A-Infos (en) UK, AFED, Organise - QNA: BRISTOL ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

As part of an ongoing series of short Question and Answer sessions with 
fellow Anarchists who are organising in their local community, today 
we're talking to a member of the Bristol Anarchist Bookfair. --- Q: 
Please introduce yourself and your bookfair, how long has it been going 
and how long have you been an organising member? --- I'm[Redacted]from 
Bristol. There have been bookfairs here most years since 2008. Mostly 
run by an ad-hoc collective, but while the core group took a break 
Active Distro stepped in with a series of smaller events from 2019 to 
2023. Now we're back at full scale since last year. I've been involved 
in four or five bookfairs over the years, but have no idea which ones.

Q: Lovely, thank you all for taking the time out to answer some 
questions! Let's crack on with a biggy, it's been 40 odd years since the 
first Anarchist Bookfair of the modern era (In London of course) and 
over the years we've seen massive changes to what Bookfairs look like 
and who attends them, so I'm curious what you see as the main role of an 
Anarchist bookfair today?
On the role of the bookfair, there are several main ones and which is 
more important varies by time space and person.

For me, as someone who had their first entry into organised anarchism at 
a Bookfair, the most important lart is to be that entry point. Somewhere 
someone can show up, get the zines and books, attend an entry level 
workshop, and talk to the various groups active locally about how they 
can join in.

On top of that it is a good place for groups, friends, comrades, and 
rivals to show up. It is a place that no online forum has come close to 
matching in its ability to build solidarity and share knowledge and 
resources between groups.

Resources is another big one, whilst mitigated somewhat by online sales 
and crowd finders, it can still be a big influx of money for the group 
taking part. Well big by the standards of radical groups where a few 
hundred quid is two years operating budget.

Q: There are many Anarchisms as they say and yet somehow, especially 
online, our spaces can feel like a sub-cultural bubble. What political 
and cultural gaps do you think bookfairs help fill that online spaces 
and other events cannot? To what degree to you try and involve 
anarchists from across the spectrum, where does this become a struggle 
and are there any hardlines?
To me the only red lines for what a Bookfair should include are groups 
and individuals that claim the mantle of anarchism but support 
oppression. For example transphobic organisations, misogynists, 
supporters of capitalism, nationalism, or other systems of impression.

Whether you're an individualist or a platformist it is dishonest to 
pretend you are all of anarchism. It is also a weakness to exclude those 
we disagree with. Anarchism is full of constant internal debates and 
discussions, streams of thought that split off, recombine mix and make 
new. It's a strength we should appreciate not avoid.

Finally I'm a big supporter of inviting fellow travellers. 
Non-anarchists fighting for a better world, that don't cross the red 
lines, aren't political parties, and are willing to work with us as 
equals. In practice this has usually been single issue groups, many of 
which have anarchists as a part of there membership, but can go beyond 
that. No one has ever complained to me for having stalls or workshops 
from unions, LGBTQ groups, Palestine solidarity or anti-arms these 
groups, even if those groups are explicitly a far broader church than 
just anarchists.

Q: How does your collective organise itself, are you all in the same 
organisation or from various groups? How are decisions made, do you 
practice a broad horizontal approach with everyone chipping in or are 
individuals/work groups (self) assigned tasks?
Our collective essentially reforms each year with a call to any 
anarchists that want to get involved. Some years we'll be mostly people 
who have done at least one Bookfair before, some years mostly new 
people. We're entirely independent, but there has been consistent 
involvement from some groups such as BASE social centre and The 
Anarchist Federation. Decision wise we always aim for consensus. 
Consensus can be tricky but it has worked well so far, likely due to 
generally being around ten people at most, and having a long 'lead in 
time' for general discussions before the real heavy organising is under way.

Q: What responsibilities, sure as child care, security and wellbeing 
support do you take on? why and how do you go about it? Where do you 
feel your event is taking positive strides here and where is there still 
work to be done?
It is really important, both practically and politically, that as many 
people as possible are able to come to events like this. Last year we 
had a new collective, and a new (and disappointing) venue, and we 
struggled in a lot of ways. We did manage excellent child care prevision 
though!

This year we are in a far better venue, have a lot more experience 
working as a group, a bit more capacity, and many more contacts with 
more knowledge, experience, and pointers for self-education. We hope 
this will mean more people can attend, and more people can get the most 
out of it when they do.

Security has been something we plan for, usually with a couple of 
dedicated groups that form for the day, but luckily not something that 
has been needed much.

Q: What brought you towards organising an Anarchist/Radical bookfair and 
what keeps you committed? Has organising these events changed your 
perspective?
To quote one of the most inspirational anarchists to have ever lived 
'Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great 
fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote 
begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of 
self-thinking individuals' - Lucy Parsons.

Bookfairs are difficult, messy, and often feel relatively thankless. But 
they are also the best way to learn and grow I've experienced both as an 
absolute new comer, and as a veteran anarchist. My hope is that the 
hundreds of hours of effort that gets put into a bookfair results in 
thousands of hours of organising and actions made possible by the 
connections forged on the day.

Q: There are lots of constraints put on anyone organising events these 
days, from finding a location suitable, souring a few dozen tables just 
for a single day, and just covering all the costs. How do you tackle 
these issues and just how much does it cost to run an event, how did you 
go about the first one?
Every year it gets much more expensive, mostly due to the venue hire 
costs. There are literally no venues remotely within our price range 
that offer both large halls for stalls,  plenty of rooms for workshops, 
and the potential for a relatively accessible event. We've had to stitch 
together five near-by venues to manage that this year, which obviously 
comes with its own set of challenges. We're still looking at close to 
£2000 just for venue hire costs.

Most of our income comes from the day itself, with donations on the 
door, or for food and merch. This means that paying up front costs 
relies on a combination of us having made a surplus the year before and 
getting loans from individuals and groups. Various benefits, fund 
raising pushes, and parties help, but they all need a lot of organising 
as well.

Q: What do you and your collective feel is still lacking, where can you 
improve and what challenges are you taking on ahead of your next event?
Our main focus compared to last year is making a more accessible and 
approachable event. We're also increasing in scale, allowing for more 
workshops and talks than last year.

Q: On a personal level, what has been your favourite moment(s) of 
organising these events?
Whenever someone talks to me at their first bookfair, and then I see 
them months or years later involved with a great project or campaign.

Q: Is it Bookfair or Book Fair?
One year we nearly printed hundreds of flyers inviting people to a 
Bokfair, in comparison either of those is fine.

A massive thanks to the crew member from Bristol Anarchist Bookfair for 
taking the time out to answer our questions. Their next event is on the 
24th October at The Trinity Centre. You can learn more about them here: 
https://bristolanarchistbookfair.uk/.

https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2026/08/13/qna-bristol-anarchist-bookfair/
_________________________________________
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 https://ainfos.ca/mailman/listinfo/a-infos-en
Archive: http://ainfos.ca/en