London Anarchist Bookfair 2022
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chilango
Hypothetical Wanker
Clever how they’ve made the A for annoyed also look like the tent which only allows some inside.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
So why are you excluding the Woodcraft Folk huh? Don’t you want to span the world with friendship?
Carl Steele
Well-Known Member
(Madness, I know...
- buy some books
)
Yes, perhaps I should go to the bookfair.
Actually it's quite soothing to follow a dispute upon which you are unable to form an opinion. The most enjoyable parts of the Joe Rogan podcasts I've watched are when he talks about MMA because I know even less about MMA than I do about contemporary British anarchist groups.
And to be clear I'm not being dismissive of anarchism as a political movement historically, I'm quite sympathetic to some of the basic tenets of anarchism, it's just that I know nothing about modern groups.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
Paint the whole world with a rainbow
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
I wouldn't bother starting to learn about them now though tbh.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
That was ITV, The WCF was / is a very BBC type of co-operative movement.
nogojones
spelling is overrated
Who are the knockers? Name Names!
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
The discussion around anarchy/anarchism and its relevance nowadays; the groups that call themselves anarchist, those that don't but have anarchist principles and sometimes politics as part of their practice, and the relationship between the movement/scene/milieu/swamp/etc. and other groups broadly on similar pages; and then the dynamic/relationship between those and social change and wider society is interesting though! (Sure I misused semi-colons there, but whatever... fuck your rules!)
nogojones
spelling is overrated
A large part of the former and a little bit of the latter
If it is a movement, it is smaller than it was before 2017.
JimW
支那暗杀团
Had more fibre then, so to be expected.
Rob Ray
Weight is meaningless
Which was smaller than it had been pre-2012. When irritable types were making the same comment about it being a scene rather than a movement. Tbh the constant downtalking of anarchists by anarchists is one of the most pointlessly self-defeating things about the movement/scene/political agglomeration/bag of cats. As though there aren't plenty of people willing to do it for us.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
Absolutely we need a bit more optimism and bada bing . Why doesn't someone make a list of achievements that the anarchism scene has achieved so we can big them up up.
AFN , Anti GM crops, squatting Deripaskas mansion, Smash Elbit (or whatever they're calling it), a load of stuff on the HS2.
We're down but not out.
A380
How do I change this 'custom title' thing then?
Tommy?
Rob Ray
Weight is meaningless
Workfare was a good one back in the 2010s, Palestine Action's been doing some cracking work in a non-hierarchical way recently and I'll say our more legally-minded wing has had at least some good influence on the new green movement/XR folks. Anarchs are also the main driver against HS2 and have been very effective in shrinking its scope (much to the chagrin of the unions/trad left types who've been all in favour of the jobs it generates). Radical Routes as well has been been quietly plugging away and while the mutual aid surge during lockdown was way too much for us to effectively politicise it was in and of itself a powerful phenomenon.
I'll also say that between the likes of Sparrow's Nest, Libcom, the Kate Sharpley Library, the Anarchist Library etc we're probably better served in terms of access to the movement's archives and classic literature than we've ever been, and have by far a larger publishing presence between PM, AK, Active, Freedom etc even before getting to the extensive academic work that's going on. Hell there's at least 15 of 16 books I can think of which are out of coming out in the second half of this year alone specifically about anarchism (eg these, Nick Heath's book, Freedom's upcoming stuff from Brian Morris, Camillo Berneri etc), let alone which are analysing topics through an anarchist lens.
One other issue with our general trend to negativity is that a lot of anarchist influence is often too diffuse and underreported as "ours" to properly lay credit for - or we refuse to do so/define it as non-anarchist when we could be doing so.
I'll also say that between the likes of Sparrow's Nest, Libcom, the Kate Sharpley Library, the Anarchist Library etc we're probably better served in terms of access to the movement's archives and classic literature than we've ever been, and have by far a larger publishing presence between PM, AK, Active, Freedom etc even before getting to the extensive academic work that's going on. Hell there's at least 15 of 16 books I can think of which are out of coming out in the second half of this year alone specifically about anarchism (eg these, Nick Heath's book, Freedom's upcoming stuff from Brian Morris, Camillo Berneri etc), let alone which are analysing topics through an anarchist lens.
One other issue with our general trend to negativity is that a lot of anarchist influence is often too diffuse and underreported as "ours" to properly lay credit for - or we refuse to do so/define it as non-anarchist when we could be doing so.
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LDC
On est tous des pangolins
It's been a significant influence in pretty much every revolution, social movement and struggle for over 100 years in a bunch of places across the world. It was a significant force in union organising as has been mentioned (including obviously the IWW) and through that it can definitely take some 'credit' for the wins that has had. When not labelled as 'anarchism' per se it has had an even wider influence in the way plenty of action and campaign groups operate as has been mentioned above. Fucking loads basically.
The39thStep
Urban critical thinker
LDC
On est tous des pangolins
Oh, we’re back to unions again. Which anarchists criticise.
Although tbf Lenin said it’s all we’d be good at or some such. 
hitmouse
music obfuscation technology
Standards are slipping, I can't believe no-one from the ACG has popped up to flog Cafiero's Compendium or anything. Does anyone want to have a go with that new book about doctors and that?(Madness, I know...
- buy some books
Here you go, fill your boots:
Monson wins with a KO for anarchism
This article came out of a talk given in Belfast by anarchist MMA fighter Jeff Monson in March 2009. The article first appeared in issue 1 of The Leveller.
Interesting question - just thinking of recent British stuff and trying not to duplicate anything from above, I'd say Bristol 21/3/21 was probably not one we can directly claim credit for, but the legal support infrastructure that's meant people aren't facing repression alone is very much an @ thing. That fire round Bristol way in about 2013 and the cops' continuing failure to get anyone for it is entertaining at least. Infrastructure stuff is easy to overlook, but keeping the 1 in 12 going since the 80s, the Sumac, ACE in Edinburgh, Cowley and so on are achievements worth noting.
Lots of housing stuff - again, on a spectrum here, sometimes stuff has happened through Solfed, mostly it's been groups that aren't explicitly anarcho but have some in.
Workplace-wise, I suppose UVW, CAIWU, IWGB are all considerably less anarcho than the IWW, but I would imagine that anarchists are still probably over-represented in at least some of them? Does anyone know if there are any anarchists involved in the electricians/construction r'n'f, or is that an example of people organising along the lines that anarchists would recommend without any actual anarchist involvement, possibly like Amazonians United in the US?
Personally, this week I got asked to check the list of members that payroll send through as paying through DOCAS versus the list of union members we have as being the same so we could spot any leavers, and I thought it was gonna be a nightmare at first cos payroll's list had the names as a single column and the union list had first name and last name separately, but then I realised I could use the concatenate function to get the union list of names in a single column as well and that made eliminating duplicates loads easier.
Anyway, the above list may not be the most impressive thing ever, but then again it's not like the last decade or two has been an uninterrupted parade of glorious triumphs for the UK working class/pro-working class politics or whatever you want to call it either?
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I’m in the RMT and definitely at the libertarian end of communism. I’m happy for a person to represent me who wipes out the interviewers like Lynch did. He isn’t giving us orders. We voted for it.
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