On the 7th of July 2024, during the general assembly of the participants
of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair in Pristina, there was a proposal thatthe next BAB take place in Thessaloniki. The collectives and individuals
from Thessaloniki who were present asked for ten days to think about it
and respond. After a meeting of the Thessaloniki collectives that have
worked together within the BAB framework and the Balkan Solidarity
network, the answer was yes: The 17th Balkan Anarchist Bookfair will
take place in Thessaloniki, from Thursday 15 to Sunday 18 May 2025. It
was also decided that the organizing assembly would be formed after a
call to all collectives of Thessaloniki, but also to collectives from
other cities (Athens, Ioannina) that have also worked together within
the BAB and the Balkan Solidarity network.
The Balkan Anarchist Bookfair has never just been about books. We have
always understood it as one more tool that strengthens our collectives,
organizations, relations and networks on a local, a regional and an
international level, as a space where we exchange our ideas and plans
and also bring together our practices, organizing models and experiences
of struggle, our participation in social movements. In September 2024,
in a joint assembly held in Thessaloniki with all the collectives of the
city that responded to the invitation to participate in the
organizational assembly, we set the goal of bringing together the
largest possible number of comrades from all over the Balkans in order
to discuss, in an organized way, our agreements and disagreements and to
make concrete proposals for common struggles and actions. We agreed to
have as an initial agenda for BAB2025 the common topics discussed at the
Ljubljana and Prishtina bookfairs (2023 and 2024) and started to set up
the different working groups.
We also agreed that our first joint action would be the participation of
Thessaloniki in the days of anti-war action against militarism and
nationalism that were decided at the BAB assembly in Pristina for the
first ten days of October 2024. In this context, an open event was held
in a square in a working-class neighbourhood in Thessaloniki with the
participation of an anarchist army objector from Tel-Aviv and a
demonstration in the city centre, with the central motto "Fight war not
wars".
Topics of BAB 2025
The initial agenda of BAB 2025 agreed in September 2024 includes the
following broader topics, for which respective working groups have been
set up in order to prepare for organised discussions:
- Capital, State, war and anarchist responses,
- Gender oppression, resistance to patriarchy and anarchoqueer feminism,
- Borders, migration, resistance to Fortress Europe,
- Climate Crisis, Capitalism and Struggles for Land and Freedom,
- Anarchist prisoners and solidarity,
- Anarchist squats and autonomous social centres,
- Anarchist media, publishing infrastructures, movement archives.
Following a proposal by collectives from Thessaloniki and Athens, a
further topic was also added:
- Libertarian education/self-education.
The list is open to more proposals. Also, in addition to the common
topics, there will be presentations, workshops, concerts, exhibitions,
screenings, sports meetings/exercises and an anti-capitalist,
anti-state, internationalist anti-war march. You can send your proposals
at: bab2025[at]riseup[dot]net
Coordination groups and working groups
As far as topics are concerned, we felt that it would not be productive
to attempt to come up with common and homogenized texts by the
respective sub-groups under the organizing assembly, that would round up
positions in a way that would not allow different approaches to be
expressed, especially on issues where we know there are disagreements.
We strongly believe that common points of analysis and action can best
be found when points of disagreement are respectfully and clearly
reflected upon and discussed. Thus, we propose the creation of
coordination groups for the different topics which will ensure:
that the organized events will present all the different political
approaches in a fair, clear and equal way and with the broadest possible
participation of speakers from all Balkan geographies,
that there will be sufficient time for discussion,
that the main positions of the presenters will already be posted, in
English translation, on the BAB2025 website well in advance of the
Thessaloniki Balkan Anarchist Bookfair.
In addition to these coordination groups, several working groups have
been set up in order to coordinate and anticipate issues of hospitality,
catering, accessibility, children's activities, website management,
translation, graphic/printing, cultural activities, info-point, etc.
Notably, the organising assembly wishes to assist in cases where visas
are required for the participants to get to Greece, as well as to
contribute financially to the travel expenses of participants who cannot
pay.
For more information, please contact bab2025[at]riseup[dot]net
Detailed invitations of the political topic coordination groups and the
working groups' announcements will be gradually sent to the Balkan
Solidarity list, and will also be posted on the website
https://bab2025.espivblogs.net/
In this initial call for BAB2025 we include the general framework for
discussion proposed by the respective coordination group for each
political topic:
Capital, state, war and anarchist responses
We are watching war becoming normalized, yet we have failed to build an
internationalist, anti-capitalist, anti-war movement. The absence of a
coherent and internationally oriented intervention of the
anarchist/anti-authoritarian movement against this dystopian present and
future may point to the fact that we have entered a new era, and the
analytical tools of the past cannot interpret it: It is neither the
bipolar world of the Cold War, nor the unipolar world dominated by the
West that succeeded it, but a new world system under formation, building
power alliances and destroying lives, societies and entire regions in a
global environment of crises and 'crises'.
Gender oppression, resistance to patriarchy and anarchoqueer feminism
We understand patriarchy as an integral part of the State and Capital
that nevertheless retains its relative autonomy as a system of power in
our lives. In recent years, the gender issue has established its
visibility in the public sphere, as documented incidents of gender
violence - from femicides to attacks and murders of queer people - have
been rapidly and blatantly increasing, while at the same time our
reproductive rights are constantly being targeted by state policies and
religious rhetoric. The rise of nationalism brings about more
institutional conservatism: our bodies are reduced either to objects of
violence or to reproductive machines to feed the voracious appetites of
militarism and war. In such a condition, the need to collectivize our
struggles and our projects on a transnational level transcends the
specificities of each locality and calls us to merge our perspectives
and synthesize our actions.
Borders, migration, resistance to Fortress Europe
For some time now we have seen that policies against immigration have
been taking up more and more space in the public debate.
Anti-immigration rhetoric has the power not only to topple governments,
but also to shape the dominant perception of human life and determine
its value. As states engage in fierce competition and are driven into
new wars, the traditional racism of Fortress Europe (i.e., the policies
of 'integrating' migrants as an undervalued workforce) is being
transformed into policies of outright dehumanisation and extermination.
At a time when larger and larger parts of populations are being deemed
expendable, we as a movement have to analyze and speak out against these
policies, to develop all the possibilities that exist for communities of
struggle of locals and migrants together.
"Climate crisis", capitalism and struggles for Land and Freedom
The climate crisis, mainly due to human activity, is now one of the most
important problems of our time. Over the last few years there has been
an unprecedented plunder of natural resources. In various geographies
across the Balkans, large-scale disasters are occurring more and more
frequently, with growing intensity.
Mountains are being encroached upon, forests are being cleared, rivers
are being polluted and disastrous projects are being granted
environmental permits overnight, in the name of the green progress.
Against a model of continuous development and profiteering that does not
respect ecosystems and life as a whole, it is more than urgent to set
our own terms and our own proposals for a life worth living by all and
for all in terms that are equitable and truly ecological.
Anarchist prisoners and solidarity
We owe utmost solidarity with those who are imprisoned for their
political activity and/or identity. This group discusses and coordinates
practices of support for political prisoners in the Balkans and
addresses organisational deficiencies.
Anarchist squats and autonomous social centres
In the context of the capitalist crisis and intense repression, we watch
our cities submitting to the business of tourism and increasingly
accommodating activities mediated by commodities and profit. This is a
form of enclosure of public space, that displaces people from the
cities. Squats are being evacuated and it is becoming increasingly
difficult to secure our material conditions of existence for social
centres. Yet the existence of social centres is vital for the
sustainability of relationships of solidarity between people trying to
breathe in a suffocating world. We consider it necessary for such
projects to meet and exchange experiences and thoughts, as well as to
create networks on the basis of mutual support.
Anarchist media, printing and publishing infrastructures, social
movement archives
In the current context of a multifaceted capitalist crisis and intense
repression, the existence and strengthening of movement (anarchist,
anti-authoritarian, self-organized) infrastructures is extremely
important. More specifically, the aim of BAB2025 is to highlight and
support publishing projects, printing presses, counter-information
media, social movement archives, self-organized radio stations, as well
as digital infrastructures and hacklabs from Balkan geographies.
Libertarian education/self-education
In a capitalist, patriarchal, racist society, Roma, refugee and
immigrant children are being marginalized and excluded from the public
education system. We recognise the autonomy of children and childhood
and try to coexist and communicate with them through equal
relationships, building and reproducing the collective culture we want
to live by. We consider it essential to exchange experiences on
self-organisation and the creation of structures related to education,
be they projects for children or adult self-education collectives.
BAB2025 is not just four days in May 2025, it is an ongoing process!
At the moment, the State is abolishing the social contract and is fully
withdrawing from its supposed obligations to society, limiting itself to
the role of policeman, oppressor and prison guard, and overtly serving
the interests of the market. Parliamentarism, allegedly a way of
exerting pressure in order to obtain new social benefits or to defend
old social and class rights, is clearly on its way out, since the powers
that be nowadays are now counting on people's fear for their
reproduction, rather than on election promises of a better future. The
world system of exploitation seems willing to engage in an endless
series of wars, seeking a new equilibrium through destruction and more
capitalist profiteering. In the meanwhile, there are obvious signs of a
real crisis, the environmental crisis, which overshadows all other
successive 'crises' of recent years.
Self-organization is no longer a slogan. It is a social necessity. The
months leading up to the Thessaloniki Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, are an
open bet, a process of fermentation for our common ideas and the joint
creation of a meeting place for the organization of solidarity,
resistance and struggle. A place where disagreement will be met with
comradely attention, respect and mutual understanding, where we will
share and recompose, where the richness, beauty and vitality of
anarchist ideas and practices will dissolve indignity, intolerance and
inhumanity: A thousand black roses against resignation and social
cannibalism.
An old motto goes: "Let us fight for the impossible before we are faced
with the unthinkable". Well, the unthinkable is already here, utopia no
longer seems impossible. It is the only realistic option.
The detailed invitations of the coordination groups, as well as
information on the general assemblies, procedures and working groups
will be made public in the next few weeks. We ask you to translate this
call into your own languages, publish it on your media platforms and
publicize it through your communication channels and networks.
BAB2025 Organizing Assembly, December 2024
https://bab2025.espivblogs.net/call/
_________________________________________
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