After operating under the radar for decades, the local anarchist scene is stepping away from its subculture past toward a more mainstream existence.
Local anarchists and their peers gathered in the diffuse glow of the Nightlight Club Saturday for the area’s first anarchist book fair to strengthen local and statewide connections and also offer a starting place for anyone who wanted to learn about the ideals of anarchy.
“You can think of anarchism as an umbrella for a lot of different trajectories, histories and movements that are broadly defined as anti-capitalist and anti-authoritarian,” co-organizer Spencer Robertson said.
Robertson, like many anarchists, uses an alias to protect his beliefs from government intervention, known as “security culture.”
“Security culture is a set of behaviors that protects our community from state repression,” said Lydia Powers, co-manager of Internationalist Books and Community Center. “Activists are put behind bars by the courts not for violating laws per se, but for their ideas.
“Many who suffered from the FBI’s program in the ‘60s are still behind bars, so we all try to foster a security culture, even when we are not engaging in any illegal activity.”
Powers said the Carrboro-Chapel Hill area has a viable anarchist scene because the population is generally more open-minded and progressive than most places.
While the book fair targeted an anarchist audience, Powers said people of all beliefs are welcome at anarchist functions, and they might find they share more commonalities than differences.
“For a long time as an organizer and an activist, people who I worked with told me I was an anarchist,” she said. “I was like ‘no’ because of the negative baggage associated with the term.
