London Anarchist Bookfair

Michael Albert was said to be the big name speaker at this year's London Anarchist Bookfair. One could give him credit for consitency - he is saying the same things and telling the same anecdotes (the left is out of touch with reality and won't even go to football games) that he has for years. His vision for a particpatory economy was hopeful but a bit old-school and when gently challenged by a primitivist he showed no desire to enter into sensible conversation. Shame.

There were talks about the Con-Dem cuts, a debate on Chomsky between a Peace activist and a radical anthropologist, a great talk by Milan Rai on deconstructing Gandhi and much more.

As ever with these events the highlight is wandering the stalls meeting old friends and making new ones. The London Catholic Worker's had a stall full of home made organic preserves, t-shirts and books. The Cunningham Ammendment were as hospitable as ever and it was great to see Jonathan from Anarchist Voices and Alex Christoyanoupolos with Anarchist Studies Network.

The bookfair gets bigger year-on-year and this year there were around 100 stalls so thousands of visitors, many new to the fair. And of course a wild-eyed, suited and booted Christian stood outside rantily denouncing us to fast moving traffic.