Reclaim the Streets was founded in England in 1991 to protest the construction of new highways and roads. Since 1995, the group, injunction with similar actions performed by the European rave community, has expanded to different countries and has expanded it’s focus to include the reclamation of all public spaces, both urban and rural. This group is mainly anti-capitalist/globalization/gentrification. Their actions are based on the reclaiming of public space that has been colonized or commodified by various capitalist institutions.
Web Homepage: http://www.reclaimthestreets.net/(Global)
http://guest.xinet.com/rts/ (Bay Area)
http://rts.gn.apc.org/ (London)
E-Mail: rts@gn.apc.org
Snail mail: P.O Box 9656 London N4 4JY
Though most major North American, Australian and European have some type of a chapter, the most active chapters are located in the UK (most notably London) and California.
Welcome to a rupture of the everyday. Before you is a street party: a community festival on the [paved over] town square. By dancing and playing--turning the pavement into a playground--we are reclaiming the street from the automobile which ruins the street by making it a place to be moved through not lived in. We believe the city and the street should be for people to live, meet others and celebrate creativity and freedom.
The city should serve the human community, not mechanized consumerism. Cars are only the most visible and tangible representative of an inhuman consumer society which is smashing community, constricting human spontaneity and freedom and destroying the Earth’s life support system. (" WHAT’S GOING ON HERE ?" from bay area reclaim the streets website)
Though RTS is primarily concerned with acts of resistance, there is a strong revolutionary component—the transformation of space. The actions are non-violent and aim at providing alternative ways of living in urban spaces.
The Situationists, and Guy Debord in particular, play important role in the theoretical section of this group.
Capitalism, globalization, gentrification, the colonization of public ‘space.’
Word of mouth, flyers, Internet.
Advocates non-violent, non-branded tactics of disruption aimed at cultural/urban life. The transforming of public space (street, town center, motorway) into a festival of sorts (past events have involved sound systems, free markets and food, importing sand and paddling pools for mini-beaches, bouncy castles, etc.) to protest the closing of public space to the consumer and car culture. "Sous les pavés, la plage" translates as "Under the cobbles, the beach!" (from the London website—the ‘Propaganda’ section of this website is very useful in understanding the tactics/ideology of this group)
Reclaim the Streets is a decentralized direct action network which uses street parties to take back public space -- the street -- from cars, corporations and the police state, and to return it to the public for socializing, bicycling, art, food, dancing, music, dissent, dialogue, community and creativity. (from Bay Area website)
Numerous events have taken place all over the world (though mostly centered in Europe and most notably in the UK).
They’re playing with the idea of urban ‘space’ here and restricting commodified flows into the areas that they ‘reclaim.’ Sort of a like very temporary autonomous zone. They do make theoretical statements that draw from the Situationists, and in fact explicitly credit it them in a few of their statements. There is the problem that the tactics of RCTS has already been heavily co-opted by rave and various other entertainment promoters (and even the mayor of Paris), making ‘street parties’ into apolitical, commercial spectacles.