- yes but on here in a personal capacity. The decision to offer the money was easy quick and unanimous. So there you go. We said in 2017 that we would not be criticising from the sidelines any attempts to organise a bookfair in London but I don't think that means any of us have to let this sort of gossip and innuendo either from you or your "involved comrades" ( who are not involved in LABC) go unanswered.
Glad to know some more. Thank you.
We didn't include the entire statement as we were concerned about accusations of harming your privacy, We've asked a couple of times now but If you'd like us to uinclude thhe full statement happy to.
I don't think the LABC is out for war in the slightest, I think you're stuck in a difficult position due to A: wanting a bookfair and B: not wanting it to be no transphobia. The reality is (as far as I'm aware) some of the collective are friendly with people I/we would call transphobic and have a political neutrality/ no banning philosophy that is at odd with the wider Anarchist movement (atleast every other Anarchist bookfair and larger body)... so rock and hard place. Your own statements/commentry after 2017 and the message sent out earlier in this year make those positions quite clear and anything but innuendo.
If I'm being truly honest and slightly against myself here I think now that there is a "no Transphobia Bookfair", it opens up a window for there to be a Bookfair which pro-activley takes on these issues in the way everyone is pissed off that we wont.
Has the LABC thought about running such a bookfair in the light of changes? Clearly given the attempt earlier in the year there is drive too?
I can't speak for the rest of the collective but there has been informal chat about not standing in the way of fringe events nor events Gender Critical folk put on and such and even if you guys didn't feel like holding a bookfair,and certainly not assuming your personal politics perhaps providing a symbiotic event of that nature would appease everyone and tick everyones boxes?
Truly I think that is something you all want to consider and I would rather hope we could talk about as comrades, I'm back in London on the 12th next month If you / LABC folk would actually like a sit down and a chat about this and other issues over a pint sure a couple of us would be happy to meet up and air-clear and discuss such a thing without it being antagonistic?
At the end of the day here, the one thing we do all agree on is that we're supposed to be getting on with some Anarchy and forwarding a revolution... would really love to focus on that and make the next step[s positive ones despite our differances.
Re other questions....
Top dog - Aside from bigotry, you can expect a wide range of Anarchist (and friendly) tendancies as alreayd shown by the groups who have requested a stall before we've even sent out invites. We're pro-activley involving various networks from across the board locally, nationally and internationally just as the LABC did a pretty solid job of doing. So I expect it to be much of the same.
LynnDoyleCooper - The entire point of contention here is where Transphobes should be given a platform / place to debate during Bookfair 2020. I've given a pretty solid definition of Transphobia here and I havn't got time to be sealioned into scrolling through 24 pages of bickering. However you're comment abou the bookfair being a "supermarket of ..." is an interesting one. I think one of the issues between Anarchists here is the concern that because we have a no-transphobia policy that we are a slip into idpol and such. We arn't, We are just a differant body of Class Struggle Anarchists making a bookfair. Comrades are concerned because they don't know what that will look like and given that so much of the conversation has been about Trans issues with a crotchy dude think that it's going to be like X. Perhaps we would do well to pen a more positive statement on "The vision" to better project what we aim to put on.
Kenny G - I'm truly not trying to "win" people, this is less a debate than a sharing of information. Mind you, like every other human, sometimes I'm in a bad way and type without thinking, tho I agree with my points the way I put them across is a bit shirty to say the least. In part again I blame the the sheer tirade of bullshit we take constantly across several platforms and reading people defending those we've blocked is disheartening. The only people we have blocked have been those spewing outright bigotry of the kind even those who have a more narrow sense of Transphobia would agree cross a line, it's... a weight if you get me.
Butchersapron - I think there is a differance between being transphobic and taking a stand in support of people being accused of transphobia. Is that any clearer for you?
