Reports that SWP bookshop Bookmarks attacked

[danny la rouge]

What's a bookshop / social centre to do though? If you're open to the public in any meaningful way this is a risk you have to run.

Have more than one person on the floor.

 

[MightyTibberton]

Some exciting stock photos of Luke Nash-Jones when his merrie band came to Cardiff:

Stock Photo - Cardiff, UK. 13th January, 2018. Mr Luke Nash-Jones a member of the group Make Britain Great Again speaks as other members of the group gathered outside the National Assembly

It's interesting how easy it is to go from YouTube nobody to on-street nobody these days. As he - or his group - has actually done something violent (to whatever degree) in the real world there's a chance they might get thrown off some of their social media platforms now - Patreon and PayPal are the ones they really care about though.

 

[butchersapron]

What's a bookshop / social centre to do though? If you're open to the public in any meaningful way this is a risk you have to run.

Sort the problems this represented out whilst recognising they're not the same. Easier to do in small towns with basically one route to shop.

I was talking only about bookmarks and how these people possibly will eye it up.

 

[Pickman's model]

I am devastated that you don't like me

I am unsurprised that you identify disagreement with you with disliking you.

 

[The39thStep]

One interesting point about this is the extent to which the rest of the far/alt right haven't commented on it.

Can you imagine the online kerfuffle if somebody on our team pulled off an action like this?

They don't punch rightward.

There's a few that have commented on it , quite wide ranging from 'bringing bad publicity' to support for MGBA

 

[Ax^]

One interesting point about this is the extent to which the rest of the far/alt right haven't commented on it.

it does not fit with the current narrative

"we are for free speech and nothing like the old fash"

saying that have seen some false flag accusations as it was not well planned out

 

[PaulOK]

Hate to say this Paul but that simply isnt true. IS/SWP , what was left of the 62 movement,/yellow star and 'renegade' CP members were the most miliant anti fascists in the mid late 70s. There were some IMG types around but that was demonstration type stuff. The anarchist scene was minute. The ANL mark 1 inspired /enabled on a mass scale people who wanted to take on the NF., many of them through RAR who were working class youth and adults .Far from being turned over the fash were pushed back. It was a few years after the SWP folded the ANL that some paper sales were turned over . Not sure where you get your info from?

You seem to be inferring that SWP papersales were only getting turned over a few years after the SWP wound up the ANL (this occured in 1981/82).
"Jim Kelly's" account here makes it clear that that these attacks were happening in the year immediately prior to the ANL's formation in 1977:
Lewisham '77: August 2007

 

[The39thStep]

You seem to be inferring that SWP papersales were only getting turned over a few years after the SWP wound up the ANL (this occured in 1981/82).
"Jim Kelly's" account here makes it clear that that these attacks were happening in the year immediately prior to the ANL's formation in 1977:
Lewisham '77: August 2007

I wasnt inferring anything of the sort , I was responding to your statement that 'so many ' were being turned over. It was tit for tat and varied across London and the country.

 

[PaulOK]

I wasnt inferring anything of the sort , I was responding to your statement that 'so many ' were being turned over. It was tit for tat and varied across London and the country.

In the BBC2 "Open Space" AFA documentary Mickey Fenn here talks of the attacks on not just the SWP, but Militant and Morning Star sellers too (10 minutes in) that prompted the formation of the Squads:



Correct me if I am wrong but he is not talking about a period "a few years" after the ANL wound up the ANL

 

[Pickman's model]

As I recall attacks on SWP papersales played a part in the revival of the anl in the 90s

 

[hot air baboon]

Three members of UKIP suspended following protest ‘ATTACK’ on London socialist bookshop

Police were called to Bookmarks in Bloomsbury, London, on Saturday evening, following reports of a protest.

No arrests were made, but some damage was caused to the inside of the shop.

In a statement, UKIP party chairman Tony McIntyre confirmed three members had been suspended pending an investigation.

They have been named as Elizabeth Jones, Like Nash-Jones, and Martin Costello.

The statement explained: “It is understood that the three members were involved in an incident at the Bookmarks bookshop in London on Saturday.”

 

[Kaka Tim]

“They were very shouty, bellowing in your face, saying incoherent things. The books they were holding up and what they were saying about them made no sense. They grabbed hold of a book called Posh Boys, which is about how public schoolboys still run Britain, and accused us of being paedophiles for selling this book, saying, ‘You like boys, don’t you’. That sort of nonsense.

from here - Ukip suspends three members over socialist bookshop attack

not football hoolie types then? sounds more like sad act alt right student toss bags - who'd come direct from some demo supporting alex jones ffs.

 

[SpookyFrank]

What's a bookshop / social centre to do though? If you're open to the public in any meaningful way this is a risk you have to run.

Whenever I've been involved in social spaces we've at the very least made sure we had arrangements in place to get supportive people there in numbers inside ten minutes in case of trouble.

But then we were always careful not to use spaces located in the bougiest place on the surface of the Earth.

 

[Red Sky]

Whenever I've been involved in social spaces we've at the very least made sure we had arrangements in place to get supportive people there in numbers inside ten minutes in case of trouble.

But then we were always careful not to use spaces located in the bougiest place on the surface of the Earth.

It's a London thing surely? Londoners expect to spend two hours on public transport just to go to the pub.

 

[Rob Ray]

That's great, but the Bookmarks incident was over in seven minutes, and if it's being done in a planned way wrecking a shop and getting away again can take about five. It also assumes a scenario where the bookshop volunteer is going to be left free to call who they want to.

Also London's so big, alienated, gridlocked and spread out almost no-one anywhere near central London will have a crew large enough to get down there, mob up and realistically defend a place in reasonable time. And finally, this being London, chances are any serious commotion on a high street in daytime will be filmed from about 15 different angles, so escalating it/pulling a fight into the street will quite possibly mean comrades getting sent down. Simple it isn't.

 

[Toast Rider]

UKIP admit three 'idiotic members' involved in bookshop 'ambush' | JOE.co.uk

kippered

 

[The39thStep]

In the BBC2 "Open Space" AFA documentary Mickey Fenn here talks of the attacks on not just the SWP, but Militant and Morning Star sellers too (10 minutes in) that prompted the formation of the Squads:



Correct me if I am wrong but he is not talking about a period "a few years" after the ANL wound up the ANL

The matter of debate here is your phrase 'so many' which implies it was one way traffic . Simply not the case.

 

[treelover]

Does this now change the nature of the big recruitment, sorry, solidarity event, they have planned?

 

[Pickman's model]

Does this now change the nature of the big recruitment, sorry, solidarity event, they have planned?

this would seem a good time to remind you of the auld adage that it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool then pipe up and prove yourself one.

 

[Ralph Llama]

Whenever I've been involved in social spaces we've at the very least made sure we had arrangements in place to get supportive people there in numbers inside ten minutes in case of trouble.

But then we were always careful not to use spaces located in the bougiest place on the surface of the Earth.

Swapies don`t look after their own. In fact as an anarchist... we have never had any support from any of them.

 

[treelover]

Nor have disabled and sick people, seeing them at the I Daniel Blake film screening was a sickener.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Swapies don`t look after their own. In fact as an anarchist... we have never had any support from any of them.

I agree with this sentiment, but also with the idea that we should aim to do better than the SWP. It is bad for everyone if these types of people feel empowered to roam around doing stuff like this, regardless of who they're doing it to.

 

[ska invita]

 

[Ralph Llama]

Fash attacking anyone is automatic solidarity.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Bottom row, centre is believed to be a certain Alan Ashwood, who runs a FB page called 'Britons United'. In an unusual move, he seems to have appointed his own sock puppet as co-moderator.

e2a: ska invita

 

[The39thStep]

Luke Nash-Jones
13 hrs ·
Luke Nash-Jones, Leader of “Make Britain Great Again” condemns the actions of third party who tore a sign at a communist bookstore; as he calls for peaceful debate in line with the ideas of John Stuart Mill.

 

[DotCommunist]

luke can fuck off, we have shops not stores.

 

[Ralph Llama]

He looks a little nervous

 

[Pickman's model]

luke can fuck off, we have shops not stores.

where i work we have stores for items we cannot house on our public shelves usually for reasons of space or because the material is so sparsely used

 

[Pickman's model]

He looks a little nervous

i'd look a little nervous if i bore such a great resemblance to alan partridge with a shit beard