Seattle Anarchist Book Fair 2023

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The Seattle Book Fair is on! Join us for two days of anarchist books, zines, and workshops; August 26th and 27th at the VERA Project.

The Seattle Anarchist Book Fair is an opportunity for old friends to come together or out of the woodwork, for new connections be made, and for those new to anarchy to have an opportunity to engage with the many and varied perspectives of what has been called the Beautiful Idea.

While anarchists are often portrayed through our direct confrontations with the state and capitalism, a book fair allows a space where people have more of an opportunity to converse, exchange ideas and, hopefully, learn from each other.

Here we can find commonalities and intersecting goals, as well as further flesh out those places where our projects and desires diverge.

This will be the first Seattle Anarchist Book Fair since the start of the COVID19 pandemic and the wave of unrest following the murder of George Floyd and many others in 2020. We’re excited to test the waters.

For more info check out our website at seattleanarchistbookfair.com or sabf.info

There are 22 Comments

Moderators, this event is listed in the events calendar twice.

While anarchists are often portrayed through our direct confrontations with the state and capitalism...

Oh really -- where? Where? I've been looking for this for a long time now!

we'll be there!

see you there!

signed
LBC ftw

This is on their facebook: “Seattle Anarchist Book Fair seeks to bring together community through Radical Left and Anarchist lite” what the fuck???

and on their website:

“We’re asking participants to wear masks to limit the spread of airborne pathogenic microbes and as a bonus to normalize wearing masks in general for persec reasons.”

in 2023, post-pandemic, why the fuck are masks required? fucking stupid, virtue signaling, and non-anarchist.

“We ask that attendees be aware of the impact scents and other chemicals have on others, and refrain from wearing products that could compromise the health of other attendees. The book fair will ensure that there is scent-free soap in the bathrooms.”

even dumber. safety first everyone. lowest-common-denominator politics.

blah, blah, blah, some safer space content, some anti-wing-nut crap.

can't wait to see the non-anarchist speakers and tablers they will have there

this is so-called anarchism in 2023....fuck this!

WHERE IS THE ANARCHY!!!

what a nitwit. nothing says required. says "asking". i worry about your relationships if you don't know the difference.

i'm curious if you've organized a public event recently? when i hear from folks who do, i do not envy them even a tiny bit... it's brutal out there, and your attitude is part of the problem. MAKE EVERYTHING THE WAY I WNT IT TO BE RIGHT NOW!
smfh

Different anon here, but I hate when people play these coy little games with language.

The "asking" is clearly just a polite albeit passive aggressive way of saying that you are "required". Similar in effect to, for example: if you violate our TOS you will be "asked" to leave.

We all know what that means. You're just playing petty semantic word games here.

To follow with the given example: when you are "asked to leave", we all know that that person in question is being :::required::: to leave.

I know you know this, so please stop feigning ignorance.

Anon is right. Where the fuck is the anarchy?

^and the trouble with this one-true-anarchist-scotsman logic is...

why can't you endure some stink-eye from the sniveling liberal cowards you're strawmanning, if you're such an anarchist badass? right badass? you don't give af what anyone thinks and yet being "asked" is causing this much pearl clutching? that's kind of strange if you're such a total ultra badass!

It's not about being a macho "badass", lumpenclown. it's about being able to attend an anarchist event without being "REEEEE'd" at or otherwise harassed unduly by the organizers and/or their simps.

oh so you want an anarchist event without any passive aggressive bullshit or stink eye sanctimony?

now i don't even believe you've ever gone to an anarchist event you fukin liar

"pearl clutching" wtf is this hobo/woke language doing on my beloved @news?

i just attended a zinefest with the same exact wording about masks, they asked, but at the event it was demanded. that's how these people function. passive-aggressive authoritarians.

nitwit, really? worry about your own relationships if you can’t read what is actually being said, even if it is slightly coded. i have been to a number of events lately where it was stated there mask policy the exact same way, and surprise surprise, it was mandatory. i actually spoke to people involved, and it is not just a simple “ask”, so fuck you and your condescending attitude. i have also organized many many events, and i would never do it this way. i agree, people are demanding a lot of special treatment lately, and fuck that, we are anarchists not servants or care-givers. i’m asking for things to be relaxed and free with as little rules as possible, the opposite of: “MAKE EVERYTHING THE WAY I WNT IT TO BE RIGHT NOW!”. Anarchy is not a sanctuary for the weak and brittle, but a place of personal empowerment, so back the fuck up and shake yer fuckin’head all ya want you. do you even read books or just texts?

yeah, it's all those OTHER people who are demanding that things be their way. It's all those OTHER people who are not getting what's weak and brittle and what personal empowerment means, which is obviousl first assuming what people mean because someone was fucked up and passive aggressive somewehre else, and b. whatever i want it to be.

Personally looking forward to this year's SABF. Time for a fresh start.

I know there are younger people who will attend who aren't aware of past beefs, fuck ups, etc., who can benefit from seeing the local @ community come together. Maybe we can showcase our best efforts to them? It would mean setting aside our precious pettiness for one weekend this August. We might choose to enjoy ourselves in fellowship with the vanishingly few others in Seattle who share our political frame or reference, who like the books we like? I know we're not perfect. And some of us are the absolute worst. But let's give this bookfair our best effort, eh?

Why do you always throw generalizations at "anarchists" as if this site's comment section is the microcosm of the entire planet's anarchist population, huuuhh?

to set aside differences you don't start off by drawing lines like they are

“setting aside our pettiness” trivializes so very much. and what does that even mean? comply to things we feel are uncalled for and ridiculous, and actually create unnecessary divisions. people who feel they need a mask should wear one, that’s pretty simple, but no, they must force their political position. look, the anarchist space should be uncomfortable at times, tensions should exist, and we should always challenge things that don’t seem right to us. what it sounds like you are proposing is to just comply. should we do that everywhere else too. i am an anarchist publisher who wants to share ideas and have difficult discussions with others, not create a welcome wagon for progressive teens who will probably just try out anarchy for a couple years at best and move on to the next thing. that has been the case for a long time now and getting worse as people get more and more superficial and trend-prone thanks to, you guessed it, technology, social media, and a generalized hyper-alienation. those who are drawn to the beautiful idea, of all ages, will see it in the tension that it should be in, not the white-washed, sanitized, lipstick on a pig performance. oh, and fuck “Radical Left and Anarchist-lite” (how the SABF identifies its project), that’s just bullshit….and anarchy drifts further and further down the drain…and dumped into the mainstream. sad.

maybe the SABF is trying to be a place where people who haven't heard the brilliance of your ideas and might be turned off by the rhetoric online, can be exposed to real life people and be charmed by them.

not being sarcastic here, although feeling a bit salty.

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