(en) Slovenia, Ljubljana, Call for participation at the International gathering of anarchist radios 2–5 April 2015

»VOICES OF ANARCHISM« ---- In November we shared our idea to organize an international 
gathering of anarchist radios in Ljubljana with our comrades in wider anarchist network. 
We have received a positive feedback and some intiatives have already confirmed that they 
plan to actively take part. We announce therefore that the gathering will be held between 
2-5 April 2015 in Ljubljana. ---- We believe that the gathering should be not only an 
opportunity to meet and exchange experiences but also to get our hands dirty and do some 
very practical work. In order for this to happen we need to do a lot of stuf before 
everybody converges to Ljubljana. And more crucially – we need active engagment from the 
rest of you! ---- We invite anarchist groups and individuals that are involved in radio 
activities (or are developing the initiatives for it) to engage in the meeting already 
during the preparations!


The goals of the meetings should be:

strenghten the relationships and personal contacts that can be used for practical 
cooperation on producing radio content;
introduce concrete tools for future cooperation/sharing;
make concrete steps towards a long-term perspective of establishing 24/7 multi-lingual 
anarchist radio.

Other important points:

the meeting should be done in form of concrete workshops where we already do things, 
launch tools/projects and not as a space where we only decide on things we will do after 
the meeting;
most of the things should be prepared/done before the meeting (for instance: internet 
platform) so the meeting is only a launching point for it;
We think there is space for 3 workshops that should be prepared by diferent groups/people.
Proposals for the agenda of the gathering:

1st workshop on new internet platform that would present useful tool for our cooperation 
and would be starting point for building online multi-lingual anarchist radio.
2nd workshop – production of 4 hours long anarchist show, live on our local Radio Študent.
3rd workshop - place for your initiative!
Get in touch with us as soon as possible if you are interested in participating in the 
gathering! And please share your proposals or concrete intiatives for the content of the 
gathering that you can prepare.

We will provide sleeping places and food for everybody! The gathering itself is 
self-managed and autonomously organized, so no fishy financial funds are involved. That 
also mean that at the moment we don't have money to cover travel costs. But we feel that 
money should not be a problem if people want to come. So let's find options to collect 
money that can be used to finance the costs.

Any ideas? Is there a possibility that you organize a small benefit event in your town? 
Let us know! Waiting for your reply, Èrna luknja collective,

Ljubljana, January 2015

Who are we?

The initiative comes from the collective of the anarchist radio show Èrna luknja (The 
Black Hole) on Radio Študent, in Ljubljana (Slovenia) - 
radiostudent.si/druzba/crna-luknja. Èrna luknja is also part of Federation of Anarchist 
Organisations (FAO) - a-federacija.org. Contact us through e-mail: crnaluknja@radiostudent.si

This email is not meant as a public call for participation, but as an open call for 
comrades to participate – so feel free to share information with collectives or 
individuals you know and share principles of organising who might be interested in the 
gathering.

(en) Britain, Anarchist Federation report from the 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013

Here is a report by the Anarchist Federation participants at the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 
that took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013. See also, Joint statements made 
during the bookfair: 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/378-joint-statements-radio-and-video-from-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-24-26-may-2013.html 
Celebrating ten years of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair. Ljubljana 24th-26th May 2013 --- 
The Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, which has rotated between the countries of ex-Yugoslavia, 
Bulgaria and Greece, took place this year in Ljubljana, Slovenia over three days - 
24th-26th May. It has been interrupted three times over the last ten for political reasons 
in the region, and so this was actually the seventh. Previous bookfairs have been in 
Croatia, Greece, Bulgaria as well as Slovenia. Below is a report from the perspective of 
Anarchist Federation and Sparrows? Nest participants.

The organisers were the Federation for Anarchist Organising (FAO), of Slovenia, who are a 
sister federation of the AF in the International of Anarchist Federations (IFA) and who 
Nottingham AF and Sparrows? Nest people know very well. It took place in the radical 
quarter of the city known as Metelkova, where the FAO also run a great Infoshop. There 
were something like 20 stalls from organisations and distributors from the Balkans and 
well beyond.

The purpose of the Bookfair, aside from selling books and papers in Balkan languages and 
in English, is for anarchists to organise against nationalism. Anarchism in the Balkans 
has arisen as much out of the desire to create region-wide networks which can support the 
struggle against nationalist ideology by the various groups and federations within these 
artificially created borders. Balkan anarchists attending the bookfair were Macedonians 
(organisation: Black Bloc, which is very new and considering itself speculatively to be 
anarcho-syndicalist), Serbs (ASI-IWA and independents); Slovenia (FAO-IFA and 
independents), Croatia ( MASA-IWA and independents), Greece (Libertarian Communist Group 
of Athens ? associated with IFA; and Eutopia, from Athens and Thessaloniki) and Bulgaria 
(FAB-IFA and independents). In addition, IFA federations of France (FA), Italy (FAI), 
German-speaking (FdA) and Britain (AF) attended. For the full list of countries from which 
participants came, see the reports produced by the workshops and General Assembly of the 
Bookfair.

Of course the current Economic Crisis makes it even more important that anti-nationalism 
is confronted now. Anarchists from counties affected by the warfare born out of the 
breakup of Yugoslavia are seriously concerned that the collapse/break up/withdrawal of the 
EU in the region will bring new wars, and so ?internationalism? is not some vaguely 
laudable intention, but absolutely essentially and immediate in their organising.

In Slovenia specifically, there was an uprising recently in Maribor and Ljubljana. It 
began in Maribor and was sparked by political corruption. Corporate property was destroyed 
and police attacked a huge demonstration, actually tear-gassing people including children 
from the air via helicopter! Far from being put down, the uprising spread as a result. 
This took place in April. From the bookfair, a demonstration was initiated in relation to 
the uprising and two hundred anarchists took part in an energetic march into the city 
centre. It has rarely been as easy to give out anarchist literature in the street and have 
it received enthusiastically. Chanting was in Slavonic languages, French, Spanish, Italian 
and English, and was against the state, police, capitalism, nationalism and for ?Full 
Anarchism?. This has built on anarchist support for self-organised striking dock workers 
in the last couple of years. Anarchism has never had a higher or more positive profile in 
Slovenia.

The organising group had made great effort at an early stage to include other groups in 
making up the excellent programme of bookfair meetings which included workshops, 
discussions on specific themes and a couple of presentations using slides. Discussions 
were framed by well-planned introductions which were often based on documents read out in 
English and in some cases had multiple introductions that complemented each other. In many 
of the workshop facilitators would ask for a country-specific viewpoint from the 
participants. All of this made for structured but open debate and a high-quality sharing 
of experiences, based on practical examples placed in the context of different economic or 
political circumstances.

There were three workshops with a focus on patriarchy and anarcha-feminism. The first was 
women-only and took place in the lesbian space, Tiffany, and addressed ?Sexism in our 
Movement?. It focussed on issues and solutions specific to political activism, and Safer 
Spaces was amongst the most tried and tested and valued of these. It was kicked off by 
some members of the Ljubljana Lesbian University who wanted to talk with an international 
audience. The same structure was run also the following day for a mixed audience, in part 
because some men requested it. In the event no men came, although we had set the chairs up 
on the veranda and established a very informal environment. One reason for this might have 
been that there was a tension between men who wanted to genuinely understand more about 
sexism from a women?s perspective, who seemed to be men who reflect on this issue anyway, 
and men who felt unhappy about a women-only space. They were a small minority however; I 
don?t need to tell you their objections, but some had genuinely not encountered this in 
anarchism before and were confused. This was a shame though because there was a stated 
need to address sexism in some antifa circles, as introduced by an Italian comrade. The 
low turnout from men might have been in part because the following session was on 
anarcha-feminism in the movement and they perhaps thought it would cover similar ground. 
It was initiated by the organisers and was kicked off by us. It took a historical 
perspective on the emergence of British anarcha-feminism in the Thatcher era and the fact 
that we face much the same sexism within and outside of our movement as we did then. Safer 
spaces and women-only spaces (real and virtual) were discussed. Safer spaces are the norm 
for many European bookfairs and it is likely that the lack of such a policy at some UK 
events will make some attendees feel less secure (as was the case at Saint-Imier until FdA 
initiated one). Women are very vocal in Balkan anarchism, and the Slovenian federation is 
about three-quarters women anyway, which makes it a refreshing group to work with for 
other women.

The other workshop in which the AF was involved was a presentation by the Sparrows? Nest 
anarchist library in Nottingham, in which the AF is involved. It concerned the digital 
library project and was entitled ?What is in @??, referring to the completion of the 
scanning and uploading of the first alphabetical section of the Nest?s ?public archive?. 
It was attended by about 10 fans of archives and historical materials relating to our 
movement.

There was a well-attended General Assembly each day which gave a forum for involvement in 
bookfair organisation, which as a result was much wider than the organising group. 
Reflections on the structure and processes as well as the political content were made, 
which over three days meant that the participants were part-running the event. The General 
Assembly was also used to initiate joint statements and the march through the city. The 
assemblies were well attended and had the function of providing the opportunity to gauge 
how everyone thought the event was going. An Infopoint (with rota list) and daily 
volunteer meetings were used effectively to involve bookfair participants in practical 
work such as cooking, cleaning and organising the book and meeting spaces. This all made 
for an atmosphere of explicit self-organisation.

Balkan anarchism is completely accessible to anyone with English. This is the language 
that anarchists from the various countries speak amongst themselves. Even though the 
languages of ex-Yugoslavia are closely related, most anarchists are under thirty and the 
nationalist education system that they were educated in has stressed the differences and 
they find it easiest and more inclusive to use the English that they learn at school. Most 
of the activists are fluent or near-fluent in English. This makes it easy for 
English-speakers to have discussions as in-depth and ideologically specific as we can in 
Britain.

It being a three-day event, most meetings were allocated two hours. As well as allowing 
for very in-depth discussions, these were serious, theoretical, ideological and highly 
constructive. Whist the groups identify with different traditions, they are avowedly 
anti-sectarian and identify differences between themselves mainly in order to learn from 
other traditions about matters such as how receptive industrial workers are to different 
modes of industrial organisation, which sorts of ideas and language make anarchism more 
accessible in social struggles, and so on.

Balkan anarchism is as open and friendly as it is dynamic and serious. The plan is to hold 
the next one in Bosnia or Athens. Why not watch this space and go along?

See also, Joint statements made during the bookfair: 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/378-joint-statements-radio-and-video-from-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-24-26-may-2013.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Joint statements, radio and video from the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 24-26 May 2013


The 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair took place on May 24th-26th 2013 in Ljubljana, 
Slovenia. 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/372-for-anti-nationalist-internationalism-the-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-may-24th-26th-2013-ljubljana-slovenia.html

Here are three statements created collectively during the bookfair, plus a great 
internationalist video:

1) We are their crisis ? for a transnational struggle against capitalism and repression! 
(from general assembly of the bookfair on Saturday 25th May - includes video of an action 
in the city in the evening). 
http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/05/26/we-are-their-crisis-for-a-transnational-struggle-against-capitalism-and-repression/

2) Joint Statement of the Balkan Meeting on Nationalism (from a discussion meeting on 
Saturday 25th May) 
http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/05/27/joint-statement-of-the-balkan-meeting-on-nationalism/

3) Building solidarity and resistance against capitalist devastation? (from the General 
assembly of the participants of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 2013 on 26th May).
http://i-f-a.org/index.php/statements/326-building-solidarity-and-resistance-against-capitalist-devastation

Listen to: Radio show - English edition of ?rna luknja, the local voice of anarchism on 
Radio ?tudent after the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 
http://www.radiostudent.si/dru%C5%BEba/%C4%8Drna-luknja/balkan-anarchist-bookfair-2013-after-balkan-anarchist-bookfair

See also: Anarchist Federation report from the 10 year Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, 
Ljubljana, Slovenia on 24-26 May 2013 
http://www.afed.org.uk/blog/international/379-anarchist-federation-report-from-the-10-year-balkan-anarchist-bookfair-ljubljana-slovenia-on-24-26-may-2013.html

---

Photograph of the internationalist action in Pre?eren Square (Pre?ernov trg) over from the 
Triple Bridge (Tromostovje), Ljubljana city centre during the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, 
25th May 2013.http://www.afed.org.uk/images/stories/balkan_anarchist_bookfair_2013_action.jpg

(en) Slovenia, Ljubljana, Second Call for the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair, May 24th-26th, 2013

Practices of resistance, solidarity and the construction of communities against and beyond 
capitalism have always existed through history and have constituted an integral part of 
anarchist communities. Today the need for such practices has again spread far beyond our 
small communities and into the wider society. ---- Programme for Balkan Anarchist Bookfair 
2013 ---- Federation for Anarchist Organizing (FAO) invites everyone to come to Ljubljana 
this May and join us at the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair (BAB). It has been ten years since 
BAB started its voyage across the Balkans with the aim to connect local and regional, as 
well as international anarchist community and to provide space for exchange of anarchist 
ideas, practices, literature, materials, cultural events, workshops and public discussions.

By now the fact that we are living in the midst of a general social crisis has become 
undeniable. Finding ourselves in the middle of the whirlwind of capitalist destruction, we 
often feel weak and frustrated. Capitalism is destroying our lives daily and in so many 
different and very real ways. It is taking our future away from us. Often we are finding 
out that some of the old mechanisms of struggle, that were once the source of our power, 
are no longer effective enough. Yet it is all too clear that for us there can be no other 
option but to struggle and build against and beyond the existing. We certainly don?t lack 
useful analyses, critiques, seminars and conferences. It is time to take action.

Practices of resistance, solidarity and the construction of communities against and beyond 
capitalism have always existed through history and have constituted an integral part of 
anarchist communities. Today the need for such practices has again spread far beyond our 
small communities and into the wider society. The desert that capitalist devastation 
leaves behind, is a space that needs to be filled with imagination and everyday practices 
that stem directly from us and our desires. For everyone.

BAB is one of such spaces, where we can exchange experiences and strategies. Where in the 
context of these new social conditions we can open up questions and seek answers. Among 
the questions we want to discuss are: Are we indeed fighting on the new terrain and what 
it might be? What could new strategies of struggles be? What is the role of anarchists in 
contemporary social struggles? What have we learned from our past experiences?

We call on everybody to support the event with participation and materials. The entire 
event will be held entirely free of charge, organized under the principles of solidarity, 
mutual aid and the building of common power.

We are also accepting suggestions for the event?s programme at bab2013 [at] riseup.net

Informations will be updated at: http://www.a-federacija.org

Related Link: http://www.a-federacija.org

Slovania, Ljubljana, 2nd call and invitation to the Balkan anarchist bookfair

Dear comrades! ---- Attached you will find our second call and invitation to the Balkan 
anarchist bookfair, that is going to happen in Ljubljana from 24. to 26. of May. ---- 
Please help us share this information through your chanells. If you will translate this 
call, please send us the translation so we can publish it on our webpage. Detailed 
programme will be published there soon! Thank you for your support and see you in 
Ljubljana! ---- First call: 
http://www.a-federacija.org/2013/01/26/balkan-anarchist-bookfair-2013/ ---- Long live 
international anarchism! ---- Federation for anarchist organizing (FAO) ---- Second 
communiqu? and invitation to participate on the Balkan anarchist bookfair 2013 ---- 10 
years of the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair May 24th-26th, 2013, Ljubljana ? Slovenia

In the midst of turmoil of the first massive, decentralized and
non-hierarchical revolt in the recent history of Slovenia, Federation for
Anarchist Organizing invites everyone to come to Ljubljana this May and
join us at the Balkan Anarchist Bookfair (BAB) as we celebrate 10th
anniversary of the launch of an event that connects local and regional as
well as wider international anarchist community.

As people revolt against the capitalist system, austerity measures and
political elites, numerous experiments in direct democracy from below, and
non-hierarchical organizing in places of work, of study, and of daily life
are taking place, or are at least starting to be imagined. Equally, we are
confirming through our daily experience that such movements are always
vulnerable to criminalization, to attempts at centralization, and to the
usurpation of the new political terrain at the hand existing and emerging
elites. In times like this it becomes all the more important that the
anarchist movement analyses the dynamic social and political situation in
real time, and then acts on it through direct action.

Therefore we want to invite everyone to join us in the common process of
building a political space for reflections on the new terrain of struggle
that is being imposed on us by capitalism, and on ways of standing our
ground and fighting back. As capital pushes us to the margins of society
and robs us of control over our lives, people invent new forms of mutual
aid, solidarity, political and social organization. The questions for
anarchists are clear: how can we organize resistance from below? How can
we cooperate with wider social movements, so that we build relationships
against and beyond capitalist exploitation? And how do we develop
concrete, sustainable alternatives that not only resist capitalist
devastation, but open the way for a revolutionary transformation of our
everyday lives?

These and many more questions will be part of our main discussion on
anarchism and its role in the broader social movements. We are also happy
to announce that Balkan meeting on nationalism is going to happen during
BAB, where we will examine the situation on the ground and form
transnational alliances for the current and future struggle.

Here are some other events on BAB:
Discussions: on the role of women in the anarchist movement; on radical
ecology in the territory of former Yugoslavia; on radical syndicalism; on
different socio-economic anarchist alternatives; on fascism and crisis in
Greece; on the Slovenia uprising; on federal international anarchist
organizing; on the crisis and struggles against austerity in different
European regions.
Workshops: on anarchist publishing; on radio broadcasting; on reclaiming
precarity in the conditions of austerity; on anarchist identity and social
movements.
Exhibitions: on anarchist gathering St. Imier 2012; on BAB in the past
Music and entertainment: Concerts, DJ?s and cabaret
Bookfair and Food not bombs

BAB will be self-managed community that will collectively decide on all
matters through daily assemblies of the participants. We want this meeting
to broaden the scope of political imagination that forms new alliances, so
we will provide an open space that will enable people to self-organize on
the spot. We are not running away from issues within the movement.
Therefore we will provide a safe space where comrades, if needed, will be
able to express and collectively deal with whatever problem might arise
during the event. BAB is not a spectacle for consumers; its success only
depends on our collective energy and effort. Therefore all volunteers that
wish to help with the organization during the event are more than welcome.

The bookfair will be held in Autonomous cultural zone Metelkova mesto,
occupied in 1993 and self-managed ever since. Several collectives, who are
active in Metelkova, will join us in our meeting and help us create open
and inclusive space for reflection, exchange and emergence of anarchist
ideas and practices.

We call on everybody to support the event with participation and
materials. The entire event will be held entirely free of charge,
organized under the principles of solidarity, mutual aid and the building
of common power beyond all borders.

Against capitalist devastation, let's build solidarity and resistance!

For all questions and information please contact us at bab2013 [at]
riseup.net
All information (programme, maps, volunteers call, sleeping arrangements
etc.) will
be updated at: a-federacija.org

Federation for Anarchist Organizing ? FAO // Ljubljana, March 2013