We opened a building and our only source of income was selling beer over the bar to people that didn’t have any money (laughs). So as a business model, it was fairly flawed from day one. Chris (Peasant Collective)
It always had to be run as a badly run business. The moment you ever attempted to run it as a well-run business, it failed its own membership, and members rebelled. So it always had to be just run by the seat of its own pants, which is disheartening and yet, it’s something you kind of have to accept. Yeah, so only the bricks and mortar allowed the club to be run as a badly run business, therefore, to be successful. Richard Cubesville I suppose the club could be a really difficult place at times, with splits and factions. And it being quite, what’s that word, male dominated at times. You know, as women really having to be strong to actually get respect. And people like Jane Shag, WitchKnot, Sarah Bag, Leah Hall... lots of women really did have to push for equality. Lucy Llewellen A lot of classic challenges I’ve seen in every left wing or whatever group since, to be honest, like struggling with energy and capacity for people to run it, struggling with interpersonal conflicts, struggling with fundraising and fixing things and maintaining things, struggling with different understandings of what a space is for… and the people who were getting totally burnt out and like, this kind of expectation that the same people will always, like, provide for you. Joel White I suppose I always think of the club as a safe place to do some DIY stuff, you know, like in that it’s welcome. You’re okay to kind of mess up. Fanny Accordian
PART ONE: A PLACE OF RESISTANCE
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