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Irish Anarchist Book Fair, this weekend – full Programme May 18, 2023

Posted by guestposter in Uncategorized.
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1. Fergal - May 18, 2023

Much of what was left of, for what of a better word, political anarchism became the Green movement in the 1970s, witness Dany Cohn-Bendit and the German Greens as an avatar of same.
The busy programme above wouldn’t be out of place in any Green party conference, though mentioning socialism could be problematic but liberalism is right at home.
Class struggle is so passé, innit?
Social anarchism, for want of a better word is alive and well – workers’ cooperatives, credit unions, self-building, allotments, community gardens, various small businesses, housing cooperatives, home-schooling…

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Fergal - May 18, 2023

Most inspirational anarchist… has to be Colin Ward – always a joy to read

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pretty in pink - May 18, 2023

That’s a disappointingly weak programme.

Post-WSM this is an important shop window for anarchist ideas in Ireland, where are the panels on the issues with broad popular interest – housing, migration, the economy, the drug legalisation debate (cf. Citizens Assembly)?

Instead, to be brutal about it, the tilt is towards the archipelago of oppression.

While you are correct that libertarians were involved in the foundation of the GPs, that involvement appears to have been digested and ejected today. The Greens are a party which conjugates environmentalism with middle class interests and is entirely uninterested in the social question, the only echo of which is to be heard in ‘just transition’ tendency etc.

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Conor Kostick - May 19, 2023

The defining issue of the moment is the war in Ukraine and the anarchist bookfair has passed a test pretty much the entire Irish left has failed by hosting speakers from the left in Ukraine.

As there is a CATU speaker and a whole panel on fortress Europe you can put a tick by your top two issues.

It’s going to be really big, by the way. And inspiring.

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2. polly - May 20, 2023

Live blogging from the Bookfair (live-ish).. Went in at 10, met an old pal whose teenager son is trying out anarchism. All a bit niche – UK anarchists: Derry anarchists: prison abolition: Phibsboro trans rights. :But maybe that’s exactly what anarchism is, think globally, organise locally.

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WorldbyStorm - May 20, 2023

Had hoped to get to that today, but had a prior thing unfortunately to do. Thanks for that, sounds interesting, any other observations.

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polly - May 20, 2023

Net overview – I’m glad teenagers are even bothering informing themselves about political thought.

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WorldbyStorm - May 20, 2023

+1

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Conor Kostick - May 21, 2023

Careful. It you position yourselves as grand old veterans, patting the youth on the head, you won’t be receptive to learning from them.

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WorldbyStorm - May 22, 2023

I think that’s meant sincerely, that it’s not just older people or the same faces but that there’s a layer of younger people who are getting into radical politics and thinking this through. The more the better.

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WorldbyStorm - May 22, 2023

Another angle I’d add to that just as there’s been across my political life too many male voices at political meetings and not enough men willing to sit back and let others who haven’t had a chance to speak it’s the same with new younger people coming in to political activity and working out their own politics. The wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented every time but fresh perspectives are essential every time leftists meet.

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polly - May 22, 2023

Yes, sincerely intended, not patting the teenager on the head. What I learned from him, by asking him what got him interested, was that reading books had no part to play . No Prince Kropotkin, no David Graeber. He was exploring on the Internet, he met a local group,he went from there.

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3. banjoagbeanjoe - May 26, 2023

This anarchism is all well and good but it has never really grown up has it? I mean there’s this slogan neatly stencilled on walls and electric boxes around Dublin city – Kill the Rich. It’s just juvenile stuff. What use is that? Totally lacking in politics with no understanding of the concrete tasks that need to be undertaken to achieve a socialist transformation of society.
Kill the Rich. It’s juvenile and plain poor politics. Anarchists! Wake up! It’s EAT THE RICH ffs.

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