The 2016 Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair was held on Saturday 23rd April, 10am-6pm, at the Showroom Workstation.
Thanks to all those who made the 2016 Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair happen. The stalls, the workshops, the films: all were brilliantly delivered and thanks to all who came along and participated – we couldn’t do it without you! Much was learned and discussed, as radical politics and activism brought people together.
Details of stalls, films and meetings/workshops, and audio of some meetings can be found below.
The full 2016 programme is also available to download as a PRINT VERSION: Sides 1 & 2, Sides 3 & 4.
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2016 Programme of Workshops
Anarchy: rules!
Ruth Kinna & Thomas Swann
How do/should anarchists agree principles of association and rules of co-operation? Are these principles and rules constitutional statements? Can safe spaces policies, social spaces agreements and rules governing disagreements be agreed by consensus, or do principles like anarchy or non-domination matter too?
Click here for audio recording on Sheffield Indymedia
ArBolivia – A Model of Co-operative enterprise
Cochabamba Project
A presentation of this unique co-operative solution to poverty and deforestation in the Bolivian Amazon funded through a pioneering UK based, not-for-profit society. Over 500 members have committed over £3m to date to a joint-venture forestry enterprise with around 1,000 families growing native trees on underused areas of their land.
Click here for audio recording on Sheffield Indymedia
Ditch Coal – have anarchists swapped sides in struggles with the coal industry?
Coal Action
In the 1980’s anarchists battled alongside miners to save the coal mines, now anarchists fight to end the coal industry. A workshop from the Coal Action Network looking at why this change has come about and examining the global social justice and ecological impacts of the UK’s addiction to coal.
Click here for audio recording on Sheffield Indymedia
Feminism and bodies under capitalism
Feminist Fightback North
For decades feminists have argued that ‘patriarchy’ polices, objectifies and commodifies women’s bodies. A workshop taking an anti-capitalist perspective of the disciplining pressures around health, beauty and bodily difference and asking how feminism may help us to challenge the effects of capitalism on our bodies. Discussion open to all.
Introduction to green anarchism
A green anarchist
Why do so many anarchists care about animal rights and environmentalism? This workshop seeks to clarify why resisting oppression goes hand in hand with green politics. Topics discussed including anti-speciesism, social ecology, deep ecology, and total liberation.
Click here for audio recording on Sheffield Indymedia
Introduction to hunt sabotage
Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs
This workshop aimed to introduce newcomers to hunt sabotage: why do it, how it’s done, and how to get involved. Participants also had the opportunity to take part in interactive exercises designed to teach by doing how nonviolent tactics save wildlife and get results.
Introduction to the Industrial Workers of the World
Sheffield Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
The Industrial Workers of the World is a revolutionary union that has struggled for workers’ power around the globe since 1905. In this presentation, Sheffield IWW Branch members introduced the union’s core concepts, as well as historical struggles and the big campaigns the IWW has fought in Sheffield recently.
Kurdish Struggles for Freedom
Corporate Watch
This talk gave some background to the violence being committed by the Turkish state against the Kurdish population within its borders. Also talk about Rojava, a Kurdish majority region in the North of Syria. In Rojava, people are organising themselves in confederations of communes, cooperatives and local assemblies.
Migration Solidarity – Past, present and future
No-Borders activists
Calais has been in the news more then ever. A talk about the work by activists since 2009. Plus discussion on the recent changes in UK law. Also about planned action at Morton Hall detention centre as well as other local solidarity.
Swimming against the stream, the challenge for revolutionaries
Communist Workers’ Organisation
Capitalism faces its longest ever unresolved crisis. In Britain we find ourselves between the illusion in state capitalism spearheaded by the Corbynistas or a rejection of the revolutionary potential of the working class (communisateurs, Paul Mason etc). A discussion for those who want proletarian revolution not capitalism with a left face.
Click here for audio recording on Sheffield Indymedia
The Easton Cowboys and the Radical Sports Club
Will Simpson
Will Simpson is an author and long time member of the Easton Cowboys and Cowgirls, a Bristol-based community sports club that has played football in Chiapas and the West Bank. In this talk he told the unlikely story of the Cowboys and asks whether sport can ever be an effective vehicle for activism?
What’s the deal with TTIP?
Critisticuffs
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) ‘free trade’ agreement has received criticism for favouring big business by lowering protections for workers, consumers, and the environment, implying that the state is bowing to business interests. Critisticuffs suggest, in contrast, that the EU and US act in self-interest, by aiming to attract foreign capital and to strengthen their national capital abroad.
What is the Queer Agenda?
Queer Agenda Sheffield (QASh)
Queer Agenda Sheffield (QASh) discussion on the queer movement in and outside Sheffield, and how a political queer group should support queer struggle. What is QASh for, what are the aims, how will it further the Queer Agenda?
Workplace Organiser 101 Training Taster Session with the IWW
Sheffield Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
In this interactive workshop, participants had the chance to learn some of the up-to-date techniques which the IWW uses for on-the-job action. Using material from their full Organiser Training 101 package, Sheffield IWW organisers guided participants through workplace-interaction scenarios to help them take control back from the boss!
CLICK HERE TO SEE FULL LIST OF 2016 AUDIO RECORDINGS
2016 Stalls
Action for Trans Health
Active Distribution
AK Press
Anarchist Studies
Coal Action Network
Cochabamba Project
Communist Workers’ Organisation
Corporate Watch
Critisticuffs
Dog Section Press
Dysnomia Designs
Earth First!
Feminist Art Group
Festival of Debate
Footprint workers print co-op
Freedom Press
News from Nowhere
Northern Herald. Tel. 01484 721845
PM Press
Principle 5 co-operative resource centre
Queer Agenda Sheffield
Radical Routes
Seeds for Change
Sheffield Against Fracking
Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs
Sheffield Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Strike Mag
Webarchitects web hosting co-op
Wolfpress
2016 Films
Two films were screened during the Bookfair, in the Film Room (on the ‘mezzanine level’ above the entrance area).
PREMIÈRE: Full Bins, Empty Bellies, Lonely Lives: The Story of Food Poverty and Social Isolation in a Land of Plenty
The first screening of a documentary looking at three seemingly self-contradictory issues in the UK today: millions living in food insecurity while millions of tonnes of food are wasted every year, and at the same time so many people experience another type of poverty; loneliness. What are the causes of this paradox? How can we join the dots to solve all three problems? The film offers sumptuous local footage, factual research, and interviews with Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett, “Waste” author Tristram Stuart, and a whole range of others who are doing their best to give us a delicious solution.
Director: Daniel Vallin
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Sheffield Steel, Yemeni Dreams
The postwar Sheffield steel industry reached out for manpower, and thousands migrated from the Yemen, drawn by dreams of a better life. Today they live in limbo between families back home, and often isolated lives as Yorkshire Arabs. This project communicated their lives to the next generation of Yemenis
Director: Emma Vickers; Producer: Cathy Soreny (2014).
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