This has originally been written for a series of texts on autonomous social centres in our upcoming zine.

Glasgow Autonomous Space is back. Once again the city will have an autonomous social centre, in a shiny new premises in Govanhill.

The closing of “old” GAS, that venerably DIY industrial unit on Kilburnie Street in Tradeston, was a huge blow for the radical scene in Glasgow. Gone was the movement space that was the obvious choice for where to hold meetings or events. Where else was it posible to host free talks, film screenings, etc without paying by the hour for the use of the space? Countless groups and projects suddenly found themselves without a home; scattered to the wind and forced to operate from people’s flats or spaces that didnt share our anti-capitalist principles. Gone was the hub for a whole variety of projects and people doing anti-capitalist organising in Glasgow; where people involved in different projects could meet or hear about each others events and an easy entry point for those new to the scene to find things to get involved in. It’s not easy to overstate the impact of GAS’s closure in the early months of 2023.

So, it’s no surprise that we are thrilled at the prospect of a new space opening this summer. Any movement requires spaces to organise in and an anti-capitalist, anti-hierarchical movement needs those spaces to be anti-capitalist and anti-hierarchical. This is what we hope “new” GAS will be: what it was before and perhaps even something better. And, it’s what we need it to be because we have a lot of organising to do. With the beginning of implementation of the state’s sinister Rwanda scheme and the increase in detainment and deportation of refugees this entails, state support for genocide in Palestine, the ever increasing cost of living, continual attacks on the trans community, the flailings of a tory government in its death throes and the prospect of a new conservative government wearing different coloured ties: we need to build connections and community across the anti-authoritarian left and a space like GAS could be a vital part of that.

The GAS Collective have organised an open meeting at the new space on the 8th of June (9 Hollybrook Place, G42, 14:00-17:00) and we would encourage anyone who desires to see an autonomous social centre in Glasgow again to head along and get involved if you can.