L’anarchisme et le Mouvement de la Science Transparente (fr) – 11:00
Who do we turn to for reliable information when fear runs high? Should we rely on scientific expertise to guide us in times of uncertainty? How can we do so in a way that is compatible with the principles of autonomy and self-determination?
This discussion will address such questions through an introduction to the Open Science Movement, a movement for greater transparency and efficiency within science that situates science as an accessible public collaboration rather than a proprietary, profit-driven competition.
Presented by Rémi
Likes: brains, climbing, open-science, skepticism.
Favorite colors: black and red (preferably together)
Liberating Sápmi: Indigenous Resistance in Europe’s Far North (en) – 11:30
Sweden-based author Gabriel Kuhn will read from his recently released Liberating Sápmi (PM Press, 2020). Based on interviews with Sámi activists, artists, and scholars, this book is an introduction to the ongoing, yet often overlooked, struggle of the Sámi people for self-determination. It also offers irrefutable evidence of the important role the Sámi play in the resistance of indigenous people against an economic and political system whose power to destroy all life on earth has reached a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity.
Conversations with Gidimt’en: Updates from the Front Lines (en) – noon
Sleydo is a Cas Yikh member of the Gidimt’en clan and the spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Camp. She has been living on Cas Yikh territory since 2014 with her husband and children teaching them traditionally on the land. Sleydo works endlessly for Indigenous resurgence for her children and future grandchildren. She lives by Wet’suwet’en law and will continue to build sovereignty for her people.
Jennifer is the media coordinator for Gidimt’en Camp. She is a Cas Yikh member of the Gidimt’en Clan, and has been raised in and around her territory. Though displaced, she has been actively engaged and passionately advocating for the Wet’suwet’en governance system since returning home in 2013. Her background is working with youth, language, and culture. She is a writer and lover of the arts, always looking for new and meaningful ways to connect with Indigenous and ally supporters to further the liberation of all our nations.
Delee (pronouns she/her/they/them) currently lives within her traditional territories of the Wet’suwet’en people. She is active in organizing projects, people, and platforms to bring awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Woman and Girls as well as the continued fight of Indigenous Peoples in so-called Canada. Both issues are very near and dear to her heart, as she has had several young women in her life missing and/or murdered. Her clan has been at the heart of the struggle against pipeline projects which are currently advancing destruction of traditional Wet’suwet’en territories. Delee communicates with various organizations and nations throughout Turtle Island to assist with developing plans for empowering and protecting sovereignty. Responsibility to ensure future generations have a better world has been a lesson reiterated throughout Delee’s life from the teachings of her Dinï ze (male chiefs), Tsakë ze (female chiefs), and family members. Her aspirations include working with up and coming leaders as well as learning from those who are our knowledge keepers. She understands the need for connecting and promoting unity among all people.
Mutual Aid for Survival and Freedom (en) – 13:00
Panelists: Madeleine with Mutual Aid Katarokwi-Kingston, Brandon with K’é Infoshop in the Navajo Nation, and Tammy with Downtown-East Hamilton Mutual Aid Network
In response to the COVID-19 catastrophe, mutual aid projects have blossomed around Turtle Island as people turn to each other to meet their needs — material and emotional. It is a matter of survival. Yet mutual aid is and should be much more than that. It brings us directly into each other’s lives, with care and dignity, challenging us to reimagine forms of social relations and social organization. This panel will share experiences from imaginative “solidarity not charity” efforts, and how their practices, strategies, and anarchistic infrastructure might allow us all to thrive over the long haul, without need of capitalism and states, cops and borders.
Collective Care vs. Containment (en) – 14:00
A facilitated discussion and workshop with speakers Mikiki, Modibo Kadalie, and Alexis Shotwell, in which we explore questions such as:
1. What lessons can we draw from historical movements about countering a policing and containment approach to pandemic?
2. What does harm reduction and collective care look like in our current context?
3. Autonomy, self-determination, and community accountability are all central anarchist principles. Given the current context, what do you see as the contradictions between these principles and can they be reconciled?
Mikiki is a performance and video artist and queer community health activist of Acadian/Mi’kmaq and Irish descent from Newfoundland, Canada. Their identity as an artist is informed and intrinsically linked to their history of work as a sexual health educator and harm reduction worker. Mikiki’s creative themes often address safer sex negotiations, identity construction, attitudes about drug use, disclosure of sexual identity and health status, community building through skills sharing, testimonial, and storytelling.
Alexis Shotwell teaches and writes in Ottawa, on unceded Algonquin land, where she’s a part of the Punch Up anarchist collective (punchupcollective.org). She is the co-investigator for the AIDS Activist History Project (aidsactivisthistory.ca), and author of Knowing Otherwise: Race, Gender, and Implicit Understanding and Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times.
Modibo M. Kadalie, PhD, is a noted activist, political theorist, and social ecologist, known to be a longtime critic of the nation-state and the sham that is “representative democracy.” He is the author of Pan-African Social Ecology (OOOA Press, 2019) and Internationalism, Pan-Africanism, and the Struggle of Social Classes (One Quest Press, 2000). Dr. Kadalie has worked for over thirty-five years in higher education and has been active in radical politics for over fifty years. In the late 1960s, he was a member of the central staff of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers of Detroit, Michigan, a founding member of the International African Liberation Support Committee and a North American delegate to the 6th Pan-African Congress. In the 1970s he participated in many labor self-organization movements in Atlanta, Georgia. In the 1980s, he helped with the self-organization of armed defense groups in the Atlanta Housing Projects during the crisis of the child murders. And in the 1990s, he helped to mobilize the Savannah community during the massive Tridium spill in the Savannah River from the upriver Savannah River Nuclear Plant, among many other campaigns. Currently, Dr. Kadalie is the founding convener of the Autonomous Research Institute for Direct Democracy and Social Ecology (https://ariddse.org/).
Antifascism during Pandemic (en) – 15:00
Antifascism is an ever-evolving concept—one that changes as our social conditions tighten and crisis becomes a constant feature of social life. In this conversation, Shane Burley and Effie Baum will talk about what antifascism, mutual aid, and social movements can look like in the era of pandemic, and how the Far Right is shifting its tactics.
Shane Burley is a writer, filmmaker, and antifascist, and Effie Baum is a queer antifascist organizer and spokesperson for PopMob (Popular Mobilization). Both are based in Portland, Oregon.
Dialed In: A Conversation with Radio Pandemic (en) – 16:00
Radio Pandemic is a radio show on the COVID-19 crisis, airing three times a week on CFRC 101.9 in Kingston, Ontario. For the past two months, the show has covered surveillance, mental health, prisons, and other topics from an anarchist perspective. Join us for a conversation with the Radio Pandemic crew as we discuss their experiences from the project.
Grief Space (fr/en) – 17:00
Following an emerging practice that has been an explicit part of the bookfair for the last two years, we will once again be holding space—albeit in an online format—to mourn, grieve, and honour those who have left us recently and in past years. This year in particular, as the global pandemic lays bare structures of domination in ways and on a scale that forces us to confront what we’ve already known in new and different ways every day, the bookfair grief space will be a time/place to pay tribute to the dead as well as grieve the ways in which current circumstances have impacted our connections and communities, and how so much of our ongoing work and struggles may be overshadowed by immediate needs. This will be a space for sharing and storytelling, mourning and raging, witnessing and grieving loss, and honouring change. The 2020 grief space is dedicated to Hayden Muller, a beloved Montreal organizer who died on September 7, 2019, from stage four breast cancer surrounded by people who loved them.
Film screening: Pom Poko – 18:30
Pom Poko (平成狸合戦ぽんぽこ) is about a community of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs, said to be possessed of magical powers) struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development, while sometimes disagreeing with one another about tactics. Kid-friendly, but there are serious themes, depictions of violence and tanuki who have died, and “nudity” (some of the raccoon dogs have testicles).
Available at mabf.theanarchistcinema.org/en.html (with multiple audio and subtitle options); we encourage folks to watch at 18:30 Montréal time.
The Anarchist Cinema aims to provide access to films that are about or relevant to anarchists. We encourage people to watch with others, and to share in conversation about the ideas presented therein. Please reach out if you have film recommendations, reviews, or requests for alternate screenings. For any questions, the usher can be contacted at usher [at] theanarchistcinema [dot] org. We have a Matrix chatroom at #theanarchistcinema:chat.weho.st where you can hang out during the show.
Beneath the Paving Stones, the Dance Floor! – 21:00
An Online Dance Party to Celebrate the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair
♬ This event will be broadcast on Zoom: https://ijvcanada.zoom.us/j/81296237204 ♬
ⒶⒶ Live from New York City (via New Orleans), from the esteemed reggae outfit The Far East, selector extraordinaire Maddie Ruthless
ⒶⒶ DJ Aaron Maiden (The Rebel Beat, ska, rocksteady, reggae, sounds of a fascist-free tomorrow)
ⒶⒶ DJ Grenadier (Radio 613, Hip-hop, brass band, klezmer, cumbia, sounds of the revolts of our ancestors)
Normally you’d be dancing with us to celebrate the closing of the anarchist bookfair this year. Despite the circumstances, you’ll still be dancing with us, but at home!
There will be prizes for:
- the best costume
- the best dance moves
- the best-decorated personal dance floor
Note: we’re taking precautions to avoid attacks from online trolls during this event. Everyone’s mics will be deactivated as well as the chat function. You will, however, have the option to turn your camera on or off. We would love to see you dancing with us, but no pressure 🙂
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