“Filling the void with solidarity”: interview with occupants of Liège's social center (part. 2) [en]

<img src='https://emrawi.org/local/cache-vignettes/L117xH150/e5e3d9fa1fad9023a086b... alt='' class='spip_logo spip_logo_right spip_logos' width='117' height='150' onmouseover='' onmouseout='' />
<div class='rss_texte'>Whereas the current political cycle appears like a mix of reactionary offensive, immiseration, and increasing repression, the establishment of a giant squat in the center of Liège in Belgium appeared to us as an inspiring and motivating initiative.
After staying a few days there, we shared questions with people active in the social center. They sent us some answers clarifying what the occupation was about, under which context it has emerged, and under which conditions of possibility the occupation has been ongoing since then.
The<a href="https://emrawi.org/?Interview-with-people-active-in-the-self-organized-s... part</a> was about the occupation itself and the context in which it takes place. This second and last part is on broader political challenges faced by the social center as well as its political stance.
1) What motivated you to start occupying this building? Was there a sort of trigger and/or how did it result from previous political experiences and experiments? 
The opening of the social center wasn't triggered by any single event but stems from a number of ongoing processes:
<img src='https://emrawi.org/local/cache-vignettes/L8xH11/puce-32883.gif?1773175756' width='8' height='11' class='puce' alt="-" /> the decline, following the COVID pandemic, of the squatting/community center movement in Liège.
<img src='https://emrawi.org/local/cache-vignettes/L8xH11/puce-32883.gif?1773175756' width='8' height='11' class='puce' alt="-" /> the lack of large spaces for meetings and organize, to catalyze and amplify the powerful momentum of the struggles that have been ongoing in Liège for the past two years.
<img src='https://emrawi.org/local/cache-vignettes/L8xH11/puce-32883.gif?1773175756' width='8' height='11' class='puce' alt="-" /> the urbanization and gentrification of the city center, the commodification of life—all things we want to radically undermine.
<img src='https://emrawi.org/local/cache-vignettes/L8xH11/puce-32883.gif?1773175756' width='8' height='11' class='puce' alt="-" /> government policies that are increasingly and violently destabilizing the population and targeting internal enemies (Muslims, trans people, antifas, etc.). We must counter this by organizing popular solidarity and creating new ideas to circulate, new relationships to foster among people, and new ways of relating to our basic needs (food, clothing, housing, etc.).
2) Why did you decide to name the space self-organized center? As we understand it, you wanted to differentiate between a space for organization and a space to sleep and live, why this choice? 
“Self-organized community center” (CSA) is a label that draws on a political tradition associated with Italy in the 1960s and 1970s and aims to break with parliamentary politics through its practices. But it is also a label that has the advantage of being easily understood by those unfamiliar with this tradition. The challenge for us is to ensure that a certain non-authoritarian transmission takes place between this tradition and the various practices that will flourish in a self-organized social center like the one in Liège.
We have chosen (a difficult, debatable choice) to be a social center to organize the struggle against Arizona (the name of the neoliberal coalition in power in Belgium) and its world (“Shoot Arizona”, as one of the banners on the facade reads), against imperialism and its wars, and thus, despite the size of the building, not to be a place that directly incorporates the issue of housing into its mission.
Many of us are directly involved in housing-related groups or struggles, and collectives working in this field are already organizing within the CSA. This decision stems from personal experiences: over a year ago, we opened a building intended to serve as a hub for various struggles and also to provide housing for those in need. Very quickly, the focus on providing shelter overshadowed the focus on being a hub for struggles. It seemed to us that it was better, before opening, to make a conscious choice—even if it went against part of our instincts—to open a space that would primarily serve as an organizational hub for struggles. This implies that everyone living in this social center must defend it—in any potential negotiations between us and the city—as a self-organized social center and not as personal housing.
3) How do you manage to find a balance between the explicit political dimension of this space and more social activities that you want to provide? 
This important and funny question reflects a justified concern, but one that sometimes takes an irritating turn in our circles and ends up backfiring on us: the fear that the social aspect will overshadow the political dimension, that the space will become normalized—either in a crypto-humanitarian-social-democratic vein or in a “radicool” vein. This is a concern we must keep alive, but it must not turn into a game of posturing. Friends who came from France to lend us a hand were, in fact, very quickly concerned when they saw this first public general assembly bring together 150 people. Opening the space directly to anyone who wanted to get involved was a bet we took. As a result, a relatively heterogeneous (social and political) composition has emerged and effectively established itself.
The opening of the CSA immediately created a rush of energy. After a month, we can say that this is what currently constitutes the strength, beauty, and challenge of this occupation. Different points of view and diverse ways of doing things thus meet and clash here, but based on a reclaiming of politics at its most fundamental and existential level. This coalition will therefore have to learn to better identify the common enemy (the militants of racial and patriarchal capital) and its modus operandi, in order to find ways to sabotage these methods together and defeat the enemy. To do so, it will have to strive never to become complacent in its own functioning and keep alive the fact that its goal is to establish a front line.
However, we must also point out that once social activity is carried out by and for the people targeted by the capitalist economy—once it becomes a space for transformation where we learn to build community in a different way—it immediately takes on a fully political dimension. “Social” is certainly a word used indiscriminately, and many of its uses are, in fact, disgusting (see the Socialist Party), a word that often refers to measures designed to patch up the damage caused by the capitalist economy. But the social is also what our leaders seek to stifle (we recall the oddly named “social distancing” measures during COVID). A “self-organized social center” is social in that it is the setting for a fairly heterogeneous, dynamic community of life that, without it, would likely never have come into being; in short, it is the kind of place where a close-knit community can form right in the heart of the city, albeit apart from metropolitan capitalism. But as tradition reminds us, it is also the operational base for a community of struggle that seeks, in addition to reclaiming the political character of existence at a grassroots level, to fend off neo-fascist attacks and organize the popular response.
4) What is your relation and political positioning towards traditional leftist organizations (unions/political parties/NGOs)? What does it mean to defend an autonomous political stance? 
We must answer the second question first, to give ourselves some space in answering the first.
To defend an autonomous stance is to insist that our politics—whether in its forms or its aims—remain radically separate from the State. This is what the terms “self-organized” and “occupied” signify when we speak of a Self-Organized and Occupied Social Center. The space is self-organized: there is no need for the State to make it function or to impose rules or standards on it. It is a non-normative space where new ways of relating to others, to things, and to oneself are invented, in an active but non-punitive process of destroying all that the systems of domination have instilled within us that is most harmful. And then the building is occupied; we like to say it's a “popular requisition.” We requisitioned the building from a real estate development group backed by the city—meaning we seized our space, hopefully for as long as possible, from a position of antagonism toward political-financial power.
Maintaining an autonomous stance therefore involves two things:
1. sharing and cultivating all the tactics necessary to ensure that the self-management of our daily lives takes place in opposition to political and financial power;
2. developing a collective strategy of requisition that does not actually compromise us with our enemies (but which does not mean that it does not appear, in the eyes of those who value posturing, as a compromise).
Our relationship with political parties, unions, and associations is therefore flexible. The space is primarily made available to unsubsidized collectives and initiatives. Whether users of the space also belong to a political party (to our knowledge, there are almost none), a union (there are a few), or an association (there are quite a few) is not something we monitor closely. Especially since Liège boasts a network of associations that does good work in certain areas (both geographic and social) and some of the most militant union delegations in Belgium. But all our practices and discourse must mark a break with any attempts at political racketeering or co-optation by bodies that operate within an integrative logic vis-à-vis the state. Whenever relationships are established with these bodies, it is by holding firm to our line, by putting these relationships at the service of the CSA's autonomous strategy.
5) How are you managing to keep the place alive and ready for confrontation? How to avoid the separation between “professional activists” and “users” that tend to arise in our milieu? 
Before thinking about how to keep the place vibrant and resilient, we must first take the time to make it vibrant and resilient. We're only just getting started; the situation is still relatively precarious. The space is already very much alive, driven by all the projects that have been launched and the first activities taking place there.
It is, or will be, a place of resistance to the extent that:
1) it hosts initiatives of solidarity and struggle that find here the means to strengthen us
2) it is a place synonymous with a different and better way of life in a world where life is suffocating
Through its capacity to welcome people and the quality of what is being woven there on an existential level, the space will create a strong bond and thus, virtually, the will to defend it
But the space must also find a way to spread, like wildfire, beyond its own walls, the practices and the imagination of non-conformity that constitute it (occupation, autonomy, solidarity).
As for the divide between professional activists (who don't identify as such, but who, it must be said, see themselves somewhat that way) and service users, this divide can be overcome. The activist milieu can sometimes be intimidating due to its more or less explicit codes and its more or less tolerable postures. But through the sharing of daily tasks and convivial moments (we conclude all CSA general assemblies with a big feast), the encounters and budding bonds allow this separation to fade a little. Conversely, we will also need to figure out how the diversity of practices, when the opportunity arises (periods of nationwide struggles, eviction proceedings, etc.), can be organized to create a combative force capable of strengthening itself in the conflict.
Our goal, therefore, is for this separation to resolve itself into a combative community of users.
6) How can we support the place and what you're doing there? 
For now, the best way to help is to come support us at collective projects, donate supplies, or simply meet up with us to pitch in on the areas we consider priorities. And then coming to support us if an eviction takes place (public authorities are required to notify us of the eviction date)—if necessary, we'll send out a warning via Signal (or via instagram: @csa.liege).
Now, this doesn't directly concern the CSA, let's say, but there's a <a href="https://liege.antifascisme.be/face-a-la-repression-cagnotte-solidaire/" class='spip_out' rel='external'>solidarity fund</a> (on the Instagram page of the FAL—Front Antifasciste Liégeois) to help us deal with the repression mentioned above.
7) Would you like to add something to this interview? 
Visitor tip for anarcho-tourists: the CSA's centerpiece is a dizzying, wide emergency staircase that climbs up the back of the building (a local artist has drawn it). It's made of Bordeaux-colored metal, with mesh steps and a breathtaking view at the top. Of course, we're trying to quit smoking as leftists, but lighting up a quick cigarette on the 6th floor of the staircase is delightful. In keeping with our commitment to free access, we don't charge for climbing this new monument of the autonomous movement ;)
From the interviewers: To further discuss, you can contact us here: BuildingtheInsu@proton.me</div>

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https://emrawi.org/?Filling-the-void-with-solidarity-interview-with-occupants-of-Liege-s-social-4025

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Sonntag, Mai 24, 2026 - 18:00