The CIRA (Centre International de Recherches sur Anarchisme) in Lausanne, Switzerland is a large archive and small research facility. It has existed for over 50 years, but today, its existence is threatened. The CIRA works to retain the memory of the anarchist movement.
For 50 years they have collected texts written by anarchists from all over the world which are available for militants, researchers, and the curious. The collection includes nearly 20,000 books and brochures, hundreds of titles of magazines (the oldest of which is from 1848), films, and a personal archive of militants’ correspondence, etc., in over 20 languages.
The library has resided for 17 years in a beautiful, old house in Lausanne, surrounded by centuries-old cedars, which belonged to Marie-Christine Mikhalo, who died two years ago. Now, the land has to be bought back from the heirs in order for the archive to be able to stay. They need at least 150,000 Swiss francs to make both the house and the land it occupies the property of CIRA.
For information on how to help CIRA and more about the archive, go to www.anarca-bolo.ch/cira.
Email at: cira (at) plusloin (dot) org.
