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,
ACAB2019
Further Reading & Listening on this topic
From Embers – Interview with Montreal Anarchist bookfair