TV Free Europe is looking for the alternatives of regime change. We are digging up underground initiatives from around 1989 that wanted something different compared to what most of the society was moving towards. The Anarchist Decentrum in Budapest was a gathering place for such alternative ideas, thoughts and lifestyles. This is commemorated at Német utca with a selection from various fanzines of the ’90s and a showcase of our “Bring a Friend” interview with the founders of the Feminist Network – Antonia Burrows and Judit Acsády.
The Anarchist Decentrum has been operating in Budapest since 1991 under Forgách street 18 in the 13th district.
The house was handed over to the anarchists by the Solidarity Trade Union Confederation. The building was used as a base by the Budapest Anarchist Group, the Feminist Network, the Antimilitarist Working Group and the Friends of Homosexual Students as well. Activists even lived there temporarily. There was an „info shop“ operating in Decentrum where all kinds of small-scale anarchist, environmentalist and alternative music fanzines were collected from different parts of the country. An open day was held once a week when anyone could come in to read.
„The whole thing must have been 70-80 square meters … living-room, hallway, kitchen, toilet, bathroom … After all, it was a hell of an apartment. We decided with the anarchists and the gays which day who holds their meetings. We chose Tuesday. We also organised parties together, but Tuesday night belonged to the Feminist Network for sure. „
Bozzi Vera (in: Bozzi Vera-Gábor Czene, Embezzled Feminism, Osiris Publisher, 2006, 52.)
