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London Anarchist bookfair 2020

danny la rouge said:
It’s sadly true.

I speak entirely for myself here, but as someone who has never attended a London Bookfair (I’ve been to London about 5 times in my life, if you count making connections at Heathrow), I don’t feel at all motivated to go to one. If this is the state of the “anarchist” “scene” in London, I think we’re well out of it.

In Glasgow we have comradely relations with several other groups, working together on various things, having them to talk at our meetings, etc. Nationally, the ACG has worked with other organisations such as the Angry Workers, RAG and several others I apologise for forgetting right now. Internationally, we’re in constant contact with organisations right across the world. Comrades in Latin America even send us early drafts of their pamphlets to read over and we do likewise. I was really impressed, on joining the ACG that all this was going on!

Then this, basically high school drama, comes along once a year, and I think, you know what, if that’s UK anarchism we should probably distance ourselves from it anyway.

As others have said, the organised working class movement is at a very low ebb. We should concentrate on working with those serious organisations who actually want to get stuff done. I’ve no idea who Rhyddical is or what he’s/they have done in the movement, but I strongly suspect the movement he/they are involved in isn’t something I’d recognise anyway. We should just let them get on with whatever it is they do.

That’s a personal view, but it s one I’ll be putting forward at the next opportunity.
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to my mind the problem is the association of this event with the previous longstanding bookfair, which was organised by a group who were widely respected within the movement. the people involved in organising this event at conway hall haven't shown the same deftness of touch which was formerly there. no one seems to know who they are, what their record is, which groups or currents they're affiliated with. the groups with stalls at the event seem a curious bag. there's numerous people who've had stalls at previous london bookfairs who aren't there. the acg, of course, but also haringey solidarity group seem absent, now or never, active distibution, ak press, the several secondhand bookstalls... this doesn't look to me so much representative of the movement as the events it seeks to continue. it's all a great pity.
 
Pickman's model said:
to my mind the problem is the association of this event with the previous longstanding bookfair, which was organised by a group who were widely respected within the movement. the people involved in organising this event at conway hall haven't shown the same deftness of touch which was formerly there. no one seems to know who they are, what their record is, which groups or currents they're affiliated with. the groups with stalls at the event seem a curious bag. there's numerous people who've had stalls at previous london bookfairs who aren't there. the acg, of course, but also haringey solidarity group seem absent, now or never, active distibution, ak press, the several secondhand bookstalls... this doesn't look to me so much representative of the movement as the events it seeks to continue. it's all a great pity.
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If people calling themselves anarchists in London want to organise a bookfair, then it seems to me there’s very little anyone can do (or should do) to stop them calling themselves a London anarchist book fair. But that doesn’t mean we have to get involved.

Again, I have no experience of the London anarchist milieu. I once went to the Freedom Bookshop in Angel Alley about 20 years ago, but that’s it.
 
Now none of this morning ght be the organisers' fault but to my mind a serious Anarchist Bookfair (as a significant part of the movements' infrastructure) ought to include a fair few of the following who are currently absent:

ACG
Class War
AK
Active
PM Press
IWW
IWGB
UVW
Acorn
Plan C
etc. Etc.

As I said, that might not be the organisers' fault, but the list of stalls (to my ageing mind at least) is more notable for who's not there than who is.

That is a problem.
 
chilango said:
Now none of this morning ght be the organisers' fault but to my mind a serious Anarchist Bookfair (as a significant part of the movements' infrastructure) ought to include a fair few of the following who are currently absent:

ACG
Class War
AK
Active
PM Press
IWW
IWGB
UVW
Acorn
Plan C
etc. Etc.

As I said, that might not be the organisers' fault, but the list of stalls (to my ageing mind at least) is more notable for who's not there than who is.

That is a problem.
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I mean, in all fairness to the organisers, they have said that there's a reduced capacity for stalls cos of social distancing so they can't accommodate as many people as they like/as usual? (Also, do IWGB, UVW and Acorn usually do stalls? I have no idea on that one, and I suppose London Renters' Union and HASL would be more relevant to London than Acorn. Not that they're there either.) But on the other hand, this mess so far makes it impossible to tell who's been refused a stall with no hard feelings cos of lack of space, and who's barred cos of impenetrable secret beef issues. I don't think anyone has problems with the wobs but who even knows?
 
hitmouse said:
I mean, in all fairness to the organisers, they have said that there's a reduced capacity for stalls cos of social distancing so they can't accommodate as many people as they like/as usual? (Also, do IWGB, UVW and Acorn usually do stalls? I have no idea on that one, and I suppose London Renters' Union and HASL would be more relevant to London than Acorn. Not that they're there either.) But on the other hand, this mess so far makes it impossible to tell who's been refused a stall with no hard feelings cos of lack of space, and who's barred cos of impenetrable secret beef issues. I don't think anyone has problems with the wobs but who even knows?
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All true. Just imagining how far the Bookfair is (and tbf was) from my own vision of what it shoulda coulda been.
 
This is making me realise how long I'd been a lurker on urban for, I was just fondly reminiscing about the year I was winding up my mate in Plan C cos a certain very angry Kurdish U75 poster was offering to fight Plan C at the bookfair for being Kurdish nationalists. This was back in pre-Plan Corbyn days so I think would've been 2015?
 
So are Class War not there either?

I definitely think that AK Press and Active should be there aswell, plus the small book sellers and maybe Plan C aswell.
 
Wilf said:
To be fair, members of the ACG have been very measured in their response, it's been the rest of us raging.
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That's our thing though, thoughtful and measured in our responses... usually. Anyway, I'm just happy to quietly watch the silent treatment and assorted gaslighting unravel.

Drevil_million_dollars.jpg
 
chilango said:
Oh, and for the benefit of the more cynical amongst you, I'm online a lot today 'cos it's transfer deadline day, not because I'm overly excised about this!
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I'm only here because I keep being drawn to this thread - by my own interest ofcourse.

Other than that the bandwithdz thread has been a pretty good laugh as usual lately, but theres not much else to keep me here at the moment tbh.
 
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Count Cuckula said:
So are Class War not there either?

I definitely think that AK Press and Active should be there aswell, plus the small book sellers and maybe Plan C aswell.
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Looks like CW're doing an online workshop on the Sunday but not a stall on the Saturday. And tbf to the organisers I can never keep track of when CW have disbanded and when they've refounded themselves again. Again, I respect that social distancing means that they're running a smaller event and they can't accommodate as many stalls as they like, perhaps they should do a statement saying "we wish we could put on more stalls but covid safety means it would be irresponsible, we would like to make it clear that there's no malice or judgement involved in the stall applications we've had to refuse?"
 
hitmouse said:
Looks like CW're doing an online workshop on the Sunday but not a stall on the Saturday. And tbf to the organisers I can never keep track of when CW have disbanded and when they've refounded themselves again. Again, I respect that social distancing means that they're running a smaller event and they can't accommodate as many stalls as they like, perhaps they should do a statement saying "we wish we could put on more stalls but covid safety means it would be irresponsible, we would like to make it clear that there's no malice or judgement involved in the stall applications we've had to refuse?"
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I wonder what their workshop is about? I'm interested.
 
Dom Traynor said:
I am genuinely surprised Plan C and Classwar are still going. No offence to either group but I just kind of assumed...
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Plan C are - I don't think I'm giving away any secrets here - going through a period of "self- reflection" but are very much still going as I understand it.

Class War? I dunno, but they're down to do a talk on the Sunday.
 
hitmouse said:
Looks like CW're doing an online workshop on the Sunday but not a stall on the Saturday. And tbf to the organisers I can never keep track of when CW have disbanded and when they've refounded themselves again. Again, I respect that social distancing means that they're running a smaller event and they can't accommodate as many stalls as they like, perhaps they should do a statement saying "we wish we could put on more stalls but covid safety means it would be irresponsible, we would like to make it clear that there's no malice or judgement involved in the stall applications we've had to refuse?"
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tbh if it's a bookfair then the major publishers like ak and pm should be there. and the national groups ought to be there, if they've applied for a stall.
 
danny la rouge said:
If this is the state of the “anarchist” “scene” in London, I think we’re well out of it....In Glasgow etc
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this kind of splits and spats stuff is standard practice since forever isnt it? i wouldn't draw too much wider conclusion from it. The more numbers there are involved in something the bigger the chance of a fall out. Plus there's personal stuff that goes on behind the scenes. Arguably a big part of the fights out of the 2018 bookfair was there were so many non-anarchists sticking their oars in (see signatories of that shitty open letter) - itself a sign of the events success at drawing in new people, and of the problems that arise once the pool of opinion widens significantly.

If you look at successful communes and utopian communities etc one of the defining features is often a tightly shared ideology. Dealing badly with difference isn't unique to a "london anarchist scene" - seems pretty universal in politics.
 
chilango said:
Now none of this morning ght be the organisers' fault but to my mind a serious Anarchist Bookfair (as a significant part of the movements' infrastructure) ought to include a fair few of the following who are currently absent:

ACG
Class War
AK
Active
PM Press
IWW
IWGB
UVW
Acorn
Plan C
etc. Etc.

As I said, that might not be the organisers' fault, but the list of stalls (to my ageing mind at least) is more notable for who's not there than who is.

That is a problem.
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This is by the by, but not sure about Acorn being on the list - there are good people in it, but their undemocratic structure makes them not even very libertarian-leaning. In fact rumour has it that a bunch of staffers recently quit their jobs because they asked for more democracy and got a 'no' in response...

I mean, if they paid their staff decent salaries they'd be less likely to quit over such things, but their salaries are so low I'd suggest that they all unionise :D

No shade to particular people in Acorn.
 
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