The Bristol Anarchist Bookfair Collective

Contact us:
Post: 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol BS5 6JY

Email: bristolanarchistbookfair@riseup.net

Website: http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org (and yes you are already here…)

Mobile: around bookfair time we may set up a mobile number, and the number will be here when it is live.

Other: we have been known to engage with the corporate sites myspace and facebook, but only in a half-hearted fashion, so unless you’ve got time to kill you will find all you need on this website.

Meetings: We meet regularly at Kebele social centre (our postal address). Most of the year we meet monthly, but in the 3 months before the bookfair, and for just after, we up that to bi-weekly. Check this site and Bristol Indymedia for dates of meetings.

What is ‘The Bookfair Collective’?

The Bookfair Collective is a group of individuals who came together voluntarily in spring 2008, inspired to hold a bookfair in Bristol later that year. Well we managed to put one on on 13 September at St Werburghs centre, it was the first anarchist bookfair in bristol for 15 years - see the archive. To achieve this we met regularly at Kebele social centre, and at meetings we made, and make, decisions by consensus. We are all active anarchists with involvement in a variety of campaigns and activities, and helping the Bookfair happen is an extension of those activities. We are though a small collective with a core of 5 people, so if you are inspired and committed please get in touch. For now we continue,on a year by year basis, to organise a bookfair in Bristol.

We are not leaders however. Our role is largely administrative - sorting a venue, booking stalls & workshops, providing publicity, raising funds and helping the Bookfair run smoothly on the day. Any anarchist who wants to help facilitate the Bookfair is welcome to attend our meetings, but be aware they are busy meetings with lots to do! If you want to help without attending meetings there is plenty you can do - distribute publicity, raise funds (put on a benefit event), run a stall or workshop, volunteer at the Bookfair cafe, help set up and take down on the day. Just do it, or contact us for more info.

Whilst we will do our best to provide the physical structure for the Bookfair, and a smooth-running event on the day, without your participation dear reader, the Bookfair is nothing.

Events between Bookfairs…

After the relative success of the 2008 Bookfair, we were inspired to organise occassional events before the next Bookfair. These have occurred on average about once a month, on a fairly small scale. They have consisted of either discussions/debates on topics of interest & relevance to anarchists - such as ‘what is class’; or about events of historical interest - such as ‘Can’t pay, Won’t Pay’ about the poll tax; or about current struggles - such as ‘Occupation, Occupation, Occupation’, and the anarchist resistance involved in ‘No 2010 Olympics’. Plus there is the odd benefit gig!

The frequency and scale of these occassional events will depend on the time and energy we have available to make them happen, bearing in mind our other individual projects. We are fortunate in any case in Bristol to have a number of other groups holding events of interest to anarchists - Bristol ABC, Bristol Indymedia, Bristol Radical History, and Kebele, to name just four! Check out our Local Links on the right to see what these four and many more are getting up to right now.

Funding the Bookfair

The money to put on the Bookfair is raised by the Bookfair Collective. A Bristol bookfair costs between £800.00 and £1000.00, which we raise in the following ways:

• - holding benefit gigs and events. There are benefit gigs lined up before the Bookfair, and usually 1 or more social events on the night of the Bookfair (any takers for organising one?).
• - charging stallholders a small amount .
• - receiving donations from supporters now, and on the day of the Bookfair. Thanks to the Bristle Collective (publishers of the dormant Bristle mag) for their ’start-up’ donation!
• - the all day Bookfair cafe which has been run by the Kebele cafe collective. Any money made by the cafe gets split between the Bookfair Collective and the Cafe Collective.

Putting on the Bookfair is an example of self-funded autonomous activity. We have absolutely no big business backers, no lefty politicians trying to increase their street cred, and no middle class trust fund. We are independent of all political parties, self-interested groups, and paid advertising.

Nobody involved in putting on the Bookfair is paid money in any way. Any monies leftover after a Bookfair are retained to kick-start the next one.

If you feel motivated to support the Bookfair financially, then thanks! You can send us cheques made payable to ‘Bristol Bookfair’, or drop off well-concealed cash, to the Bookfair Collective, c/o 14 Robertson Rd, Easton, Bristol BS5 6JY