Prague is just like any other big European city in desperate need of a noncommercial community centre, of a space for cultural events (such as concerts, exhibitions, etc.), educational lectures and workshops, community gardening, cooking, library, and, above all, meeting people from the neighbourhood (or anyone interested) and also a place to support marginalized groups of people (especially people without homes) who are living in stop-gap conditions on the fringes of society.

The building of former lung clinic (that’s why the name “Klinika“) in Žižkov district, which was abandoned, unused and left to decay, was taken over by a group of squatters and activists on 29th of November 2014 in order to create “Autonomous cultural and social centre Klinika“. All the trash including used needles was cleaned out and the first neighbourhood event was organized. But after just 10 days, on 9th of December, the building was violently vacated by police forces. On the 13th of December big demonstration took place (about 1000 people) but after its end police corpses forced everyone to leave the place, several people were injured and had to be taken to the hospital. Since then, we were stuck in endless cycle of meetings with city and state offices and basically forced to wait.

After more than a month, we refused to keep waiting for the bureaucracy to make a move and on 24th of January “Day for Klinika“ was organised – it started with another demonstration and continued with benefit concerts, screenings etc. in many music clubs in Prague, but also in Pilsen, Brno, Ostrava and even Košice in Slovakia. The attendance was amazing which proved that people were still interested in the project Klinika and that all the effort is meaningful. We have gained support not only from the media but also from Žižkov locals, Czech personalities and organisations (listed in “Podporují nás“ section of our website). Right now we are negotiating the option that the building would be rented to Klinika initiative free of charge at least for a year - until the final decision about its future use is made. We need all support we can get as wider support helps our position in negotiations. We believe that every city needs its Clinic and that it is worth fighting for one.

https://klinika.451.cz/

klinika@451.cz