Comments on: Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair this weekend

By: Kathleen

Kathleen — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 07:32:00 +0000

Anarchists have always been involved in the labor movement, from the Haymarket martyrs to the Lawrence strike, to the Spanish revolution in 1936 to current IWW organizing at Starbucks.

By: cubicblackpig

cubicblackpig — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:34:00 +0000

Apparently, there's been some controversy about this year's fair. Can't say I really have an opinion one way or the other on said controversy, but the embedded issues strike me as interesting.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 05:04:00 +0000

At first I saw “Antichrist Book Fair.’

I’d actually fly in for that.

By: thaum

thaum — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:43:00 +0000

An “anarchist government”? What sort of drugs are you smoking? And can I have some?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:42:00 +0000

Do they team up with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Hunky Jesus contest?

By: Robert

Robert — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 01:38:00 +0000

Oh. I was hoping this was the Bay Area Antichrist Book Fair that I’ve been waiting all year for.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:30:00 +0000

This poster looks more like someone’s personal agenda than anything to do with anarchy.

Not sure that there’s a contradiction there.

By: Joseph Brenner

Joseph Brenner — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:04:00 +0000

It’s a joke that’s ceased being funny in these parts, that the “mainstream” book fair was always an organizational mess that couldn’t keep it’s act together, but the “anarchists” have always been well-organized, and pull off these book fairs successfully year-after-year.

By: LogrusZed

LogrusZed — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:01:00 +0000

I just want to know if this is a Paul Barman reference.

By: Joseph Brenner

Joseph Brenner — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 21:00:00 +0000

You need to go to the talk by Kim Stanley Robinson at 2pm on Saturday. He likes to use the scientific endeavor as an example of a functional cooperative community based on distributed authority.

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 20:07:00 +0000

Certainly not on a national scale. But my direct experience working in leaderless organizations gives me the lesson that anarchist practice – particularly on a smaller scale – is very effective and usually not as hard as many people would imagine.

An important point that’s often confused is that most anarchists do not seek to overthrow the government and create a “United States of Anarchy”. We do not want to replace the US government with an anarchist government. We want to generally decrease the ability of the powerful to control others, and generally increase the ability of everyone else to live in freedom and peace. So your question largely misses the point.

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:25:00 +0000

I’d hate to be in charge of this book fair

By: Hugh D'Andrade

Hugh D'Andrade — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:42:00 +0000

Ha ha.

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:24:00 +0000

would you take from history the lesson that “it’s not actually that hard” to effect a leaderless form of government?

By: tb

tb — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:22:00 +0000

Hence his self-proclaimed failure to “Solve the Anarchist Image Problem.”

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:17:00 +0000

Many famous anarchists in that past have been associated with labor movements. Anarchism is anti-capitalist because we oppose the unaccountable power which capitalists (banks, bosses, owners) have over the rest of us. So when workers try to change the balance of power between them and their bosses, that’s anarchy in action!

Of course, most labor unions rebalance that power so that rather than being held entirely by the boss, it’s split between the boss and the union brass – which is just as bad. Anarchist labor organizing is very different, and focuses on empowering the average worker to have a voice and real power in their workplace.

As you suggest, this sometimes means that precautions need to be taken to ensure that nobody ends up as a de-facto “chairman” or union boss. But it’s not actually that hard, if one makes an effort to be egalitarian.

By: John Smith

John Smith — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:06:00 +0000

This poster looks more like someone’s personal agenda than anything to do with anarchy.

By: ZikZak

ZikZak — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:04:00 +0000

And why not? Other anarchists and free people don’t respect copyright law, we rip and share freely. And I’m sure Hugh would never complain about people doing that with his work (and even if he did, he certainly couldn’t stop us :)

But corporate and for-profit institutions are the sworn enemy of anarchists, and we have no desire to help them do anything. Since they are bound by their own law, why not use it against them?

By: Hugh D'Andrade

Hugh D'Andrade — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 18:01:00 +0000

theophrastvs: There were and continue to be plenty of anarchists involved in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Most anarchists take a dim view of large labor unions, while supporting self organization of workers, for obvious reasons.

By: Hugh D'Andrade

Hugh D'Andrade — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:45:00 +0000

That’s a good point. In this case, copyright law is used to protect the artist from exploitation by large multinational corporations that seek to use his art for free — not against individuals or small publishers who seek to use his work for commentary, re-mixing, etc. (Most recent large corporation to come knocking for use of Anarchist Bookfair art: Disney.)

By: theophrastvs

theophrastvs — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:43:00 +0000

semi-serious question: when did Anarchists become in favor of organizing labor movements? (do they hold subcommittee meetings on the issue of disrupting authority groups? “I told you! we’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. we take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.”)

By: bill_mcgonigle

bill_mcgonigle — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 17:31:00 +0000

Anarchists – restricting the use of their publicly distributed art through copyright law.