Revised statement of Intent

Anti-Oppression Statement of Intent
Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair intends to make this event a supportive, and safe(r) space of encounter for all who choose to participate. We acknowledge that we are facilitating this space within a dominant culture of white supremacy, and that these systems of power often replicate themselves even in radical and subcultural zones committed to anti-oppression. Therefore, our aim is to keep a vigilant eye on the insidious ways that hierarchies of power, race, gender, sexuality, and class play into all of our interactions. In the hope of creating community and fostering dialogue, we invite all participants to feel empowered to initiate conversations where they see these forces crop up. As anarchists, we believe in actively confronting these problems, we support autonomous actions to educate each other and work towards a better world. 
There will be zero tolerance for forms of physical and verbal oppression, including racism, misogyny, queer/transphobia. We want this event to be accessible to all parties who are genuinely interested and we want to welcome engaged participation from such folks. If you experience harassment, abuse, assault, or any other kind of violation during the bookfair, or if someone who has engaged in such behavior is adversely affecting your participation at the bookfair and you want support from organizers, please feel free to seek us out during the events.
The ACAB 2018 De-escalation Crew has been put into place to help create and maintain safer spaces during the bookfair. The focus is on protecting event spaces from potential external threats (police, fascists), as well as intervening in any physical conflict that emerges on an individual level, if needed. We take seriously the creation of spaces for us a anti-authoritarians that operate on a non-hierarchical and anti-oppression basis. That said, we are also prison and police abolitionists who practice forms of transformative justice. Therefore, we support, first and foremost, people deciding how they want to resolve any conflict they are involved in, and we only plan to get involved upon request for issues that affect the ability of people to have safer experiences at the bookfair. We understand that people mess up, and therefore prioritize engaging with each other to improve our ways of interacting and fighting all systems of power together. 
Measures have been taken to safeguard the locations of events to undercut the possibility of unwanted participation from far right trolls and other potential threats. While the organizing crew finds it somewhat unlikely that these characters will show their faces, steps have been taken to arrange presences at all the events to bottom-line the removal of individuals, foregrounding de-escalation tactics.
One of the preventative measure we are taking is instituting a policy banning recording, photos, video at any bookfair location. Please respect this to help promote the safety of all participants. There will be stickers handed out to cover the cameras on your phones to clear up any discrepancies. If you see anyone trying to record, please remind them of this policy, if you see anyone maliciously recording please alert a member of the bookfair crew.
DISCLAIMER/DESCRIPTION OF ORGANIZERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES
The intention of the organizers of the bookfair is to create a space of convergence for people from various communities, backgrounds, and stages of political growth to come together and share knowledge and information. We see ourselves as facilitators, trusting in the work of those who choose to participate. While we make decisions on inclusion based on a basic alignment of principles of anarchism, anti-authoritarianism, and anti-oppression, we also cannot take responsibility for everything that happens in each workshop or for every attendee. Instead, we hope that any conflict that arises provides an opportunity for discussion and growth as a community. Likewise, the De-Escalation Crew is not an accountability collective, but rather a collection of autonomous individual volunteers ready to help defuse physical conflict should it arise. Above all, we respect each participant’s own choices on how to engage in the bookfair and how to resolve any conflict that arises. We want to encourage people to reflect on their own responsibility in participation as a way to help our movements grow. Furthermore, we always welcome discussions and conversation about any issue of importance to participants. 
 
 
If you have any questions, please feel free to approach us (in person or through email) we will do our best to answer!
Let’s get each other’s backs and help make this event as enjoyable as we can for all our comrades!
Love and solidarity,
ACAB2018

Workshop Notes

Friendly Anarchism Notes 

Tech Security 101

General Privacy

Useful Browser Plugins

  • Add Block Plus
  • uBlock Origin
  • Privacy Badger
  • Https Everywhere
  • AdNauseum

Visualizing online tracking

EFAIL

***

On Trusting Trust
is an interesting demonstration of how a backdoor could be written into a programming language and made undetectable, rendering all security useless.

***

VPNs

Tor and onion routing

Preventing Doxxing

Linux Distros

  • Mint Good for new Linux users with a look and feel similar to windows
  • Ubuntu Good for new Linux users with a look and feel similar to mac
  • Tails and anonymous operating system you can boot off a USB. Useful for all that research you’re doing for that novel you’re writing.
  • Debian Great if you’re concerned about propietary/non-free firmware. Not great if you want to have a life.
  • Kali If you don’t know what Kali is you shouldn’t be using it for those ideas you get when you figure out what it’s for. You will fuck up. Useful for people who want a legit career in tech security.

Hacking Conferences

You can learn a lot from black, grey, and even whitehat hackers about security, surveillance, etc.

Learning computers

I’m also a proponent of learning everything we can about computers. It helps us become more than just consumers of technology and it empowers us to make informed decisions.

Feel free to reach out to me with any questions. My goal is to demystify this shit and make is as approachable as I can. If I don’t know the answer, we’ll figure it out together.

ccrsh@riseup.net

ccrsh@protonmail.com

Extracurricular Activities

Over the bookfair weekend there will be a number of ways in which we provide space for people to celebrate, to meet, to encounter, to mourn, and to play with each other outside of the presentations, workshops, and vending space. Here’s the full list!

Thursday

Punk Rock Jeopardy June 21: 9PM @ The Lazy Daimond!

Get your teams together, compete for the prize & raise money for Glo Merriweather & Rayquan Borum who are facing charges from the Charlotte Uprising.

Friday

A North Carolina Punk Showcase June 22 9PM @ Static Age Records

Drugcharge (Raleigh)
https://youtu.be/hRfoE86KRLM
Vittna (Raleigh)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjsrVzXJyJs
Adderall (Asheville)
https://adderall.bandcamp.com/
Hear//Say (Asheville)
https://hearsayavl.bandcamp.com/
Autarch (Asheville)
https://autarch.bandcamp.com

Saturday

A Space of Remembrance 9PM – Location TBA during the bookfair

Anarchist rituals have always involved the dead. We bring, often without an attempt at overt significance, elements of ritual to the streets in the form offerings like fire, vessels, flags, masks. We write the names of our dead on the streets. We dedicate actions and writings and creations to the dead. We avenge those who have been killed through state violence through our choice of targets in our actions. We create our own memorials for the dead, sometimes in the form of roving street parties, occupations, erecting temporary altars and lighting candles. In many ways, riots are an expression of the need to create space to grieve for those we have lost, or for those who never had the chance to live out their potential– to collectively mourn, avenge and pay tribute. On Saturday around dusk we invite the opportunity to gather in public space (to be announced at the bookfair) and erect a space of remembrance together, in particular we will make space for those who have been killed at the hands of the state and white supremacists. Bring anything to share in making this space– candles, flowers, offerings, readings, paint, etc.

Another Carolina Anarchist Dance Party 10pm

After the vigil a dance party featuring DJ Hijx De La Chingada & DJ Ganymede at The Underground behind O’Henry’s – 21 and up 5$ suggested donation.

Sunday

Waterfall Hike – 11am Ingles PArking lot on Haywood Rd

Caravan together with friends for a nice hike into nature.

KICKBALL – 7pm West Asheville PArk 198 Vermont Ave

All are encouraged to attend, you don’t have to play, the park is nice and there are bleachers to sit, chat, and heckle.

Schedule Release!

We are excited to release the line up of event for the weekend!!! The descriptions of events will be listed below in alphabetical order.

Friday Download Here

Saturday Download Here

Sunday Download Here

Addressing Depression With Herbalism
–Ash and Natassia of Hawthorn Community Herb Collective
Understanding your own being can be one of the most empowering and accessible forms of health care. In this class members of Hawthorn Community Herb Collective will discuss various types of depression and alternative therapies that can help such as herbs, supplements, and lifestyle tools. Crafting personal formulas, recognizing patterns, creating support systems & finding ways to retain balance in a chaotic world are all topics that will be covered.

Armed Community Self Defense & Firearms 101
–Blue Ridge Autonomous Defense
We have formulated basic arms classes based around decentering the toxic masculinity typically inherent in most weapons training environments. We feel that with fascist and state violence escalating constantly, it is necessary for marginalized folks to at least have a cursory knowledge of firearms, even if just to ascertain if they are safe to pick up/ loaded.

Black In Anarchy
–William C. Anderson
‘Black In Anarchy’ is a keynote connecting the publication of the article ‘The Anarchism of Blackness’ to the publication of the book ‘As Black as Resistance.’ It will address the reasoning behind both and what they mean for the current political moment as praxis.

Building a Buddy Network For Emotional/Mental Health Support + Exploring the Dynamics of Community Trust
–Milo
This “workshop” relies A LOT on the participation of the folks attending ** So, while I have an idea of what I would like to present or facilitate its almost more like a guided conversation with some activities involved to get folks engaged with each other. It’s almost like a little “choose your own adventure-conversation.”

BUDDY NETWORK: The buddy network is a practice that comes out of a group of folks who started getting together to talk about activism + mental health. We’ve come up with some ideas and practices that we’re working with to support each other and we’ve specifically created them in a way that encourages folks to take the idea and run with it. There’s a whiff of Emergent Strategy in the air – and not by accident. — This is probably the part where *I* will do the most talking (unless i can coax another buddy into helping me present, which actually would be awesome)

TRUST DYNAMICS: for lack of being able to draw a diagram for this (why i want a chalkboard, PS) = interpersonal relationships/trust = community relationships/trust = (back around and around again. This is the part of the workshop/conversation that is hopefully more carried by group participation. It works with questions like “What is Trust — How is it built? — How is it broken — How is it repaired? How does it affect the way you see others in your community? How does it affect your ability to feel engaged in your community?” My ego is not big enough to think that I have all the answers (and I know I don’t – that’s WHY I want to do this workshop!!!) I also don’t think that necessarily that everyone will have the same answers for these questions — it is a conversation that needs to be happening as a community. Also, Jenga might be involved — and I mean the big one :))

Building Health Autonomy in this Disaster
–Asheville Autonomous Health Workers
Open discussion of what health autonomy is and how it can be better achieved with involvement of various perspectives by people actively involved in health related projects.

The Coming Repression: Solidarity, Resistance, and Liberation in the Age of Trump
–Scuffletown Anti-Repression Committee (STARC)
Members of STARC will give a presentation and help guide discussion around state repression, what it is, strategies it has used in the distant and not so distant past, and some proposals for how to build more resilient movements that can whether the storm.

Don’t Call the Cops: Building Alternatives to Calling Police
–Ash Williams
-discuss what happens when the police are called and how they are taught to respond
-critically interrogate violence
-re-imagine visions of safety
-discuss differences between restorative and transformative justice
-assess the resources we have as a community to keep each other safe
-importance of not calling the cops 🙂
-raise funds and awareness for Gloria & Rayquan

Eros Beyond Compliance: The Linguistics of Sex and the State
–Gina Lynn
A discussion of the parallels between the consent discourse of the state and policing and the consent discourse around sex // an exploration of the linguistics of consent // ideas for envisioning a world beyond compliance.

Foundations of Informed Resistance
What are the results?
Scouting · Medical · Legal
Logistics · Funding · Communications
BUILDING STRATEGY TO WIN
What Sparks Resistance?
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”
Sun Tzu
How are you organized?
What Are Tactics?
Actions taken to execute our strategy
and to meet our goals
How Are We Resisting Now?
What Does Success Look Like?
How do we hold our targets and ourselves accountable to demands?
Analyze Conflict

The Stat(u)e is Dead: Anarchies, #DefendDurham, and the End of Movement Mo(nu)ments
This panel and collective conversation confronts the frictions and possibilities involved when insurrectionist and reformist modes of building popular power struggle together to end mutual oppression. All three panelists have nourished anti-racist security teams in and beyond Durham, North Carolina ranging from digital defense, armed sentry duty, court support, reconnaissance, participatory defense, and more. In the wake of the Battle of Charlottesville, the toppling of a confederate stature in Durham, and the racial capitalist underpinnings of both, each panelist speaks personally and invites attendees to share their solidarity struggles. What does anarchist defense of non-anarchist mean tactically and for the longevity of anarchist praxis? How can defensive roles be proactively strategic and not compartmentalize identities? How do we fund our movements without disposability, professionalization, or terror? Join us and co-conspire.

Hebron Documentary: Film Screening
–Yousef Natsha
Hebron is a documentary that examines to what extent human rights are realized in a Palestinian community under Israeli occupation. Through provoking footage and interviews, this 40-minute film depicts Palestinian civilians attempting to exert their fundamental human rights, such as education, religion, movement, and dignity.

Filmmaker Yousef Natsha grew up in Hebron and began documenting the struggles and resistance of his community at the age of 19. Natsha has worked with local and international human rights organizations and with various forms of media – including radio, photography, and film – to tell the story of his community.

How do we Build Rural Resistance to White Supremacy?
–The Holler Network
In the fight against white supremacy rural areas and small towns are far too often overlooked by movements fighting for collective liberation. While much of the Left has written off rural areas as inherently racist and backwards, the far Right is often able to spread their white nationalist ideology with little resistance.

Is it possible to build multiracial movements against white supremacy in predominantly white rural areas? What are the challenges and opportunities posed by organizing in small communities where there is no radical subculture? How do we build our organizing against white supremacy so that we create solidarity and mutual aid rather than pitting white folks and people of color against each other?

Join us in exploring these questions and much more. We’ll share stories of our successes and failures in organizing in our communities and brainstorm ways we can build stronger movements for collective liberation in rural areas.

Imagining Utopia
–Margaret Killjoy
We will, as a group, imagine a future worth living in.

Intro to Language Justice
–Center For Participatory Change
A popular education space to explore language justice in our lives, communities and movements

Is Anarchism White?
–Mitch & Suad
A critical anarchist perspective on race and identity in radical politics. This APOC-facilitated discussion delves into the racialized history of far left politics in the US and seeks to confront the perceived whiteness of American anarchism.

Jerusalem Is Palestine: Anti Zionism, Cycles of War, and The Occupation
–Hunter Savoy Jaffe – Jewish Voices For Peace
The discussion would either be a presentation given by myself, or with folks I organize with as part of JVP, which would end up being a panel. Should the panel come through, it would include perspectives of Jews denouncing the State of Israel in support of Palestine alongside Palestinian born resistors currently living in Asheville. We would discuss the Occupation, daily human rights violations committed by IDF, the second antifada, resistance organizers in Occupied Palestine, the support of Israel by USA/Europe, Return The Birthright, and 45s deplorable decision to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel.

Muffin Social and Letter Writing for LGBTQ Inmates
–Tranzmission Prison Project
A vegan muffin/coffee social sunday morning to allow people to chill and hang in a low pressure setting while also signing cards of support to be sent to LGBTQ inmates.

Pipeline Resistance In The South
Going to be talking about how the fight against fossil fuel infrastructure has grown over the past 4 years in Virginia and also speak on the deeper implications of pipeline resistance (how it is connected to a fight against settler colonialism, white supremacy and capitalism)

Report from Strippers Organizing in New Orleans, LA
–Star
This presentation is a report from strippers organizing in New Orleans against police raids, criminalization, and gentrification on Bourbon Street. Collaboration and organizing among sex workers is both a natural and endlessly challenging facet of out lives and work. In addition to laying out recent efforts in anticipation and responses to attacks on strippers in New Orleans and an ongoing national trend, we hope to enter into a discussion which makes room for a multiplicity of experiences and spectrum of needs, risks and futures. If we are against work, what does a struggle to continue out ability to work safely become? How do we cut through through stigma, risk, invisibility, isolation- not in order to ‘fight for our jobs’ but rather fight for our liberation in all aspects of our lives?

Rhizomatic Medicine: Herbalism as Anarchist Praxis
–Dave Meesters

Herbalism is inherently anarchist. Herbalists are unlicensed, unregulated, unsupervised, and of uncertain legality. We are outside the approved system and we like it that way. Our tools are in every field, forest, garden, spice rack, and overgrown lot. Herbalism spreads rhizomatically, adaptive and decentralized, always with the goal of empowering community health autonomy and resiliency, mending the rift between humans and the rest of life. Let’s talk about why this is, what it looks like, and how to take it further.

Technology for Anarchists 101: Defensive Uses
–Crash
A introduction to Tor and VPN–what they are, what they’re good for,
and where they fall short.
Infosec–how and why.
A brief workshop on removing one’s online presence.
An overview of tools and resources for using technology safely and
what safety means.

Syringe Access to Prison Abolition: Fighting for the Lives of Drug Users in the South
–The Steady Collective
People who use illicit drugs are one of the most stigmatized and criminalized groups of folks in the US. The South has the highest rates of incarceration and the worst performing, least accessible healthcare systems in the country. Folks who use drugs (particularly people of color, women, and trans folks) are disproportionately affected by these regional realities. In this workshop, we will explore ways to support drug users through harm reduction efforts, cop watch, and direct action.

We’re Brokenhearted: Understanding Fierce Love in Anarchist Organizing
–Katherine from Friendly Anarchism
Anarchism is rooted in a deep sensitivity to the pain of others and the world, which can lend anarchists to often beautiful, but also sometime unhealthy coping mechanisms as we navigate the particular difficulties of this characteristic. How do we stay healthy while sacrificing so much to help heal a broken world? Authoritarianism, toxic masculinity, white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and late stage capitalism converge to crush our spirits, vulnerability, passion, and empathy precisely because they are the key to a strong resistance. Mystic traditions throughout history, which are often very anarchic in nature, honor and value that sensitivity through specific personal and community practices. We’ll explore past and present mystic faiths to help us better understand some of the problems we encounter in our organizing and personal relationships which hinder our revolutionary action and solidarity.

“Who Needs Conflict Resolution When You Can Call the Cops?” and Other Lies We’ve Been Told
–Callisto Collective

a workshop on the importance and the practice of de escalation and conflict resolution within an anarchist context

Announcing Our Vendor List

We are excited to announce our list of vendors and publishers for the 2018 Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair! Tabling will take place over two days this year: Saturday June 23 & Sunday June 24 from 11am – 5pm each day! The location will be announced closer to the bookfair date, to provide venue security.

Vendor List A-Z

ABO Comix // A Boulder on the Tracks // ACAB apparel // AK Press // Appalachian Medical Solidarity // Asheville IWW // Asheville Prison Books // Austin Anarchist Black Cross // Birds Before the Storm // Blood Fruit Library // Burnt Ends Press // Carolina Workers Collective // Causerie Publishing // Chicago Anarchist Black Cross // CrimethInc // The Final Straw Radio // Hawthorn Community Herb Collective // Honeysuckle Press // JP Press //  Knoxville Radical Library // Limitless Mailorder // Peculiar Mormyrid // PM Press // Refugio // Smokey Mountain Eco Defense // Sprout Distro // Tilted Scales Collective // Tranzmission Prison Project // Warzone Distro // Wildcraft Print Shop

Vendors: We have sent confirmation emails, if you did not receive one, please email us with your updated contact information.

No Longer Accepting Applications

The deadline for workshop proposals and table space has passed. If you signed up before May 15, you can expect a confirmation email within the week! If you do not receive one please send us an email and confirm your contact information. We will send you an email whether or not we accept you application. We received so many amazing proposals its going to be a really great year. Stay tuned for the line up!

Call For Volunteers!

Hey everyone,
We are well into our preparation for the next Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, happening June 22-4, and we want to invite you to participate in shaping the themes and helping gear up for this exciting weekend!

We are holding an interest meeting to ask for volunteers and discuss possible contributions folks can make: Monday May 7 at 7pm Firestorm Books 610 Haywood Road

Our main items where we need help are:
Street Team Promotion
Online/Social Media Promotion
Arranging Housing for Out of Towners
Fundraising
Cook Food
DAY OF (biggest Need)
If you have other ideas, we welcome your input!
If you can’t make the meeting, we’ve made an online signup sheet

If you do not live locally but want to support the bookfair, you can distribute flyers in your city to gear up excitement and get a crew together for this exciting weekend.

Love,
ACAB 2018 Crew

Call for Submissions! Vendors, Speakers, Workshops!

During the weekend of June 22-24, Asheville, North Carolina will host the second annual Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair (ACAB). Last year, hundreds of people from the southeast and beyond participated in workshops, talks, panels, community building, skill sharing, and celebrating resistance. Dozens of presses, publishers, radical and anarchist groups displayed their books, zines, artwork, and promoted their projects. This year will be even better, as we continue to build sites of resistance, structures of counterpower, and networks of solidarity across the region and the world.

Do you have skills to help build the future we want to see? We want to offer a diverse and comprehensive range of activities that could include analysis and theory, models of organizing, anti-repression, environmental resistance, physical and community self-defense, technological offensive & defensive practices, abolition & transformative justice, and more.

Sign ups for vending and workshops is now open! The deadline is April 15.

Click here to sign up and get more information!

Do you have a radical grassroots project, an independent press, anarchist publishing group/distro, cool anarchist and anti-racist merch, or just someone who would like a table to promote your project?! This form is for those interested in tabling or vending at Another Carolina Anarchist Bookfair, the vendor/tabling portion will take place both Saturday 23 & Sunday 24. You can table one or both days. The deadline for Signing up is April 15.

Click here to sign up and get more information!

To see our list of vendors/workshops from last year, check out our 2017 website HERE!