Bookfair decisions have absolutely nothing to do with the AF.
But I'm gunna address some of the AF stuff upthread. Sorry about the rant, and though I hate to air shit openly, I think it needs to be stated so people can give their heads a wobble and reassess some of the bullshit they harbour.
Some folk seem to feel that we've spent the past 5 years stewing and have dedicated our lives to being upset about it. We have not. So a dozen folk felt unable to work in a space that would react severely to what we perceived as transphobic dogwhistling, it was a poorly worded statement, which unconsciously contained a lot of problematic elements which better informed people told them were problematic, they edited it out . If what people told me at a bunch of bookfairs since is right, those who left felt it was IDPOL liberalism, (IDPOL here not meaning Identity Politics in it's original framing but the right wing's appopriation of the term to me "identity focused, supremacists who use cross class anatgonism and dog piling to force their way"). I disagree with that assessment obviously. They wrote a unconsciously poorly worded statement and couldn't deal with the trans (and others) membership being rightly upset. They did edit the statement th, so it shows that some of the thoughts were taken onboard. I think it's still got problematic elements and there remains to this day a loose "we should work to heal the rift" manner which makes sense in one way but for those suffering transphobia remains a "what you want us to work with our bigots?" line and clearly people thing it's a thing. Thus that "BinACG", who is obviously someone in the milleu since they do indeed know some of the internal gossip. It isn't me tho, fuck I didn't even read it until I was forced to weeks later.
It's a shame [Redacted] is HEAVILY IMPLYING BUT NOT QUITE SAYING that I'm this shit account "outting them", their analysis of my writing patterns is clearly not CSI level. We spoke directly and he accepted it wasn't me and chose to delete comments they had put on twitter. Someone subsequently posted my personal details and called me a Transphobe, which, truly, I appreciate the irony off. If they had taken me up on my polite hellos the last four times we've bumped into each other instead of playing the silent game, they might know that this fantasy; that I or anyone else in the AF, care or harbour some deep resentment, is simply not true. You don't come up that often, we're busy folk and it's really not that important. This whole thing which they are basing their response off is one sided.
I have absolutely zero love for internet drama (... looks at thread... honestly! lol) and I hate having to air dirty laudry like this but I'm also not keen on people who know better chatting shit online and I suspect offline to anyone and everyone. You telling people that I'm some anonymous twitter account with an issue, puts people at threat. It's not just the doxing me it's also jacketing me which is a fucking problem. You need to pack that shit in comrade, it's not cool. you apologised and said you didn't know what OPSEC is, thats ok, maybe it's a generational thing idk, but you know what jacket is and it's a bit of a dick move mate.
But back to AF stuff. we don't think it was some super evil HOW DARE THEY, move to leave. There is nothing precious about these organisations, free associate with the ones that work for you and swap and change as you wish. Nobody cares. Fuck, we kept radio silence and never issued any statement to keep beefing to a minimal, those who knew the details knew them. No need to engaging in a pissing war, this despite the verbal we got on the grapevine, with literally dozens of people coming up to us at following bookfairs saying "I was told that you lot XYZ" mostly that we're liberals now, that we don't care about class, that we only care about being SJWs etc etc etc boring. No one cares mate.
If anything those dozen people leaving was a relief, shame to loose some comrades, but we were then able to push through some changes such as becoming an overtly intersectional organisation and focus more on some of the broader aspects of Anarchist Communist organising. I'm happy they are working in a space they feel more comfortable. The AF doesn't care, we certainly aint doing any shenanigans. The depth of interest is limited too "ah cool a growing anarchist org" and "oh they've taken up Platformism, atleast the two organisations are a bit more politically distinct".
Far as I can tell, gossiping about us, cussing us out to anyone and everyone, kind of lost steam a couple years back and everyone moved on.
So please, on a personal level here, for the love of fuck, move on.
Whatever imagined beef you think you have with me, that you think is leading some fantastical plot, that you think I stay up at night grinding my teeth over, influnecing the orgs I'm in to do my evil bidding, please for the love of all that is holy, stop projecting that on the 100 or so other people in the AF. No one cares, I'm sorry if no one has actually wrote you a letter or statement about it but here it is, we don't care, best of luck to you, thanks for the fish.
Certainly stop posting shit on open forums such as this and twitter to stoke fires and drama. You have the capacity to fucking message me and actually have a conversation, like next time we bump into each other, say hello. I really harbour no resentment, I disagree with some of your politcs, big woop, you gotta let this personal stuff go mate.
IDK, is all this coz the AF blocked you lot on Twitter? We did that coz shortly after the whole "Don't support the movement in Belarus, thats a fascist flag" bullshit thread, one of your admins was clearly drunk and posting random shit towards us. We simply had enough of polite silence and wishing to avoid drama, blocked you. We're busy folk and don't have time for random internet spats laden with bad faith and aggy.
