Riga Anarchist bookfair

Open call for Riga Anarchist bookfair 2025!

We are a group of students, activists and just non-indifferent people based in Riga, Latvia united under ideas of anti-capitalism, anarcho-collectivism and other libertarian left-wing ideas. In 2024 we first gathered together to respond to the rising conservatism and neoliberalism of the world and our country in particular by organising an Anarchist Bookfair in our city. What initially started as a small modest event turned into a three day festival with 4 venues, visitors and participants from 10 different countries, live music, discussions, lectures and workshops. After receiving incredible support, we don’t plan to stop and are continuing with the Bookfair in 2025!

We invite all the Anarchist/Libertarian and Socialist publishers to present and sell their books, magazines, newspapers, cartoons, etc and everybody interested to spend the weekend with us, take part in discussions and seminars. The event is open for everyone to attend without prior registration. The details of the programme will come later.

If you want to sell/present your printed material, hold a lecture, discussion, performance or presentation, please, write to the following e-mail. We have a limited number of tables and timeslots, order them in advance.

Write to rigaanarchistbookfair@protonmail.com
The deadline is 01.04.2025.

The fair will happen 23-25 May, 2025 in Riga, Latvia.

Further we've included more detailed information that we invite you to read if you plan on participating in the bookfair!

About us
The political climate is becoming more and more filled with despair and alienation. People feel a total lack of power over unaccountable states and corporations and thus seek easy answers presented by neoliberals and far-right. In this time it's essential not to lose momentum and build hope, by actively organising, educating oneself and the people around. Left wing discourse is still largely absent in our country, but we carry on building it and we see more and more sympathising people joining. In 2024 we finally opened an autonomous left wing political social center "Maiznīca", where we hold political discussions and practice democratic ways of organising.

We carry on living in a historical moment, as we are actively filling in the left wing political vacuum. The goal of the fair is still to build international mutual aid networks, meet, collaborate, listen and share knowledge and perspectives with many comrades from all over the EU and beyond, as well as to show people of Latvia that there exist other ways of thinking, living and collaborating. This is an open call for lecturers, book sellers, writers, directors, artists and activists to come to Riga in May 2024 and participate in the fair, tell the fair visitors about their work / organisations and help with the spread of critical political theory and direct action in Latvia.

Help us find more people and information
We would appreciate any help or information as well as contacts of other organisations, leftist book distributors around the EU and beyond who could be interested in participating or helping us with advice.

Also we would appreciate lectures and or help with the research / materials on the following topics:
-Grassroot organisations and direct action.
-Mutual education, open debate and discussion moderation.
-Gentrification, squatting and urban resistance.
-Bottom-up democracy, Mutual Aid vs Parliamentary Democracy.
-Consensus and micro-democracy in a working collective.

About Riga
Riga, the capital city of Latvia, is situated at the Baltic sea and it is an ideal meeting place for all those interested from the East and the West.
Latvia has a glorious anarchist history dating from the 19th century and of anarchist and libertarian socialist print in various languages, including Latvian, Russian and Yiddish.
Latvia's nature is very beautiful and May is the best time to come. It is the time when there aren't many tourists, and it is already warm by then. Latvia has a very rich history of breweries and some of the best beers in Europe.
Once part of the Hansa union (together with Hamburg and Novgorod) Riga became a major industrial centre in the 19th century with militant class struggle and outbreaks of revolutions. Also, Riga is the home city of humanist and proto-anarchist philosopher Johan Gotfrid Herder.

How to get here
By bus from Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Estonia, Czech Republic.
By boat from Germany, Sweden, Denmark.
By plane. Our airport has flights by many airlines.
Also, there are good hitch-hiking opportunities, which was proven by some of our guests last year.
Cycling is always an option too :D

If you need a visa
Latvia is part of Shengen, and citizens of Great Britain, USA, Canada, Australia, Israel and some other countries do not need visas either.
If you need a visa we can send you a visa invitation. It costs 10 euro and takes about two weeks to obtain, so please let us know well in advance.

Food
There are many inexpensive cafes in Riga near the venue. At the festival on Saturday and Sunday we are also offering everybody vegan lunch (for donations).

Accommodations
We have limited possibilities to host some of the participants at our homes, as well as we can help you find inexpensive accommodations in Riga. Let us know if you need help.

Announcements and social media
Before the bookfair, we plan to post about every participant a little introduction on our instagram and website (welcome to the website!). If you want (and feel comfortable) to introduce your lecture, distro or workshop to people then please provide a description about yourself.
To make it easier to write one, you can answer these questions about yourself:
- What will you be doing in the bookfair? Distro/workshop/lecture/discussion/anything else outside of these bounds. And what will it be about, the theme or style, up to you!
- What are you? Here you can provide whatever information you want. Your history, your story, what are you and where do you count yourself from (if from anywhere at all).
- What book radicalised you? This is a tradition that we'd love to continue from last year! If you want, please tell about the book that you consider your point of radicalisation or just any book that you recommend others read.
Your descriptions can be as long or as short as you wish. Also please provide visuals that we can use in our posts! Pictures, logo, symbols, anything that you wish.

Hopefully, see you at the bookfair!

With rage, love and solidarity,

RAB collective.

Schedule of the fair

New and fresh

Get in contact with us!
To get in contact with us,
send us an email at rigaanarchistbookfair@protonmail.com
or
send a message on instagram
@riga_anarchistbookfair
or
find a street cat, rub its belly and
ask it to carry a message to us!

Will appear as soon as we have the schedule figured out!

We have started announcing participants of the 2025 bookfair! Check them out
And don't forget that the application deadline to participate in the fair is the 1st or April!

Participant announcements!