London Anarchist bookfair returning Saturday October 24th 2020

The Bookfair2020 Crew are excited to announce that Anarchist bookfair will be returning to London on Saturday October 24th 2020.

This event is being organised by a new collective of individuals from across London and the UK.

The composition of the organising collectives behind the various Anarchist bookfairs in London has changed many times over the years and we are proud to take on the task of bringing a prominent bastion of Anarchist and radical thinking back to the city. The regular “London Anarchist Bookfair” has been a vital component of the Anarchist community since it’s inception in 1981 and we intend for the 38th such event carry on in this fine tradition.

Bookfair 2020 will be a diverse event with a organisational focus on our internationalism and our Anarchist heritage here in the UK. We are hoping that our international comrades will join us on the day, as many did in the previous years and we intend to play host to workshops and displays that illustrate our shared Anarchist tradition and remember our fallen comrades in whose name we continue the fight against oppression.

More than just a simple marketplace, bookfairs are a cornerstones of Anarchism, linchpins of a diverse and sprawling revolutionary movement. They are where we come together to share our ideas, debate our positions and develop our theory and praxis. They help us to believe in better worlds and start to etch of the foundations of world free of oppression, corporatism and the brutal authority of the state. They give faith to the long in the tooth and inspire young minds and they must be defended and maintained at all costs and utilised by and for the working class for genuine results.

We have reached out to the prior collective behind London Anarchist Bookfair 2017 who have previous stated that they were disinclined to carry on organising further events. We hope they welcome a new collective taking on the role, we have been in contact with them regarding pass forward the London Anarchist Bookfair’s resources; social media accounts, equipment,finances and the like which have been built up through previous events and for their collective general endorsement of Bookfair 2020 so we can hit the ground running and maintain lineage. We hope that those inclined will continue of with their good work on join the Bookfair 2020 collective!

In respects to the events in 2017 where transphobic material was shared in the female bathrooms and the main hall, we wish to state that Bookfair 2020 will follow our comrades from Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh and elsewhere in providing a space diverse in character and secure from xenophobia and bigotry of any vein.

Our solidarity is overt and complete.

Any politic which would seek to oppress, undermine or remove the rights and liberties of others is anathematic to Anarchism and will find no welcome nor tolerance at the bookfair itself or any associated event or space. To compliment our Safer Space Policy, a statement of solidarity, inclusivity and pro-active community defence will be written and upheld during the event with stall holders and attendees encouraged to take ownership of our shared space and protect it from such reckless hate.

We do this to be clear that no aspect of oppression will be allowed within our revolutionary spaces.

Solidarity and unity being key principles to Anarchism, we would like Bookfair 2020 to act as a focus point for re-building cohesion in our community, fostering new networks and developing stronger ties and understanding between us. Sharing knowledge and supporting each others personal and political development in good faith is the call of the day and we shall ensure an array of workshops to cater for this and we shall host speakers on a variety of topics from gender to ecology, refugee support to homeless solidarity and beyond.

Further to this we aim to make a dynamic and welcoming space which is accessible to all. We will be providing crèche and youth space alongside provisions for those we hearing difficulties, sensory issues and social difficulties. There will also be vegan food and drink available.

If anyone wishes to get involved, we welcome volunteers from all backgrounds and abilities. Whether you are able/inclined to plan the logistics, help fundraise, promote the event or help us run everything on the day, please get in touch. We will shortly begin a series of regular meetings, many of which will be open to attendees and spend the next year working towards a grand event. If you have ideas for talks, workshops, discussions or stalls or simply wish to book a space, please do not hesitate to get in contact.

We hope you will join us on and together we can build a stronger more resilient community and forge a better future, one free of shackles of capitalism and the tyranny of the state and strengthen our bonds of international and intersectional solidarity, mutual aid and unity.

We will be holding a meeting on the 10th of August in London, if you would like to attend please contact us for the specifics.

Love and Rage

The Bookfair2020 Crew

Email:- bookfair2020@protonmail.com
Website:- www.bookfair2020.org.uk

There are 5 Comments

“Our solidarity is overt and complete”, except with heretic women, anarchists worried about children non-consensually having their bodies altered, being put on a lifetime of medicine and puberty blockers ( thalidomide 2035 coming soon), anarchists who want a free and open space to discuss matters and consequences related to gender theory, ( including queers concerned about the eugenics/homophobia and lesbophobia inherent in automatically labelling gender non-conforming children as trans,) etc. Plus primitivists and green anarchists routinely smeared as transphobic bigots for wanting a de-industrialized world who feel that they have to lay low during the book fairs now for fear of dramatic accusations hurled at them in that regard, etc.

Questioning or wanting to debate some aspects of the claims widely made by trans-activists or having different theories of sex and gender is not hateful and should be supported - there are simply too many anarchists with deep and valid concerns about medicalizing our lives, the silencing of free thinking, wondering if we might be throwing women and children under the bus, what looks like erasing gays and lesbians, coerced adherence to group-think, etc.

Liberalism has made deep inroads in its colonization of anarchist spaces over the past decade. It has its morality squads keeping an eye on things ready to shame anyone who emphasizes systems of power over identity or who dares have unpoliced thoughts and its self-deluded philosophers from the universities paid to confuse with their arcane vocabulary, faux wordsmithing and bewildering paragraphs - everyone is impressed and thinks that they are a mile wide and a mile deep. But unlike most every day liberals who are a mile wide but an inch deep, these elite assholes are really just an inch wide and an inch deep.

The overall narratives are that resistance must be cultural and philosophical and that the urban middle and upper middle class citizenry from empire is “ literally the most marginalized group to ever exist!”. Burn all fucking books, destroy every single bit of technology and raze the universities to the ground and at least truth will have an opportunity to emerge.

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