(en) Britain, Anarchist Federation report from the 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013

Here is a report by the Anarchist Federation participants at the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 
that took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013. See also, Joint statements made 
during the bookfair: 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/378-joint-statements-radio-and-video-from-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-24-26-may-2013.html 
Celebrating ten years of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair. Ljubljana 24th-26th May 2013 --- 
The Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, which has rotated between the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, 
Bulgaria and Greece, took place this year in Ljubljana, Slovenia over three days - 
24th-26th May. It has been interrupted three times over the last ten for political reasons 
in the region, and so this was actually the seventh. Previous bookfairs have been in 
Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria as well as Slovenia. Below is a report from the perspective of 
Anarchist Federation and Sparrows? Nest participants.

The organisers were the Federation for Anarchist Organising (FAO), of Slovenia, who are a 
sister federation of the AF in the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA) and who 
Nottingham AF and Sparrows? Nest people know very well. It took place in the radical 
quarter of the city known as Metelkova, where the FAO also run a great Infoshop. There 
were something like 20 stalls from organisations and distributors from the Balkans and 
well beyond.

The purpose of the Bookfair, aside from selling books and papers in Balkan languages and 
in English, is for anarchists to organise against nationalism. Anarchism in the Balkans 
has arisen as much out of the desire to create region-wide networks which can support the 
struggle against nationalist ideology by the various groups and federations within these 
artificially created borders. Balkan anarchists attending the bookfair were Macedonians 
(organisation: Black Bloc, which is very new and considering itself speculatively to be 
anarcho-syndicalist), Serbs (ASI-IWA and independents); Slovenia (FAO-IFA and 
independents), Croatia ( MASA-IWA and independents), Greece (Libertarian Communist Group 
of Athens ? associated with IFA; and Eutopia, from Athens and Thessaloniki) and Bulgaria 
(FAB-IFA and independents). In addition, IFA federations of France (FA), Italy (FAI), 
German-speaking (FdA) and Britain (AF) attended. For the full list of countries from which 
participants came, see the reports produced by the workshops and General Assembly of the 
Bookfair.

Of course the current Economic Crisis makes it even more important that anti-nationalism 
is confronted now. Anarchists from counties affected by the warfare born out of the 
breakup of Yugoslavia are seriously concerned that the collapse/break up/withdrawal of the 
EU in the region will bring new wars, and so ?internationalism? is not some vaguely 
laudable intention, but absolutely essentially and immediate in their organising.

In Slovenia specifically, there was an uprising recently in Maribor and Ljubljana. It 
began in Maribor and was sparked by political corruption. Corporate property was destroyed 
and police attacked a huge demonstration, actually tear-gassing people including children 
from the air via helicopter! Far from being put down, the uprising spread as a result. 
This took place in April. From the bookfair, a demonstration was initiated in relation to 
the uprising and two hundred anarchists took part in an energetic march into the city 
centre. It has rarely been as easy to give out anarchist literature in the street and have 
it received enthusiastically. Chanting was in Slavonic languages, French, Spanish, Italian 
and English, and was against the state, police, capitalism, nationalism and for ?Full 
Anarchism?. This has built on anarchist support for self-organised striking dock workers 
in the last couple of years. Anarchism has never had a higher or more positive profile in 
Slovenia.

The organising group had made great effort at an early stage to include other groups in 
making up the excellent programme of bookfair meetings which included workshops, 
discussions on specific themes and a couple of presentations using slides. Discussions 
were framed by well-planned introductions which were often based on documents read out in 
English and in some cases had multiple introductions that complemented each other. In many 
of the workshop facilitators would ask for a country-specific viewpoint from the 
participants. All of this made for structured but open debate and a high-quality sharing 
of experiences, based on practical examples placed in the context of different economic or 
political circumstances.

There were three workshops with a focus on patriarchy and anarcha-feminism. The first was 
women-only and took place in the lesbian space, Tiffany, and addressed ?Sexism in our 
Movement?. It focussed on issues and solutions specific to political activism, and Safer 
Spaces was amongst the most tried and tested and valued of these. It was kicked off by 
some members of the Ljubljana Lesbian University who wanted to talk with an international 
audience. The same structure was run also the following day for a mixed audience, in part 
because some men requested it. In the event no men came, although we had set the chairs up 
on the veranda and established a very informal environment. One reason for this might have 
been that there was a tension between men who wanted to genuinely understand more about 
sexism from a women?s perspective, who seemed to be men who reflect on this issue anyway, 
and men who felt unhappy about a women-only space. They were a small minority however; I 
don?t need to tell you their objections, but some had genuinely not encountered this in 
anarchism before and were confused. This was a shame though because there was a stated 
need to address sexism in some antifa circles, as introduced by an Italian comrade. The 
low turnout from men might have been in part because the following session was on 
anarcha-feminism in the movement and they perhaps thought it would cover similar ground. 
It was initiated by the organisers and was kicked off by us. It took a historical 
perspective on the emergence of British anarcha-feminism in the Thatcher era and the fact 
that we face much the same sexism within and outside of our movement as we did then. Safer 
spaces and women-only spaces (real and virtual) were discussed. Safer spaces are the norm 
for many European bookfairs and it is likely that the lack of such a policy at some UK 
events will make some attendees feel less secure (as was the case at Saint-Imier until FdA 
initiated one). Women are very vocal in Balkan anarchism, and the Slovenian federation is 
about three-quarters women anyway, which makes it a refreshing group to work with for 
other women.

The other workshop in which the AF was involved was a presentation by the Sparrows? Nest 
anarchist library in Nottingham, in which the AF is involved. It concerned the digital 
library project and was entitled ?What is in @??, referring to the completion of the 
scanning and uploading of the first alphabetical section of the Nest?s ?public archive?. 
It was attended by about 10 fans of archives and historical materials relating to our 
movement.

There was a well-attended General Assembly each day which gave a forum for involvement in 
bookfair organisation, which as a result was much wider than the organising group. 
Reflections on the structure and processes as well as the political content were made, 
which over three days meant that the participants were part-running the event. The General 
Assembly was also used to initiate joint statements and the march through the city. The 
assemblies were well attended and had the function of providing the opportunity to gauge 
how everyone thought the event was going. An Infopoint (with rota list) and daily 
volunteer meetings were used effectively to involve bookfair participants in practical 
work such as cooking, cleaning and organising the book and meeting spaces. This all made 
for an atmosphere of explicit self-organisation.

Balkan anarchism is completely accessible to anyone with English. This is the language 
that anarchists from the various countries speak amongst themselves. Even though the 
languages of ex-Yugoslavia are closely related, most anarchists are under thirty and the 
nationalist education system that they were educated in has stressed the differences and 
they find it easiest and more inclusive to use the English that they learn at school. Most 
of the activists are fluent or near-fluent in English. This makes it easy for 
English-speakers to have discussions as in-depth and ideologically specific as we can in 
Britain.

It being a three-day event, most meetings were allocated two hours. As well as allowing 
for very in-depth discussions, these were serious, theoretical, ideological and highly 
constructive. Whist the groups identify with different traditions, they are avowedly 
anti-sectarian and identify differences between themselves mainly in order to learn from 
other traditions about matters such as how receptive industrial workers are to different 
modes of industrial organisation, which sorts of ideas and language make anarchism more 
accessible in social struggles, and so on.

Balkan anarchism is as open and friendly as it is dynamic and serious. The plan is to hold 
the next one in Bosnia or Athens. Why not watch this space and go along?

See also, Joint statements made during the bookfair: 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/378-joint-statements-radio-and-video-from-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-24-26-may-2013.html
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Joint statements, radio and video from the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 24-26 May 2013


The 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair took place on May 24th-26th 2013 in Ljubljana, 
Slovenia. 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/372-for-anti-nationalist-internationalism-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-may-24th-26th-2013-ljubljana-slovenia.html

Here are three statements created collectively during the bookfair, plus a great 
internationalist video:

1) We are their crisis ? for a transnational struggle against capitalism and repression! 
(from general assembly of the bookfair on Saturday 25th May - includes video of an action 
in the city in the evening). 
http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/05/26/we-are-their-crisis-for-a-transnational-struggle-against-capitalism-and-repression/

2) Joint Statement of the Balkan Meeting on Nationalism (from a discussion meeting on 
Saturday 25th May) 
http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/05/27/joint-statement-of-the-balkan-meeting-on-nationalism/

3) Building solidarity and resistance against capitalist devastation? (from the General 
assembly of the participants of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 2013 on 26th May).
http://i-f-a.org/index.php/statements/326-building-solidarity-and-resistance-against-capitalist-devastation

Listen to: Radio show - English edition of ?rna luknja, the local voice of anarchism on 
Radio ?tudent after the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 
http://www.radiostudent.si/dru%C5%BEba/%C4%8Drna-luknja/balkan-anarchist-bookfair-2013-after-balkan-anarchist-bookfair

See also: Anarchist Federation report from the 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, 
Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/379-anarchist-federation-report-from-the-10-year-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-ljubljana-slovenia-on-24-26-may-2013.html

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Photograph of the internationalist action in Pre?eren Square (Pre?ernov trg) over from the 
Triple Bridge (Tromostovje), Ljubljana city centre during the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, 
25th May 2013.http://www.afed.org.uk/images/stories/balkan_anarchist_bookfair_2013_action.jpg