April 28th – 30th: 2nd Biannual Call for Weekend of Distroing

Call to participate in the face to face dissemination of anarchist ideas and mutual aid materials in public settings.

This is a call for anyone and everyone to participate in the 2nd Biannual Weekend of Distroing Shit, taking place anywhere and everywhere you can get away with setting up a table, a blanket, a bench, or any other surface to put things on. If you’ve always been interested in tabling but haven’t gotten around to it, this is as good a time as any to give it a shot, knowing that others from all over the place are doing so with you. Maybe you’ll table zines, posters, and stickers at a park. Maybe you’ll table clothing, medical supplies, and food downtown. Maybe some combination of all the aforementioned items in the aforementioned places. As always, bonus points for the boldest offerings in the boldest locations.

Our small zine table setup today at the free store! 🏴 pic.twitter.com/4eawtkR38P

— A.A.R.F. Autonomous Anarchist Revolutionary Front (@AARF_LA) October 18, 2021

If you’ve never tabled before, take this as an opportunity to engage with your surroundings in a different way than usual. Tabling gives you an opportunity to meet people in your community you might otherwise never interact with. It gives you time to reflect on what locations in your town or city are meaningful, how people relate to different locations, and how those relations could be different. Tabling is an opportunity to connect with others who might be on the same tip as you but haven’t found a way to plug in and begin taking action towards the worlds they’d like to see.

If you have tabled before, or even if you table regularly, take this as an opportunity to get a new friend involved. Help someone get their set up together. Offer to help print and fold zines. Help scout out a good spot. Help make a good poster or banner to drape over their table. Share the knowledge you’ve accrued through your experiences with those who are interested in getting involved. Tabling is a great way to cut through some of the insularity (and cynicism) of anarchist spaces.

Had a lovely time in SO-CALLED Ashville.

Iron Sights closed out by handing off the mic to a prisoner support crew. Can’t say we’ve ever seen an entire beatdown pit line up to write letters before, shit was pretty fuckin hardcore, sincerely. @avlantiracism @HellbenderAVL pic.twitter.com/llWqh24Eii

— Filler Distro | PGH (@PghAutonomy) March 18, 2023

Help make this event as accessible as possible. We’re incredibly excited to see mass convergences and bookfairs returning in numbers, but for a variety of reasons not everyone who’d like to attend those events are able. Travel is expensive and often prohibitive, large gatherings (especially indoors/when people aren’t masking) still pose considerable risk for many disabled and immunocompromised comrades, and sometimes you just don’t have the energy. By its nature, this event can take whatever form each participant decides works best for them. Even if you aren’t interested in tabling yourself, reach out to others and see if they could use some help.

So get your friends together, get some zines, have fun, and talk to your fucking neighbors!

Some Tips:

• Walmart has cheap, decent, folding tables if you can get to one. If not a blanket on the ground and a milk crate to sit on works just as well.
• For Finding Zines: Fugitive Distro, Sprout Distro, Indigenous Action all have websites with tons of great zines formatted to be printed and folded. There’s other great distro sites as well, ask around.
• For Printing: If you can’t get access to a printer, local libraries will often have printers you can use for relatively cheap. Staples, FedEx, etc also have decent rates for making a lot of copies.