Croatia: Balkan Anarchist Bookfair in Zagreb 18.-20.03.2005.
It was 2nd Balkan @ bookfair after one,that took place in 2003 in Ljubljana.Space for it was situated in centre of Zagreb ,at art-gallery «Nova».3 days room with booktables was opened and certainly much over 500 people passed by ,some of them just for few minutes,some stayed longer,discussed, argued, socialized .
Very diverse characters:from punx till old titoists and university professors.Good advertisement (posters been hanged in many places around cities centre and beyond) and central location as well as open character of the event attracted numbers.Unfortunately plan of coming with the books directly on one of central squares didn’t worked out because of municipality demand of payment for it.Their publication displayed as following(sorry if i omit anybody,forgot names or didn’t collected contact adresses)on tables:Zagreb’s anarchist/ activist publisher «Sto citas?»,croatian «magazine for reality hacking 04»(www.uke.hr/04),anarho-punk graphic(and not only)collective from Beograd «Doomsday Graphics/Shaved Women»,Active Distribution from UK,some local animal rights group(i forgot name),croatian Data Art+ (www.dataart.hr) publishing feminist books,Zagreb’s Squat infoshop crew,german Hamburg’s FAU,some books/zines distro from Graz/Austria and other ones from Wien,Rijeka Anarchist Initiative(rai2002@net.hr)&Infoshop Skatula(Kruzna 8,51 000 Rijeka ,infoshopskatula@net.hr), Abolishing the Borders from Below(www.abb.hardcore.lt),anarch-situationist collective/pamphlets publisher Point Blank from Beograd,bulgarian «Anarcho saprotiva» (free.bol.bg/afront, savanne.ch/svoboda/anarchy ,savanne.ch/svoboda &antifa site antifa.hit,bg),greek AntiAuthoritarian Movement ,3 anarchosyndicalist groups from region :ASI(Serbia),ASK(Croatia)& SiSD (Slovenija) ,german anti-psychiatry SPK and italian «l’arrembaggio»from Trieste (www.guerrasociale.org).
In the basement exhibition of «Doomsday Graphics/Shaved Women»was presented all days .Friday only Projekt Cafe Libertad(www.cafe-libertad.de)from Hamburg which brings to europe fairtrade cofee from Chiapas presented themselves and short discussion followed.On Saturday long presentation/ discussion was planned titled»New strategies of anticapitalist movement».It took place in space of ecologist NGO.Guy from Monteparadiso’s HackLab group (Pula,HR)presented ideas of free software,hacktivism ,etc.,Zagreb’s LETS spoke about their experiences,3 named above anarchosyndicalist groups talked about their politics,visions and experiences,Abolishing BB self-critically reflected their dis/achievements and bulgarian comrade spoke shortly about Anarcho saprotiva and invited for Balkan Anarchist Meeting,that will take place 8-10 April 2005 in Sofia.Expected discussions didn’t followed.On Sunday presentation of /invitation to NoBorder camps in region took place:one in Umag(Croatia)and other in Greece near turkish&bulgarian border-both in August.
Generally atmoshere was great,spirit of friendship&comradeship ruled and escalated joyfully every evening at parties in a squat,even if first night small fight with assholes took place and cops appeared,yet left quickly but one of «our»people had to have his head sewt at hospital.Warm meal ,tea&coffee (for free)each day was organized by local FNB crew(you we’re great!!).Most of discussions and contacts took place in unofficial, personal way,which is maybe very nice,but by big number of people it can become too much accidental.As for biggest open event of Balkan anarchists it would be much better to have more time also for bigger discussions and do all presentations first day to know each other better.This is only critic that i could have to «organizers»but then it must be directed also to «participants»,because in case of zagreb’s bookfair this division wasn’t very obvious,which surely should be a normal thing for anarchist event,yet not often is.Thanx&respectv to all which was (not just passively) there.Next Bookfair will find place in 2006(in that same place or Beograd )
