The 2nd Annual Derry Radical Bookfair Announced for 2018

We are pleased to announce that following on from last years successful first ever Radical Bookfair in Derry that we will begin plans to hold our second annual Radical Bookfair in 2018.

Following on from this years event held during the Bloody Sunday week of events we have had continuous support and encouragement to make the Radical Bookfair an annual event as part of the political calendar of Derry.  Our first Radical Bookfair played  host to many participants from all over Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales played  part of the Bloody Sunday week of events leading up to the annual Bloody Sunday March, which itself hosted a series discussions and debates, film and theatre that centred around a wide range of local, national and international contemporary social justice issues.

As ever we would like to extend our hand to participants again to the Radical Bookfair with different visions, ideas, practices and radical traditions.  Again we hope that our second annual book fair will be used as an opening in support of small press publishers and independent book sellers and producers, circulating radical reading materials and information from independent distributers, non-party political campaigns and groups to share their publications and merchandise, which normally would be hard or impossible to find at mainstream book shops. Books of local, national and international interests including social and labour history as well as themes covering radical feminism, queer liberation, anarchism, marxism, republicanism and environmentalism.

It is worth noting that Derry has a long and proud tradition of working class radicalism which has influenced many historical events, standing out beyond most other cities that has both challenged and changed society around us for the better.

Further details of the 2nd Annual Derry Radical Bookfair will be shared here as we organise closer to January 2018.

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Derry’s First Ever Radical Bookfair Huge Success!

Derry’s first ever Radical Bookfair was held in over the Bloody Sunday week of events on Saturday 28th January 2017 in Pilots Row Community Centre.  It’s estimated that several hundred people passed through the doors of the Rossville Street venue to explore what the days events had to offer as well as to rummage through the different book stalls to catch a bargin or two.
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A spokesperson for the Radical Bookfair Collective stated: “The day itself was a brilliant success judging by the numbers it attracted as the Pilots Row Centre had a steady flow of the interested and the curious alike who explored what the all the various stalls had to offer.  There really was a fantastic mixed of books and independent publications for every type of interest from books relating to political theories such as titles on socialism to republicanism, feminism to anarchism, queer or gender politics right through to a wide range of both local and national social and political history.
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“Chatting to the different stall holders during the days events, everyone had enjoyed the experience, as well as the networking and of course the trade itself.  It has been estimated that throughout the day’s events several hundred book lovers had past through the building to take in the variety of stalls as well as to engage with the different talks that was created around recent book titles. Again this was a great benefit to all the different independent book sellers and publishers on the day both locally and nationally, not to mention all the participants who came from far away as Scotland and England.


“It was really great to see a number of local authors in attendance, taking time to engage with the those attending, signing their books such as Emmet O’Connor and Dave Duggan as it really shows that what we have created here today is something worth continuing.
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“The people here today from Derry, Donegal and Tyrone really love their books as well as their politics and supporting independent booksellers, that is something we feel has to be encouraged. For those who came up to us throughout the day and requested that the event be a prominent fixture on the city’s calendar, we would have to say, watch this space.”

Derry Radical Bookfair

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Revolution in Rojava – Eyewitness Account

Due to time constraints and number of other important discussions already taking place on the day of the book fair itself around the themes of social justice and human rights throughout this years Bloody Sunday week of events, Derry Radical Bookfair will host two discussions base of two recently published books. One examining the history of Derry’s radical labour movement in Derry labour in the age of agitation and the other exploring developments surrounding the unfolding Revolution in Rojava, Kurdistan. We hope you will find the time to take part in both events as listed below.

Revolution in Rojava – Eyewitness Account

Speakers Corner, Main Hall, Pilots Row 2pm – 3pm

9780745336596.jpgRevolution in Rojava: Democratic Autonomy and Women’s Liberation in the Syrian Kurdistan
Surrounded by deadly bands of ISIS and hostile Turkish forces, the people living in Syria’s Rojava cantons are carving out one of the most radically progressive societies on the planet today.

Western visitors have been astounded by the success of their project, a communally organiseddemocracy which considers women’s equality indispensable and rejects reactionary nationalist ideology whilst being fiercely anti-capitalist. 

The people of Rojava call their new system democratic confederalism. An implementation of the recent ideology of the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, it boasts gender quotas of 40 percent, bottom-up democratic structures, deep-reaching ecological policies and a militancy which is keeping ISIS from the gates. Revolution in Rojava is the first full-length study of this ongoing social and political transformation in Syrian Kurdistan. 

It is the first authentic insight into the complex dimensions of the revolution. Its authors use their own experiences of working and fighting in the region to construct a picture of hope for Middle-Eastern politics and society, and reveal an extraordinary story of a battle against the odds.

Now available from all independent bookshops and online here

 

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Derry labour in the age of agitation by Dr. Emmet O’Connor

Due to time constraints and number of other important discussions already taking place on the day of the book fair itself around the themes of social justice and human rights throughout this years Bloody Sunday week of events, Derry Radical Bookfair will host two discussions base of two recently published books. One examining the history of Derry’s radical labour movement in Derry labour in the age of agitation and the other exploring developments surrounding the unfolding Revolution in Rojava, Kurdistan. We hope you will find the time to take part in both events as listed below.

Derry labour in the age of agitation with Dr. Emmet O’Connor

Speakers Corner, Main Hall, Pilots Row 1pm – 2pm

SetWidth440-oconnor-derry-vol-2.jpgFollowing on from volume 1 on new unionism and old (1889 – 1906), Dr. Emmet O’Connor volume 2 reviews the impact of Larkinism and syndicalism on Derry. After impressive progress in the 19th century, Derry’s industrial growth started to falter after 1904. Wages stagnated, prices rose relentlessly, and thousands of workers in the shirt-factories and on the docks grew restless. The city seemed ripe for one of the Larkinite revolts that shook Irish cities in the early 20th century, from Belfast in 1907 to Dublin in 1913. However, unions in Derry and local Labour leaders like James McCarron had their own agenda.

The First World War eventually brought both an economic boom and renewed militancy. Capitalism was confronted with a deadly cocktail of food and labour shortages, price and wage inflation, a discrediting of the ruling elites for blundering into a catastrophic war, and revolution at home and abroad. Irish Labour responded by reviving Larkinism and developing it into syndicalism. The Derry trades council struggled to reconcile the radical challenge from Peadar O’Donnell and the ITGWU with the more conservative policies of existing unions, all against the backdrop of the independence campaign, Unionist counter-mobilization, a miniature civil war in the city, a disastrous economic slump in 1920, and partition.

Derry labour in the age of agitation 1889 – 1923 volume 2: Larkinism and syndicalism, 1907 – 23

Now available in all independent bookshops and online here

 

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Radical Bookfair an important first for North West

This coming Saturday 28th January, the city will host it’s first ever radical bookfair at Pilots Row Community Centre in Rossville Street. A number of independent book publishers and distributors from across Ireland, Scotland and England along with several local booksellers will gather at the Bogside venue for the one day event.

A spokesperson for the Derry Radical Bookfair said “The idea behind creating our own radical bookfair in Derry comes after years of successful bookfairs in both London and Dublin as well as other major cities around the world. The initial concept had grown out of the first ever Anarchist Bookfairs in London back in the early 1980’s as part of an effort to provide solidarity and support to both independent, radical booksellers and publishers at that time who helped produce and distridute important and valuable political texts relating to feminist, anarchist, queer, marxist and environmentalist thinking.

“Over the last number of decades that idea has spread to almost every major city around the world of which Derry will now also be included. The idea locally has spread to include local booksellers as well as local and international publishers and distributors which will look at many forms of radical ideas such as queer liberation, anarchism, republicanism and marxism. There will be locally produced books and material relating to Irish politics and labour history, but just as equally as important is our vast wealth books chronicling our social history will be on display.”

There will be a number of talks and book launches during the one day event examining Derry’s own radical past by local lecturer and historian Dr. Emmet O’Connor to an eyewitness account of current developments in Kurdistan by an Irish activist in Revolution in Rojava to another talk by leading black activist Bob Brown, a founding member Black Panthers looking back at the revolutionary movement 50 years on.

“This will be an amazing event for those of us across the Derry and the northwest to access some literature and books which are not normally found in the usual multinational bookshops on the high street. It will also be an opportunity for all types of independent book sellers and publishers to also network and create important links not normally available locally.”

Derry Radical Bookfair kicks off on Saturday 28th January from 12pm until 5pm at the Pilots Row Community Centre in Rossville street. See you all there!RBposterBW.jpg

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New Mural for Derry Radical Bookfair

New mural at Derry’s Free Derry Corner was erected earlier today in an effort to help advertise the city’s first ever radical bookfair. Derry’s first Radical Bookfair takes place at Pilots Row Community Centre on Saturday 28th Janunary. As part of this one day event a host of independent book sellers, publishers and distributors will display their goods of local interest, historical and labour themes not to mention a wide variety of feminist, marxist, republican, queer and anarchist literature and info.

There will also be a number of local and national campaigns highlighting human rights and social justice issues. As ever please share, please attend.
For more info click on www.derryradicalbookfair.wordpress.com

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