Cream City Collectives
Encyclopedia
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Milwaukee is the largest city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, the 28th most populous city in the United States and 39th most populous region in the United States. It is the county seat of Milwaukee County and is located on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan. According to 2010 census data, the...
. It hosts The Mathilde Anneke Infoshop
Infoshop
An infoshop is a storefront or social center that serves as a node for the distribution of political information, typically in the form of books, zines, stickers and posters. Infoshops often serve as a meeting space and resource hub for local activist groups....
, the Milwaukee Screenprinting Collective, the CCC Gallery , and other groups that share the space for meetings and events. It opened its doors with a storefront in October 2006. The infoshop is named after the German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
radical
Extremism
Extremism is any ideology or political act far outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards...
Mathilde Anneke, one of the Forty-Eighters
Forty-Eighters
The Forty-Eighters were Europeans who participated in or supported the revolutions of 1848 that swept Europe. In Germany, the Forty-Eighters favored unification of the German people, a more democratic government, and guarantees of human rights...
who founded the first feminist newspaper in the United States in Milwaukee. It hosts a lending library
Lending library
A lending library is a library from which books are lent out. The earliest reference to or use of the term "lending library" yet located in English correspondence dates from ca. 1586; C'Tess Pembroke Ps. CXII. v, "He is .....
which contains thousands of books, primarily non-fiction titles on anti-authoritarian radical politics. There is a growing collection of anarchist and anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil...
books for sale, as well as free literature. Discussions, speaking events, workshops, pot lucks, shows, dance parties, dinners and other events are frequently hosted at the space.
The CCC regularly hosts block parties in the summer. One typically on May 1, also known as the anniversary of Haymarket
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...
and called May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
and another often roughly scheduled around the anniversary of the opening of the space. The first May Day block party, in the tradition of the anti-capitalist holiday also featured an organized Really Really Free Market
Really Really Free Market
The Really, Really Free Market movement is a non-hierarchical collective of individuals who form a temporary market based on an alternative gift economy. The RRFM movement aims to counteract capitalism in a non-reactionary way. It holds as a major goal to build a community based on sharing...
, in which a gift economy
Gift economy
In the social sciences, a gift economy is a society where valuable goods and services are regularly given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future rewards . Ideally, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within the community...
is put into practice. People brought things to share and everything was free. The Really Really Free Market as event and social practice was taken up by the Milwaukee Network for Social Change who now distribute free clothing in the winter and host free events in the summer. The block parties are often full of games and mischief. At the end of one there was a water balloon fight that encouraged the entire neighborhood to participate and included 1,500 water balloons.