Anarchy in the U.K., Friday, 20th October to Sunday 29th October 1994. Introduction Saturday was the annual anarchist bookfair in Conway Hall, a meeting place for all sorts of radical groups in central London. This was my first visit, but I'm told it was much busier than last year - there was hardly room for all the stalls in the hall and corridors, and the place was heaving with people, at least a thousand, I would say, must have visited it during the course of the day - there were several hundred there at any one time and it remained busy until near the closing time of 8 p.m. Exhibitors included Freedom, Class War, DS4, Anarchy Distributions, A K Press, Kate Sharpley Library, Extreme Books, Drunken Boat, Perennial Books (last 3 from U.S.), Solidarity Federation (ex-Direct Action Movement), Counter Information and Scottish Anarchists, Anarchist Black Cross, Phoenix Press, Pirate Press (Sheffield), IWW, Libertarian Education, Green Anarchist, Bad Attitude (anarchafeminist), Open Eye, Yellowgate Greenham Camp Women, London Psychogeographical Association and more. On Sunday an attempted levitation of parliament occurred outside the hideous building itself. Again, an impressive number of people for an anarchist demonstration (500?) right in front of the seat of power. It was claimed that the buildings wobbled; some blamed the failure to levitate on the bad karma of the police, but the truth of the matter is that holding the levitation on a Sunday - when the building is empty - is doomed to failure; it needs the help of all the hot air and windbags inside. Some flags were burnt but to be honest, not much happened - and what could, really? Monday we held workshops on computer networking and held discussions with publishers and other BBSes (the latter on Tuesday), and narrowly missed appearing on the film of the festival. On Tuesday I went to an exhibition of Clifford Harper's art and Crass artwork - brilliant; also an exhibition of Spanish anarchism from the death of Franco to the present day, a most impressive collection of 25 panels first put together for the anarchist exposicion in Barcelona last September (apparently 100 panels originally). I purchased a number of pamphlets and other things, but of significance only the proceedings of the 1994 Barcelona anarchist exposicion (500 pages). Was it a success? There were anarchists from all over: Ireland, Scotland, England, Greece, a lot of Spaniards, the U.S., Holland, France, Sweden, and so on. It was great for Spunk Press, and I was able to meet a lot of people with whom I'd previously correspondend by email. I'll address issues of organisation separately, but it was a tremendous buzz to be in London with so many anarchists - I just kept bumping into them on the streets. Some organisations (Class War, London Psychogeographical Association, Neoist Alliance, etc.) boycotted it, because of its (to my mind) necessarily broad nature, and the controversial character of its prime instigator, Ian Bone (founder of Class War). The opportunity to create contacts and exchange ideas I think justifies such a large meeting of anarchists, though good organisation is essential. Organisation There was a truly impressive program of events, and good groundwork and preparation, but a lack of coordination and communication. There were no clear places to go for information; many events were late or did not take place; there was a daily bulletin, but no obvious place to get it. Caveat: my movements were restricted, so I may just have not got to know stuff, but the program could have been more explicit about how to find about changes. Having said that, it was a daunting number of events to put on, and credit should go to the organisers. The events took place in dozens of places around London, adding to the difficulty. I saw some very harrassed people working very hard indeed to get things going (as usual, many people didn't get involved). Particularly impressive was the success in getting accomodation for a large number; I personally visited the squat of an empty legal aid centre with space for sixty people. The daily bulletin is a great idea, too. Interestingly, it is the anarchosyndicalists such as the SAC from Sweden or the Spanish who expect a higher standard of organisation - I think they are using to deal with much larger numbers of people. Those present with email access (any more of you out there, do the same!!) have agreed to post our reports so that as full a picture of the conference /festival emerges. Spunk Press will maintain an "events" directory with an "Anarchy_UK" subdirectory, in which all reports will be placed (other similar gatherings can do the same). Musicwise, there was piles of anarchopunk, but as a jazz playing friend pointed out, no 'free/contemporary' jazz, surely the most anarchic music on the planet, every exponent of which must qualify as an anarchist. Nice to involve this community too, which is well represented in London. Hopefully many things can be learnt and applied to the next such gathering. Languages One problem with the festival is that the working language was exclusively English. An international anarchist conference attracts a lot of non English speakers, particularly from the Spanish speaking world, historically and probably currently the largest anarchist population in existence, which does not usually speak English. Failure to address this makes the festival almost useless for a number of people who have made long and expensive journeys, reinforces the Anglocentrism of these gatherings, alienates non English speakers, and does not allow the free exchange of ideas between otherwise separated anarchist movements, a prime aim of these gatherings. There were several practical problems. 1. Organisational problems and communication problems due to the lack of a common language considerably delayed the exhibition of Spanish anarchism 1974-94. I had to employ my bad Spanish and considerable amount of time and energy - during the time we were supposed to be running workshops ourselves - to ensure that it was set up. Otherwise, an exhibition that had been brought from Barcelona to London would not have occurred, which is unpardonable. 2. The workshop we ran on BBSes and networking was attended by at least 8 spaniards, and not many more english speakers. The Spaniards, with a single exception, were unable to contribute, and half of them left. I spoke to the others later, but by then it was too late. At least some kind of interpreting would have improved it - perhaps two groups discussing the issues in English and Spanish, with someone summarising in both every now and then. 3. The lack of written materials in Spanish was very frustrating for the Spaniards. For instance, there were direct actions against local projects, but nothing in Spanish to advise on rights when arrested. Until such a time as we all speak a modified anarchoesperanto in which there are no words for 'ruler', 'boss' and 'police, some kind of translation needs to take place. Ideally, there will be simultaneous translation of all languages represented, but this is impossibly expensive. A start would be to define the working languages of the festival. It's pretty obvious that English and Spanish are the choice, plus the language of the location. The latter is more comprehensible than English to Romance speakers such as Italian and French. Anyway, one could argue about the choice ad infinitum. Having chosen the working languages, the idea would be simultaneous translation.In addition, all working material needs to be available. This is still too expensive. It should be possible to at least do the following - involve comrades who speak more than one language in a. translating material b. interpreting at workshops For instance, there are plenty of Spanish anarchists resident in London. If they were involved from the beginning of organisation of the festival, some of the problems could have been addressed. Ian Heavens, Spunk Press Scotland