Anarchy after Book Fair

Posted on October 27, 2005 in Uncategorized

The 24th Anarchist Bookfair was held at London’s Voluntary Sector Resource Centre on London’s Holloway Road last Saturday. As the conference closed police responded to a call from the landlord of the Coronet on Holloway after alleged anarchists refused to turn off a stereo system that was disturbing customers. A riot ensued as police officers, who had been policing a match at Arsenal, arrived in large numbers to deal with the incident.

Around 500 anarchists are reported to have been drinking in the Coronet at the end of the conference, but only a small handful of people were initally invloved in the incident. The situation escalated when the landlord stopped serving alcohol, emptying the pub on to pavement where nine police vans and several ambulances sealed off the junction of Holloway Road and Camden Road.

Several arrests were made and both members of the police and anarchists were hospitalised when bottles and other missiles were thrown at officers in riot gear.

The Anarchist Bookfair has been running annually since 1983 and is the largest regular gathering of Anarchists in the world. There were eighty stalls at this year’s fair with publishers and activists exhibiting alongside seminars and discussion groups.