Click on the video to watch bookfair organizers and participants explain what the bookfair is, and what they think anarchy means.
Click on the video to watch B Channel interview artist Lee Bly at the Anarchist Bookfair Art Show
Click on the video to watch B Channel interview artist Greg Willcox at the Anarchist Bookfair Art Show
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by B Channel Staff, in association with Victoria Indymedia
The 4th annual Anarchist Bookfair took place on September 12th and 13th as the main event of the Festival of Anarchy. This week-long event included workshops, art, musical performances, a D.I.Y fest, and several cultural and educational activities. The annual fair is a hub for independent publishers and artists and is attended by hundreds of people concerned about progressive social justice.
The diversity of ideas about what anarchism is reflects the array of backgrounds that make up the people in the anarchist movement, but there are several common ideas that organizers of this event have gathered around. According to the bookfair’s website “The Victoria Anarchist Bookfair Collective affirms and promotes values of mutual aid, direct democracy, direct action, anti-authoritarianism, autonomy and solidarity. We reiterate our opposition to capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, colonialism, statism and all other forms of oppression; we will not accept participants in the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair who perpetuate or promote these attitudes. ”
The anarchist community has long been represented in Victoria by groups like Food Not Bombs, a thirty year old movement (18 in Victoria) that is concerned about both food security and the cessation of all war. Aside from providing food to the bookfair, volunteers with FNB gather weekly in an outdoor public space to share a hot meal with the community, both housed and unhoused.
Anarchist art has this same idea of practicality as well as empowerment mixed with a strong sense of social justice. This year’s bookfair featured a People’s Art Gallery at Camas Bookstore, a local volunteer-run bookstore and organizing centre. Video interviews with some of the artists involved can be found to the left of this article.
Bookfair organizers have declared the event a huge success, reporting that over 1000 people attended events during the week. With all the work that goes into organizing the bookfair, it won’t be long until organizers sit down again to begin planning next year’s event.
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