Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Audio from the Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair 2013

Chris @sheffbookfair | 18.05.2013 22:25 | Culture | Education | History | Sheffield

Attached are audio recordings from 8 of the talks at the Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair which was held in the Showroom and Workstation on 11th May 2013, see also the photos of the stalls.


Following are the titles and descriptions of the talks from the programme:

The Luddites, the crisis and the need for a new politics of technology - Corporate Watch

From 1811-1816, textile workers in the North of England rose up against machines that were destroying their livelihoods, and against the whole industrial capitalist system. 200 years of technocratic capitalism has brought us to the to the brink of an environmental disaster, and class exploitation still ruins the lives of the majority of the world’s people: the choice between libertarian socialism and barbarism has never been more stark. Rather than face the transition to sustainability and economic justice, ruling elites are trying to maintain business as usual, through technofixes such as geoengineering and synthetic biology. This workshop will discuss new efforts to resist these technofixes, and the need for a new luddite politics of technology.

The Fighting Union - The Industrial Workers of the World in Sheffield - Sheffield Industrial Workers of the World

We don’t have much money and no paid officials. We don’t sell insurance or credit cards. But we are fighting and winning and we want more. We want the economy run for the benefit of everybody, not a handful of executives on unimaginable pay. Hear about the IWW across the world, its history, and principles and where we are at today. Hear from the Sheffield Branch of the IWW and how we grew from one campaign into an organised group of people taking action to change their own varied workplaces for the better, and gaining international support. Find out about our members’ own experiences using direct action and how direct democracy is working in ‘the Union for all workers’.

The Idea of the Commune - Nick Heath, Anarchist Federation

A presentation outlining how the idea of the commune and the federation of communes developed amongst anarchist communists in the 1870s and 1880s . They saw the commune as the “vehicle of revolution”. Whilst the idea of the commune seeks to involve all sections of the working class, be they women, unemployed, youth, the old, etc the meeting argues that anarcho-syndicalism limits struggle and the involvement of large sections of the working class. Anarchist communists need to re-affirm the idea of the commune.

Anarchist communism: a history of struggle - Collective Action

A presentation covering the basic principles of anarchist communism as shown through two key historical episodes: the life of Bakunin and the Makhnovist uprising in Ukraine. The presentation will bring these ideas up to the contemporary period to discuss contemporary debates between organisationalist and so-called lifestyle anarchism.

Anarchists! Know your theory! - Collective Action

This presentation aims to debunk the myths that anarchism is a romatic, impulsive or otherwise anti-intellectual philosophy. The lecture will introduce key theoretical concepts - specifism, organisational dualism, the social and political level and social insertion - that help to inform anarchist communist practice. These ideas will be siutated in the original experiences of key proponents such as Bakunin and Malatesta but argued to be key tools for anarchists today to build popular, anti-capitalist movements.

The Feminist Library: Womens’ Studies Without Walls - Womens’ Studies Without Walls

In January 2013 the Feminist Library (London) hosted a weekend event to launch a new initiative entitled Womens’ Studies Without Walls, which is continuing in the form of a series of evening events at the library. The reason for initiating Womens’ Studies Without Walls (WSWW) was a feeling that the gap between academics studying feminist struggle and activists involved in everyday grassroots struggle has grown so wide that we cannot easily find places to talk together and, in some cases, cannot even understand one another.

We would like to hold a meeting with anyone who is interested in talking about how to develop WSWW. We can tell you how we organised, answer questions people may have, and facilitate a discussion about whether there is a need and/or an interest in organising WSWW outside of London. If there is sufficient interest among the people present, we can actually start some grassroots planning during the meeting.

Anarchism, Marxism and the state: the real divide amongst revolutionaries? - The Commune & Communist Workers Organisation

Marxists and anarchists have always shared the view that the antithesis to capitalism is a classless, stateless society. What they have not shared is a clear outline of how this might come about. After the statist cul de sacs of social democracy, Stalinism and Trotskyism many Marxists now recognise that the issue is not about replacing the state but destroying it. After the failure of the anarchists in Spain many anarchists recognise that revolution from below cannot just be a nice idea but has to have a deeper material basis. With capitalism now in obvious crisis is this not the time for a more fruitful exchange on revolution and the state than has been possible in the past? All welcome.

They say ‘cut back’ we say....?

A facilitated discussion to share experiences and information from various local groups organising against the policies of austerity such as those fighting the bedroom tax and benefit cap, UK Uncut, and groups seeking to save local services threatened with closure. How do we increase the effectiveness of responses to the state’s austerity program? All welcome.

Chris @sheffbookfair
- Homepage: http://www.sheffieldbookfair.org/

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. Bakunin, Marx and the state — Barry Biddulph
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech