Great reflection. I've always felt a bit uncomfortable that the one weekend in a year that is sort of reclaimed from capitialism, is still full of it. That said, there's certianly vendors at the bookfair that allow or even encourage the barter system, which can work well as long as you produce or have things that are valued.

Capitalist ones certainly are, but selling books a prices that compensate for sellers' labor and expenses doesn't strike me as especially capitalistic.

Maybe someone should just set up a kiosk where folks can just download all these books for only a small fee. Perhaps a Xerox would work better for the luddites. ::shrug::

I think what Dawn said is very thrue and express the feelings of many of us about bookfairs.

''Imagine that a bookfair could be a space for assembly, a forum for extended, meaningful discussion, a place to learn and share with folks from around the region face to face. A bookfair where the market is not at the centre of our gathering space, and where other possibilities for gathering and exchange are explored. 

Well, maybe that kind of gathering would be called something else entirely, and bookfairs shall be bookfairs. The idea here is simply to share something that's been on my mind for the past few days.''

That will be great !!!

As someone who has attended a few bookfairs in the last couple years, it is my opinion that the highlights and significant happenings that occur during the bookfair happen largely outside of the realm of property exchange, ie; laying in the grass discussing plans for fall, impromptu games of soccer, planting guerilla gardens, pooling money for a nights entertainment, camping out in parks, bon fires on the beach, and generally somewhat like-minded people from various geographies and backgrounds coming together to celebrate a culture and way of life often oppressed during the regular grunt of modern life.

That being said, I agree that more time to explore issues and strategies in non-hierarchical assemblies would be a great addition, and I look forward to working to make that happen with others for next year. A sort of anarchist street council to look for concrete ways for us to address our immediate concerns and struggles, assuming we actually have any.

it's super nice to see a discussion happening around this.

just to clarify, as stated above, "Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research."

above is one person's opinion not a collective position.

cheers

I feel that it is important to keep this all in context. By that I mean that the Victoria Anarchist Bookfair is only one of many anarchist gatherings that occur every year in Vic. Earlier this year for example anti-poverty activists (many of which were anarchists) organized an amazing conference called Cracks In The Concrete, which had a somewhat different structure. Likewise there is also the wonderful Wild Earth gatherings where I have met great people and learned a ton. Even just this week coming up there is Earthfest, a event up at the university that has been infiltrated by anarcho-subversive types to try and pull it in a more radical direction. On a slightly smaller scale, there is events in Victoria almost every week that are anarchist, and offer many formats, many venues, and many opportunities for us to gather, meet, share and organize together. and there is the numerous events that are not specifically anarchist but where many anarchists participate or organize.

Beyond this, there is spaces like Camas Books and Black Raven records that exist to facilitate community building and face to face meeting. Spaces where you can simply come hang out and meet others, and choose your own level of involvement. As well as the numerous projects that people can be involved in that are ongoing such as the local chapter of Food Not Bombs.

I don't mean to dismiss your feedback, (I do appreciate it! thanks) I just feel that framed in a more holistic context that the anarchist bookfair is only one possible space of many and thus any shortcomings that a bookfair structure may present are addressed through the hundreds of other events and gatherings throught the year.

I also feel there is a question of choice of focus. By that I mean there was a lot of other stuff going on hardly mentioned here. There was a whole week of other events, a kids space, the tons of workshops, and so on that all created opportunities for face to face interaction and community building. As well as the music nights, poetry night, story night, etc. Also as Zoe mentioned above there was a huge amount of free tables that were giving away info and simply there to have conversations with folks. One was even a local organic farmer that was giving away free veggies all saturday! And tons of people took advantage of the great weather and hung out in the grass the entire time creating another space where ideas were exchanged and people met one another that had nothing to do with a "market." This plus the tons of workshops.

I am understanding your article as a reflection of your individual experience at the bookfair, which it sounds like for you it was dominated by the 'market' and the 'exchange. I dearly hope that if you attend in the future you will take advantage of the rest of the spaces and events. Thank you for sharing your experience. If you have suggestions for how we can create spaces at future bookfairs that highlight and prioritize the types of interactions you favor, please do feel free to let us know.

Lastly I would like to point to the tension that anarchism exists in, as we live in a capitalist world, & in a constant tension with it. In that type of space we have certain barriers to navigate. How do you bring 2000 people together, many from out of town, and prioritize the voices of people who may have additional barriers to their attendance while covering the basic costs to do so? The bookfair takes a lot of the year to organize, and there are many invisible costs associated with doing so. We as a collective work to find ways to negotiate those real expenses while trying to be as ethical as possible and at every available opportunity put any funds we need to spend entirely back into the community. We do many fundraisers to make it as free as possible come the actual event, and often we as individuals absorb some of those costs as well when the fundraising doesn't match up to the needs a gathering of this magnitude requires.
A bookfair is only one model of organizing a radical gathering, but it is one that seeks to address this with a practical answer not based entirely on funding from some outside source. For any possible shortcomings of the model I feel there is so much positive potential and we do work consciously to try and include a diversity of voices and to create a diversity of spaces for them to be shared in. The rest is up to you, the participants.