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Anarchist Bookfair 2007

The umpteenth Bookfair at the umpteenth venue.

This year it was yet again a new venue.

Now we have to trek out to Stepney to Queen Mary College. The venue was OK though.

I sometimes wonder is the Anarchist Bookfair worth the effort of trekking to London for.

90% rubbish with the odd little nugget to make the trip worthwhile.

Those nuggets though are getting rarer and rarer.

Indymedia had an even wider range of DVDs on offer. The pricing though needs to be re-thought.

Four quid for one DVD is maybe OK, but after that it should be three for nine quid, five for fifteen quid. Indymedia UK would have shifted far more DVDs and made more money.

Two DVDs they did not have which I recommended: The Generation Game by Mike Lane which is an expose of the Pathfinder programme destroying tens of thousands of Victorian houses in order that developers can make a fast buck, the other was Favela Rising filmed in the slums of Brazil.

The Anarchist Bookfair is one of the rare places to find Zapatista coffee. I think it was Active Distribution who had it on their stall. I should have asked them where they get it from.

http://activedistribution.org/

http://www.cafe-libertad.de/

For anyone who has not tried Zapatista coffee, it is the best you can get. And it is Fair Trade.

If your local deli or wholefood shop does not stock Zapatista coffee, ask them why not.

Notes from the Borderlands should carry a health warning, 'Do not believe any of this crap'. Sadly there are though a few gullible souls who take in this bunkum hook, line and sinker, giving truth to the age old adage that fools and their money are easily parted.

I was reminded of the semi-autobiographical novel by Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho, Vernonika Decides to Die. The mad live in a lunatic asylum, but they prefer to live there where their madness is the norm.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5476539

If Borderlands is the asylum, the inmates must be released one day a year to man a stall at the Anarchist Bookfair! Maybe it is part of their therapy!

A few interesting leaflets and pamphlets picked up here and there, four DVDs from Indymedia UK, a DVD from SchNEWS.

One book I picked up well worth reading was A Hundred and One Days by Norwegian journalist Asne Seierstad, and that I picked up not from the bookfair but from a second hand bookshop in Charing Cross Road earlier in the day.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5598185

Two other books I found in the same bookshop and well worth having were The Bookseller of Kabul also by Asne Seierstad and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5598191

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5598188

I'd highly recommend We – the unauthorised Arundhati Roy, one of the DVDs I picked up from Indymedia. Less about her, more about her words. A useful complement to The Ordinary Person's Empire, a collection of her essays and speeches, which ironically I picked up on a previous trip to London from the same second had bookshop in Charing Cross Road.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5598200

That from Indymedia is the Australian version of We

http://www.resist.com.au/we-arundhati-roy.php

there is also a US version with extras

http://www.weroy.org/

Maybe should be shown at this year's Beyond TV International Film Festival down in Swansea.

I've not yet had time to view the other DVDs.

I did though, as last year, from the Rising Tide stall, pick up a couple of copies of the cartoon booklet Funny Weather by Kate Evans. The book, which the booklet was published to publicize, is even better!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5598218

Later in the day there was a party in the evening at RampART.

http://www.rampart.co.nr/

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/10/383652.html

A long trek by foot, but somehow I found it, even though I did not have the faintest idea where it was or where I was going.

An interesting place. I thought I'd look in as I have never been there before.

RampART, in Rampart Street, Whitechapel, East London, is a squatted semi-derelict former warehouse. Use of the facilities it provides is free, with the proviso that in turn you do not charge, though a donation may be requested.

The party was a fund raising benefit for No Borders.

http://www.noborders.org.uk/

The food and drink good, but the rap music bloody awful.

Films were showing. I liked the cartoon one on how money worked. It would have been useful though a little sign or programme saying what the films were.

I found a good selection of books. Had I known, I would have happily donated a few books.

In keeping with the RampART philosophy, I would suggest that everyone provides what they know to be a good read, and registers the book on BookCrossing, with RampART as a BookCrossing zone

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

I did not stay long as had to get home.

No idea where the nearest tube was, but somehow found Aldgate or was it Aldgate East, only to find half the trains were not running and Sod's Law it was the direction I wished to go.

Welcome to Third World Britain, where if you are lucky the filthy expensive public transport may be running.

I somehow managed to catch the last train out of Waterloo.

It was a slow train, but I did not mind as I settled down to read A Hundred and One Days.

Anarchist Bookfair 2004

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/12/302216.html

Anarchist Bookfair 2005

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/10/326418.html

Anarchist Bookfair 2006

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/10/354183.html

websites

http://www.anarchistbookfair.org/

http://www.rampart.co.nr/

http://www.noborders.org.uk/

http://www.bookcrossing.com/

Keith Parkins

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

what do you mean...

29.10.2007 17:22

... you had to trek ALL THE WAY out to stepney? you do realise it's far more central than holloway? and it was closer to mile end than stepney?

someone get this geezer a map!

* shakes head at the state of british education ;-) *

geographer

Nice write up, thanks

29.10.2007 18:12

Should be more stuff like this on indy.

half way between tube stations

29.10.2007 18:15

The venue was near enough exactly halfway between Mile End and Stepney Green tube stations, but not in Central London.

keith

Conversations at the Anarchist Bookfair 2007

29.10.2007 19:00

There’s a lot of anarchy to be had in a conversation.

Chaotic, tumbling, bumbling, ooh-ooh, yeah, aha, you, then me, then her, then breath, her, him, you, herhimyou, meyouhim, hymn, ha-ha, freedom and boredom in the excess, why did i say that, why didn’t i say this, shall i, shan’t i, fuck it, i didn’t notice me standing there, “she realises she is dominating the conversation“

And there’s a lot of authoritarianism too.

Sometimes I feel disturbed after a conversation in which I have either been blocked out or in which insensitivity, tiredness, anxiety (++) have led me up the garden of eden path to talking bullshit.

An anarchic conversation is rooted in the body. Babies converse anarchically and they know no words. They are little bundles of surprise, taking me by it. Making me crack up. Breaking the reductionism of language patterns. The way I converse bores me. small talk is small. Time for a tall tale.

“for the Zapatistas

a leader is

the best listener

in the community

from south to north

reversal

move

staying still”

(from letter to Emily)

Conversations were had with:

the Rag, Dublin’s cool, anarcha-feminist collective. Congratulations on the new mag, the new Rag,

the woman from Cornwall who asked for one too,

the guy selling Moving On benefit CDs for Nottingham Social centre - the ‘For Fucks sake, this CD is only a quid, please take it off my hands’ message.

the woman who gave me a ladyfest flier when i yelped with excitement at finding out the date - we exchanged glints in our eyes. Ladyfest London is arriving …. (May 9 - 11th 2008)

the battle for broadway market film resonated loudly. Betty, the 76 year old, says ‘To be honest, this (battle) has done me the world of good. Last year my husband died. I was staying at home all the time. This has got me out the house, made me friends for life.” (I’m paraphrasing, sorry. Watch the film, it’s beautiful)

The Anarchist Black Cross crew - wow, what organisation!, printing out cards, with slips of paper about political prisoners and why they’re inside. All i had to do was write a message and they’d send it on. (I wrote to Mumia Abu-Jamal and Betty someone - involved in anti-olympic development direct action in … Canada(?) Thanks people! This is a form of solidarity I’ve been wanting to do for ages and you made it possible. The ABC fixed it for me! Let’s wear our medals with pride. I noticed most of the prisoners were from US, aren’t there many political prisoners in the UK? John Bowden is getting some support at the moment. Be interested to find out more.

the Cunningham amendment (the letterpress stronghold in a world of zines - get yours from 1005 Huddersfield Road, Bradford, BD12 8LP by sending some stamps or small amounts of cash),

David Gribble - thanks for your research into Real Education: Varieties of Freedom. It was a pleasure. We chatted about the Paths through Utopias project’s recent trip to Padeia Anarchist school in Extramadura. David was impressed that they had ‘got in’. He’s been emailing them for years and they don’t respond. Maybe they are zine fanatics and eschew electronic communication.

the SLACkers … yippee! an idea for a new action - intervention by radio, the power of,

that little group of people who met around the question “Should we be spending more time on existing struggles or creating alternatives?” in the Trapese collective’s workshop - the woman with red hair i recognise from Russell Square social centre, the guy with the long blond hair, the short Australian / NZ ? (sorry!!) woman, the note-taker-woman, but NO THANKS! to the woman who came along, gave an opinion then trounced off again. Go straight to the Zapatistas. Do not pass GO.

friends, friends, colleagues, collaborators, partners in crime - never enough time to talk to you properly and plot and scheme. How to ride this shallow trough, this lack of time we splash about in? How to identify the wave that will carry us together over the edge of capitalism and into pools of freedom, time and again. Shall we surf?

the little insight from David Graeber about how in authoritarian discussions there are different categories of wrongness, and s/he who wants to attack waits just long enough to decide which category of wrongness what you have to say falls into and then pulls out the argument (from the woefully inadequate archives) to criticise your attempt at communication and put it back in its place of wrongness. WRONG! Wring, Wrang, Wrong. Wrong is such a beautiful word. It tickles the back of the throat, that W and that R together, aah, that’s gorgeous. It’s as sacred as a tibetan bowl. healing through sound. (No esotericism please, we’re anarchists. Bollocks. Where were the pagans at this year’s bookfair. Well, I was there …) Think of 10 ways you were wrong yesterday and CELEBRATE them in a festival of wrongness with 10 dear mates you have wronged. Q are we condemned to wrong our mates through bad communication? A whatever, but i’d say yes but never condemned. Friends aren’t really friends until you’ve fallen out then in with them again. Discuss. Diss & Cuss. Kick up a fuss.

Which reminds me, NO THANKS to that guy and then the other one who said in the David Graeber and Stevphen Shukaitis Militant Research talk ‘Let’s break off into small groups - I’m sure everyone’s got things to say on the subject’, ‘I’m an activist-academic too and I spend my time trying to break down these situations of panel, audience division’. And then the woman who said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve got a PhD and i don’t know what you’re talking about’ (Well, I’ve got a GCSE in French and STILL can’t speak Spanish). What was going on here? Now, I’m a big fan of horizontal group discussions but that has to be the proposal from the off in a workshop of one hour otherwise we just learn how to chair scrape. And sometimes I like listening to certain people speak. Yes, that’s right. I like to sit and listen. I went to that talk to listen to David Graeber as he tends to speak in a way that is understandable and entertaining. I listen to good lectures the way I listen to experimental poetry, i let it wash over me, some of it sticks, most of it doesn’t. The bits that stick are worth it. I don’t try and control the experience and process every word.

Hijack, disrupt, control, ego, power, coming with a pre-set agenda, losing the moment.

Unfortunately, David fitted into someone’s category of wrongness. What a neat exposition of his argument. Did he plan that? Was it guerrilla theatre?

Pretty much every discussion at the ABF is going to be top down, unless specifically planned otherwise. Sitting in a circle does not mean a discussion is going to be horizontal. The Trapese collective did a groovy workshop in a lecture hall with raked seating. We clambered over them to move around the room in a market place discussion. A v large percentage of anarchists / libertarians have had an authoritarian education. We reproduce it. Its one of our unknown unknowns. Even our good intentions are hijacked by our blindness.
We’re at our most dangerous when we think we’re doing good. I’m a moralising bollock-talker. No, I really am.

the Lambeth Band of Solidarity
mail e-mail: theband(at)riseup.net
Homepage: http://lambethbandofsolidarity.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/conversations-at-the-anarchist-book-fair-london-2007/

this is not

29.10.2007 19:25

news. its some (rather pretentious persons) opinion being presented as a news post.

...

corn cobs and broom sticks

29.10.2007 22:14

Dear 'this is not', You need to let your corn cob or broom stick out into the sunshine a little more often.
For someone who did not travel to Londoncentric for the bookfair, i was quite happy to read a post reporting on the event which was news to/for me.
Cheers Lambeth Banders!

corn cob

...especially when collectivly manifest, is anarchy...

30.10.2007 02:47

...so despite possible dodgyness due to drud dealing issues, I would say, from my experience, that if young people want to really know what anarchy is, they could do a lot worse than really liberating and going to live, at least for a while, with 'hippy traveller' people...possibly in Ireland, which as a state is more mellow towards this scene. Seeing the people at the Indymedia party that went to the anarchist convention/bookfair, they (you) seemed like students. Thats not a bad thing, but rather clean cut etc, again, in my experience, (noting the various world traveller types there) again, lay the books to one side and go and live it for real. Don't make any plans for after! Defintely the most 'centred' of the squatt type scenes that I've come across, including protest camps, and EF! scene; really, I'm not being funny, just trying to share some reality awareness with the nice kids that were at the event...words of advice to young people....

Good luck

Blessings.

Comsic Consciousness

it's that time of year again - lets's ave our duel!

30.10.2007 08:47

come on Keith. Let's have another internet squabble in time honoured tradition! So that you can give me the opportunity to make a spectacular fool of myself yet again!

Larry O-Hara impersonator

Dear This is Not

30.10.2007 14:51

This is not
news
this is not
anarchy
this is not
right
this is not
allowed
this is not
what not
this is not
rot

Anna Key

Nice write up

02.11.2007 20:15

I have been to the fair 5 times now. It's a great event and I tip my hat to those who put it on but it could attract so many more with a bit of imagination. Firstly, get some good food on. If people are going out for a day they want a nice nibble to keep them going (vegan of course! :) Secondly, make it more colourful; live music, entertainment, some costumed performers. It has a drab feel like a jumble sale.

Rich

UK Indymedia