Major New Initiative for 2024
The Melbourne Anarchist Club is set to announce a major new initiative in early January 2024.
The MAC was established in 1988 as an anarchist printing press collective known as '@Press' becoming the single biggest producer of anarchist texts, magazines, pamphlets, posters and stickers in the history of anarchism in Australia. By 1999, '@Press' had ceased operation as a printing press having been overtaken by new printing technologies. The original premises in Brunswick housed 'SCAM Publications' collective, the office and archives of ASF Melbourne North and Barricade Books after they were forced out of their premises by rising rents. In 2001, the name was changed to the 'Melbourne Anarchist Club' as a tribute to the original Melbourne Anarchist Club of 1886-89.
By 2005, the prohibitive cost of required repairs necessitated the sale of the premises. Anarchists in Melbourne decided on a new membership structure at a meeting initiated by the MAC at Coburg Library in December 2006 . The original premises in Brunswick were sold in 2007 and after 18 months, new premises were opened in Northcote in September 2008. In 2012, the MAC merged with Anarres Books and under the new agreement became an Infoshop with a library and bookstore and commenced publishing the journals 'Black Light' and 'Sedition' and initiated the Fantin Reading Group.
In July 2018, members of the Melbourne IWW Branch in concert with a disparate group of radical liberal activists broke into, occupied and blockaded the MAC with the purpose of preventing the Annual General Meeting taking place. The MAC made numerous attempts to negotiate a resolution to the conflict while continuing to carry the costs of council rates, utilities and building insurance. Having run out of funds, the MAC re-occupied the premises in May 2019 but unable to raise the necessary ongoing funds were forced by circumstances to sell the premises in December 2020.
The MAC commenced a search for new premises in accordance with the March 2012 decision to establish an infoshop with two stipulations; it be a two-storey building, located as close to the CBD as possible.
Due to changed circumstances, the requirement to be located as close to the CBD as possible was rescinded and the search for a building was expanded to any premises suitable. After a long period of searching, the MAC collective agreed to even consider unimproved land.
In November 2023, the MAC made a significant decision that took into account current circumstances and consistent the original purpose of the '@Press' collective of 1988.