Things to do and things not to do at the Charlottesville Anarchist Bookfair

Note from organizer:  We made this short list for the welcome packet of the Bookfair, however, one individual thought it was relevant enough as generic framework/principles for future anarchist events, so they posted it up on the internet.

Things to do while at the bookfair space:

1. Get to know the organizers, publishers, and strangers present. Make new friends, we’ve been intentional about making this a priority.

2. Say hello and thanks to all those who helped put this together: those from Random Row, the Charlottesville Community Childcare Collective, the bookfair organizers, Joyful Dissent folks, everyone who offered housing, and countless other folks.

3. Be respectful, y’all. This includes respecting genders; don’t be afraid to ask what pronouns someone prefers to be referred to by or to state your own preferences.

4. To those anarchists present with some sort of personal tension between them: use the chance to talk out differences, let out frustrations, or otherwise do anything constructive to keep things from hurting the actual flow of the event. It is all too often personal drama gets in the way of mutual organization.

o That said, there’s a big difference between “personal drama” and “personal violence”.  Serious issues like sexual assault, racist bigotry, queer/trans-phobia, etc. are the opposite of personal drama in that they not only get in the way of organizing when their effects are kept silent, but also are what we are committed to working against. When we say “drama” we mean fussing over tactical differences, gossip, snobbery, etc.

5. Walk around, enjoy yourself.

6. Scheme and organize!

Things NOT to do while at the bookfair space:

1. Be an uniformed cop, undercover cop, informant, or a snitch. Anarchists have a long history with these folks and it isn’t pretty.

2. Make assumptions about knowledge levels, gender, comfort levels, abilities, etc.

3. Hang out only with those who look like you and talk like you.

4. Keep all of your ideas and dreams bottled up in your head and/or blog

Also:

Please respect the spaces you walk around, whether as privileged folks strolling around isolated working class neighborhoods, guests sleeping over at someone’s house,or just human beings coming into a town you know little of. Use the bookfair as a chance to ask locals about Charlottesville and its history.

PS.  Check out this Crimethinc article on the Wisconsin situation (click image):

Let's work to have one that says "Virginia". There's way too many reasons to do so.