| 27/05/2016 | |
| Athens | |
| UoA campus |
For details about the fest please visit the Facebook event page here.
B-FEST 5: LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF UTOPIA! /27-28-29 MAY 2016
A Cultural and Political Festival organised by Babylonia magazine
B-Fest is an international political festival, organized by the political journal Babylonia, in circulation for the past 12 years. B-Fest takes place in Athens, Greece, its first time in 2009, with attendance now reaching several thousand people. It was born at a time when society repudiated the logic of vanguard organizations and political representation, proposing instead the need for a real change that will come through participation and creation of social structures based on autonomy and self-limitation.
B-Fest is organized by an open assembly, functioning on the principles of direct democracy, anti-hierarchy, and self-organization. Entrance is free and open to voluntary contributions, which is its only economic source, since the organizers are not connected in any way with political parties, private businesses, and the State.
B-Fest hosts musical concerts, lectures, theatrical performances, cinematic projections, workshops, etc. Speakers at the previous festivals included Howard Zinn, Michael Albert, David Harvey, Naomi Klein, Robin Hahnel, Richard Stallman, Raul Zibechi, David Graeber, and other prominent radical intellectuals. This year the festival will take place for a fifth time, with participants from all over the world, amongst whom are: Julian Assange, Dilar Dirik, David Ames Curtis, Massimo De Angelis, Claudia Moatti, Jerome Roos, Chris Spannos, people from Rojava, activists from Calais (France) and many more.
“B-Fest”, the International Antiauthoritarian Festival of Babylonia magazine is back with internationally renowned speakers and artists!! After the successful organization of the festival in the past years that has attracted tens of thousands of people, B-Fest is back again this year, focusing on matters such as the refugee question, Europe’s transformation, direct democracy and contemporary emancipatory movements across Europe and the Middle East.
POLITICAL PROGRAMME
FRIDAY MAY 27th
Contemporary Emancipatory Vision
18:00 Financial crisis & Self-management
Keynote speakers:
Jerome Roos (ROAR Mag, European Univ. Institute)
George Economou (Philosophy PhD)
Costas Haritakis (VIO.ME. occupied factory)
19:00 The Project of Autonomy in the 21st century
Keynote speakers:
David Ames Curtis (Agora International)
Alexandros Schismenos (author, PhD candidate)
Yavor Tarinski (Babylonia magazine)
20:30 Commons & Contemporary Social Movements
Keynote speakers:
Massimo De Angelis (University of East London)
George Papanikolaou (P2P Foundation)
Grigoris Tsilimantos (Antiauthoritarian Movement)
WORKSHOP
18:00 Crisis & Independent Creation in Contemporary Theatre
Keynote speakers:
Orestis Tatsis (director, Erma magazine)
Savvas Stroumbos (director, Point Zero group)
SATURDAY MAY 28TH
The Transformation of Europe
18:00 Europe’s enclosure as triggered by the Refugee question & The Rise of the far-right
Keynote speakers:
Members of Initiatives for the refugees from:
France (refugee and immigrant camps at Calais)
Germany (Ums Ganze!, Beyond Europe)
Italy (Spazio di Mutuo Soccorso – Cantiere, Milan)
Bulgaria (Sofia AFA, Антифашистко действие София)
Greece (Notara 26 Housing Squat for Refugees and others)
19:00 Refugees: Human Mobility and Identity in the past & present
Keynote speakers:
Claudia Moatti (University of South California)
Filimonas Patsakis (Erma magazine)
Apostolis Stasinopoulos (Babylonia magazine)
20:30 Wikileaks, TTIP & Digital Rights / IoT
Keynote speakers:
Julian Assange (Wikileaks, via live conferencing)
Chris Spannos (New Internationalist Mag, teleSUR English)
Antonis Broumas (Babylonia magazine)
WORKSHOP
19:00 Geopolitics, Antiauthoritarian Movements, Military History & Revolutions
Keynote speaker: Panayiotis Xirouhakis (Zero Geographic)
SUNDAY MAY 29TH
The Rojava Example
17:00 Social Ecology, De-growth & Climate Change
Keynote speakers:
Aggelos Varvarousis (Research and De-growth, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)
Yannis Billas (Citizens of Trikala Movement for De-growth, organic farmer)
Theodore Karyotis (TRISE: Transnational Institute of Social Ecology)
Nikos Ioannou (Babylonia magazine)
18:00 War, Violence & the Revolutionary Role of Women in the Middle East
Keynote speakers:
Nicolas Kosmatopoulos (American University of Beirut)
Anarchist Women of Turkey (Anarşist Kadınlar)
Eliana Kanaveli (Sociology PhD, Babylonia magazine)
20:00 Democracy without a State: The Rojava Experiment
Keynote speakers:
Dilar Dirik (Kurdish Women’s Movement, University of Cambridge)
Spyros Kourouklis (Initiative of Solidarity with Rojava)
Nikos Katsiaounis (Babylonia magazine)
WORKSHOPS
17:00 Martial Arts, Self-organisation & Gender
Keynote speakers:
Anna Kavoura (PhD candidate, University of Jyväskylä)
Malamas Sotiriou (Micropolis Self-organised Gym)
19:00 Jiu Jitsu & Boxing seminar
Anna Kavoura
Micropolis Self-organised Gym
SPEECHES/CONCERTS/CINEMA/