“Canada isn’t a fascist police state you fucking hippy stoner! Stop throwing bricks at small businesses!”

That’s just one angry comment in an online discussion forum responding to the incidents that unfolded in Toronto during the G20 Summit. Prime Minister Stephen Harper referred to the people responsible for the vandalism as a group of “thugs,” likely an accurate reflection of how many Canadians view anarchists.

Lev Barbecue, one of the organizers of the Calgary Anarchist Bookfair — an annual event that occurs in many major cities around the world — believes an all-too-common misperception is that anarchy equals chaos.

“That belief goes back at least 150 years,” he says. “But the word ‘anarchy’ actually comes from Greek, and all it means is ‘no rulers.’ It does not mean people running around committing violent crime. Most anarchists don’t believe the only thing preventing theft and murder is the law; I don’t believe if we took away the state we would descend into chaos.”

Anarchy, he says, contains a broad range of theories that focus on a variety of issues, from feminism to environmentalism, and also includes queer issues. Anarchists attempt to achieve their ends with an equally wide gamut of tactics; some create literature, some form unions, and others, like the Black Bloc, insurrect. Barbecue hopes the book fair will offer people, whether they are anarchists or not, the opportunity to explore the wide scope of ideas encompassed by what he believes is a very complex and diverse ideology. “What ties it all together is the belief that society would be better off without authority or hierarchy of any kind,” he says.

Those hoping to attend the book fair can expect to find an equally diverse selection of reading material, including photocopied pamphlets, as well as professionally published books in a variety of genres. All things literary and anarchist can be found for free. In an atmosphere aimed at putting the ideology’s principals into practice, no authority figures will be present to oversee monetary matters and turn a profit. The weekend will also feature workshops, activities, talks and a keynote speaker (local activist Xotchilt Swedler). Barbecue emphasizes the potential for the event to disseminate ideas and generate important discussions.

“Anarchy can make a very positive contribution to both our society and the world because it recognizes the individual as a source of creativity and the best person to make decisions for themselves… If you talk to people, you’ll find that they distrust the government as well as major corporations, and don’t believe either to be looking out for their best interests. Yet they adhere to the more traditional ideologies like conservatism or socialism because they don’t understand the alternatives. Anarchy simply isn’t discussed in schools or the media.”

Any attention anarchists do get is often negative. Throughout the G20 Summit, news outlets continually showed images of burning police cars and sketchy people clad in black, brandishing weapons. When some protestors became destructive, Barbecue believes the police allowed the demolition to proceed, encouraged journalists to capture damning photographs and videos of the devastation, knowing that the images would be front page news and would generate public scorn. Police, Barbecue says, thereby gave themselves permission to arrest even peaceful protestors, use rubber bullets and imprison people without due process. “They set out to instill fear in anyone who wanted to protest. They wanted people to think twice about even holding up a banner or a flag or just showing up to take a stand against what the G20 stands for,” he says. Consequently, the true message of anarchism became distorted and ultimately lost.

Despite such obstacles, Barbecue remains committed to the cause. “Anarchism is about empowering the individual to make concrete improvements in their own lives as well as working to improve the society around them,” he says. He hopes the book fair will in some small way set the record straight about what anarchism is and what it stands for.