CONSTELLATION: An Anarchist Festival in Montréal (May 24-26, 2024)

CONSTELLATION: An Anarchist Festival in Montreal (May 24-26 2024)

Announcing CONSTELLATION: An Anarchist Festival in Montréal (May 24-26, 2024). Join us for a bookfair, workshops, and more!

The last weekend of May is important to many anarchists who live in this city. For years, this has been when the Montréal Anarchist Bookfair takes place. These few short days give us an opportunity to see old friends, learn new things, share ideas, plan for the year ahead, and generally get up to no good.

Unfortunately, this year's bookfair has been cancelled. The collective cited the pandemic, the housing crisis, the rising tide of fascism, and the genocide in Gaza as reasons for their decision. While we acknowledge how much time and energy it takes to pull off such a massive event, we believe that these factors are exactly why it's more important than ever for anarchists to come together.

So, we propose an experiment, and perhaps the start of a new tradition. We call on the wider anarchist community to help create something that doesn't rely on just one institution. CONSTELLATION will be a decentralized series of events that will include tabling at the usual bookfair location (CÉDA & CCGV in Little Burgundy) as well as workshops, games, an anti-conference, a dance party, and other new, weird, fun shit you'll have to come check out for yourself.

The success of this weekend is up to all of us! Talk to your friends and start scheming. Make your own anarchy. Organize a film screening, a martial arts training, a graffiti workshop, a punk show, or anything your heart desires. There are so many amazing anarchist spaces in the city; let's get people out to them! We'll help compile and promote a calendar of all the different things happening.

More info for tablers, workshoppers, and other interested folks coming soon! To get in touch, e-mail us at constellationmtl@riseup.net.

There are 40 Comments

Hey wankas, that was exactly my idea from a few year back! So the Milieu is in that slow-pace race with (other) democratic bureaucracies? We need better workflows, n stuff.

Anyways it's great that it's finally happening, and looking forward to it... for the first time in 20 years!

Also btw, fuck the CEDA. Their moist orgies are lame.

- your hidden anarchist dictator

Wait. Why would any of those things cause an event like this to be cancelled?

Pandemic I at least understand but disagree with. But the other stuff???

yeah, those reasons are bullshit. there's something else going on that they don't want to talk about.

i mean, i get not wanting to organize events when things are so likely to be contentious, and maybe that's going on here. but be up front about it ferfuksake.

There was drama because a few members are liberal whackjobs who want to ban shit for no reason. There was an article posted here about the tarot fiasco from last year. The collective spent all their money on a mediation process over it...half of them left but the liberals stayed and put out this bullshit statement.

god damn, after reading this and the thing below good on the people putting this event on instead.

Hopefully the liberalism stays the hell away.

The Tarot card thing is hilarious, who gives a fuck other than authoritarian creeps. Anarchy is legit fucked if these people can't easily be told to fuck off.

"Hopefully the liberalism stays the hell away."

I'd agree, but since this is a developed big Western city with a lot of tertiary sector workers and FOUR major university campuses, you can expect a level of liberalism by default. So rather find a way to deal with it.

"Unfortunately, this year's bookfair has been cancelled. The collective cited the pandemic, the housing crisis, the rising tide of fascism, and the genocide in Gaza as reasons for their decision. "

THIS IS THE STUPIDEST SHIT I HAVE EVER HEARD!
(every one of these reasons)

i'm personally glad they cancelled. after many many many flubs and blunders, banning people for dreadlocks, mohawks, tarot cards, and appearing on "unsanctioned" podcasts, after continually mis-labeling/slandering people racist, fascist, etc for years. they are NOT anarchists. fuck them.

au revoir! assholes.

Sounds horrible, hopefully the people running this new event are willing to do what needs to be done to cleanse the liberalism up there.

Wish you all the best.

Well then good fucking riddance. And let's hope they end up with fat enough academic or nonprofit jobs so that they won't come back playing pretend anarchists.

The dreadlocks and tarot controversies weren't even the top grievance I had with them. But regardless they're gone, now.

An anarchist constellation is what was always needed.

What I haven't heard of is the appearance on an unsanctioned podcast? Can you say more?

Bellamy Fitzpatrick was banned because he had that stupid podcast with that right wing reactionary. Dude has a lot of mid and half baked ideas but still an absurd reason to ban someone.

I don't get the laments about this particular banning, tho. When you make friendly podcasts with CHUDs and not even expecting a negative response from Left a predominated circles then at best you're missing a few nuts & bolts in your head. But that goes beyond just the response... what kind of analysis you got, when you include Rightards in your anarchy?

But then I get there's the problem of the organizers allowing "anarchists" from other authoritarian tendencies than Right-wing...

WRONG. first, it was not because of that podcast (which did not feature a "right wing" dude, just not a leftist), it was because he appeared on another podcast as a guest to discuss ideas, and his ideas are far from "half baked". he is more intelligent than 99% of the people here.

How is this different from when Paul Kingsnorth was shunned on this very website by many of his former admirers for exposing himself as an orthodox Christian? Paul is exceptionally intelligent.

my guess is they canceled the bookfair is cause of internal conflict. millstone and co are being disingenous. as a poc im so sick off the id pol in this scene

Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, 2024 and Beyond
For well over a quarter century, the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair has become a fixture of May—the “month of anarchy”—and indeed anarchism in this city. It’s almost hard to remember a time before this enormous gathering! And as a collective, we feel the weight of the expectations that we should forge ahead with a bookfair this spring, whether it seems possible or not.

Yet so much has shifted during these years, not only around the world, but within both Montreal and the bookfair. And this year has been particularly wrenching, from the pandemic dragging on, to the housing crisis, from fascism only worsening, to the genocide in Gaza, all straining our collective capacities and breaking our hearts.

After much deliberation, we’ve decided to postpone the next Montreal Anarchist Bookfair until May 2025, and instead focus on reimagining and refreshing it. We know this may disappoint. But we hope you’ll understand our (and perhaps your) need for a bit of a breather and some reflection time.

Here’s to a bigger, better, and more beautiful month of anarchy and bookfair in 2025!

—Love+solidarity, the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair collective, March 7, 2024

as a non poc, let me just remind eveeryone that there are always id pol. some places it's just more expected/tacit.

Good for them. A tarot card for the occation might be "the four of wands." Probably everything is a good idea.

BASED. I personally look forward to the inevitable liberal tears and online call-outs by retarded libs. Oh and maybe Baedan 4????

I'm still laughing at the Tarot cards thing. It's like, I want to know all the people dumb enough to take that situation seriously. I want to understand their minds.

Today I just realized that dudes wearing skirts could also pass as cultural appropriation due to the White dreadlocks precedent... as native Samoan males do wear skirts without even a relation to queer culture.

I was a oogle with a mohawk traveling through montreal and one of the bookfair organizers told me to 'think about my life choices'. My dad is from akwesasne LMAO

Sometimes it's embarrassing to be a Montréaler - but I guess you can find that kinda crap all over.

And now Cindy has the audacity to be working on the Asheville book fair. What happened to being too overwhelmed with grief in the present and taking a breather etc etc??? What a bunch of bullshit!!!

stop trying to pile on. breathers are just that, breathers. you breathe and you move on. read rebellious mourning

surprise surprise. cindy has been an opportunist for decades. go back to the institute. go back to the hope block. get away from anarchy.

I've hung out with them multiple times and never got the impression they would be gung ho on nonsense idpol? Hopefully that's not the case.

i spent 10 minutes with her twenty years ago and it was obvious and she seems to have gotten worse.

Isn’t it kind of a sad state of affairs if people want to pay money for tarot reading anyway??

Consider how alike it is to be paying a psychotherapist for pretty much the same ends! And I've read the name "Bellamy" somewhere up there... lol

Add new comment