SquatSpace History - SCAN

In 2001, a group of squatters and activists from Sydney formed the Social Centres Autonomous Network [SCAN].

Inspired by the social centre movement in Europe, the growing anarchist and autonomist movements in Australia, and our own dreams and desires for a better world, we occupied The Grand Midnight Star Social Centre in February 2002. As well as the Star, SCAN aims to assist groups in setting up a network of these autonomous sites across the country; we also support existing struggles for community space and autonomous organising.

The Social Centre advocates space for community control though self-management; anything inside is run democratically by all those who participate. We exist to demonstrate the capacity of people to organise themselves outside the systems of state and market increasingly control our lives. By providing our own social and political spaces we are empowered to express marginalised voices and take control of our communities.

-from a flier produced by SCAN, 2002.

The Midnight Star Squatted Social Centre was forcibly evicted by police in December 2002, following negative tabloid media around its use as a site for organising the November 14-15 WTO protests.

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