The PM Press Warehouse at 21 Emma Street in Binghamton, NY will be hosting the First Annual Upstate Anarchist Book Fair on May 4th and 5th, 2024, from noon till 6. We’ll be working out details over the next months, booking performers, vendors, speakers, workshops, etc. so please reach out to us via email at upstateanarchistbookfair@protonmail.com if you’d like to participate.
Why an Upstate Anarchist Book Fair in Binghamton, NY? The practical reason: PM Press bought a 17,000 square foot warehouse in Binghamton in 2021. We also purchased a used bookstore - Autumn Leaves - in Ithaca, NY. Over the last year-and-a-half, we’ve been filling the warehouse with racks on racks of leftist literature (both PM Press and other comrade publishers). Today it is surely one of the largest repositories of leftist literature in the world. We also have a big parking lot, a developing event space, and connections to a local DIY community with the skills to put together a fun, productive, and thoughtful event.
The political reason: Binghamton is the post-industrial crater left behind by anti-union, paternalistic warmongers like IBM and the Endicott-Johnson Shoe Company. The former headquarters of the New York State KKK and current epicenter of upstate mass incarceration, Binghamton is, like many small Rust Belt cities, run by reactionaries who grew up in the city’s golden age and are convinced we’re just a few tax breaks and drug raids away from a return to 1959. We also have a small but dedicated community of activists fighting to liberate Binghamton from our slumlord/cop/petit bourgeois business creep/political elite overlords. We hope events like the UABF will bring together like-minded comrades and crews from across the region to share knowledge, skills, and joy to expand our little networks of radical agitation into a collective force that can challenge capitalism across the county, state, and beyond!