The Manchester & Salford Anarchist Bookfair 2018 will be taking place on Saturday 1 December from 11am-6pm. The venue is the same as last year: Partisan Collective, 19 Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester M4 4FY. Free admission. The venue is ideal in certain respects, such as being very close to Victoria station, but it has a serious drawback – it is completely inaccessible for disabled people.
This is controversial to say the least, with a number of angry comments on the Facebook event page such as: ” Heard this book fair is in an inaccessable venue with no disability access. This is 2018 guys, did you not think of this when booking the venue! Did you not think of all the disabled anarchists out there who would like to attend this. I would have though you being anarchists you would stick up for disabled rights and people with disabilities. What answer do you have for booking this venue this year???”
Why the organisers decided to go back to this venue, after knowing full well from last year that it is unsuitable for people with mobility issues, I do not know. Finding venues is never easy and a number of considerations have to be made, such as cost and availability. Perhaps after weighing up the options this was the most suitable venue. But it does seem a strange choice.
This page of the website contains a list of stallholders. From Active Distribution and the Anarchist Federation, through the Hunt Saboteurs and Bolton Diggers to Manchester Zapitista Collective and Solidarity Federation (Manchester). Teatime Collective will serving delicious vegan food and drinks. There will also be talks/workshops throughout the day but so far there are no details. There is also, so far as I can tell, no planned afterparty.
The Facebook event is here
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