On this most special day of the anarcho-calendar, we must say in unison: fuck the Queen, long live King Mob!

This weekend the autonomous movement of the Untied Krimdom came together to show the State that anarchy is alive, organized and fucking having it. In defiance of the national passion for monarchist bootlicking and despite the ultimate mega queue of grieving swan-fuckers, Anarcho-Xmas aka the Anarchist Bookfair in London took place across 4 offical venues and 3 more fringe events. Reports estimate attendance by more than 2000 people who had travelled from across the world to celebrate the most significant event of the anarchist calender. At the same time as Decolonisefest – the “punk festival by and for punx of colour” – took place in Haggerston featuring Gurnal Gadaffi, Dystopia and many more, simultaneously as a national day of action was organised to protest the homicide of Chris Kaba by cops. The bookfair itself was the climax of a week of self-organised education by the anti-university collectives.

Meanwhile, 1000s of serfs formed a 10-mile queue to see a box.

The staging of the festival is a triumphant continuation of the return to form demonstrated by the organizing crew and the autonomous community of London and beyond since the bookfair collapsed in 2017 after disruption by TERF activists. A molotov’s-throw from where anarchist bank-robbers killed 3 police officers as they raided a jewellery store to expropriate funds, the Bishopsgate Institute hosted over 40 stalls, including the Advisory Service for Squatters, Dog Section Press, Mangal Media, SolFed and many, many more.

The Toynbee Hall community centre, a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London, was plastered with images discussing forum theatre and hosted talks by Don’t Pay UK on payment strikes and community defence, Netpol on solutions and responses to the police labelling all anarchist ideas as “aggravated activism”, and Palestine Action on active resistance to the war machine, plus more.

Whitechapel Gallery, which exists just opposite Altab Ali Park – named for the 25-year-old British Bangladeshi clothing worker who was murdered in 1978 by three teenage boys as he walked home from work – provided rooms to host discussions on workplace organising by SolFed and Earth First! asking where next for the ecological movement, plus many more which as listed here.

Freedom Bookshop was open, with a creche for children in the UK’s smallest social space Decentre providing a programme on subjects such as stories about police, asking for help, community and the future. Meanwhile, Angel Alley was filled with stalls selling zines, T-shirts and much more from DIY and independent creatives, and featured street performances by militant-trans collective NFA Queer Punx and poems from Rojava by Matt Broomfield. Longtime DIY stalwarts Dissident Island Radio and sex-worker collective Radio Ava broadcast live reports from the event throughout the day.

London Action Resource Centre provided a fringe programme.

One of the Bookfair organisers said the following:

“Thank you to all in the organising collective and to all who who helped, but special thanks to all squatters, migrants, ravers, punks, queer punx, non-punk inclined queers, boat and van dwellers, artists, stoners, pranksters, crusties and the DIY-obsessed lot.

Your work often goes unacknowledged or taken for granted by the so-called “organisers” on the left, but the reality is that it is you who provided us with absolutely copious amounts of work and energy and resourcefulness and effort to make the Bookfair run as smoothly as it could. And that was pretty fucking smooth!”

After the daytime event, an afterparty featuring live 2-bit rave-punkers Killdren, honker-screechers Agents of the Lexicon and fuckloads of techno bassbeat took place at a specially seized warehouse in Edmonton that was attended by 100s of party people – no doubt rejoicing the death of the despot.

We pay tribute to our fallen comrades: Charlotte Dingle, who edited Freedom from 2013-14, who died last week; Iggy, for whom a memorial benefit was held in a squatted space near Canning Town on Saturday featuring live music from some of the finest of the underground punk scene, including Pisskreig, Eskorputas and more; Sheize, the founder of notorious chaos punk noise collective Litter Shitter; Alexia, in whose honour of a memorial gig was held at the Bird’s Nest on 3rd September, featuring the last ever Poisonous Cunt gig, for whom she drummed; we remember Agent Kingfisher – Tom Palmer – who once pissed on the doors of MI5; Dainis, the singer of the band Dearth; and the many, many more who we have lost in the struggle against State, domination and capital.

How can the loss of one lizard ever equate to the millions more who pass in anonymity?

Merry fucking anarcho-Xmas to one and all.

Next up – Temporary Autonomous Arts on the weekend of the 6/7/8 October. See you there.

Bookfair poster by Loki Gwynbleidd.