Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
'Could Rhyddical come to the customer service desk. Customer waiting'.
London Anarchist bookfair 2020
- Thread starter Treacle Toes
- Start date
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
"Thank you for contacting the London Anarchist Bookfair. We are currently receiving very high volumes of emails from customers and we are dealing with these as quickly as we can, to help us to do this please do not send any more emails to us to find out what has happened to your enquiry.
We will only send you a reply by email where we need more information from you. If you have provided all the information we need to process the change you will not receive a response by email. We will process your enquiry and send you a revised bill or refund. We will do this as soon as we can.
We will aim to put a hold on any recovery action whilst we deal with your enquiry, although there will be occasions when this is not always possible."
Anyone know how the SPGB and ICC are getting on?
We will only send you a reply by email where we need more information from you. If you have provided all the information we need to process the change you will not receive a response by email. We will process your enquiry and send you a revised bill or refund. We will do this as soon as we can.
We will aim to put a hold on any recovery action whilst we deal with your enquiry, although there will be occasions when this is not always possible."
Anyone know how the SPGB and ICC are getting on?
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
Aside from LDC's nuclear level incompetence caveat, this is really shit for the movement. Hard to tell as they are not engaging, but by refusing a stall and going on their own criteria, they are saying the ACG is transphobic. Again, they have the chance to offer a clarification on that point. That's, gah... lots of things. It feels like some entirely wrong kind of politics that can come to such a conclusion. It leaves trans and gender identity issues as something that can be reduced to a single formula, a definition that they 'own'. It also avoids any kind of mature engagement with ACG statement posted upthread.
I'm not in the ACG and only know what I've read about the 2018 (?) split. Might have missed all kinds of things, but what kind of politics has lead to ACG comrades being classed as 'unacceptable'? Pretty much a case study in how identity politics works.
I'm not in the ACG and only know what I've read about the 2018 (?) split. Might have missed all kinds of things, but what kind of politics has lead to ACG comrades being classed as 'unacceptable'? Pretty much a case study in how identity politics works.
It has the advantage of being a clear communication.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
Perhaps there could be a handy waiver questionnaire build into the contact form?
- Do you have a physical or mental disorder; or are you a drug abuser or addict; or do you currently have any of the following diseases: Cholera, Diphtheria, Tuberculosis infectious, Plague, Smallpox, Yellow Fever, Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, including Ebola, Lassa, Marburg, Crimean-Congo, Severe acute respiratory illnesses capable of transmission to other persons and likely to cause mortality, Bolshevism, Menshevism, syndicalism or platformism?
- Have you ever been accused of, condemned for, or seen within a 20 mile vicinity of someone else so accused or condemned, crimes against the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair?
- Have you ever violated any New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair rules related to possessing, using, or distributing proscribed pamphlets?
- Do you seek to engage in or have you ever engaged in terrorist activities, espionage, sabotage, or getting into an online spat with a New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair organiser?
- Have you ever committed fraud or misrepresented yourself or others to obtain, or assist others to obtain, a table at New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair?
- Are you currently seeking a table in the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair or were you previously seeking a table in the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair without prior permission from the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair organising group?
- Have you ever been denied a table you applied for with your current or previous group, or have you ever been refused admission to the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair or withdrawn your application for admission to the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair?
- Have you ever stayed in the nearest Wetherspoons to the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair longer than the period granted to you by the New Improved London Anarchist Bookfair organising group?
- Have you travelled to, or been present in any branch of Wetherspoons in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, North Korea or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?
ska invita
back on the other side
i dont know what happened, would like to if anyone can fill me in, but dragging up these things isnt necessarily the best i appreciate that - however if its led to some cancelling going on then thats another level beyond an internal split
Dom Traynor
Tino Pai
I didn't say they're good explanations nevertheless I'd put money on 2 being the reason.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Very much not "an insider" myself, in a similar position to Wilf really, but fwiw here's the ACG's founding statement: Class Struggle Anarchist Statement on Bookfair Events and Aftermath - Anarchist Communist Group (not saying whether they'd still agree with every word of that or if they'd phrase some bits differently now.)
I am guessing that some people around the new bookfair would see the matters described in that statement in a different light, but if they're not actually saying anything then who knows?
danny la rouge
More like *fanny* la rouge!
Instead of leaving everyone to guess, the Bookfair committee could just briefly explain themselves.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
It's one of those situations where it really isn't worth having 'the debate' again, at least on this thread. But then if the ACG have been actively excluded, the onus is on the organisers to say why. This isn't about excluding a bunch of cranks of trots. Who would have thought, say 10 years ago, that it would be possible to have a bookfair that (seemingly) excludes a group like the ACG.
Kevbad the Bad
Amiable Bowel Syndrome
When you've successfully removed all heresy you can't just stop there. You have to go looking for more heresy, traces of heresy, potential heresy, heresy yet to come. Oh, and those who might tolerate heresy or allow discussion of incipient heretical opinion. You become a heresyphobe.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
andysays
Love and solidarity
WTF does that penultimate paragraph about "recovery action" mean?
As a curious but not really involved outsider, it looks to me as if these "organisers" have failed at the most basic level of organisational competency.
This question may have been addressed earlier in the thread, but does anyone in the wider anarchist movement know who they are? Do they have any background in successfully organising similar events or are they, as is becoming increasingly apparent, just a bunch of incompetent chancers?
Fozzie Bear
Well-Known Member
I think that the levels of speculation and second guessing on this thread are now, understandably, becoming slightly excessive.
Rhyddical
May or may not look sexy in Hi Vis.
Reading pages 60 plus and comparing them to pages 1-60 is quite educational.
Honestly I'm suprised the discussion their year hasn't been about our masks policy. Is U75 the only place the tinfoil hat wankstains haven't infected with their ersatz libertarian anti-mask knobbery?
tho someone did mention the policy and someone else said Covidfest. It's a difficult one and frankly the thing we've debated most these past few months.
Attached, artist impression of our door security.
Honestly I'm suprised the discussion their year hasn't been about our masks policy. Is U75 the only place the tinfoil hat wankstains haven't infected with their ersatz libertarian anti-mask knobbery?
tho someone did mention the policy and someone else said Covidfest. It's a difficult one and frankly the thing we've debated most these past few months.
Attached, artist impression of our door security.
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
I'm similarly uninvolved at the moment though I do think the current organisers are 'legitimate' fwiw. The previous collective got sick of the flack they took after the 2017 bookair (unfair criticism from what I saw, but that's by the by). They then said that someone else could take on the, ahem, 'brand', leading to the current lot doing it. I'm sure it was more complicated than that though. As to people knowing who they are within the movement, I dunno, but suspect they are.
JimW
支那暗杀团
How about just answering the question? If it's a no why not come out with it?
Rhyddical
May or may not look sexy in Hi Vis.
Not sure this text is from us lol, if it is, we've clearly forgotten about it since something like early 2020 when we stopped using "London Anarchist Bookfair" lol...
We may or may not infact be incompetant chances tho... I mean, isn't that all that Anarchism is? People seeing a window and taking chances, usually when you start doing something you are incompetant at it, then you get better and better. Sometimes you make gaffs, sometimes people disagree with something or do understand something and get pissy coz they arn't "in the know" but you chug chug along and keep developing your skills.
Certainly last year, when we started, the collective was mostly formed of very inexperianced people, we not only set up a huge in person bookfair but cancelled it at the last check and ended up putting on one of the largest digital bookfairs in the world.
Despite having "Anarchist" in the name tho, people seem to think we're a service industry and have to bend to their entitlement, we had so much of this last year with people being very frosty with us for stating that certain transphobes are not welcome. People get really angry when you say you cant come to their party and they forget about concepts like free association. I mean this is back in 2020, people this year have been much less inclined to idle speculation based on unfair assumptions that we're just a bunch of incompetant chances who are probably hiering the thought police as we speak.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Rhyddical When I read anarchist in the name I take it to be some sort of claim to be part of a particular political heritage and if you're doing that it's not unreasonable to expect a certain basic level of political standards in your behaviour, like giving a straight answer to an established group.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Oh, to be clear, that's not a real email from the bookfair organisers, that was just me copying and pasting an email the council sent me when I had a question about my council tax bill. The point being that it was a bit shit the council about a month to respond to me, but at least they managed to send me an email saying "we've received your query and will take ages to respond but we will respond at some point". Apologies for any confusion caused there.
Rhyddical
May or may not look sexy in Hi Vis.
There are 6/7 of us, given the fact that some of us were doxxed during the hostility last year, we are less than keen to reveal identities. We're not just randoms tho like you say, and there are several people on this thread who know us by name and share contacts with us.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
OK, so to be clear, are you saying that that's how you would describe the ACG, and that they're not welcome?
Shechemite
Be the sun and all will see you
Threads gone a bit weird
Shechemite
Be the sun and all will see you
What’s the issue with the ACG? Always seemed like a pleasant bunch
Rhyddical
May or may not look sexy in Hi Vis.
Don't know what you mean, I'm talking about 2020.
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
OK. In case you'd missed it, the ACG have applied for a stall for the 2021 bookfair and seem to have not received a reply yet, and several people are curious as to whether they have a stall or not, and if not why not.
In other news, sure it's been posted upthread, but in case anyone's in West Yorkshire and is unaware, the Bradford bookfair is this weekend:
Wilf
Slouching towards Billingham
As I mentioned a couple of posts back, your group took on the bookfair 'legitimately'. Taking on and running an event also gives you certain rights to decide who gets in and who doesn't, though I'd argue you should be doing that with an awareness of anarchist traditions. Okay, you've set up a 'terf exclusionary policy' (let's not argue about the semantics) and again, it's your gig. What concerns me in this specific case is that you are not able to demonstrate why you think the ACG are transphobic. What's your response to the ACG statement mentioned upthread?
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