CIRA (Centre International de Recherches sur l'Anarchisme) or International Center for Research on Anarchism is an anarchist archive,

infoshop Infoshops are places in which people can access anarchist or autonomist ideas. They are often stand-alone projects, or can form part of a larger radical bookshop, archive, self-managed social centre or community centre. Typically, infoshops offer ...

and library of

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

material in different languages based in

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

, Switzerland with other branches in

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

and

Fujinomiya is a city located in central Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 132,507 in 56,655 households, and a population density of 340 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History The city name comes from t ...

, Japan.

History

CIRA was founded in 1957 in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

and moved to

in 1965. It had several locations before its present building. It was run initially by a collective including historian René Bianco, Pietro Ferrua and Marie-Christine Mikhaïlo. Mikhaïlo ended up running the library with her daughter Marianne Enckell. 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. There are also branches of CIRA in

and in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. CIRA Nippon was set up in 1970 in

, a city which is halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, and as of 2011, the archive contained 2000 books. 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. CIRA celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 2007 with a gathering in Lausanne. Similar historical archives include

International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(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. As of 2020, the library in Lausanne holds 20,000 books and pamphlets and 4,000 periodicals (100 of which are still active).

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. The edited collection ''Refuser de parvenir'' was published by the CIRA collective in 2016 following discussions held at CIRA in 2013 and 2014.

References

External links

*
CIRA-Japana Website
{{Authority control DIY culture Infoshops International anarchist organizations Buildings and structures in Lausanne 1957 establishments in Switzerland Libraries in Switzerland Anarchism in Switzerland

History

Publications

See also

References

External links