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

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

material in different languages based in

Lausanne , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...

, Switzerland with other branches in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

and Fujinomiya, Japan.

History

CIRA was founded in 1957 in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

and moved to

in 1965. It had several locations before its present building. It was run initially by a collective including historian

René Bianco René Bianco (21 June 1908 – 23 January 2008) was a French operatic baritone who performed at the Opéra Comique and the Paris Opera in a wide variety of leading roles.Zisman, Marc (29 January 2008"Disparition de René Bianco, Le baryton f ...

, Pietro Ferrua and Marie-Christine Mikhaïlo. Mikhaïlo ended up running the library with her daughter Marianne Enckell. CIRA differed from other

anarchist archives Anarchist archives preserve records from the international anarchist movement in personal and institutional collections around the world. This primary source documentation is made available for researchers to learn directly from movement anarchi ...

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 ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. 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. 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 The International Institute of Social History (IISH/IISG) is one of the largest archives of labor and social history in the world. Located in Amsterdam, its one million volumes and 2,300 archival collections include the papers of major figur ...

(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

* {{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