the start up phase. The maintainance costs of the house will be quite low and we believe that we will be able to run the place with a small budget if necessary. If we don’t get to buy this specific house we will continue looking for other houses in the area that could fit the project. Otherwise the money will go towards supporting resistance i Saepmie in other ways.

So now we turn to comrades, local and international, to help us gather the money we need to realize this project. All donations, big and small, are welcome.

May resistance flourish and grow!

Read more about some struggles in Saepmie on kolonierna.se

Anonymous

Länk: https://www.firefund.net/autonomoushousesapmi