The Freedom Shop — 10 Years On

— Mark Rawnsley

The Freedom Shop is still open 10 years on and still lives on Cuba Street. The shop has moved premises and is now at 166 Cuba where it feels good, looks great and is open 6 days a week.

The new location has The Freedom Shop sharing a large space with an internet cafe, a soon-to-be juice bar and a multipurpose, entertainment, performance, skillsharing, work space... these are all separate businesses which create a new and exciting space.

At the moment the books are selling well and we have a large order of really excellent books on its way from AK Press. Also arriving soon is a healthy dose of quality writing from Aotearoa. The Freedom Shop also sells booklets, zines, badges, t-shirts, patches, and music.

Yep, the freedom shop will turn 10 years old on the 1st of May which is no small feat for a not-for-profit, volunteer-based collective, let alone something that is as much work as running a bookshop. Lest we forget let's take a look at where it all began...

Some time around 1981 a German couple began selling NORML propaganda from a building at 272 Cuba St (for some reason only on Sundays) then later on, like the early 90s, some other NORML people joined them and started opening the shop irregularly about three times a week. Around this time the anarchist group called the Committee for the Establishment of Civilization (CEC) who had a reasonable book/booklet collection started doing irregular stalls at various events. One of the CEC members, George van den Hoeven, kept talking about opening an anarchist bookshop, so someone approached the NORML people and soon after Anarchist Books moved in alongside NORML on the 1st of May 1995.It is not clear to me if the name The Freedom Shop came before or after the anarchist books moved in but either way the name has stuck. Anarchist books cleaned and fixed things up in exchange for rent then sometime soon after NORML started moving out.

For almost the entire life of The Freedom Shop there has been a core group who keep the shop alive and well and a broad base of volunteers staffing the shop coming and going. The people who I associate the most with the shop are Mary Patterson, George van den Hoeven, Lyn Spencer and Ross Gardiner, who were all there from the beginning (at least three of them) and who gave it their all for considerable stretches of their lives. The shop has always been run by a collective, and at the moment has roughly 18 active members.

The last few years have seen The Freedom Shop battle with the evil road-building slum-lords Transit, the National Front and the dreaded leaky roof (a serious problem when you're a bookshop).

Special thanks to everyone who helped build the new shop and all those who have the courage, determination, and cooperation to work with and support collectives.

Printed from Rebel Press  ::  www.rebelpress.org.nz  ::  @nti-copyright