Report on the Edinburgh Radical Bookfair, 12th Nov ‘23

Despite a chill in the air and winter on the horizon, the ACN attended its 6^th bookfair of the year. Organised by the Lighthouse Bookshop in Edinburgh, the final day of the 4-day event attracted a couple of hundred people through the doors to browse the various stalls and engage in a variety of discussions. These included: the lack of community control and input over public health policy in capitalism; attacks upon women, in particular with regard to bodily autonomy; enforced poverty and oppression among communities globally.

During the day, it became evident that as is often found currently within leftist gatherings, there was a general omission of discussion regarding the need for working class internationalism and of the universality and centrality of class exploitation and oppression, in all its forms – and the need to mobilise on this basis.  In contrast to this though, we managed to distribute several dozen of our publications, including having them placed at the various stalls and given out in person, whilst getting a nice welcome from the organisers spoken to.  The literature then initiated at least the beginnings of a hopefully ongoing productive dialogue around revolutionary class based, anti-statist and anti-militarist, emancipatory politics, with both some of the organisers and a number of the attendees, authors and speakers. These conversations encompassed the need for resistance from our class to ongoing attacks upon our living standards and environmental destruction, as well as to the murderous wars in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and those potentially in the future, closer to “home”, by the current system of state and capital.

From Sheffield early in the year to Glasgow in the spring, from Hull and Bradford in the summer to Manchester / Salford and now, Edinburgh, in the autumn – we have been busy arranging and/or attending bookfairs throughout this year. Moreover, we continue to organise and attempt to reach out to our class, especially to potentially like-minded people in our communities and workplaces, locally through to internationally alike.

By Bloque Ade