Anarchist Bookfair 2023 Prague

PROGRAMME 

... WE ARE CONTINUOUSLY UPDATING

Cross Club

Café Saloon

13:00 – 14:00 / Nothing to hide: practical privacy with IuRe and NoLog

Representatives from the organizations IuRe and NoLog will present their work to protect privacy and freedoms in the digital space. While the digital-rights non-profit IuRe is currently highlighting, for example, the need to preserve cash and the "right to analogue" in general, NoLog offers tools for communication and the creation of shared documents that are a welcome alternative to the services of tech giants. IuRe will also present its print newsletter Digital Freedom at the festival.

https://www.iure.org/
https://nolog.cz/

language: Czech

14:00 – 15:00 / ABC-Belarus talk on repressions in Belarus and current resistance to the regime

Two and a half years after uprising in Belarus against dictatorship of Lukashenko over 2300 people are remaining in prison for participation in different actions against the regime. Dozens of thousands have left the country to avoid prosecution and are now spread all around the world, many ending up in Poland. Hundreds of people are fighting in Ukraine to stop russian imperialism, hoping that this will open new opportunities for the whole region.

Anarchists are among those who were hit hard by the political repressions of the last years. At least 25 anarchists and antifascists are sitting in prison at this moment, with prison terms going up to 21 year. Many of them are under constant pressure from the prison administration while the regime continues to prosecute them further for the resistance in the prison or actions that happened many years ago.

With this presentation we would like to talk to you about the current political atmosphere in Belarus and in diaspora abroad, perspectives of belarusian anarchists as well as collect money to continue support of the comrades in prisons and their families.

Until all are free

https://abc-belarus.org/

language: English

15:00 – 16:00 / 100 years of the International Working Men's Association

International Workers' Association was founded at the turn of 1922-23. Today it is the oldest federation that brings together
anarcho-syndicalist unions from more than twenty countries. It has passed through various important periods which will be discussed during the presentation of Priama Akcia union. The presentation will cover the circumstances of IWA's formation, contemporary debates within the International (e.g. the topic of rationalisation of work or anti-fascism) and IWA's positions during the Spanish social revolution. We will talk about the attempts to reconstruct the IWA after the Second
World War and especially about the post-2000 period.
https://www.iwa-ait.org/

 https://www.priamaakcia.sk/

language: Slovak

16:00 – 17:00 / The lie factory: manufacturing climate disinformation

The vast majority of climate research has long shown that climate change is occurring, leading to increasing warming with potentially catastrophic consequences. These changes
are caused by human activity, especially the burning of fossil fuels. There is a long-standing expert consensus on these issues. Yet there is also a proliferation of information in the public domain that looks elsewhere for the causes of climate change. They claim that it is caused by the sun or cosmic rays, question the results of climate science and accuse science of exaggerating or even falsifying data. These opposing currents sometimes refer to the scientific literature and are sometimes even represented by respected scientists. The lay public finds it difficult to navigate this situation and thus gets the feeling that there are no longer any firm certainties.

This state of affairs is not accidental. It is an elaborate political strategy aimed at protecting the interests of the fossil fuel industry. And it seeks to do this precisely by creating confusion and uncertainty. The Lie Factory unravels these mechanisms and uses concrete examples from the Czech and global context to show how the production of climate disinformation works.

Vojtěch Pecka, a sociologist, graphic designer, occasional editor and curator, studied sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague, and as part of his PhD studies at the Faculty of Social Studies in Brno he focuses on the relationship of the fossil fuel industry to climate change. He has recently reworked this research into a journalistic format and published it on A2larm. In his graphic work, he mainly works on animations for museum exhibitions and expositions. He also currently works as an analyst at the Association for International Affairs.

https://utopia.cz/cs/848

language: Czech

17:00 – 18:30 / Jonathan Eibisch - With, against or beyond politics? some theoretical insights of the anarchist term of politics

Is politics something that anarchists should care about, at all? In which cases and how they act on the political field? Is there an autonomous politics and what might be its criteria?

These questions are difficult to answer because our acting is shaped by societal contradictions. There are plausible reasons to critizise politics – even beyond statist institutions, political parties etc. For politics are continuously oriented at the state and monopolized by it, they take the form of a relationship of domination. Which societal domains are addressed by anarchists for their specific anti-politics?

Jonathan will talk about some insights he figured out by working his finished PhD on the topic. He lives in Leipzig, blogs on paradox-a.de and gives regularly workshops and talks on anarchist theory.

language: English



programme Groundfloor

13:00 – 14:00 / Michal Trčka - Catastrophic risks: scarecrows vs. reality

Natural disasters and risks, nuclear war, climate change, other environmental destruction, pandemics, AI as a threat, other anthropogenic risks... What are the biggest global catastrophic risks facing humanity in the 21st century? What are the real threats and what are the unrealistic "bogeymen" that fly through public space in relation to these issues? A lecture not only for the sixth issue of the Academix review on civilizational threats and existential risks.

Language: Czech

14:00 – 15:00 / KPK - Workers' autonomy: its aims, means, opponents

Workers versus employers, state, unions. Let's summarise a few remarks using the example of struggles mainly in the workplaces in the Czech Republic.

https://protikapitalu.org/category/english-francais/

language: Czech

15:00 – 15:30 / Goodbye capitalism: Autonomy, the Good Life Society and the World of Many Worlds (book introduction by Neklid Publishing)

It is time to open up the future and think boldly about a world without capitalism. This book addresses this very topic. Drawing on the social and political experiments of Zapatista communities, it explores what such a 'real utopia' might look like.
The book asks how to practice radical democracy and build a society free of state influence; how to remove the harmful market logic focused on profit maximization and prioritize a good life for all; how to allow enough time for creative development; how to allow for different paths of emancipation and create the conditions for genuine cross-cultural exchange without the domination of one culture over another. These ideas represent a non-state, non-productivist and non-eurocentric anti-capitalism.
In this book, Jérôme Baschet, a French historian living in Chiapas,combines theoretical invention with direct experience of one of the most original autonomous experiences of recent years. He abandons the old revolutionary recipes that failed in the 20th century and proposes other ways of practically creating a new way of life in the sense of the slogan "Another world is possible".

https://neklid.org/

language: Czech

15:30 – 17:00 / Panel discussion Housing crisis and how to get out of it

Rising rents, energy and mortgage costs, the unavailability of social housing, the buying up of investment flats and their subsequent shortage - these are all problems that many people are dealing with. 

Representatives of three different housing initiatives - Iniciativy nájemníků a nájemnic, Sdílených domů a Platformy pro sociální bydlení - will present their activities and possible ways out of the housing crisis. Using the example of three different tactics and approaches to addressing housing - autonomy, advocacy and mass movement - we can discuss a common strategy for social change and approach to housing.

https://iniciativanajemniku.cz/

https://sdilenedomy.cz/

https://socialnibydleni.org/

language: Czech



programme Floor -1

14:00 – 15:00 This is my coming out (book introduction)

An anthology of queer poetry? A shield against the events not only of the last few weeks, but of the last few years? Quite possibly both.

language: Czech

15:00 – 16:00 / Trhlina - what's behind the new Prague infoshop

Trhlina is a newly established self-governing community centre in Prague's Nusle district. We offer the anti-authoritarian movement and the wider neighbourhood a space for meetings, gatherings and public events. In addition, we run a Radical Library (the one from the Klinika, constantly updated with new titles), an archive of zines, magazines and other alternative periodicals based in the Salé Infoshop, and a distro where you can get books from AF Publishing house, but also Zapatista coffee. In this short presentation, we'll introduce Trhlina, talk about the circumstances of its creation, how it got its name and reveal some plans for the future. There will of course be room for questions of all kinds.

https://trhlina.org/

language: Czech

16:00 – 17:00 / Karmína - Nexen/Booster: union struggles and left-wing activism

Recent events in two factories have resonated in the Czech Republic and Slovakia: the Nexen Tire plant near Žatec and the Booster Precision Components automotive parts factory in the Považie region. In the first case, it was a strike of a few days; in the second, it was a continuation of a longer history that includes a strike (2021) and more recent attempts at union repression (2022-2023). These struggles have attracted the attention of various left groups who have sought to solidarise with them, support them or draw more general conclusions from them. In this presentation, we want to look a little more closely at these struggles and explore their limits - both in terms of what is happening in the workplaces themselves, and in relation to the reactions and strategies of leftist activists and activists from outside. Finally, we will use the example of another conflict to show what perspectives overcoming these limits opens up, not only in terms of the immediate needs of workers, but also in relation to broader social issues - the environmental agenda, for example.

language: Slovak

17:30 – 19:00 / Manifest of the Socialist Movement

Panel debate on the book Manifesto of the Socialist Movement with the participation of the author Michal Hauser and representatives of the AFED, Tři Ocásci a Limity jsme my. Published by the publishing house Neklid.

https://www.afed.cz/
https://triocasci.cz/
https://limityjsmemy.cz/
https://neklid.org/

 language: Czech


programme Outdoor tent

13:00 – 14:00 / D-zona: In Praise of Idleness - discussion on essay 

Thanks to the rise in productivity since the industrial revolution, working days of four hours should suffice to provide everyone with their basic needs. In 1932, Bertrand Russel wrote an essay titled "In Praise of Idleness", about how the resulting increase in leisure time would benefit everybody's life and society as a whole. He addressed the cultural and political issues that stand in the way to achieve this.

Now, more than 90 years later, working days still have not drastically shortened. We will discuss the essay and how it is still very relevant today.

Reading the essay beforehand is recommended, but not required, since we will give a short summary at the start of the discussion.

https://www.d-zona.cz/sites/default/files/BertrandRussel1932.pdf

language: english

14:00 – 15:00 / Adrienne Maree Brown – Pleasure activism / Collective reading

Adrienne Maree Brown (amb) is a facilitator, activist, writer and doula. Her writings, most of which have been published by AK Press, explore themes of self-care, sexuality, and prison abolitionism. 

Amb's work draws on her many years of activist experience, while also strongly reflecting the influences of womanism, Afrofuturism - especially Octavia E. Butler, and the BLM movement. The predominant orientation is towards practice rather than theory. According to Amb, an integral part of the ideal anti-capitalist practice is the collective healing of society, based on mutual solidarity and the pursuit of the well-being of all human and non-human beings. 

Amb foregrounds the pleasure that earthlings can experience through their physical bodies, which we sometimes tend to forget in our activist practice and do not give as much care to as they need. 

She elaborated on this theme with another authors in her book Pleasure Activism, from which we have selected excerpts. In a collective reading in which we usually focus more on theoretical texts with the Kruh intersekce, this time we will reflect on how to bring more pleasure and joy into our activism and into our lives and communities.

You can find the book for download on our g-drive.

We will read Introduction (pp.1-25), Love as Political Resistance (pp.59-63), and Liberated Relationships, Expanded (pp.403-407). You can participate in the reading even if you don't get to read all the texts.

language: English

15:00 – 17:00 / Workshop Anarchists and the Internet

Come find out who's really reading your notes from secret activist meetings!

Workshop structure:
1. How does the internet work? Based on an interactive game, we will discuss its basic infrastructure and ownership.
2. Technology, politics, capitalism. Based on what we saw in Part 1, we will consider and discuss the political implications of our technological choices.

FORK is a group that has emerged from the specific needs that arise from the clash between our values (feminist) and reality (patriarchal). Our lives are riddled with technology, from tablecloths to 2FactorAuthentication, but as women and other non-dominant groups we are rarely

https://fork.off.li/

language: English


14:00 - 15:30 / Walk around Holešovice with Pavel Karous

Intruders and herons - a guided tour of art objects in public space with sculptor Pavel Karous.

On Saturday, 27 May, there will be a walk through artworks from the past and present regime in Holešovice. Meeting at 14.00 in the lobby of the Vltavská metro station. Are you looking for a welcome change from a boring weekend afternoon? Come and "rock out" in Prague 7 and find typical and timeless monumental realisations from the era of "real socialism" and "real capitalism". We'll end the walk at the Anarchist Book Festival. The scheduled time of the walk is approximately 2.5 hours. The guided tour is free of charge!

language: Czech

ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM

12:00 - 15:00 / entertainment for children from the Czech-Spanish collective Biblioteca Popular Pablo de Rokha

/ throughout the day there will be a screen printing workshop with the gang Punx23 

/ during the day a DIY workshop at the Spinkdistro stand

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All day food from Food not Bombs and Kuchařky bez domova


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Zdena community space


18:30 / doors


19:00 / THIS IS MY COMINGOUT (poetry)

An anthology of queer poetry? A shield against the events not only of the last few weeks, but of the last few years? Quite possibly both.


20:00 / ELEVEN (bedroom pop/shoegaze)

Prague bedroom pop singer-songwriter Eleven mixes shoegaze, noise rock and a kind of fragile dark pop. It's quiet but very loud, roaring in the heart.


21:00 / JADRAN (techno/rap)

Dirty rave and rap are the two dudes coming to Zdena from South Bohemia.


22:00 / MANGO SHEIKH (live electro)

The multi-instrumentalist and musical experimenter from Jihlava crosses the boundaries of genres and conventions. A great experience.


23:00 / HALUZEMOCNOST (techno afterparty)

From techno to dub and back again from the records of our friend Haluzak from Prague's Food not Bombs.


01:30 / last drink