
From Victoria Anarchist Bookfair
19th Annual Victoria Anarchist Bookfair and Festival of Anarchy
We love you all and will see you at:
Fernwood Community Centre, 1240 Gladstone Ave, lək̓ʷəŋən Territory
September 21st 11am-6pm
September 22nd 11am-5pm
Keep a look out for Festival of Anarchy Event Announcements!
2024 poster art created by: Zig Zag ~ Gord Hill
A renowned artist, anarchist and political activist, Gord Hill (Kwakwaka’wakw) is the author of The 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance Comic Book, The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Comic Book and The Antifa Comic Book. His books have been translated into French, German and Spanish. Hill has been an advocate for Indigenous people since 1988, participating in numerous protests, blockades, rallies and other movements.
Statement of Principles
Values and Goals
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective affirms and promotes mutual aid, direct democracy, direct action, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity. We reiterate our opposition to capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, colonialism, statism and all other forms of oppression; we will not accept participants in the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair who perpetuate or promote such values.
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair is a space to network, highlight, and aid struggles, both local and international. We strive to promote anarchist ideas through workshops, cultural activities and the bookfair itself. We have a spirit of openness towards different anarchist traditions, visions, and practices.
Our aims are threefold:
to introduce anarchism to the public,
to further elaborate upon current and historical anarchist ideals, and
to foster dialogue between various anarchist tendencies.
Participants
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair’s priorities concentrate upon the written & spoken word (books, pamphlets, zines, audio-visual materials) by individuals and groups including publishers, distributors, and action-oriented associations. We also accept, on a case-by-case basis, information and participation from community/activist groups, self-publishers, artists and vendors of materials such as buttons, T-shirts or patches who fit within these principles. We do not accept the participation of political parties or candidates in the bookfair.
Process
Decisions are made by consensus at Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective meetings. Projects planned for the Festival of Anarchy need only be discussed and agreed to at a Bookfair collective meeting, at which point they are autonomous.
Statement of Indigenous Solidarity
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective aims to demonstrate solidarity with Indigenous peoples throughout the world by supporting the varied ways they assert their cultural and political autonomy. To uphold our responsibility within this solidarity relationship, we must name colonialism, capitalism, and state power as forces that obstruct our aims for justice. We recognize these struggles of resistance have a long history: colonialism today is not disconnected from the past but is connected to present reality through the ongoing attempt to remove Indigenous peoples from their lands, whether unceded or shared through treaties, and undermine the sovereignty and authority of traditional Indigenous self-governance systems and lifeways.
Locally, we have witnessed the resurgence of the Songhees and Esquimalt peoples, whose overlapping territories the city of Victoria occupies. These, and other communities with ancestral relationships to their lands, winds, and waters around the globe, show us better systems of decision making, along with better ways of living together and with the land. We support, and aim to walk alongside, Indigenous struggle and Indigenous sovereignty.
Accessibility
If you have any concerns during the Bookfair volunteers sitting at the welcome table are available for assistance.
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective actively strives to create an accessible event. We aim to avoid replicating the barriers in society that exclude and marginalize people. In line with our principles, we organize the Bookfair to challenge exclusions deriving from social oppression. We maintain:
- A policy of no alcohol or other drugs and we ask all participants to respect this and help us ensure our relationship with the venue remains solid.
- Wheelchair access to events: the hall is fully wheelchair accessible. The bathrooms are wheelchair accessible on both levels of the bookfair.
- A safe and welcoming event for children and their parents.
- Encouraging the wearing of masks at all times and locations for the duration of the bookfair to help diminish the spread of COVID-19. Free masks will be available for guests.
- An event free of smoke, nuts, and perfumes/scents, to enable a kid-friendly and accessible event for people who might have allergies, including allergies that are life-threatening.
- Journalists are escorted and ask permission before they take pictures.
- Respect everyone’s privacy. Before taking pictures and/or posting them online, ask for permission.
- All pets must remain outside and on leash. Only working/service dogs are welcome inside and they must stay near their human at all times.
- Free admittance (donations gratefully accepted, and all money supports future bookfairs).
Safer Space Policy
The dynamics of hierarchy, power and privilege that exist within society are also found among us. People participating in the Bookfair are asked to be aware of their language and behavior, and to think about whether it might be oppressive to others. The Bookfair is no space for violence, racism, ageism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, sizism, or touching another person without consent. Acting in a way that perpetuates oppression, including through language, will not be tolerated.
People participating should be aware of how they are presenting them self to insure their choice of aesthetic is not of cultures other than their own. The bookfair acknowledges that cultural heritage and identity is not always visible, we will not be discriminating based on appearance.
Our attempts to equalize access are made within the limits of current resources and therefore may not be perfect. However, we welcome suggestions for improvement and will do our best to implement them.
About the Space
Fernwood NRG is fully wheelchair accessible. The main entrance contains two sets of two glass doors. They open automatically with the press of a button. Entry to the gym on the lower level is gained through two windowless doors that are left open, depending on the weather. There is a carpeted ramp to gain access from the lower level to the upper level and it is wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The NRG is lit with fluorescent tubes. Signs will be posted on how to get to workshops and the gym, where vendors are located. Tables are arranged to allow room for wheelchairs.
Seats provided for workshops are plastic without arm rests. Some workshops fill up to standing room only: please prioritise seating for people that need it. Masks are mandatory to ensure the space remains accessible for immuno-compromised people. Free masks are available at the bookfair.
Parking is available on the street by the main entrance: people who have trouble walking long distances can be dropped off outside the gym. Bus 22 will drop you off 200m east of the venue on Fernwood Street.
A vegan meal will be served by Food Not Bombs free of charge.
Join the Collective
The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective is always looking for people to assist behind the scenes. We’re looking for help in all kinds of areas such as postering, welcoming & information tabling, room set-up, cleanup and more.
The Bookfair is entirely volunteer-run and helping out is a great way to get involved and meet new people. If you’re interested, please read our collective principles and accessibility statements on our website, and let us know how you’d like to help out!
Help during the Bookfair
This is what we need for the Bookfair weekend:
Saturday, September 21st: set-up in the beginning
Both days: sitting at the welcoming & information tables
Sunday, September 22nd: clean-up at the end
Please tell us what kind of job interests you and your general availability.
General Inquiries: info@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
Tabling Inquiries: tables@victoriaanarchistbookfair.ca
Volunteering: volunteers@victorianarchistbookfair.ca
Comments
This anarchist bookfair has
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 07:54
This anarchist bookfair has more laws than a bronze age city state!
And any event that proclaims to be "free of scents" will smell like ass.
Don't be a dick. These are
KAOS (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 08:25
In reply to This anarchist bookfair has by anon (not verified)
Don't be a dick. These are not "laws" and more than a policy that says 'we won't tolerate shitting on tables or molesting the cafe staff'. And perhaps ask yourself: why are you so interested in replicating the barriers in society that exclude and marginalize people anyway? Don't you agree that anarchists should challenge exclusions deriving from social oppression?
Serious questions for serious anarchists.
* and no different than a
KAOS TYPO (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 08:27
In reply to Don't be a dick. These are by KAOS (not verified)
* and no different than a policy ...
Policies are for the police..
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 09:48
In reply to Don't be a dick. These are by KAOS (not verified)
Policies are for the police... and as usual only apply to those not having the good-enough socio-economic backgrounds to afford nice housing in this town. It's totally fine to be shitting on tables with books containing Chumpsky and other liberal bullshit from socially-privileged people. As for molestation, of course that'd be bad... but ain't that your typical Puritan paranoia about the lumpens and non-White people?
You sound like a complete
KAOS (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 10:09
In reply to Policies are for the police.. by anon (not verified)
You sound like a complete troll that is more interested in winning an anonymous argument on the niche internet than actually considering what you're saying and whether it's factual, applicable, or relevant in the context of the conversation. You're also just plainly wrong. "Policies are for the police" is one of the more ignorant things I've read recently and doubly-so in that you go on to say "As for molestation, of course that'd be bad". Your tangent about socio-economic backgrounds and housing for "locals" is additionally classist insofar as your claim is that basically poor people are too dumb to have policies (principles?) or don't know better than to shit in tables at public events. You embarrass yourself.
This is an anarchist website and this article is about an anarchist event. Don't replicate the stupidity of the mainstream oppressor society. Fuck right off.
I loOoove how fragile trolls
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 10:25
In reply to You sound like a complete by KAOS (not verified)
I loOoove how fragile trolls like 09:48 get when anarchist bookfairs ask them to consider doing things that might make it less shitty for others attendees.
"oH nOooo how dare you ask me to not molest tablers!?! hO dare you provide masks?! yOU are eXactly like the police!!!"
Of course they never go to anarchist events offline anyway. The internet is stupid.
Ya know, not all of us need a
table flipper (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 15:43
In reply to I loOoove how fragile trolls by anon (not verified)
Ya know, not all of us need a nanny state of consensus-decision-making finger-wagging committee members to prevent us from mOlEsTiNg TaBlErS!!!!1 Some of us can even resolve conflict directly when it arises and don't need an entire treatise on the ethical positions of the Victoria Anarchist Book Fair Committee to function in a social situation. As if your ingratiating lip service is the only thing keeping people at a book fair safe. Patronizing as fuck
Then why are you so concerned
KAOS (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 20:28
In reply to Ya know, not all of us need a by table flipper (not verified)
Then why are you so concerned with people making suggestions? ARE YOU REALLY FRIGHTENED of a few *checks notes* "nanny state consensus-decision-making finger-wagging committee members" asking attendees to be a little less dickish when attending the event they are laboriously organizing to that folks can have a good time and buy some zines before attending the post-bookfair moist orgy? I'm sOooo sure resolve conflict yourself ALL THE TIME like when your mom makes you go ALL THE WAY UPSTAIRS to microwave your own tendies (she's such a bitch!) and like all those times your totally leave your house to attend anarchist events with other human anarchists who can't make you wear a damn mask (those fucking breath cops!). LASTLY, me saying "make it less shitty for others" and you going off on your tantrum by rewriting it as "keeping people at a book fair safe" is ENTIRELY the problem with little bitches like you playing tough guy. SoOooo... fuck all the way off, stay home and complain about a bookfair you will never attend.
When my mom brought me my
basement baller (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 21:47
In reply to Then why are you so concerned by KAOS (not verified)
When my mom brought me my tendies she asked me to show you this https://anokchan.org/index.php?q=post/view/1046
There are 3 people that use
anon (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 10:00
In reply to When my mom brought me my by basement baller (not verified)
There are 3 people that use anokchan and everyone knows who they are and feels sorry for them. Neato-o meme, brah.
Wait... you're the one that
anon (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 05:59
In reply to Then why are you so concerned by KAOS (not verified)
Wait... you're the one that brought these fears about tablers being potentially "molested" or tables being shit upon, so that your policies can prevent from that stuff happening (and also make people wear face masks, coz you do look nostalgic of this past golden age of bureaucratic control freak despotism). But but but, like others mentioned... how will these policies come into effect without anyone enforcing these?
Ya fucking liberal socialists can only think in terms of control and exclusion... but what's with the bookfair being "anarchist"? Why not a Socialist Bookfair, or Social Justice Bookfair? Scared to attract too many normie grey-haired university professors and union organizers?
Guess what... it's a bookfair for anarchists! So how about we'll be attending and completely ignoring *your* policies?
Congratulations, 05:59! You
TheDumbAwardGoesTo (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 09:57
In reply to Wait... you're the one that by anon (not verified)
Congratulations, 05:59! You've won the Anon Dumb Award!
Not only have you proven you cant separate examples and symbolic thought used to make a point you've also shined in not knowing what words mean AND waste hours of your life trying to make a point about the operation of a thing you never intend to actually attend. You never attend but boy do you threaten every single bookfair announcement posted to Anews! Yayy!
On behalf of tendies-loving anon experts online everywhere: we salute you!
"You never attend but boy do
anon (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 13:12
In reply to Congratulations, 05:59! You by TheDumbAwardGoesTo (not verified)
"You never attend but boy do you threaten every single bookfair announcement posted to Anews!"
Where didja see that?
I haven't "threatened" many other bookfairs, save perhaps for the Mtl one, a while back. This year's edition (the Constellation) looked quite promising as for he first time it wasn't monopolized on the same space, tho I ain't got no clue how it went.
OH LUMPY
anon (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 19:17
In reply to "You never attend but boy do by anon (not verified)
ooOooh nOoo the thin-lipped moderators are like an authoritarian state police with their comment removal policy!!! OooOhh nOoo I'm so glad they protect me from mean anons but we should not go to their website just like we don't go to bookfairs full of scary anarchists tooOooo!
...nope! haven't bothered
lumpy (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 20:50
In reply to OH LUMPY by anon (not verified)
...nope! haven't bothered responding to your fartbong rips since like, the 2nd surge of covid
but as you've been told many times, OTHER people also think you're a waste of oxygen
Get well soon, Lumpy. Come to
anon (not verified) Sat, 06/15/2024 - 22:47
In reply to ...nope! haven't bothered by lumpy (not verified)
Get well soon, Lumpy. Come to the bookfair and we will make love under the stairs.
"Policies are for the police"
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 21:11
In reply to You sound like a complete by KAOS (not verified)
Because policies must be enforced by some kind of authority, otherwise they are just mere suggestions or requests, that's why. Fucking duh.
That is simply not true. You
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 21:23
In reply to "Policies are for the police" by anon (not verified)
That is simply not true. You can actually learn what words mean at any point, it's not even hard. But keep being frightened and wrong all you like.
friightened? LOL
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 21:49
In reply to That is simply not true. You by anon (not verified)
Stop projecting your own feelings and insecurities onto others. The dude (or dudette) nailed it and it is you are wrong and feel threatened by that. What distinguishes a policy from a mere suggestion or a request is that policies have to be enforced by some kind of authority and mere suggestions or requests do not. If you ignore a policy, there are consequences of some kind, but if you ignore a suggestion or a request, there are none. And the Victorians enumerated their policies, which they clearly intend to enforce, not their suggestions or requests.
how does the fucking dictionary define the word "policy"?
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 22:03
In reply to Policies are for the police.. by anon (not verified)
Well, dictionary.com says this:
POLICY
(1) a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc.:
We have a new company policy.
Synonyms: rule, principle, strategy
(2) a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc.:
our nation's foreign policy.
Gist: policies are rules adopted and pursued by authorities.
End of fucking story. Now go attend your book fair and obey the fucking rules.
"YAAAAYYY bookfair organizers
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 22:26
In reply to how does the fucking dictionary define the word "policy"? by anon (not verified)
"YAAAAYYY bookfair organizers are a "state" "authority" enforcing "laws" YAYYYY!!!" - you.
BTW, cherry-picking to indulge being incorrect to save face in the eyes of anarchist about a thing you never intend to participate in is fun! "eNd oF fUcKing stOry!!!!"
merriam-webster definition (an actual authority of definitions oOooh nOooo!):
policy
1 of 2
noun (1)
pol·i·cy ˈpä-lə-sē
plural policies
often attributive
Synonyms of policy
1
a: prudence or wisdom in the management of affairs
b: management or procedure based primarily on material interest
2
a: a definite course or method of action selected from among alternatives and in light of given conditions to guide and determine present and future decisions
b: a high-level overall plan embracing the general goals and acceptable procedures especially of a governmental body
policy
2 of 2
noun (2)
plural policies
1
: a writing whereby a contract of insurance is made
2
a: a daily lottery in which participants bet that certain numbers will be drawn from a lottery wheel
Unsurprisingly a liberal
anon (not verified) Fri, 06/14/2024 - 08:11
Unsurprisingly a liberal bourgie event held in one of the most bourgie liberal towns in Klanada.
Add new comment