User:Doronef/Salon Mazal
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Salon Mazal (סלון מזל) is an infoshop in Tel Aviv, spreading information and raising awareness of a wide variety of issues related to social change, including human rights, animal rights, the environment, globalization, social and economic oppression, consumerism, feminism and gender issues and many more.
Salon Mazal has a lending library, a shop and a space for meetings, lectures, workshops and film screenings. Salon Mazal is run by an open, non-hierarchical collective of volunteers.
[edit] Activities at Salon Mazal
- Library: Salon Mazal has a lending and reference library which includes thousands of books in a variety of subjects related to social change. The idea behind it is to enable people to read books without encouraging them to buy. This way, the library creates an alternative to the existing consumer culture.
- Events: workshops, lectures, film screenings, group discussions and meetings on different subjects are held about three times a week. They are open to the public and are free of charge. For some, these events are the first encounter with new issues and ways of actions.
- Publications: We print and publish materials on a variety of subjects, for example: a DIY guide, a guide on wise consumerism, a translated booklet on permaculture, translated anarchist texts, booklets on feminism for men and women and more.
- Promoting the Fair Trade Project: Salon Mazal is one of the distribution points for fair trade products in Israel (coffee, cocoa and olive oil), which we sell at our shop. The market for these products is still very small in Israel, mainly due to lack of awareness. We also offer olive oil from Palestinian farmers in Tul-Karem, olive oil soaps from Palestinian farmers in Budrus. The products are imported by Green Action and their production avoids the exploitation of workers or environmental damage. In addition, we distribute flyers and booklets on fair trade and hold lectures on the subject.
- Local products: Salon Mazal is one of the only places where self made products and self published books can be distributed. We encourage people to contact us and sell their products, including artwork, books, poetry books, homemade jams, deodorants, self made political t-shirts and other products made by individuals. In this way we encourage local, non-industrial production and support local independent producers.
- A meeting point for activists: Salon Mazal provides a space for study, organization, meeting, planning and working on initiatives and projects for social change. We offer this space free of charge. Many groups have used the space over the years for their meetings, including: Anarchists Against the Wall, Indymedia - an Independent Media Group, One struggle, Woman for Woman, Kelaf (The Lesbian Feminist Community), A garden for Peace, The Coexistence Forum in the Negev, The Community Advocate, Shatil - Mixed Cities Project, The Center for Alternative Knowledge and The Committee against House Demolition, the Alternative youth summer camp, New Profile and many more.
- Other Projects: We occasionally run other projects on various topics of interest, such as youth group meetings, Arabic lessons, DIY workshops, a reading group of anarchist texts and more.
