A-Infos (en) US, Minesota-St Paul Twin Cities Anarchis Bookfair 11-12 September 2010 - UPDATE

Building off long-standing successes like the 16-year-old Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair, new 
anarchist bookfairs have appeared in cities worldwide in recent years. And this coming 
weekend, the Twin Cities hosts one of its very own at the Powderhorn Park Recreation 
Center. ---- On Saturday, September 11, featured speakers at the fair will include Cindy 
Milstein, author of the new AK Press title Anarchism and its Aspirations, and Diana Block, 
prison abolitionist, feminist and author of the memoir Arm the SpiritâA Woman's Journey 
Underground and Back. Workshops will be led by groups including the Experimental College, 
Twin Cities Avengers and Twin Cities Indymedia, and participants are coming from as far 
away as the Beehive Design Collective in Maine, Oakland-based PM Press and Edmonton's 
ThoughtCrime Ink; regional groups like the Cream City Collectives and Wisconsin Books to 
Prisoners; and a slew of local organizations and individual mediamakers.


In the interview below, two Twin Cities Anarchist Bookfair organizers talk about the 
purpose of the fair, what anarchists and non-anarchists will find, and the state of 
anarchism in the Twin Cities.

Bookfair hours are Noon-6pm on Saturday and 2:30-8pm on Sunday. All events, as you might 
expect, are free.

TCIMC: There's never a shortage of radical projects to be done, and if you ask someone 
what's most needed for the resistance, a bookfair probably won't be the answer. So why 
take this project on?

My first exposure to radical ideas came from books. Even before I met any anarchists in 
the Twin Cities - and there are plenty of them, I just never knew where to look â I 
considered myself one of those fiery, off the hook radicals after reading famous authors 
like Emma Goldman, Howard Zinn, bell hooks and Frantz Fanon, to name a few. Without access 
to the ideas that these authors put into bound form, I would have never been able to 
critically develop the opinions I have today. Books are one of the more accessible mental 
waterways into developing radical movements â without them we would have a much harder 
time reevaluating our tactics around organizing, communicating across backgrounds and 
developing new ways of thinking about how we are going to help strengthen our communities 
of resistance.

It's true, there's a lot of exciting projects going on right now, and there's always tons 
of stuff that needs doing. One thing that really attracted me to the bookfair idea is that 
it presents an opportunity to connect many of these great projects together. Anarchists 
and radicals from all over will be coming together in an explicitly anarchist space to 
share ideas, trade skills, talk about their projects, and have fun with one another. It's 
so exciting and inspiring to be in a space like that, especially when it's an not a mass 
protest or summit where we'd have to look over our shoulders for riot cops all the time.

The other thing that I like about bookfairs is that they're a fantastic way to do 
outreach. Folks can meet self-identified anarchists and talk with us about our ideas. A 
bookfair provides an opportunity for people interested in what we have to say to hear it 
straight from us, rather than in a distorted form coming from media talking heads.

TCIMC: What will those people who don't identify as anarchists get out of the bookfair? I 
even noticed on your list of participants a few groups that aren't explicitly anarchist - 
why is that?

We decided early on that we wanted this to be an explicitly anarchist bookfair - not with 
watered down wording like "progressive." However, we also agreed that groups that didn't 
self-identify as anarchist would still be welcome, provided they agree with the principal 
aims and values of anarchism. So we have groups like Veterans For Peace or the TC 
Avengers, who don't really call themselves anarchists, but have so much to bring to the 
discussion.

I think many anarchists in the Twin Cities understand that being able to organize under an 
anarchist
banner is an act of privilege for many, and that it's more important to recognize the 
similarities between other radical projects and ourselves â like a commitment to 
non-hierarchical processes â than to organize only with anarchists. There are a lot of 
really amazing distributors, publishers, and groups who are participating in the bookfair 
that don't label themselves as getting down with the anarchy. Yet, they exhibit many 
ideals that anarchism subscribes to and for that, I think it's important to include them 
in this event. I think people from all different personal, economic and political 
backgrounds will find something to take away from the bookfair, and hey, we (the 
self-described anarchists) will probably learn a thing or two ourselves.

The label "anarchist" isn't the most important thing anyway. I don't want to recruit 
people to "follow anarchism" or evangelize for the "anarchist movement." That's 
vanguardism and it goes against every anti-authoritarian impulse I have. I want to expose 
people to anarchist ideas and methods and, more importantly, encourage them to develop 
ideas and methods of their own. That's what separates anarchism from every other 
revolutionary political tendency, in my opinion. You can't come up with a program for 
liberation or try to convert people to an ideology and call that liberatory. I don't want 
to get people to sign up for my project, I want them to start their own project.

TCIMC: What makes an anarchist bookfair different than any other bookfair?

I think something that stands out at an anarchist bookfair is the commitment to 
anti-oppression,
anti-authoritarianism and putting our words into action. I don't necessarily think of this 
event just as a bookfair â but a place where anarchists and non-anarchists alike can come 
together to share ideas,
write their own stories, participate in workshops and skill shares, and hopefully put 
words and conversations into direct action against the structures and systems of power 
that we are all fighting against.

It's the difference between capitalist and anarchist values, really. At any other 
bookfair, attendees are customers who pay to get in and are expected to buy something once 
inside. The vendors and speakers have the knowledge and the attendees are paying to get a 
small chunk of it. We completely reject that model for a bookfair and for society at 
large. The anarchist bookfair is free. We want attendees to be participants and workshop 
facilitators and learn as much as they teach. And we'll be in a park, so there'll be ample 
space for anyone to organize their own guerrilla workshop.

And as far as books go, you'll find many out of print books and hard to locate radical 
publications at the bookfair that aren't usually available in the Twin Cities.

TCIMC: The radical publishing world--just like much of the rest of the culture we live 
in--is a lot more accessible to people who find themselves in the mainstream rather than 
the margin of gender, class, sexuality, ability, race and other social categories. Will 
the bookfair counteract this and if so, how?

You're absolutely right. Access to information (whether it's a question of who gets books 
published, who can buy books, or who can access the internet) is a major tool of 
oppression and must be a focus for any liberatory movement.

One thing I particularly like about anarchists is the acceptance of zines and other DIY 
forms of communication. More than any other bookfair, this will be a place where anyone 
with an opinion and a copy machine can get their ideas out to a large audience. We're very 
lucky to have some wonderful distributors attending (like AK Press, PM Press, and Little 
Black Cart) but I'm even more excited to read the random zines from the free table.

It's our desire to make this space more accessible to people outside of the mainstream. We 
want to provide a space that's rooted in anti-oppression â to acknowledge that oppression 
lives in and amongst us â so as to challenge the normal behaviors of racism, classism, and 
sexism. We want to create a space that allows for folks who haven't necessarily been 
exposed to radical politics, or folks who have felt uncomfortable prior, to come and 
communicate new and rebellious ideas across race, class, gender, ability and age lines.

We also want to provide a place where folks can eat free food and receive free child care 
while they peruse through different books, whilst being able to buy, trade, barter or get 
for free different forms of the written word â books, short stories, zines, essays, 
magazines and more.

TCIMC: How would you describe the state of the anarchist movement, or the resistance as a 
whole for that matter, in the Twin Cities? I think there is a perception of it being 
largely reactive or defensive in nature â is that true?

Since the RNC in 2008, we've had quite a lot of shit to deal with. However, in the last 
six months or so, I've noticed a subtle but significant shift in mood. We're beginning to 
move out of "post-RNC" mode and all of its attendant headaches. New projects are growing 
from the ashes of old ones and there seems to be a greater enthusiasm for trying to build 
again.

Instead of reacting, as you said, to what the State is doing and struggling to maintain 
our present strength and not go under, we're finally able to start thinking about building 
momentum and creating something new again. MARS (Minneapolis Autonomous Radical Space), 
Boneshaker Books, the Twin Cities IWW and the new Jimmy John's Union, the Really Really 
Free Markets - these are all fantastic examples of this energy that's been building for 
quite a while now. I'm sure there are lots more unbelievably awesome things going on out 
there completely unbeknownst to me, as well.

I think it goes without saying that a lot of anarchist organizing here has been swallowed 
up by fighting the (in)justice system against ridiculous legal charges related to the RNC, 
which I should note has been an amazing and admirable campaign. However, I also think it's 
important to remember that the presence of anarchism in the Twin Cities doesn't always 
mean dressing up in a suit and going to court, it also means acting on the offense, 
building our movement and strengthening the bonds we already have.

Hopefully, after the bookfair, anarchists in the Twin Cities will be inspired to organize 
on the other side of the field.

Where will this take us? I have no idea. I can only hope that this bookfair will be energy 
well spent, that it will inspire us and give us strength. Hopefully, the experience of 
looking around and seeing a room full of incredible people passionately engaged in 
projects of liberation and mutual aid will be so fucking energizing that a dozen new 
projects will spring up the next day. Not too much to ask, right?

Find more information on the Twin Cities Anarchist Bookfair at 
http://tcanarchist.wordpress.com.
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://ainfos.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en