As one of the volunteers in ACU who has been fighting for change i'm very happy to see some support for this struggle. I was not the one behind the press release, but I sure as hell agree 100% with it.
I have been actively trying to change things in ACU for years now. And unfortunately I have seen a lot of good active and motivated volunteers leave the ACU because they where tired of pushing against this commercial current. We are not being take serious at all in the ACU. When we have brought up these problems in the ACU the response is alway's the same: we get ridiculed, we get attacked on a personal level, we get told to shut up or just ignored. When this keeps happening to you, then it is no wonder that you shut up or leave.
There have been a dozen of attempts in recent years to change the way things go, but non of these have succeeded. Even if it got to the point where there were agreements made to change things, the result is that people just don't stick to the agreement. When it is being brought up that there are people that break the rules/agreements, then these people get defended by others and there are no consequences to their actions. When a meeting is called to talk about these problems, then the people responsible just don't show up. These people just keep doing what they want with no regard to the rest of the collective. And when someone els does the same to them, it is a huge problem.
It has come to the point where you need to get permission of the whole collective to organize a benefit-event, but commercial party's and bands get to play/booked whenever they like. When you are against a party for a political reason (because you think that it doesn't belong in ACU) it is not taken serious or just overruled. But when there is a political event going on it is hardly possible to get permission because it might scare off some costumers. And like this there are much more examples.
This all leads off course to a lot of frustrations, and I can totally understand that someone was so frustrated that they decided to take a more direct action (the press release).
I also understand the timing of this very well. This weekend was not only the very commercial Le Guess Who festival in ACU (price 27 euro, something on which the collective has never agreed). But just before this action there has been another incident in ACU. Someone posted a email on the internal mailing-list, telling how they where told to shut up and fuck off by a co-volunteer when they asked some (critical) questions about recent developments/incidents. The response to this email being posted was that someone singlehandedly decided to close off the whole internal-email-list and thus all internal communication (seems rather (borderline-)fascist to me).
When this press-release was put out by someone, also the internal-website (on which the bar-schedule, address-list, minutes of meetings and other important stuff) was closed. Not to everyone, just to a select group of people who have been critical of the way things go.
To me it seems that this was probably the last of the resistance to the commercialization of the ACU. I think that most of us are to frustrated to go on. So if people really care about ACU and want to keep a alternative space in Utrecht, then this is the time to join this struggle! Please come and help to make ACU a political place again! The monthly meetings are on the first monday of the month (next 6th of jan 2014)
Nice to see some support, please come and help!
As one of the volunteers in ACU who has been fighting for change i'm very happy to see some support for this struggle. I was not the one behind the press release, but I sure as hell agree 100% with it.
I have been actively trying to change things in ACU for years now. And unfortunately I have seen a lot of good active and motivated volunteers leave the ACU because they where tired of pushing against this commercial current. We are not being take serious at all in the ACU. When we have brought up these problems in the ACU the response is alway's the same: we get ridiculed, we get attacked on a personal level, we get told to shut up or just ignored. When this keeps happening to you, then it is no wonder that you shut up or leave.
There have been a dozen of attempts in recent years to change the way things go, but non of these have succeeded. Even if it got to the point where there were agreements made to change things, the result is that people just don't stick to the agreement. When it is being brought up that there are people that break the rules/agreements, then these people get defended by others and there are no consequences to their actions. When a meeting is called to talk about these problems, then the people responsible just don't show up. These people just keep doing what they want with no regard to the rest of the collective. And when someone els does the same to them, it is a huge problem.
It has come to the point where you need to get permission of the whole collective to organize a benefit-event, but commercial party's and bands get to play/booked whenever they like. When you are against a party for a political reason (because you think that it doesn't belong in ACU) it is not taken serious or just overruled. But when there is a political event going on it is hardly possible to get permission because it might scare off some costumers. And like this there are much more examples.
This all leads off course to a lot of frustrations, and I can totally understand that someone was so frustrated that they decided to take a more direct action (the press release).
I also understand the timing of this very well. This weekend was not only the very commercial Le Guess Who festival in ACU (price 27 euro, something on which the collective has never agreed). But just before this action there has been another incident in ACU. Someone posted a email on the internal mailing-list, telling how they where told to shut up and fuck off by a co-volunteer when they asked some (critical) questions about recent developments/incidents. The response to this email being posted was that someone singlehandedly decided to close off the whole internal-email-list and thus all internal communication (seems rather (borderline-)fascist to me).
When this press-release was put out by someone, also the internal-website (on which the bar-schedule, address-list, minutes of meetings and other important stuff) was closed. Not to everyone, just to a select group of people who have been critical of the way things go.
To me it seems that this was probably the last of the resistance to the commercialization of the ACU. I think that most of us are to frustrated to go on. So if people really care about ACU and want to keep a alternative space in Utrecht, then this is the time to join this struggle! Please come and help to make ACU a political place again! The monthly meetings are on the first monday of the month (next 6th of jan 2014)