BookAction_issue1-2
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Book-Café<br />
The Barricade<br />
Voorstraat 71<br />
3512 AK, Utrecht<br />
Sun 16:00-23:00<br />
http://acu.nl<br />
barricade@acu.nl<br />
Issue 1 Book-Café The Barricade<br />
Libraries Bookshops Practices People Spaces<br />
UTRECHT, DECEMBER 2017<br />
ABOUT BOOK/ACTION<br />
Book/Action is a research project which seeks<br />
to highlight the hidden values and practices<br />
surrounding alternative library spaces and<br />
bookshops. By delving into people, places and<br />
practices, it aims to address their educational<br />
and cultural value, exploring questions of how<br />
the library or bookshop is used as a political<br />
tool for self-organizing, community-building<br />
and empowerment.<br />
An Interview with Luigi<br />
Interview<br />
Can you explain the meaning behind<br />
the name Book-Café The Barricade?<br />
LUIGI: The first thing that comes to mind was<br />
what is involved when you say, ‘let’s go to the<br />
barricade’. That's already a sign of protest. We<br />
thought, at least when we decided on it, we liked<br />
the way the ‘barricade’ contrasted with the name<br />
‘book-café’ which is in a way, a bit hipster. That<br />
was already a way of showing that we are not just<br />
a normal library or a normal café.<br />
Another thing we liked to evoke and which is<br />
part of the logo - of the barricade – it’s this form of<br />
protest that was started in Italy around 2011 and it<br />
was called the book bloc. Basically, these students<br />
were going on demonstrations where they often<br />
ended up in fights with the police. They used the<br />
shields as protective fronts and on these shields,<br />
they wrote names of books. So, then you had the<br />
logo and this picture and the police attacking the<br />
books and we liked this idea of what it evoked. So,<br />
books are important tools for protest. These were<br />
two things that came together.<br />
What is your role in the project?<br />
I started this project with other people. In the<br />
beginning, there were three. Now, it’s always a<br />
fluctuating number, with some who are active and<br />
others who are not so active. At the moment, we<br />
are starting to introduce new people to manage<br />
the library but that started recently. Now we are<br />
with eight in total but it’s always a difficult process<br />
between trying to make all the things fit together<br />
– running the library, organizing events, running<br />
the group as a community and trying to attract<br />
new people to help. It’s always a lot of different<br />
things.<br />
For me personally, I have tried to be active in all<br />
of this. But I’ve also been splitting myself with<br />
helping the kitchen group that goes along with the<br />
library. It’s my involvement but it’s also the<br />
involvement of other people. It goes from dumpster<br />
diving to cooking, to contacting political<br />
groups to organize talks, to look for new zines and<br />
new books we might want to order, to reminding<br />
people to return books and all these day-to-day<br />
tasks which are necessary to run the library.<br />
How did you initially source the<br />
books?<br />
Most of the books which are in the collection come<br />
from another library which was traveling around<br />
between squats. Some of the books come from<br />
Nijmegen, other books come from a squat in<br />
Utrecht but got evicted five or six years ago and<br />
they had been staying unused in a parking lot<br />
somewhere in the north of the Netherlands. When<br />
we heard about this, we decided to take the books<br />
and restart it for use in a library. When we<br />
brought the books here, we found ourselves with<br />
around 2000 books that belonged to the previous<br />
collection, and a number of other archival material<br />
- old zines and magazines which had been<br />
collected by people active in the squatting movement<br />
for maybe 15 years or more. There are even<br />
books which are not for loan - books from the 19th<br />
century.<br />
It was very overwhelming to start with a library<br />
because basically, we started from two contrasting<br />
points - by having no experience as librarians and<br />
by finding ourselves with a collection of 2000<br />
books we had no idea what they were about. So,<br />
we spent the summer going through all the books<br />
and trying to categorize them, understand what<br />
they were about. Out of these 2000 books we<br />
selected around 500 or 600 for this permanent<br />
collection and the other ones are still in our<br />
archive.<br />
The library appears to be many things<br />
- it expresses an attitude of asserting<br />
agency, autonomy and reclaiming<br />
public space. How do you conceptualize<br />
the library?<br />
I think a very important thing for the library is<br />
how it started. It was started by people who were<br />
already active in this space. We felt at the time<br />
that the space was not as political as it should be.<br />
Two years ago, this wall was empty and there<br />
were no books here whatsoever. Also, there<br />
were very little political events so it was a<br />
stagnant phase for political activity. When we<br />
asked ourselves, how can we change this, we<br />
thought that a library would be a good way to<br />
start. It was reclaiming space by already having<br />
this every day even when we are not open as a<br />
library. When people look around and they only<br />
see beer bottles and when people look around<br />
and they see books that are about anarchism or<br />
other political books they get a different impression.<br />
So, that was the main start of the library to<br />
us - to use books and the library as a way to make<br />
this whole space more political.<br />
You’ve staged platforms for collective<br />
thinking through lectures - say, the<br />
lecture by the anti-militarist collective<br />
Xupoluto Tagma. Can you talk about<br />
the practical aspects of inviting these<br />
guests over and the hospitality you<br />
provide for them?<br />
The Barricade library first caught my attention during my first visit to Utrecht. Strolling<br />
aimlessly through Voorstraat, I caught out a stack of political zines and books from the<br />
corner of my eye. Naturally, my body responded to this. Moments later upon entering<br />
ACU, I found myself at the bar - with a zine in one hand and a beer in the other.<br />
A starting point my interview with Luigi was trying to identify what actions have emerged<br />
from the library. But it was quickly pointed out to me that itʼs hard to pinpoint at what<br />
exact moment the library produced what action, because they are in themselves catalytic<br />
of a fluid network of converging bodies - whose agencies, values and experiences<br />
interweave to collectively shape the library. Luigi acknowledged this by talking about his<br />
past experience volunteering for a soup kitchen in Copenhagen - similarly equipped with<br />
a library. While these actions may not always have immediate consequences, they can<br />
inadvertently set off a chain reaction of actions here and there, quietly giving profound<br />
meaning in our lives.<br />
Looking across the array of curated titles, zines and ephemera laid out at its usual place,<br />
the table reveals a rich network of social relations and actions. It is a living, breathing<br />
library, albeit a messy one. But it is a ʻgrowing organismʼ in the sense that it exists at the<br />
heart of a community who are using the library as a way to enact new ways of being<br />
together - rebuilding social relationships based on the currencies of solidarity and trust.<br />
The library itself does not ask for a deposit for loaning a book. Rather, it puts its trust in<br />
each member of the community (So, remember: donʻt forget to return your books!).<br />
The table is also representative of the kind of politics which the Barricade engages in.<br />
When the Barricade celebrated their first anniversary this year, a friend of the collective<br />
made badges for the library and similarly, the stickers were brought in one day by another<br />
member of the community and it has since become a feature of the library. It is these<br />
kinds of small gestures - reflective of the networks of support and mutual trust, that provide<br />
the beating heart of the library.<br />
So, next time youʼre in Utrecht, letʼs meet at the Barricade.<br />
Usually, we try to contact groups who are active<br />
in the area because it’s easier to organize. In the<br />
case of the talk by Xupoluto Tagma on Greek<br />
militarism, it was a bit different because we were<br />
contacted by the person involved. He was passing<br />
by Utrecht and he heard about us, and he wanted<br />
to talk about his actions and he identified us as a<br />
place to give that talk. Then of course, we tried<br />
to arrange for him to come. I found that it was<br />
very nice to be contacted by another group<br />
because you feel more legitimized as a political<br />
place when this happens.<br />
In general, it’s about trying to identify groups<br />
that we think are important and that are moving<br />
in a direction which we really appreciate. But it’s<br />
always a bit harder to try to arrange a constant<br />
stream of events, especially when you have<br />
another job and you’re trying to spend your free<br />
time arranging this. The things which you want<br />
to do and the things which you have to do pile up<br />
and you kind of struggle between surviving as a<br />
library and trying to organize events which is<br />
always something that takes more effort.<br />
Usually, we try to use the donations that people<br />
give us at our dinners on Sundays to pay the costs<br />
for speakers. If they are coming from Amsterdam<br />
or someplace else, we try to repay the costs and<br />
give them some extra refund. In this case for<br />
example, I hosted him (the speaker from Xupoluto<br />
Tagma) at my place because he needed a place<br />
to stay. It’s always a very nice thing when you are<br />
hosting people from political actions because you<br />
get a chance to talk next to the talk event itself<br />
that you are maybe too busy organizing and<br />
you’re not completely enjoying it. This also<br />
changes the type of relationship you have so it’s<br />
not like a contractor that calls you. It brings it to<br />
a more personal level which is kind of important<br />
for these kind of places and actions.<br />
Do you collaborate with other<br />
projects?<br />
I wouldn’t say that we ‘collaborate’ in a way that's<br />
helping these projects with what we do, but yes.<br />
When we order zines (from the PaperJam Collective,<br />
for example), we speak to them and we<br />
support them through the donations. When we<br />
order books, we try to order books from Fort Van<br />
Sjakoo itself. While our projects have a different<br />
end use, we are related and they kind of converge<br />
in the end. So, if Fort van Sjakoo sells books, we<br />
can use them to acquire new books, and if Paper<br />
Jam Collective are printing zines and making all<br />
these works then we can definitely use it to put<br />
here.<br />
Especially the zines, I think it's a different way<br />
‘THE LIBRARY IS A GROWING ORGANISM’<br />
On Rebuilding Social Relationships Through Do-It-Together Libraries<br />
By Yoshiko Teraoka<br />
to access political information than books. When<br />
we discussed last time how we want to move<br />
forward as a space with let’s say, information<br />
sharing, or information gaining, we try to divide<br />
it into two levels. Zines, or political thought are<br />
more accessible to people that are coming here<br />
just for the dinner. But they’re checking the zines<br />
and they’ll say, ‘well, this is interesting’. It’s<br />
much easier to take a zine than to loan a book<br />
because a book might be heavier or longer and<br />
people might also feel more scared. Loaning a big<br />
book takes a lot of commitment. While, if you’re<br />
not so sure about your political ideas, a zine is a<br />
kind of an exploratory tool so it’s much more<br />
accessible that way. We find that the zines are<br />
very useful, they’re going out a lot more.<br />
Is that something you’re conscious of<br />
– making activist spaces more accessible?<br />
I feel like this space is, at least to me, like the<br />
good and bad of it is that this space is open with<br />
a lot of different initiatives. It's definitely much<br />
more accessible for every kind of audience that is<br />
not just identifying as activist. In a way, the same<br />
thing works for the dinner. The dinner is political<br />
in a number of ways – you’re using a space for<br />
collective dinner that doesn’t require people to<br />
pay money, you’re saving food waste and you’re<br />
also attracting people to a political space without<br />
having some kind of heavy connotation that you<br />
might feel pressure in getting into. Making<br />
anarchist politics as accessible as it can be<br />
without crossing a certain threshold or being<br />
arrogant in a way – that’s definitely important.<br />
Libraries are by nature, intrinsically<br />
linked to education. Having gone<br />
through the traditional education<br />
system yourself, what ideas have you<br />
formulated through this project- with<br />
regard to education and making a<br />
safe space for learning?<br />
Education easily becomes a hierarchical process,<br />
there is a person that knows more who is going to<br />
show you the way and decide what you’re going to<br />
read, what you’re going to study and give you a<br />
framework in which you need to think. With<br />
regard to how we try to escape this through the<br />
library is…I mean of course, there are things you<br />
cannot escape. You need to have a selection of<br />
books because you cannot possibly have all the<br />
books that might interest everybody. But this is a<br />
thing I care a lot about, because I know of other<br />
anarchist libraries that are quite strict on the kind<br />
of books they want to have - books which are<br />
clearly anarchist.While here, we are not doing<br />
that. We believe that any kind of political book has<br />
something to say, it doesn’t have to necessarily<br />
enter an anarchist framework of politics. We have<br />
Marxist books and feminist books which people<br />
might relate more to a certain liberal way of<br />
making politics or books on parliamentary politics<br />
which are still in our collection because we see the<br />
library as a tool for self-learning. It is not an<br />
anarchist way of running the library, deciding that<br />
all the books you need to read are in an anarchist<br />
framework. That’s my view and it’s also a view<br />
shared by other people in the group.<br />
Do anarchist principles inform the<br />
internal structure of the group? How<br />
do you try to maintain horizontality?<br />
That’s for sure. That is one of the basic things and<br />
ACU as a space is organized horizontally. Of<br />
course, there is a difference when you say, ‘we are<br />
a non-hierarchical group’ and trying to make the<br />
space or group horizontal. But that is a more<br />
complicated topic. It’s definitely a struggle that<br />
remains, so we try to make information accessible<br />
to everybody and try not to patronize people that<br />
are getting involved. That’s definitely always in<br />
our minds when we deal with certain things. And<br />
when this behavior happens, it’s much more easily<br />
spotted in our small library group because we pay<br />
more attention to these problems.<br />
Do you envision this as a long-term<br />
project?<br />
Well, I would be very surprised if we managed to<br />
stay open for forty years like Fort van Sjakoo, I<br />
think that’s an incredible achievement. I’m not<br />
sure about seeing this as a long-term project.<br />
What I’d like personally is, to know that it will go<br />
on, even if I and the other people who started it<br />
leave this project. That for now would be the<br />
biggest long-term project.<br />
-So, it’s very much dependent on<br />
community support and having<br />
volunteers actively involved?<br />
Yes, that is still something, especially in the last<br />
month when we started talking to external volunteers,<br />
people who were coming to the space even if<br />
they were not actively involved in the library. They<br />
felt the same kind of necessity or feelings about<br />
how this project was important. Those are very<br />
good things to feel, to know that you’re not alone<br />
in what you’re doing because sometimes you’re<br />
too busy doing all the running necessary and<br />
sometimes you don’t even realize all the people<br />
who are around. There’s a lot of people who have<br />
been supporting us – people behind the bar and<br />
everyone coming to the dinner. Their donations<br />
are not mandatory, it’s something that we state<br />
before serving, that dinner is free and donations<br />
will support the library. Yet still, we manage to<br />
gather quite a meaningful amount of donations<br />
and that makes our life a lot more easier – being<br />
able to acquire books and inviting speakers and<br />
sustaining daily expenses.<br />
Luigi is one of the founding members of<br />
Book-Café The Barricade.<br />
Book-Café The Barricade is a volunteer-run<br />
public library with a focus on anarchism and<br />
leftist politics. Becoming a member and<br />
borrowing books is free.<br />
Acknowledgements Thank you to Luigi and<br />
members of the Barricade Library for allowing me<br />
to share your experiences.<br />
Next Issue: An interview with Jeroen from Fort Van<br />
Sjakoo, who helps supply books for the Barricade<br />
Library and was invited to a talk event held by the<br />
Barricade to mark their one year anniversary.<br />
Book/Action is a research project initiated by<br />
Yoshiko Teraoka. For enquiries, please email<br />
yoshi.teraoka@gmail.com
VOORSTRAAT 71, 3512 AK UTRECHT<br />
BOOK-CAFÉ THE BARRICADE IS A VOLUNTEER-RUN PUBLIC LIBRARY LOCATED<br />
INSIDE ACU - A POLITICAL-CULTURAL CENTRE IN UTRECHT. WITH A FOCUS ON<br />
ANARCHISM AND LEFTIST POLITICS, THE PERMANENT COLLECTION HOUSES<br />
TOPICS RANGING FROM FEMINISM, MARXISM, DECOLONIALISM, ENVIRONMEN-<br />
TALISM, VEGANISM, SQUATTING TO DIY CULTURE. ON SUNDAYS, THE LIBRARY<br />
SERVES AS A PLATFORM FOR VARIOUS ACTIVITIES - FROM WORKSHOPS TO<br />
DISCUSSIONS, LECTURES ON CURRENT POLITICAL ISSUES, FOLLOWED BY A<br />
VEGAN DINNER OFFERED BY THE BARRICOONS KITCHEN - AN UTRECHT-BASED<br />
ANTIFOOD WASTE COLLECTIVE INSPIRED BY RACCOONS.
Het Fort van Sjakoo<br />
Jodenbreestraat 24 1011 NK, Amsterdam<br />
Mon-Fri 11:00-18:00, Sat 11:00-17:00<br />
http://www.sjakoo.nl info@sjakoo.nl<br />
(+31) 020- 625 89 79<br />
Issue 2 Het Fort Van Sjakoo<br />
Libraries Bookshops Practices People Spaces<br />
AMSTERDAM, JANUARY 2018<br />
ABOUT BOOK/ACTION<br />
Book/Action is a research project which seeks to highlight<br />
the hidden values and practices surrounding alternative<br />
library spaces and bookshops. By delving into people, places<br />
and practices, it aims to address their educational and<br />
cultural value, exploring questions of how the library or<br />
bookshop is used as a political tool for self-organizing,<br />
community-building and empowerment.<br />
An Interview with Jeroen<br />
Het Fort Van Sjakoo<br />
RADICAL BOOKSHOPS are a rarity these days. Itʼs<br />
particularly rare to come across an anarchist<br />
bookshop that enacts (or at least, attempts to) the<br />
very same principles it seeks to realize, without<br />
compromise. One such example is Het Fort Van<br />
Sjakoo, a not-for-profit and collectively run<br />
bookshop located in Amsterdam. The collective -<br />
with the help and support of their community, have<br />
been resiliently shaping their own economy and<br />
politics in the heart of the city for forty years.<br />
For some, the Fort is a remnant of the past - a time<br />
when political activism was still going strong on in<br />
the streets of Amsterdam. But to avoid romanticizing<br />
the past, which can often negate what we can learn<br />
from it, letʼs briefly stop to think about what itʼs<br />
doing today - not only in continuing to play a central<br />
role in the dissemination of radical and libertarian<br />
ideas, but how anarchist values of mutual-aid,<br />
reciprocity, common responsibility and cooperation<br />
are manifested in their praxis. This alone can help<br />
articulate what it might mean today to lead an<br />
ʻanti-capitalistʼ life. While capitalism likes to feed us<br />
the narrative that there is ʻno alternativeʼ, platforms<br />
like Fort van Sjakoo that experiment with self-management<br />
point to possibilities, that is with the participation<br />
and vision of everyone. For the anarcho-curious,<br />
perhaps we can begin to get a tangible glimpse<br />
of what this ʻalternativeʼ might look and feel like<br />
through the support and daily use of such<br />
bookshops.<br />
Itʼs impossible to provide a picture of their economic<br />
practice and organizational structure without first<br />
touching upon on their unique history. Volunteer<br />
Jeroen took me through an illuminating tour of the<br />
bookshop - from their origins, to their various<br />
struggles over the years, and what the bookshop<br />
stands for today.<br />
Interview<br />
What is your role in the bookshop?<br />
JEROEN: I do a lot of different things here. Because I<br />
find the function of our bookshop important, I’ve<br />
worked here for a very long time. I’ve worked here the<br />
longest out of all the people here-<br />
-30 years, right?<br />
Almost. I’ve worked here from December ’89 so that’s<br />
28 years, I think. So, that creates a lot of experience. My<br />
main focus is always to try to share all the knowledge<br />
and the responsibilities with fellow volunteers. I don’t<br />
really want to have a position that people think that I<br />
have more to say or that I would be more important,<br />
because I work here longer than they do. Maybe I do a<br />
lot, but everybody has the same say in the collective -<br />
which doesn’t mean that all the people do as much as<br />
some others.<br />
Through all the years of working here, there has<br />
always been like a core of people – 3 to 5 people who do<br />
a lot of stuff, whereas the collective has always been<br />
ranging from 9 to 15 persons. These 3-5 people do<br />
various things which are necessary for the shop:<br />
bookkeeping, reordering of sold material, IT-matters<br />
and organizing events. A group of people who take on<br />
less responsibilities limit their work to keeping the<br />
shop open. That has always been a kind of friction, or a<br />
thing that sometimes creates disappointment. When<br />
new people come into the collective as a volunteer, we<br />
always try to motivate them in taking on responsibilities<br />
because we are open to everything and to sharing.<br />
It’s up to the people who volunteer to put their interest<br />
into the work they do here -to really participate and to<br />
add content to the shop. Part of the things that we<br />
discuss during the meetings is the picking of the new<br />
titles. There’s the core people who almost always come<br />
to the bi-weekly meetings, but there’s quite a few<br />
volunteers who come once in a while or some never<br />
show up. That’s what we try – to share, take responsibility<br />
and do suggestions for stuff that we can distribute<br />
here which we think is important for people to<br />
know about.<br />
Specifically, about my role – I do a bit of everything,<br />
let’s say. But, what I like most is looking for new books.<br />
Because I, as one of the few people here - who speaks<br />
five languages (Spanish, French, German, Dutch and<br />
English), select a lot of publications in Spanish, French<br />
or German. I always try to follow fellow bookshops and<br />
publishers in other countries, to check which new<br />
books have been published and trying to get them here<br />
if they are relevant or interesting.<br />
I’m trying to understand the political and<br />
cultural landscape here in the Netherlands.<br />
Where does a radical bookshop<br />
like the Fort situate itself within the local<br />
community? And, what does it mean for<br />
this bookshop to occupy this street?<br />
The bookshop was started in October ’77 but this house<br />
was already squatted in ’75. In this neighborhood, the<br />
municipality had plans to erase most of the living<br />
spaces and make a big motorway through this part of<br />
the inner city - lined by hotels and office buildings.<br />
Also, there was the project of the construction of the<br />
metro. There was a<br />
lot of resistance in<br />
Amsterdam against<br />
those plans to<br />
eradicate the old<br />
n e i g h b o r -<br />
hoods,especially in<br />
this neighborhood<br />
which is called<br />
Nieuwmarkt<br />
(named after the<br />
market which is<br />
further in the<br />
direction of the<br />
central station).<br />
There was a lot of<br />
squatting in the<br />
early 70s already,<br />
the municipal<br />
government had<br />
planked a lot of old houses they wanted to demolish<br />
and squatters moved in and that was more or less the<br />
early days of the squatter movement. The Nieuwmarkt<br />
area was one of the first places where this started to<br />
flourish. There were hundreds of squats in the area<br />
and in the end, it has been partly won, partly lost. The<br />
metro has been built, but the motorway stops at the<br />
end of our street. It was planned to go straight to the<br />
central station, but nowadays it suddenly turns to the<br />
right and goes into the tunnel to the north of Amsterdam.<br />
What was also won was that this whole area has<br />
not been filled with office buildings. But social<br />
housing has come back, although in the last decade<br />
there’s a new tendency for the housing corporations to<br />
sell off quite a high percentage of the social housing<br />
which are older and use that money to act as state<br />
developers which is not really what their business<br />
should be. They should facilitate social housing and<br />
not luxury apartments.<br />
In 1977, some people in the neighborhood who were<br />
active in the activist scene had a lot of contacts with<br />
like-minded groups in Paris, London, Denmark,<br />
Berlin etc. They were exchanging information about<br />
common issues like city destruction and resistance in<br />
squatting. They thought, ‘we should do something<br />
with all the information’ and give that a platform<br />
where people can find stuff from abroad and other<br />
places in the Netherlands. So, a small group was<br />
formed and in October ‘77, they started the bookshop<br />
here in the squat. It has been run by volunteers since<br />
the beginning. We’ve never had paid members of the<br />
collective, which was a principle choice of us.<br />
At the end of the 80s, a lot of squats were legalized in<br />
Amsterdam and so, the people who lived upstairs and<br />
those who ran the bookshop started to pay a relatively<br />
low rent to a housing corporation, which in those days<br />
was still run by the municipal government.<br />
In 2002, the housing corporation had been privatized<br />
and like most, they started to raise the rents of all the<br />
business spaces they had in their possession. So they<br />
sent us a letter, proposing a rent raise of 900 percent<br />
and we thought, ‘we’re not accepting that.’ There was<br />
a big fuss and we tried to get in touch with them but<br />
they didn’t want to talk with us. We, together with<br />
supporters staged various actions. There was an<br />
occupation of their offices, their managing director<br />
was pied, one of their buildings was paintbombed from<br />
top to bottom. Then, they had a court case against us<br />
(not because of the actions but because of the rent<br />
dispute). In the end, they didn’t get the 900 percent<br />
rent raise that they were hoping to get. But, the judge<br />
decided that ‘only’ 400 percent was acceptable, which<br />
we still thought was unacceptable.<br />
Almost a year passed until that verdict. We thought,<br />
‘how are we going to do this?’. We didn’t have any<br />
guarantee because normally with a business space, you<br />
sign a renting contract for 5 years and after that, the<br />
landlord can establish a new rent for a new period of 5<br />
years. If they say the estate value of the business space<br />
has risen, then they are ‘obliged’ to raise the rent. So,<br />
if we would have signed a renting contract for another<br />
5 years, we would get this whole shit again. So, we<br />
thought, ‘how can we get out of this mouse trap<br />
situation?’- that every 5 years we would have like, a<br />
sword hanging above our heads. We said, ‘we want to<br />
buy the place,’ if they come up with an acceptable<br />
price. In the end, they offered us the place for 70<br />
percent of the (then) supposed market value, which<br />
was around 200,000 euros. We had one year to collect<br />
the money which we finally managed to do, with a lot<br />
of support from private people and legalized squats<br />
which had savings accounts for the maintenance of<br />
their building and they had some left-over money for<br />
the support of our cause. There were a lot of people<br />
who knew us from the past who spent 50-100 euros or<br />
more. We also sold bonds (in Dutch called an<br />
‘obligatie’) which is a piece of paper that says: ‘we owe<br />
you 50 euros’. These pieces of paper have a number<br />
and after 5 years, we start picking out ending numbers<br />
and then people with for example bonds with numbers<br />
ending on ‘5’ would get their money back. And so, we<br />
had from the 200 in total 225,000 euros that we had to<br />
pay. We had like 90,000 in gifts and the rest was in<br />
interest-free loans, which was really amazing. We didn’t<br />
have to use a bank whatsoever. We never thought that it<br />
was going to be such a success – that we could buy the<br />
place without having to pay a lot of interest to a bank or<br />
whatever shit institution. So, that gives a bit of an idea<br />
of the support that we have had in those days because a<br />
lot of them were older activists as well from the late 70s<br />
and 80s that spent a lot of money in gifts. If this would<br />
happen today, I don’t know if we would manage again to<br />
raise all that money because the former activists from<br />
the late 70s and 80s have become much older, their<br />
connection with us has for most become something<br />
from quite some time ago and some have died. However,<br />
we managed it in 2003 and at the moment, we try to be<br />
a platform for people in horizontal movements.<br />
Sometimes, we collaborate with places here in town or<br />
in other towns, like bookshops - these stores or distros<br />
we try to help. Some new people come in from time to<br />
time, sometimes in waves, like two years ago with all the<br />
student protests. There were a lot of students coming in,<br />
who had never seen the shop but because some of the<br />
students in the movement were more ‘radical’, and they<br />
told people, ‘if you’re interested in radical ideas, you<br />
should have a look here, they have a really nice and<br />
inspiring collection’.<br />
Can you talk about some of these<br />
collaborations with other initiatives?<br />
We sell zines by Paper Jam Collective which are always<br />
for sale for a donation price. They also do a lot of<br />
printing work for us lately. In the past, we always had a<br />
section with all kinds of pamphlets and we used to<br />
import them from all kinds of places but from time to<br />
time they turned out very expensive. So, what we did<br />
was try and find PDF files of those pamphlets and then<br />
we started to do the copying ourselves. If we couldn’t<br />
find a PDF we just kept an original and reproduced it.<br />
That we did for a long time ourselves, and Paper Jam<br />
offered us that if we have printing work they would be<br />
glad to do that. So lately, they are really stocking our<br />
shop. Because it’s a lot of work, you have to go to a<br />
printing shop and you have to stay there 3-4 hours at the<br />
photocopying machine, changing the sheets every time,<br />
and making the covers, and then afterwards you have to<br />
take them back, fold them and staple them. It’s really a<br />
lot of work. So, we’re very happy that they now do that<br />
for us.<br />
We also collaborate with Boekhandel Rosa in Groningen<br />
- one of the older radical bookshops which still<br />
remain together with us. They are very small - they<br />
mainly do secondhand books and they have a small<br />
section for new books. Since 20 years ago, we have been<br />
making a jointly published catalogue with them 3 or 4<br />
times a year. We take care of the new books section.<br />
There’s a secondhand section which is themed differently<br />
with each issue and Rosa puts in their selection. They<br />
order most of the non-Dutch new books through us<br />
because we do quite a lot of direct importing ourselves.<br />
Opstand in The Hague orders sometimes through us<br />
and the same accounts for the Anarchist Group in<br />
Nijmegen. We always offer fellow bookstores or distros,<br />
‘if you want to order stuff, you can order through us’ and<br />
we will order it with one of our own orders and they‘ll<br />
get it with almost the same discount as what we get. We<br />
have to get a small compensation for the shipping costs<br />
etc. That way, we try to expand the amount of places<br />
where people can get their stuff, because we think it’s a<br />
pity that there are so few places left where people can<br />
find their radical revolutionary information.<br />
The bookshop, as I understand, is a<br />
meeting point for various people such the<br />
activist community. Can you talk about<br />
how the bookshop functions?<br />
In different ways it’s a meeting place. It’s a place for<br />
coincidental meetings of people who are just visiting the<br />
bookshop and who meet each other – like people from<br />
abroad and people from the Netherlands. Sometimes,<br />
people from an anarchist group abroad and somebody<br />
from an anarchist group or another initiative from<br />
Amsterdam meet. We always have some maps of the city<br />
with alternative spaces, and we try to show people where<br />
they can find like-minded people and activists. Sometimes,<br />
we organize meetings which can be a presentation<br />
of a new book or it can be a theoretical discussion.<br />
About two years ago, we had a theoretical discussion on<br />
Anarchism and Revolution by Gabriel Kuhn, an Austrian<br />
anarchist writer based in Sweden. We thought maybe<br />
10 people would show up but 45 people turned up. On<br />
the other hand, sometimes we have a book presentation<br />
and we think, ‘this is really interesting!’ and only five<br />
people show up. It’s really unpredictable how much<br />
attention things attract.<br />
People from abroad who are traveling and staying a<br />
couple of days in Amsterdam – for example, to visit the<br />
International Institute of Social History, they<br />
sometimes like to do an event in Amsterdam and we try<br />
to organize something, either here or in the Anarchist<br />
Library. We organize things together sometimes.<br />
A lot of people who are new to the city and want to<br />
know something more about what is going on in town<br />
- drop in here, to have a chat and hear about places and<br />
things that are going on, for possibilities to become<br />
active in some kind of way.<br />
What is Fort van Sjakoo’s collective<br />
vision?<br />
It’s because we are a group of such different individuals<br />
with such different backgrounds, I can’t really give one<br />
description. We want to be a platform for all kinds of<br />
anti-authoritarian, horizontally-organized movements,<br />
ideas, people, to question authority, to question<br />
myths from our own movement that have been created<br />
through the time, be critical about our own ideas, and<br />
that's why we’re always trying to find new material<br />
from people criticizing previous thoughts or ideas.<br />
What is your personal vision?<br />
I try to give as much to the shop, the work that I do<br />
here and all the other volunteers is to get people<br />
motivated to do something, to change this world…<br />
maybe I sound like an old sod *laugh*.<br />
If I compare it to thirty years ago, there was a very<br />
thriving activist community in the Netherlands. There<br />
was a lot of direct action and it has almost vanished.<br />
Nowadays, it’s on a very small scale, it’s almost invisible.<br />
I would really like to see that flourish again and<br />
that people have some critical conscience.<br />
I earn my living with a job four days a week at a<br />
university bookshop. If I look around and see what<br />
young people are concerned about: they are not<br />
concerned about anything apart from their own egos,<br />
or their smartphones and their screen community.<br />
Even issues that are related to the university community<br />
and how things are being run over there, they are<br />
not interested at all, except for a very small minority<br />
who wants to question things and who wants to change<br />
things. I’m a bit pessimistic about that, but that<br />
motivates me even more to keep on working here and<br />
to try to give people new ideas and a handhold to<br />
change society in a radical and revolutionary way.<br />
Jeroen is an active volunteer at het Fort van<br />
Sjakoo, a non-commercial and collectively run<br />
bookshop with a focus on critical and insurgent<br />
literature.<br />
Published Titles<br />
Every once in a while, Fort van Sjakoo publishes<br />
their own books through profits generated from<br />
the bookshop. In an attempt to illuminate some of<br />
the ways in which the bookshop plays an active<br />
role in supporting the local community, I asked<br />
Jeroen to write about their published titles.<br />
Wat niet mag kan nog steeds<br />
Kraakhandleiding 2015/2016<br />
Author: Anonymous<br />
Year: 2015<br />
This book is a manual for how to prepare a<br />
squatting action in the Netherlands. It tells about<br />
the practical side: searching an empty space, checking<br />
whether it’s really empty, who the owner is,<br />
building plans, how to prepare the squatting action<br />
itself etc. As squatting has been illegal since 2010,<br />
the book tells your legal rights and the possible<br />
risks you run. Furthermore, it tells about security,<br />
barricading the house, good locks, legal support<br />
from squatters’ advice collectives and legal aid<br />
from a lawyer.<br />
Anarchisme breekt door in de kunst<br />
Kunst en anarchisme in Nederland tussen 1880-1930<br />
Author: Andrea Galova<br />
Year: 2012<br />
Andrea (a volunteer at Fort van Sjakoo) wrote her<br />
masters thesis on the interaction between graphical<br />
artists and the anarchist movement in the<br />
period between 1880-1930. She describes the early<br />
years of Dutch anarchism until the start of World<br />
War Two, and the role which graphical artists<br />
played in its propaganda and publishing. Presented<br />
in this thesis are the works of following artists: Chris<br />
Lebeau, Herman J. Schuurman, Luc Kisjes, JJ<br />
Voskuil, Meile Oldeboerrigter, Nico de Haas and<br />
more. She also tries to analyze the visual language<br />
and recurring patterns and symbolism illustrated<br />
with original material from the period.<br />
Met Emmer En Kwast<br />
Veertig Jaar Nederlandse Actieaffiches 1965-2005<br />
Author: Eric Duivenvoorden<br />
Year: 2005<br />
Eric, a former squatter and sociologist, describes<br />
the trends in poster-making in the Dutch radical<br />
social movements from 1965 to 2005. He selected<br />
various posters from the archives of the International<br />
Institute of Social History and categorized them<br />
according to theme. He describes trends in layout,<br />
text-use, trending issues through the passage of<br />
time. The book includes a CD-ROM with high-resolution<br />
scans of 7500 posters.<br />
-Text written by Jeroen<br />
Acknowledgements Thank you to Jeroen (and members of<br />
Het Fort van Sjakoo) for your time and allowing me to share<br />
your unique history and experiences.<br />
Next Issue: An interview with Robin, a former history teacher<br />
who is volunteering at het Fort van Sjakoo.<br />
Book/Action is a research project initiated by Yoshiko Teraoka.<br />
For enquiries, please email yoshi.teraoka@gmail.com
JODENBREESTRAAT 24 1011 NK AMSTERDAM