Elsi is a squated house at Elsässerstr. 128-132, in Basel 4056. Elsi is an autonom, selfcreated place, where livingareas exist and projects and events can take place .

The self-organized collectives of Basel, Restaurant Hirscheneck, Eiscafé Acero, Carambolage, Capri-Bar, queerfeminist library Sp!t, SUR3*TU, UG-Kollektiv, Infoladen Magazin, Druckkollektiv Phoenix, Getränkekollektiv, Elsi und Brockenbude Glubos call for financial support to keep our self-created structures alive!

Collective action

Over many years the self-organized groups and venues in this city have built independent structures which are not oriented towards profit increase or prestige of the people who co-organize them, and they enable many to have an income and projects on an equal footing. Organizing as a collective allows us to challenge internal hierarchies again and again and to fill the opening spaces and possibilities with critical content. Helping neighbors and other support work is lived solidarity.

Stay collective

Many of you used and still use these different spaces, as guests or customers, as visitors or friends, to organize politically. Now it is about helping the collectives to get over a difficult time and to prevent these structures from breaking away. In order to support each other as spaces, we hereby start a common fund for collective preservation. Wherever there is an emergency, the collected donations will be used directly and according to the most urgent need and necessity to pay the bills. Together we can keep these places alive for all who use and run them!

Donate by money transfer to:
Solikonto: CH62 0900 0000 1548 5487 4

After five years of housing struggle, the Steinengraben had to make way for a luxury project of the owner Helvetia-Versicherung. It is now enhancing the former city oasis in a prime location with expensive offices and loft apartments A luxury building project of the owner Helvetia-Versicherung is now disfiguring the former city oasis in a prime location with expensive offices and loft apartments.

We the community of Steinengraben are now scattered to the four winds. Steinengraben is gone but not everything that has grown between us could be destroyed with the demolition..

The space is a self-organised meeting place for anyone interested in anti-authoritarian ideas. And for anyone looking for access to knowledge and history that is critical of the existing social order.

We see the writing, distribution and reading of texts – be they theoretical essays, stories or experience reports – as an important part of resistance practice. Our selection of books and brochures includes historical and current content, but is by no means complete or conclusive. In this sense, we want to broaden our perspectives, strengthen analyses and make them accessible through texts and discussions.

In addition to the library service, brochures, zines and flyers are available to borrow and take with you. Or you can drop by for a chat with us. From time to time we organise information and discussion events, as well as readings and film evenings. We are always open to suggestions. You can also find material from us to write letters to prisoners. Our address can also be used for this purpose, and letters received can be collected during opening hours.

We see ourselves as part of the fight against gentrification and displacement in the neighbourhood. Together with the collectively run neighbourhood pub Capri Bar, which is right next door, we form a place beyond the obligation to consume and the logic of profit. We want to create physical moments of community to counter the increasing shift of social life into the isolation of digital space. Let’s fill the magazine with life together!

Opening hours: Montag 16-21h & Freitag 16-20h

lasst uns tanzen!
wir öffnen einen raum, indem menschen ihre begeisterung und ihr können für das tanzen teilen. um an den workshops teilzunehmen, musst du keine tanzerfahrung mitbringen. wir bewegen uns zusammen in neue richtungen.
teilnehmer*innen bestimmen individuell was sie zahlen können und möchten. die kollekte geht an die workshopleitende person und den raum. wenn nicht vermerkt, sind die workshops offen für alle geschlechter und ohne anmeldung. die workshops sollen in einem möglichst achtsamen, inklusiven und diskriminierungsarmen raum stattfinden können. dafür sind wir alle mitverantwortlich.

Fiasko against fiasko

In Switzerland, Europe and many places throughout the world, migrants are judged “unwelcome”. Arriving people are rejected, isolated, administered and locked away. Somebody who wants to fight against this, who is searching for reliable information, is confronted with an impenetrable jungle of laws, orders and official despotism. Medias publish mostly superficial articles, repor- ted always from the same presumptuous perspective. Structures and conditions should not be questioned – we place a totally different demand on this newspaper!

face it: more than informing and commenting

In this newspaper there will be place for critical and self-determined texts written by people who no longer want to go along with a migration regime that categorizes, oppresses and exploits. By people who have had enough of a society who grants privileges and excludes, who want to rise their voice – silently and cautious, aloud and angry. By people who want to choose freely with whom they want to live with and in which manner and where their life should happen. People who demand this for everybody – open and in solidarity.

deal with it: think along, exchange and intervene

The point of this newspaper is to enforce awareness and to come into action against any illegalisation, discrimination and exclusion. Contribute with your own texts to criticize fundamentally all the social, economic and political structures that back up the migration regime. Different kinds of contributions are welcome – apart from reports and articles there will be place for creati- ve inputs such as pictures, drawings, comics and poems. All the contributions come out in the original language and with an English translation.

go further: let’s use (the) fiasko

The Velotour d'Horizon arrives in Basel on Friday, 17.7. Let's welcome the autonomously organised cyclists and have a good time together.
On 19 July, anyone who feels like it an cycle with us to Delémont.

At Lilith, women and genderqueer people from very different parts of the world meet. We talk to each other about everyday and political issues that concern us. What we all have in common is that we know from our own experience what it means to be a woman or genderqueer person in a world characterized by social inequality and violence. We also see ourselves as part of a larger feminist movement, exchange ideas about feminist struggles in different countries and show solidarity with these struggles.

Creative writing, reading and text performance should be accessible for everyone who's interested. Therefore we create and/or host workshops and events ourselves and develop new formats.

We are organised as an association and meet once a month for a members' meeting. In this meeting new members can join, projects and actions are discussed and designed, projects are presented and there is a free exchange of ideas.

Opening hours: je nach Event

Over 70 percent of the global seed and pesticide market is currently controlled by four major corporations. These corporations stand for an agricultural system that destroys biodiversity, erodes soils, poisons groundwater and devours vast amounts of fossil energy.
In Switzerland and Basel we have to take responsibility! Since 2015 we have been organizing regular demonstrations, a variety of activities and events to raise public awareness of the dark sides of Syngenta, Bayer, BASF + Co. and to point out alternatives.

Once in the 90's a few messengers sat together and decided to start an organisation, that supports messenger events. At the beginning the focus was on alleycats, later also messenger championships and bike polo turnaments were organised. Some evenings and Pfefferracketen later, the statutes were created and adapted with the elaborate process of "copy-paste". MEO was born.

You search for financial support for your alleycat or for insider contacts? Or you want to get involved in the messenger scene of Basel? Reach out to MEO – or just the next messenger you know