History
The New International Bookshop Cooperative was founded in 1994 to continue the legacy of the International Bookshop. Operating under the auspices of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA), the International Bookshop was a Melbourne institution selling Left books and periodicals from the 1930s until the early 1990s when the CPA disbanded.
NIBS opened for business in Trades Hall in 1996 and occupied the space directly above our current location until late 2008, when we moved downstairs into the Trades Hall basement. NIBS has become well-known over the years for its annual Big Red Bookfair which is a much loved event on the Melbourne left calender.
At various times in our history, NIBS has run a café, a catering business, and art gallery and even a photo developing service! Nowadays the shop focuses exclusively on stocking left-progressive books and merchandise from all over the world, maintaining a well order second hand book section (all genres) and running regular events aimed at fostering debate and discussion on the Melbourne Left.
Annual Report
The NIBS Annual Report 2016-17 report provides a basic overview of our organisation and summarizes our current activities, achievements, challenges and financial position.
PEOPLE
Jonathan Rutherford
COORDINATOR
Jonathan is employed by the committee part time and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the shop and taking a lead role in organising our events and fundraising events. Jonathan has had a long interest in left ideas, and hopes NIBS can be a community space for dialogue and debate about the big issues confronting the left.
Cavell Zangalis
PRESIDENT
Cavell is NIBS long-running super president. Since joining the committee in the mid 1990s she has pioneered fundraising events such as a sophisticated (for the time) BookFair, Comedy Debates, Quiz Nights and even a catering buisness. Its been a wonderful journey with a huge number of great people who gave their time and talents and books to NIBS – a continuing tradition in a changing setting.
Louise connor
TREASURER
Louise Connor is the former Victorian secretary of MEAA – the media and arts union – and supports the bookshop’s role to stimulate ideas and left action.
Theresa Cahillane
SECRETARY
Catherine Noone
Committee Member
Glaucia Okubo
Committee Member
Glaucia is a volunteer bookkeeper, being responsible for bookkeeping related activities as well as generating financial reports and providing variance analysis. Glaucia is a supporter of social justice and progressive ideas and has joined NIBS as a way to support the organisation
Josh Subra
Committee Member
Josh is a committee member and proud volunteer of the New International Bookshop. He’s a young student and political activist with a fervent passion for leftist ideals, international and domestic political affairs and social justice, and hopes to broaden the greater political discourse through his contributions to the store
Marko Beljac
Committee Member
Marko currently teaches at Melbourne University and is active in the trade union movement, the global justice movement, and has a growing passion for ecological thought. He writes freelance on just about everything and would like to see a society based on a federation of worker owned and managed enterprises distributing resources on the basis of need and living in peace and harmony with the organic and inorganic world.
Anastasia Buryak
Committee Member
Stasia works in a book publishing and has been part of the Committee from 2016. Through her previous involvement in the environmental activism in Moscow, she became a strong believer in Left values, the power of education and political literacy. She enjoys realising her passions in the best radical bookstore in Melbourne.