Let’s speak about the ongoing occupation of autonomous social center Klinika. Since the Klinika collective announced that it will not give away it’s political conception in the Zizkov neighbourhood – after a cleavage with authorities that culminated in the center opting-out for illegality – the pressure of eviction has sparked an explosion of everyday-politics inside the premises of Klinika.
Less than a week after an amazing rally on the streets of Prague, supporters returned in big numbers, this time to maintain the building itself. And maintaining meant not only the daily organization of duties and program, but also the very physical presence of each individual. The act of sleeping at Klinika itself, turned out to be more than enough for the protection of the center. This has empowered the voice of the collective in the public sphere to the point where it would be really bad publicity to send police to evict this vibrant commune.
The process that unfolded constitutes itself both in the material world, as the formal occupation of space, and the social realm, as the call for different politics to be allowed to develop by developing them in the here-and-now. This has since been made ever more effective by the house assemblies, who not only facilitate the consensus on „how to do things?“, but also strengthen the common understanding of „why we do things?“. Suddenly, the space holds regular meals for the whole house, chillout and cafe zones during long intervals of the day, continiuosly complemented by wide range of events. Among them, we find political discussions and poetry readings, movie screenings and workshops, along with the program of courses and activities, that had already been running before the start of the occupation. And the list expands in each, sometimes receiving its additions from the outside, as in the case of the Jeden svet film-festival, which announces a screening of one of its movies in the premises of the autonomous center due on Monday. The entrance is, as usual, free.
While under pressure, Klinika has amassed a movement, awaking some of the latent political energy in Czech society. It is precisely that feeling, which one gets when observing the crowd in Klinika – many of the supporters-turned-activists lack or have almost none previous experience in political activism, yet find their way into a politicized community, placing the politics of everyday-life reproduction at its core. The occupation of Klinika has evoked the echo of a commune, constraint in its options, but, at the same time, inventing its way out of trouble by constantly engaging in the process of organizing the commons, while creating and driven by autonomous individuals.
Klinika žije, boj pokračuje!