Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme

CIRA (Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme) is an anarchist archive, infoshop and library of anarchist material in different languages based in Lausanne, Switzerland with other branches in Marseille and Fujinomiya, Japan.

CIRA
Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme
Entrance to CIRA
CountrySwitzerland
ScopeAnarchism
Established1957
LocationLausanne
Coordinates46°31′34.66″N 6°38′43.44″E
Branches3
Collection
Items collected20,000 books & pamphlets, 4,000 periodicals
Other information
Map

History
Inside of CIRA

CIRA was founded in 1957 in Geneva and moved to Lausanne in 1965. It had several locations before its present building.[1] It was run initially by a collective including historian René Bianco, Pietro Ferrua and Marie-Christine Mikhaïlo.[1][2] Mikhaïlo ended up running the library with her daughter Marianne Enckell.[2] CIRA differed from other anarchist archives in that it was an association recognised by the city council and it employed a worker, as well as taking people doing civil service instead of army conscription.[3] There are also branches of CIRA in Marseille and in Japan.[4][5] CIRA Nippon was set up in 1970 in Fujinomiya, a city which is halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, and as of 2011, the archive contained 2000 books.[5]

In 1978, CIRA set up the Fédération Internationale des Centes d'Études et de Documentation Libertaires (FICEDL) which aimed to be a group bringing together different anarchist archives worldwide.[6] CIRA celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 2007 with a gathering in Lausanne.[6] Similar historical archives include International Institute of Social History (IISG, Amsterdam), the Arbejder-bevaegelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv (ABA, Copenhagen), the Schweizerisches Sozialarchiv (Zürich), the Bibliothèque de Documentation Internationale Contemporaine (BDIC, Nanterre) and the Historische Kommission in Berlin.[7] As of 2020, the library in Lausanne holds 20,000 books and pamphlets and 4,000 periodicals (100 of which are still active).[8]

Publications

CIRA has published a yearly bulletin since 1959, which is available to subscribers and also online. The bulletin contains a list of acquisitions and information about research, libraries and conferences.[9] The edited collection Refuser de parvenir was published by the CIRA collective in 2016 following discussions held at CIRA in 2013 and 2014.[10]

See also

References
  1. "Musée: au CIRA, tout sur les anars mais point de foutoir". La Libre (in French). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  2. "Obituary: Marie-Christine Mikhaïlo (1916-2004)". www.katesharpleylibrary.net. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  3. Moran, Jessica (2014). "To spread the revolution: anarchist archives and libraries". In Morrone, Melissa (ed.). Informed Agitation: Library and Information Skills in Social Justice Movements and Beyond. Litwin Books. pp. 173–184. doi:10.5848/LB.978-1-936117-87-1_14 (inactive 2021-01-10). ISBN 9781936117871.CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of January 2021 (link)
  4. Coquille, David (2014-08-18). "Marseille: le patron libertaire de la Vieille-Chapelle". La Marseillaise. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  5. "CIRA – Nippon: A short introduction". LibCom. Archived from the original on 2019-06-28. Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  6. Stowasser, Horst (1 October 2007). "Die "Mutter der Archive"". Graswurzel Revolution (in German). Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  7. Bourrinet, Philippe (2018). The Dutch and German communist left (1900-68) : 'Neither Lenin nor Trotsky nor Stalin!' 'All workers must think for themselves!'. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books. ISBN 9781608468218.
  8. "Ressources – CIRA". www.cira.ch. Archived from the original on 29 December 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  9. Rosengarten, Frank (2007). "Research groups, library resources, periodicals". Socialism and Democracy. 7 (1): 131–142. doi:10.1080/08854309308428088. Retrieved 2019-04-03.
  10. Reveilhac, Maud (12 November 2017). "Refuser de parvenir. À propos de : Collectif du CIRA, Refuser de parvenir. Idées et pratiques (Nada Éditions, 2016)". Sociologie (in French). doi:10.3917/socio.083.0335. ISSN 2108-8845.
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