19th Bilbao Anarchist Bookfair
May 10-11, 2026
Arenal Bridge
Bilbao, Spain
https://www.cnt.es/noticias/bilbao-acoge-la-xix-feria-del-libro-anarqui…

The Arenal of Bilbao will become a meeting point for critical thinking and social reflection on May 10 and 11 with the celebration of the XIX Anarchist Book Fair – XIX Liburu Anarkistaren Azoka.

Organized by the CNT, this fair will bring together independent publishers, socially conscious authors, social collectives, and book lovers to address topics such as alternative economics, working-class feminism, historical memory, and miners' struggles. Participating publishers include Piedra Papel Libros , Ekintza Zuzena , Pepitas de Calabaza , DDT Banaketak , the Anselmo Lorenzo Foundation for Libertarian Studies, and Virus , as well as Mujeres Libres, Txarraska, and others.

On Saturday, May 10th , the activities will begin at 12:00 pm with the presentation of the book " Drowned Memories " by María Ángeles Fernández and Jairo Marcos, accompanied by journalist Marta Martínez. " Drowned Memories" is an immersion into the lives and stories of those who, in various parts of Spain, had to leave their villages, lands, and homes, their work, roots, and ways of life, as well as their dead, due to the construction of a reservoir. This book deals with the search for memory, for all those drowned memories, and their reconstruction through the written word. The work received the 2023 Bretón & Olarra Non-Fiction Literary Grant.

At 5:00 p.m., the presentation will be " CNT and the New Economy ," a work by Miguel G. Gómez. Among the objectives of this work is understanding how the revolutionary process unfolded at the local level, how the economy was organized from the ground up, in each workshop, in each municipality and region. This is a cornerstone for interpreting the revolutionary process that began in the summer of 1936. Miguel Gómez's book sheds light, in a systematic, serious, and rigorous manner, on how the unions approached the implementation of the social revolution in its economic aspect.

The day will conclude at 7:00 p.m. with a screening of the documentary “Working Women: Women of the Neighborhood, Memory and Future,” followed by a discussion with its creators, Mikel Toral and Txutxi Paredes. The documentary features the testimonies of 32 women born between 1930 and 1960, forming the story of a generation. In the words of Mikel Toral, one of the documentary's creators, it is “a universal story that represents the struggle for life of working women in Bizkaia.”

On Sunday, May 11th , at 12:00 pm, the documentary “Puta mina. Reflections of Women from Mining Regions on Mining” will be screened, followed by a discussion with one of its authors, Conchi Unanue. The documentary, told from a female perspective, portrays daily life in the coal mining regions and received a special mention at the Olhares do Mediterráneo Festival in Lisbon. This piece is an audiovisual exploration of the Gordón mining basin (León), in the town of Ciñera, an area affected by the dismantling of the mining industry and the ways of life associated with it. The project was conceived as a collective work by local groups, in which the last images of the mine are interwoven with conversations held among women miners during the period 2016-2017. The resulting film adds layers of complexity to an epic reading of the class struggle, while also highlighting aspects such as care work or affective components, usually relegated in the conventional narrative about the mine.

This event, now a fixture on Bilbao's alternative cultural calendar, champions knowledge as a tool for social transformation. The fair will feature book stalls, cultural activities, and an atmosphere that fosters free thinking and collective engagement.

Date
May 10, 2026 12:00 - May 11, 2026 23:59