A-Infos (en) Canada, 6th International Anarchist Book Fair of Montreal By ANA (pt) [machine translation]

On the last weekend of May, one of the most important anarchist book exhibitions in the 
world happened: the "6th International Anarchist Book Fair of Montreal", inside the 
Festival of Anarchy, with the participation of dozens of publishers, distributors and 
exhibitors . To talk a little about the fair, we talked to Zachavela, from the distributor 
of books  La Sociale , and from the anarchist bookstore  L'insoumise . ---- Anarchist News 
Agency> What is  La Sociale? ---- Zachavela <  A  La Sociale  is a collective of diffusion 
of books and other texts libertarian, anti-capitalist and class struggle of various trends 
and currents. It has existed since the late 1970s and has had two bookstores opened in 
Montreal for three years. ---- ANA> And which "most important" books have you ever released?

Zachavela <  Usually we do not edit. We receive and sell, but from time to time we make 
small editions of texts, not complete books. For example, we have edited:  Quand Meurent 
les Insurrections , by author Gilles Dauvé, the poetry I wrote entitled,  Parce que je 
Veux Respirer , signed Zachavela, and other things, about art, surrealism, etc.

Above all, we are in contact with the publishers  Nuits Rouges, L'Insomniaque, Spartacus, 
Oiseau Tempête, Théorie Communiste  etc. of France, who send us magazines or books to be 
known here. It goes from Bakunin to texts by Daniel Guerrin. La Sociale  was one of the 
first groups to release Guy Debord and the  Internationale Situationniste  in Quebec, as 
we had good relations with publisher  Champ Libre,  who edited the IS authors. I only 
started to participate in the collective from around 1997.

ANA> So, what was the balance of the "6th Montreal Anarchist Book Fair"?

Zachavela <  About the exhibitors, to have the complete list I think that on the website ( 
anarchistbookfair.taktic.org ) of the Montreal Anarchist Book Fair you will be able to 
find all the names. I can tell you that there were a lot of people, conferences, art 
exhibitions, poetry nights, etc. It was a success. Also on the site you will find the 
program of the fair. I think it would be more complete like that. There are many groups 
that participate that are not libertarians, but of other tendencies.

ANA> Are these groups of other trends part of the institutional, partisan left? Explain 
better...

Zachavela <  No, they are not of the institutional left.

ANA> What is the profile of people attending the fair in Montreal?

Zachavela <  Above all, I would say that you are anarchist, libertarian people, with or 
without a group, also anti-globals and people of the left, only progressives, feminists, 
ecologists. There are many students and some college professors who go there because there 
is a university course on anarchy.

ANA> What course and what university?

Zachavela <  The exact name of the course I do not know, but the university is: Université 
du Québec à Montréal  (UQAM).

ANA> You've been attending since the first fair, right? Since then, what has changed? Do 
you see a growth in demand for libertarian and anti-authoritarian literature in Canada?

Zachavela <  In Montreal, I can tell you that a culture of literature, and the fact that 
people want to read libertarian texts, is increasing. But it is hard to say what the 
expectations are. Fashion or movement? Do not know. But I can say that the fair is very 
popular and that the people who organize this event are competent.

ANA> The fact that  Living Theater  participated in the opening of the fair, means more 
visibility, more people in the event?

Zachavela <  I think so, and especially people we do not usually see, because they are 
interested in other things. I was on one of the nights at the  Living Theater  and it was 
really interesting.

ANA> Did the big media advertise the fair, or did you do any "special" reporting?

Zachavela: I'm  sorry, but I can not answer that question. There's a lot of publicity, but 
this year I do not know if the big media has said anything. I read the official papers a 
little, and I do not talk to the media very much. But there were other years that the 
official media spoke of the event.

ANA> Could you tell which book sold the most at the fair? Or would you highlight some that 
were exposed there?

Zachavela <People  usually search texts from or about Daniel Guerrier, Bakunin, Albert 
Jacob, Antonin Panneckoek ( Conseil Ouvriers ), Jaime Semprun Moura (Civil War in Spain in 
36), etc.

ANA>  La Sociale  only participates in the fair of Montreal or others as well?

Zachavela <  When we go to Paris, we help the friends of  Les Éditions Spartacus  at the 
fair in  Lutte Ouvrière . But if not, it's only at the Montreal fair.

ANA> Has any type of state repression occurred in any edition of the fair?

Zachavela <  No. So far everything went well. Thus, the collective of the book fair rents 
a space. That's it.

ANA> Is the bookstore  L'insoumise  new?

Zachavela <  Previously, there was a bookstore called  Alternatives  and it was run by 
people of extreme left, pretending to be an anarchist space. Anarchist and libertarian 
groups took possession of this place and changed their name. Now the anarchist bookstore 
in Montreal is called  L'insoumise . It has  La Sociale, NEFAC, Le Trouble, Mauvaise 
Herbe, GCL, Maikan  etc. Who participate in the project. Each group sends people to the 
library of the bookstore and so manage the project.

ANA> In the Anarchy Festival programming there was a project called " Bookmobile ". What 
is it?

Zachary <  Frankly, I do not know. There is so much that goes on during the book show that 
some things escape us. But if you want I can tell you about anarchist football during the 
fair. The people who like to play football invite the whole staff, children too, and go 
there for the lawn to play ball ...

ANA> Is the book still a good companion?

Zachavela <  I love to read and for that, I think so, the book will always be one of the 
best companions you will ever meet. But living everything that is written is even better. 
And by writing stories, with our lives, these experiences are transformed into our living 
books, which other people, perhaps one day, will read and will live later, and these our 
lives, perhaps, will also help them gain more liberties.

ANA> Finally, could you tell some funny or curious story that happened in this last 
edition of the fair?

Zachavela <  I can say that after the fair we are going to have a few drinks at a bar 
called  Yermad , formerly  Blues Clair , and where we drink the beer, we sing old 
anarchist songs. It's funny, fun ... That's the end of our event.
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