Why is it necessary to operate an infoshop?

An infoshop is a free place of self-organisation, information exchange and public debate. There are many similar institutions like public libraries, pubs, universities, art galleries and the like. However, almost all of them have been set up by an official and hierarchical organisation which seeks to advance its economic and/or political interests through framing the discourse in a particular way. The infoshop should be different for three reasons. Firstly, the interests that call into existence and maintain it are nonhierarchical and self-organised. Secondly, there is an open structure with weekly meetings where anybody can join in, so the power relations are not based on representation. Thirdly, it is a very lightweight infrastructure which leaves little place for abuse even if it happens. On the other hand, the infoshop is not a place for a public discourse based on pure rationality, unbiased by power relations. Maybe it would be nice, but it's impossible. Objectivity is just a functional part of the liberal ideology: every communication is shaped by the power structure in which it happens. There is no "free speech" as such, nor naked truth. A place where anybody can say anything they want -- that would be an empty discourse without mutual understanding and practical consequences. What an infoshop can offer is an inclusive environment where the discourse is based on the interest of the people without power. The development of such discourse is one necessary condition for revolutionary social change that introduced nonhierarchical power relations and self-organisation into everyday life on a massive scale.

An infoshop is a place where...

• You can hang out in a noncommercial environment, meet like-minded people, educate yourself and others.
• You can find the latest newspapers, periodicals, calls and announcements, leaflets, etc.
• Punks and professors can find rare academic books, hardcore fanzines, and do research against the system.
• People who come to Budapest for the first time can get in touch with the antiauthoritarian political underground.
• All horizontalist grassroots groups can hold open or closed meetings, debates, workshops, working sessions.
• You can browse the archive of materials (from flyers through thesis papers to books) on:

• Anarchism
• Class struggles
• Gender
• Antiglobalisation
• Climate change
• Animal liberation