An important place to start is to say that our collective doesn't have a
monopoly on anarchy in the Bournemouth area and that writing anythingabout the state of movements where autonomy is such a key feature is
always going to be vulnerable to missing out things that others are
doing but we can only write from our personal perspectives of what we
know is happening, and always with the hope that we will find others
locally with similar values and in the hope of connecting with others
who are either already doing the work or looking for their people to start.
A common feature of how a lot of us in Bournemouth seem to have been
drawn together is from finding widely advertised activist entrypoints -
ranging from environmental groups, problematic vanguard groups,
Palestine solidarity groups, as examples - and becoming burnt out or
disillusioned when realising the power dynamics and rigid hierarchies
had no space for people to engage autonomously and authentically. When
faced with this, often it feels like being told that the only choice is
between continuing to follow someone else's orders or dropping out and
doing nothing, but instead many of us individually broke away to start
the things that we wanted to see, even if that meant starting alone or
in very small groups.
The landscape of anarchy in Bournemouth feels like it's shifted quite a
lot over the last couple of years. The most known anarchist-encompassing
event was the annual Dorset Radical Bookfair, which has been a useful
space for networking with other interested folks and forged connections
that have led to more sustained and consistent ongoing organising. Much
of what has sprung up has been in response to local issues and things
that didn't exist that we wanted to see, starting with a radical,
ethical and non-hierarchical Community Pride which runs each year on the
same day as our local corporate Pride, as well as projects that we tried
out and ran consistently to get a feel for, like the fortnightly
Revolutionary Reading Room and monthly prisoner solidarity writing group
A Community Against Cages And Bars. Both these meetings are on a break
until we have the capacity and desire to pick them back up, or someone
else wants to bring them back, but they were ideas that we saw happening
in other towns that we thought "we could try that", and it was really
valuable for meeting new people and for learning together, even if
ultimately we decided our energy was better spent elsewhere.
Our collective's main focus right now is our weekly Free Shop that runs
every Friday, which in many ways feels different to the reading and
writing groups before, because having something that brings so many more
people together, that is out on the street, has so much more reach and
has a constantly growing and shifting energy. Creating meetings that
were so based in already having an interest in or understanding of
theory or wanting to put that into practice largely felt like an uphill
struggle to gain or maintain any momentum in our area because we didn't
have the foundations really to start there, whereas being a consistent
presence on our local streets has completely shifted that to bringing
anarchist ideas to people who may have no prior interest in it, or may
even feel negatively about it (often until having conversations or
seeing it working in action). It's made anarchy far more visible and
talked about in our local area, especially in Boscombe where we run the
Free Shop. You see more anarchist stickers in the wild. We've gone from
some of our neighbours being sceptical or annoyed about seeing anarchist
flags as part of the Free Shop, to asking questions, to even being part
of it.
We've had messages from folks who used to live in Bournemouth who get in
touch to say that they're surprised to see more radical things happening
here, and I think we're starting from a place of needing to build the
basic foundations, but the beauty of that is everything is on a
person-by-person level and the radical joy of getting to know new
friends and comrades. The Free Shop has taught us a lot about mutual aid
on a community level, but part of the anarchy that's happening here is
behind the scenes, it's in the quiet relationships that maintain being
able to do anything outward-facing - it's present in every individual
relationship being made, it's in people taking time to unlearn
propaganda together, it's people offering each other lifts or meals or
to clean up or walk a dog or opening their home to each other when
things are tough or just because we have no public community spaces here
to use and we desperately need to take space and time together to build
connections.
Being able to get a physical space to operate from would bring together
different projects and parts of the community in a way that would make
us all far stronger, which is probably why it's proving to be a hurdle
that we currently haven't found a way to overcome but it's always
something we're wanting to build towards. Groups around us following a
more conventional path but with some radical leanings have said how much
they like that we've just got out on the street and are doing what we
want to do even without access to indoor space. By doing it in the most
DIY way possible, without permission, without support, even when it
brings us into conflict with anyone wanting to exert authority, it
emboldens others to see they could do it and try new things too - it's
far easier to know how to copy some folks getting out on the street than
it is to know the bureaucracy of trying to get funding, getting a space,
etc. The Free Shop will almost certainly be a thorn in the side of those
instigating the very clear gentrification efforts around Boscombe at the
moment because it's on the street, it can be messy, chaotic, it brings
together big groups of people, and because it encourages other people to
use the street as a shared space to spend time rather than just going
from transaction to transaction. It is a worrying force for anyone who
wants to control the space, including police, security guards, the
council, and owners of the buildings. You can tell that you're doing
something worthwhile when you're constantly coming into conflict with
these forces but you have the support of the people in your community.
The folks we know who are consistently living anarchy here are queer,
trans, disabled, neurodivergent folks, migrants; people who get targeted
by the far right, people who are tokenised in activist spaces not built
by those communities, and so it means that our anarchy is
intersectional. In our actions we're fighting for every kind of
liberation, including the ones that we've seen forgotten or ignored in
other spaces (like animal liberation), and hope that by doing that Total
Liberation will become the norm in anarchist spaces so no one feels
unwelcome or like their liberation struggle is being sidelined. Because
we're from marginalised communities, we get involved in organising for
those movements locally, especially if there are grassroots groups
springing up like Crips Against Cuts or Trans Liberation, and bringing
what we want to see to those movements by maintaining our anarchist
autonomy, radical values, and making clear that we are engaging both as
anarchists and individuals from those communities - that we aren't
separate from them and dealing solely in 'solidarity' but that we are
also directly affected. The dynamic of that is obviously really
different than organisations and political parties using grassroots
organising to promote and recruit. I often think of meeting folks for
the first time at broader protests, and quietly warning them about the
Socialist Worker's Party's history and continued patterns of behaviour
when the clipboard gets passed around, seeing them cross out their
details from the mailing list, and them thanking me and saying they
definitely would have ended up at their meetings otherwise. I find it
strange to imagine an alternative branching reality where such friends
end up pouring their energy into selling newspapers and finding their
own replacement for when they inevitably burn out (as was my past path),
instead of the fortunate reality where we have genuine affinity and we
materially influence each other's lives in a positive and consistent way.
The state of anarchy here is wanting for everyone to know that
reciprocal, horizontal relationships do exist because the landscape here
is that you are really likely to encounter political parties or liberal
activist organisations as your first experience of activism or
community, but you don't need to settle for top-down structures,
constant compromises with capitalism, or the soulless grind of waiting
for some leader to engineer whatever kind of revolution they think you
need... You can start living in a revolutionary way now by finding
people you genuinely care about and who you have shared values with.
Look after each other, and build the capacity for that sphere of care to
extend outwards to more groups like yours until we're all connected. If
you're around Bournemouth, part of that might be connecting with us if
you want to. If not, build something, people will find you. Everywhere
we need as many different radical things as possible and to support each
other, and we're excited to see where things in Bournemouth go next.
Bournemouth is facing massive challenges and crises because of fascist
anti-migrant organising, but already being part of radical community
makes that feel less frightening than it otherwise would, and anarchy is
already a big part of combatting the far right narrative because our
neighbours know us already, they've had almost a year of us being out on
the street with anarchist flags showing up with free food and books and
clothes for everyone so it's harder for the far right to have a hold on
the area we operate in, and also more generally for them to be talking
about 'antifa' in the scaremongering way that they like to because we've
always proudly claimed that label in the work that we're doing. It feels
like quite a scary time right now - to quell what's happening with the
far right, it's going to need consistent and brave work within our
communities, speaking out against fascists instead of hiding or staying
silent, and choosing actions that may feel more risky in the short-term
for all of our collective safety in the long-term. If you can, get out
of the house and onto the streets, the power of being with your
community is healing. We all get to shape the state of anarchy that's
happening around us but none of us can do this alone.
If you want to start out by connecting with local groups online:
(Instagram)
@bournemouthanarchists
@bournemouthantifascists
@bournemouth.community.pride
@bournemouth_crips_against_cuts
@trans_liberation_bmth
- Dorset Radical Bookfair
But if you can, come see people in person any Friday afternoon, on the
street next to or opposite the Costa on Boscombe highstreet, 2.30 til at
least 5.
River
https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2025/12/12/the-state-of-anarchy/
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