Open assembly: what role for anarchist archives today?

The anarchist movement and the printed word have a long-standing and enduring love affair. It is therefore no coincidence that wherever there is an anarchist, it is almost certain that there is also an archive or a library. The anarchist movement was, in fact, among the first to recognize the importance of collecting, passing on and recounting its own history and memory without delegating this task to others. And it did so with the awareness of just how important it is to shape, from below, narratives that differ from those of the state, institutions or anyone who has attempted to impose a hegemonic narrative. The history of anarchist and libertarian archives and libraries is therefore rich and varied, and this is also due to the fact that our archives, in true anarchist style, have been able to tackle the challenges of a constantly changing contemporary world in an anti-dogmatic way. The proof is that we are still here, that there are many of us, and in many different places.

That said, the ways in which anarchist and libertarian archives and libraries distinguish themselves are manifold. To mention the most important ones, they are first and foremost post-classical anarchist spaces and, as such, footholds within their territory capable of engaging continuously with the political and social context in which they operate. They are also laboratories of thought and collective memory, indispensable for keeping anarchist practice up to date, mindful of those small yet significant individual stories and those lesser-known episodes which have, however, formed the true connective tissue of the greater History. A diverse array of people – sometimes reluctant and modest when it comes to telling their own stories or having them told – who have always been the lifeblood of movements for social transformation.

However, as mentioned, ours is a world undergoing rapid and constant change, and it therefore remains crucial to engage with the challenges that daily call into question our role and our practices, starting from the different yet equally fraught questions of autonomy from institutions and of digitalization, the advantages it offers but also the not always positive implications it entails.

In an increasingly standardised and globalised world, we felt it was important to reflect on these issues from different perspectives, including geographical and, consequently, social ones. For this reason, the debate on the role of anarchist archives today will be introduced and stimulated by four presentations from four organisations active in very different contexts: Mayday Rooms in London (UK), the Biblioteca Terra Livre in São Paulo (Brazil), the Archivo Histórico La Revuelta in Santiago (Chile), and Anarhiva in Cluj-Napoca (Romania).