The 2017 Sheffield Anarchist Bookfair was held on Saturday 20th May, 10am-6pm, at the Showroom Workstation.

Details of stalls, meetings/workshops and films can be found below. The full 2017 programme is also available to download as a PRINT VERSION.

Stalls list 2017

Final details may have varied slightly from those shown here.

AAN/Fightback
ACORN / Renters Rising
Active Distribution
AFed (Anarchist Federation)
AK Press
Anarchist Studies
Banned in Braille
Black Star
CFSU
CWO (Communist Workers Organisation)
Dysphoria Collective
Earth First!
Empty Cages
Freedom Press
Haven Distribution
Haymarket Books
IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
Jepps Books
Leeds Friends of Rojava
News from Nowhere
No Borders
Northern Books
Pirate Press
Pluto Press
PM Press
QASh (Queer Agenda Sheffield)
Radical Routes
Raising Hope Books
Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs
Sheffield Against Fracking
Sparrows’ Nest Library
Union Street
Veganarchy

Workshops/Meetings 2017

Is the working class movement dead?
The Anarchist Federation (AFed)
Since the 1980s there have been dramatic changes in the working class movement, with a marked decline in class consciousness, de-politicisation and a shift away from social democracy towards right-wing populism. This meeting will evaluate where we are as a class now, while looking at the role of pro-revolutionaries in the current climate.

Load of Frackin’ Activists!
2017 is a critical year for fracking. The industry wants to begin commercial fracking, and a growing resistance is determined not to let that happen … and it’s working: supply chain companies are pulling out, and construction is already months behind schedule. Find out what’s happening locally and nationally, and how you can get involved.

Anarchy Rules! Making a Toolkit
anarchyrules.info
What advice would you give about anarchist rule-making? What issues would you include? How would you illustrate them? Anarchy Rules are asking people across the country the same questions and will be using what’s collectively produced to make a zine on rules, rule-making and anarchist constitutionalising.

What’s going on in Rojava, and what can we learn from it that can help us in the UK?
This workshop will describe the radical and progressive changes that are happening in Rojava and think about the circumstances and political organisations that have made these changes possible, and consider what we can learn from this for anarchist activity here in the UK.

Swimming Against The Current: Organising Outreach in Brexit Britain
IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) & New Syndicalist blog
Europe and the US are lurching to the right, so the left must break out of its comfort zones and bring progressive ideas to wider communities. American sociologist Marshall Ganz’s organising strategies, based on psychological studies and organising experience, can be used by anti-capitalist activists and community organisers to reach beyond their base.

Prisons
Yorkshire Campaign Against Prisons
The State is currently trying to build 6 new mega-prisons across the UK to expand the prisoner population by more than 10,000. This includes a new prison in East Yorkshire. Learn about recent resistance and what you can do to help destroy the prison industrial complex and organise for alternatives.

Feral Consciousness
Julian Langer
Amidst the collapse of the planet’s ecosystems and global civilisation, the majority of the population remain disconnected from the situation. Julian Langer will talk about his book Feral Consciousness: Deconstruction of the Modern Myth and Return to the Woods, where he presents a route for reconnection.

Midlands anarchists in Sheffield: meet, greet + organise
Nottingham Anarchist Federation and the new Revolutionary Anarchist Group in Birmingham have called this meeting as members of both will be at the bookfair, as will The Sparrows’ Nest Library & Archive. It is a time and space to discuss what they are all doing in the Midlands, plus relations between regions.

Anarchy in the countryside
Sheffield Hunt Saboteurs
This talk is to discuss the upcoming badger cull and how it affects us, our wildlife and our land. Also to discuss the place direct action has in our society.

No Borders: Freedom to Settle for All!
With SYMAAG (South Yorkshire Migrant & Asylum Action Group) & EAS (Early Asylum Support)
Claiming asylum in the UK; what’s the process? How can we be in solidarity with migrants and fight the borders in Sheffield? Find out in this interactive workshop. Role playing, topical discussion, and people who’ve claimed asylum will answer questions and discuss the complexities and struggles of the UK asylum process.

The Bonnot Gang – the story of the French illegalists
Richard Parry
Author Richard Parry talks about his book, published by PM Press last year, providing portraits of men and women who made up the infamous Bonnot Gang, briefly notorious in pre- WW1 France, partisans of “illegalism”, who believed in anarchist individualism and the liberating force of theft in capitalist society.

Anarchism in Palestine: Horizontal Solutions for International Volunteers
How can international volunteers and anarchists play a constructive role in occupied Palestine? What does solidarity look like, and how is it applied in the West Bank and Gaza? This presentation will examine the role of non-Palestinian anarchists and their role in advancing liberation for a people under Western-supported occupation.

How Will Capitalism End?
Communist Workers Organisation (CWO) & Midlands Discussion Forum
Charlatans of the capitalist right and left offer quack solutions in response to the toxic crises of late capitalism. No ruling class has ever voluntarily given up their wealth, power and control. Discussion of arguments for the revolutionary alternative – the overthrow of the bosses’ system leading to genuine human liberation.

New Horizons for Queer Activism
Since marriage equality passed into legislation, we have often been told that LGBT+ people now have equality. But what does this mean? Join this workshop to explore the oppression queer people continue to face, and also to discuss some of the inspirational ways queers are fighting back.

Film screenings 2017

Helen Steel on undercover policing – Reel News
26 mins
Helen Steel (Police Spies out of Lives) speaking at “Undercover policing, democracy and human rights” meeting at the University of Manchester School of Law, April 2016

Tom Robinson sings Glad to be Gay to Theresa May – Reel News
8 mins
40 years ago, Tom Robinson performed “Glad to be Gay” for the first time. It was banned by the BBC at the time. Now, Tom goes to Downing Street with friends to sing it to the homophobic Theresa May.

Veterans For Peace mark last year’s Remembrance Sunday – Reel News
7 mins
The biggest Veterans for Peace contingent ever marches to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day, wearing hoodies bearing the Harry Patch quote, “War is organised murder”, and carrying a banner saying “Never Again”.

Paris: Nuit Debout Global Day of Action – Reel News
8 mins
Thousands occupied Paris’s Place de la Republique for Nuit Debout’s global day of action. Similar occupations happened daily in town squares across France, as people from all cultures and classes met to debate, discuss and practise real democracy.

Hot on the Wire
1 hour approx
A periscope into a subterranean counter-cultural community featuring alternative current affairs, performance art and live music kicking back against the suppression of ideas and dumbed down television, performed at a secret studio below the city.

If you have a suggestion for future film screenings please see
For Vendors Groups & Activists

For details of film screenings, stalls and meetings/workshops in previous years, see Archive.