London Anarchist Bookfair 2024
- Thread starter stethoscope
- Start date
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Yes to that. As well as being the wrong vibe, it's not even as if people are doing that kind of stuff at the moment (certainly in this country). 20 years ago, with the big summit protests, maybe - and even then by and large without the molotovs.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Yes, if I hadn't been posting on my phone I'd have said I liked the drawing as an image. The symmetry appeals to my brain as well.
Hang on, is symmetry anarchist?
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Anarchy is order.Hang on, is symmetry anarchist?
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
stethoscope
Well-Known Member
Insert tales of past Wetherspoons fisticuffs here..........
redsquirrel
This Machine Kills Progressives
Yeah that artwork is top.
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
In terms of form, I'd agree, it is very good. In terms of substance, it's shite.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Uh oh, the question has been asked!
charlie mowbray
The Enforcer
Fortunately will be in Glasgow that weekend, doing something far more worthwhile. A lot of people have told me they won't be going either.
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
Decades ago, back in the days when I regularly attended the London anarchist bookfairs, I would often complain about the excess of bohemian and counter-cultural claptrap that was on offer. But I'd remain optimistic and hope that the then minimal interest in class struggle revolutionary anarchism/libertarian communism would increase. Looking at this year's offerings, aside from several possible exceptions, it looks like the bohemian riff-raff won 
We should really do a modern edit of Luigi Fabbri's Bourgeois Influences on Anarchism (we probably wouldn't need to change that much really as Fabbri was pretty much writing about the same old bollocks a hundred years ago). Then we do a dead cheap print out and give it to everyone at the bookfair, only with the words "That's you, that is" on the cover. Trouble is, the only people who'd actually bother to read it would be the handful of disgruntled oldies like me who are already moaning about it.
It's a tough gig being an anarchist who hates anarchists
We should really do a modern edit of Luigi Fabbri's Bourgeois Influences on Anarchism (we probably wouldn't need to change that much really as Fabbri was pretty much writing about the same old bollocks a hundred years ago). Then we do a dead cheap print out and give it to everyone at the bookfair, only with the words "That's you, that is" on the cover. Trouble is, the only people who'd actually bother to read it would be the handful of disgruntled oldies like me who are already moaning about it.
It's a tough gig being an anarchist who hates anarchists
petee
no gods, no malarkey
Decades ago, back in the days when I regularly attended the London anarchist bookfairs, I would often complain about the excess of bohemian and counter-cultural claptrap that was on offer. But I'd remain optimistic and hope that the then minimal interest in class struggle revolutionary anarchism/libertarian communism would increase. Looking at this year's offerings, aside from several possible exceptions, it looks like the bohemian riff-raff won
i'm clearly out of the loop, the NYC one was weekend before last and I didn't even know it was going on. when i used to go, it was a very big tent, big enough that an-caps had tables. but there was some class-struggle stuff too, i was kind of haging out with those people at the time.
here's the program from this year. 2024 NYC Anarchist Book Fair – NYC Anarchist Book Fair there are some presentations that i'd gladly have attended, and there was good representation from booksellers, but there is one word that appears nowhere in any program title.
Decades ago, back in the days when I regularly attended the London anarchist bookfairs, I would often complain about the excess of bohemian and counter-cultural claptrap that was on offer. But I'd remain optimistic and hope that the then minimal interest in class struggle revolutionary anarchism/libertarian communism would increase. Looking at this year's offerings, aside from several possible exceptions, it looks like the bohemian riff-raff won
We should really do a modern edit of Luigi Fabbri's Bourgeois Influences on Anarchism (we probably wouldn't need to change that much really as Fabbri was pretty much writing about the same old bollocks a hundred years ago). Then we do a dead cheap print out and give it to everyone at the bookfair, only with the words "That's you, that is" on the cover. Trouble is, the only people who'd actually bother to read it would be the handful of disgruntled oldies like me who are already moaning about it.
It's a tough gig being an anarchist who hates anarchists
Glances through the workshop schedule. Radical trade unions, sex workers, anti-gentrification campaigners, black feminists, Palestinian activists, Ukrainian anarchists, police monitoring ... you have a strange idea of what constitutes bohemian riff raff.
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
For fuck's sake
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
You must have missed where I said "with possible exceptions"
Most of them are not specifically anarchist, mind.Eta: looked at the stalls and specifically anarchist stalls are very few. It's very big tent. If that's their thing, then fine, but why not call it a radical bookfair as anarchists seem to be few and far between.
Last edited:
You must have missed where I said "with possible exceptions"
Eta: looked at the stalls and specifically anarchist stalls are very few. It's very big tent. If that's their thing, then fine, but why not call it a radical bookfair as anarchists seem to be few and far between.
Not really exceptions though are they. Who on the workshop programme would you consider to be bohemian riff raff? Most of the workshops seem to be run by anarchist groups, a few aren't but that's always likely to be the case and important imo.
And anarchist stalls aren't very few. They dominate the stalls list and many of the others are anarchist aligned. Almost all of the main UK anarchist groups are represented. I don't think your criticism is very objective.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Brilliant. 
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
Who said I was objective? My whole tone was subjective in a light-hearted curmudgeonly way. You know, the "anarchist who hates anarchists"
Look, I'm not going to get into critiquing particular stallholders. Some I have a lot of respect for, others I know little or nothing about and one in particular, I have absolutely no respect for. Suffice to say, I'm not really a fan of "Big Tent" anarchism.
As for "almost all the main UK anarchist groups are represented", no they're not, and I know at least one is excluded.
I can see the point, but I think it's important to have other groups who may be sympathetic to anarchist ideas or to support struggles that are going on right now. There is probably a place for a more finely tuned event as well, but the London bookfair has always included groups which aren't specifically anarchist.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
I haven’t seen the list of stalls for this year: the website seems to direct to the 2023 rundown.
I’m not in a “national” anarchist organisation at the moment. But I recommended the last two organisations I was in (I know: “splitter!” Etc etc) did not apply for a table. I don’t know if either did this year, but it would be better for them if they didn’t.
Good luck to the London bookfair. I hope they have a good day. (I note they are back to using “the” instead of “an”, but shrug, they can do what they like). But they’re really a slightly different corner to the one I’m personally in. Which is fine, it’s a big old world, and they are entitled to their place in it.
charlie mowbray
The Enforcer
Funnily enough, I was discussing today with another comrade (not in ACG) about all of this and about the possibility of reprinting the Fabbri text.
charlie mowbray
The Enforcer
Neither did, Danny.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Good.
Serge Forward
Just enjoyin' my coffee.
danny la rouge
I have a cheese grater in the dishwasher.
Aye, that’s last year’s.
Pretty sure it's not, there's stalls on there that def weren't last year.
steeplejack
trapped lbw for a duck
These are promising foundations for an attritional multi-page bunfight on the nature of time, relativity and epistemology from multiple anarchist perspectives
Similar threads
