April 17, 2007 Edition 2
By James Hossack
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

New York -- It may be the centre of the capitalist universe, but New
York still managed to rally hundreds of revolutionaries, students and the plain curious for its first anarchist book fair at the weekend.

Not exactly known for its left-wing political agitation, the city could last claim to have an organised anarchist network a century or so ago, but recently formed groups are increasingly flying the anarchist flag here.

And while the prospect of barricades on Broadway and violent revolution appear remote, the anarchist movement appears to be attracting a broad spectrum of counter-cultural followers disillusioned with the state of US politics.

The book fair is a joint effort by activists who are able to update a centralised website.

With titles on offer ranging from Organic Market Gardening and
Crimethink for Beginners to the enigmatic Bicycling Science and Animal Rights and Pornography, Saturday's book fair reflected some pretty diverse manifestoes.

Organisers said they were happy to welcome the "anarcho-curious" as
well as veteran radicals to the Greenwich Village event in downtown
Manhattan.

"New York has not had any type of organised anarchist group or
collective city-wide group specifically for the purpose of promoting
anarchism for a long time," explained James Nova, from the New York
Metro Alliance of Anarchists.

"But there are tens of thousands, at least, of anarchists in this area and a lot of them are active in some type of collective," he said.

His own group currently counts between 60 and 100 members.

Pins, posters and pamphlets at the fair had as much of an anti-war,
alternative and environmentalist message as promoting the imminent
collapse of the world order.

Part of the aim of being at the fair was to help bring together
like-minded groups and to reach out to those unaware of anarchism, to educate people about anarchist history and philosophy, Nova said.

"We need to get people to work together and build a movement if we're ever going to achieve the ultimate goal of social revolution, of defeating capitalism," he said.

Anarchist groups in the city have in the past collapsed in frustration and infighting among different factions.

"There's a lot of reluctance in this city about getting involved in
another group that's not going to go anywhere," added Nova.

The assumption that organised anarchism is a contradiction in terms was a misunderstanding, he insisted.

"Everyone has bought in to the idea that anarchism and anarchy is chaos instead of order," he said. "But it isn't. It is order . . . And that's one of the things we're trying to correct," Nova said.

In one of its pamphlets appealing to radicals, anti-authoritarians and revolutionaries alike to join its ranks, Nova's group says: "Contrary to popular myth, anarchists like to organise."

The New York anarchist book fair may be nowhere near the size of more established events in London, Montreal and San Francisco, but
organisers said that with a turnout of more than a thousand people on Saturday, the event could become an annual fixture.

--Sapa-AFP