SLOVENIA - APRIL 2006 At this moment, Metelkova (squatted ex-military barracks in Ljubljana) is the only place in the capital of Slovenia, where it is possible to make underground concerts. Metelkova was squatted in 1993 and remained autonomous till 1997. Now half of it is legalized (and ran by Municipality of Ljubljana) and it is become quite commercial, and half remains 'autonomous', but it doesn't act like a squat at all, so we hardly consider it that way. There are several clubs, an anarchist infoshop/library Škratova c(italnica, gay and lesbian clubs, and art studios. DIY punk/hc/crust/grind/noise concerts are mostly organized in Gromka, by the collectives R.A.F.A.L. and Hripav glas. There are videoprojections of socially critical films including debates and lectures organized by Kamera Revolta. Metelkova is a social institution: "non-profit, non-governmental, multicultural, urban venue open to all art, culture, social and humanitarian work, social integration, community benefit", but in the end it all leads to unavoidable commercialization. More and more people, who want to be 'alternative' and 'different', come here. It is a vicious circle – people of Metelkova are trying to keep the underground spirit, but they have to adapt at least a little bit to sustain and improve Metelkova and to satisfy visitors' expectations, but because there is more and more conformist visitors coming, the alternative is very slowly driven away. We had some threats of demolition of one smaller building in the last year, but nothing happened, so it is just another way of building up the pressure from the autorities. As I am writing this, another demolition threat came, so... let's hope it is just another false threat. Similar place to Metelkova is Pekarna in Maribor, it is also ex-military barracks, later squatted and now legalized, a place for all kinds of events, but not so much in anarchist manner. Scene is most active in Ljubljana and Kranj. In Kranj all events happen in a squatted swimming pool, called Izbruhov Kulturni Bazen, which exists for almost 4 and a half years now. It is a kind of an alternative culture centre – a place for all kinds of concerts, presentations, movie projections, band rehearsals, there is a recording studio... No one lives there, and it is ran by the people of Cultural Association AKD Izbruh. Building is owned by the Municipality of Kranj, and although Bazen has quite some problems with the authorities, we believe it will stay. There is also ex-squatted (now legalized) Mostovna in Nova Gorica, also a place for all kinds of concerts and other events. In other cities the situation is poor. Almost every city has its own official youth centre, usually it is a Youth Society, but only few of them support anarchist movement, organize punk/hc/etc gigs or are active in this way. Legendary is a club in Ilirska Bistrica called MKNŽ, many great bands have played there in the past years. Ljubljana doesn't have a squat anymore. In past years we squatted several buildings, the most important was Molotov squat, which we squatted on New Year's 2002. It was owned by Slovenian Railway Company. We were very active in that time; we made concerts, Food not Bombs, organized demonstrations, guest-lecturers and formed SAF (Social Anarchist Federation) which was also the organizer of the First Balkan Anarchist Bookfair in Ljubljana; and we were quite strongly connected with Croatian anarchist movement. Molotov was a place which united anarchist movement of the whole Slovenia and we had support from everyone who was even remotely connected to the scene. At that time the movement was at the peak of its strength in the last six years. But it didn’t help – after a long fight with the owners in court and their security company in Molotov; it got evicted in summer of 2003. In the same summer we squatted Galicija, a private house in a quiet middle-class neighbourhood. In the time of our occupation, we set up an Infoshop, organized presentations and guest-lecturers, film projections… All neighbours fully supported us, we had their children visiting and playing in the garden, but the owners evicted us due court order in 4 months. At that time all police knew us and so the next occupation was over in the same hour as we got into the house. For now we decided it is time to wait for situation to settle down, and soon we will try again. After all the lost fights with authorities, it all became very calm. Now the only things that we're doing are concerts and film projections – both in Gromka club in Metelkova (mentioned above). We also have an independent video production Frontline, which has issued more than 10 short documentaries about demonstrations, squatting, bands and music, etc. SAF is almost not active anymore; the only active fraction is SiSD (Syndicate of self-organized workers), which is the first organization in Slovenia that practices the theory of revolutionary syndicalism and also publishes their newsletter Solidarnost (Solidarity). Sadly, with the end of Molotov, came the end of anarchist movement’s unity. Now we are hanging out in divided groups, and everyone is headed in his own direction. So, at this moment Slovenia has a rather poor scene. We have some increasing problems with nazi skinheads, who have just recently came to power with the right-wing goverment won the elections in 2004. Occasionally they come to Metelkova and make problems there. Problems usually occur with a traditional festival Anti Fa Fest in April, when all nazi skinheads gather and come to stop the festival and are causing trouble, but we don't want to answer to nazi provocations. We have had fights many years ago, and we were much stronger than them. After that perion they kept a really low profile but now tables have turned. There is a new formed Antifa group that is trying to put things into 'order' on all levels. We are trying really hard to draw near the new coming generations of punks, as they believe that too much activism is ‘infecting’ punk movement, so they don’t want to start anything new; they want to drink and have fun. Concerts are not very well visited, unless it is a big band playing, usually there is between 30 – 60 people. Demonstrations are very hard to make, because there is no people who would support them. In this field we are co-operating with some other libertarian non-anarchist groups, but we almost never participate with organization, because our principles differ too much. We have a couple of very good bands here, I will mention just a few of them. Most known is Aktivna Propaganda from Ljubljana I guess, they're active since 1999, playing anarcho-hc-punk. Anaeroba also started in 1999 being one of the first crustpunk bands in Slovenia. Dickless Tracy from Brežice have been around from 1997, great grind core band, one of the few here. Elodea are playing from 1999 with a pause in between, their music is dark & heavy crust. Final Approach from Krško is a 2 year old band, they are a totally straightforward old school hc, very energic. Pankeroschi from Koc(evje have been around for around 6 years. They're slowly turning from an old school kind of hc punk to more aggressive hc crust sound. Mozak are a quite new band from Nova Gorica, playing aggressive crust-metal-grind. Baka Yaro (ex-Anus) have just started to play, they switched from hc to crusty d-beat. Drek v Pest from Kranj is a one year old band, they have female vocals and it is one of the rare old school DIY punk bands in Slovenija, besides Sirotinje, also from Kranj. There are many more bands I haven't mentioned, but it's kinda hard to write down all Slovenian bands. If you nedd more information, you are welcome to ask me. There are also some smaller DIY – nonprofit distributions active throughout the whole country. For example – BUM Records distro from people of AKD Izbruh – recording bands and printing t-shirts, patches, badges..., Kontrakultura – mostly anarcho literature, Pandemonium Clothing – DIY made clothes, bags and other stuff, printing t-shirts and patches, and a few webzines – Storminside, Addicted to nothing, Kanonfutr, and some more I guess... At this moment though, we are confronted with some drastic changes due to the actions of our new right-wing goverment, that wants to close all alternative centres all over Slovenia (including Metelkova, which is not to be imagined since it is one of the rare places of such kind in Europe!). In May there will be new laws coming to order and most of the clubs are do not meet all the requirements that it brings and will therefore be closed. It's biggest aim is to prevent all alternative clubs, whether it is a association or a squat, from being active. To put it simple – it is based on the fact that most of the clubs do not meet the infrastructural requirements of the new law and that they work on the DIY principles and therefore don't pay taxes, nor for the bar nor for its program, like official associations do. It is logical that places of this kind will not pay taxes, because when the first tax bill is payed, the place looses its autonomy and becomes a profit insitution. This is a terribly huge problem, unless we can prevent this law from coming to order, Slovenia will lose all places where our scene is taking place. So we are starting a big campaign which will include public debates, writing petitions, organizing round tables, getting help from the university department, getting in contact with politicians... demanding a legal status of being illegal. This is a call for help... we cannot let the state shut us down!! When our petitions and statements come to the open, please help! Metelkova city - www.metelkova.org AC Galicija - www.avtonomija.org/acgalicija/ AKD Izbruh - www.akd-izbruh.tk/ AC Molotov - www.aktiviraj-se.net/acmolotov/ Storm Inside - http://www.storminside.net/home.php Slovenian anarchist portal - www.ruleless.com R.A.F.A.L. and Frontline - dirt_dunka@yahoo.com, http://www.metelkova.org/gromka/viewchapter.php?chapter=rafal Kamera Revolta - http://www.metelkova.org/gromka/viewchapter.php?chapter=revolta Greetings, Dunja