London Anarchist Bookfair 2024

[TopCat]

It just seems limp now. Energy dissipated.

 

[danny la rouge]

Pretty sure it's not, there's stalls on there that def weren't last year.

Well, the site needs tightening up then.

 

[74drew]

Are dogs welcome this year?

 

[hitmouse]

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.

Fwiw, I think the list of workshops sounds a lot better than the list of stalls. Although I can see why people might not go that far out of their way to attend the "Anthropocentrism, green anarchism, revolution!" or "Interfaith and Social Justice" talks.

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.

Personally, looking at the list of stalls I'd be less bothered about them not being specifically anarchist enough, and more about them not having that much connection to ongoing struggles. Say, London Renters Union, Housing Action Southwark & Lambeth, Palestine Action, UVW, IWGB, Troublemakers at Work, whichever antifascist groups the organisers have least beef with - maybe none of them are explicitly 100% anarchist, but all have varying degrees of similarity to anarchist practice and probably all have some anarchists involved in them, they seem like the sorts of groups you might want to have at a more struggle-focused event.