Skip to content or view screen version

Anarchist bookfair reply to Catholic Workers' "Open letter"

Anarchist Bookfair | 10.10.2001 09:15

The organisers of the London Anarchist Bookfair are replying to London Catholic Worker's "Open letter" sent yesterday to Indymedia

Reply from the organisers of the London Anarchist Bookfair to the “open letter” from Ciaron O’Reilly of the London Catholic Worker

We have just read Ciaron O'Reilly's "open letter to the Anarchist Bookfair", on the UK Indymedia website. We are quite depressed that Ciaron feels he needs to put out these lies and misrepresentations about us. As organisers of the London Anarchist Bookfair, we were approached by Ciaron on behalf of Catholic Worker for a meeting space. We had not heard of the group and were slightly concerned how a group can reconcile Catholicism and Anarchism. We did not want to give limited meeting space (which is different from banning) to views that were in conflict with the general ideas of anarchism. We therefore e-mailed Ciaron asking for some clarification about Catholic Workers' views on issues such as abortion, same sex relationships, contraception and original sin, before we offered them meeting space.

Unfortunately, all we got back from Ciaron was abuse and accusations about us "banning" him. He has also accused us of being merely retailers of the movement rather than activists, when he knows nothing about any of us. We do not know Ciaron. We have not banned him from the bookfair. We do not have an axe to grind regarding Ciaron. We have simply asked for clarification on Catholic Workers' views on a number of issues we all feel strongly about.

In the numerous e-mails between ourselves and Ciaron and his supporters, we have constantly stated that we are happy to discuss these issues with Catholic Worker. We have offered, on a number of occasions, to meet with members of Catholic Worker to discuss our concerns. We are not banning Catholic Worker, but if their views on certain issues (mentioned above) follow those of the Catholic Church we would not want to give them a space to air these views, as we would not give meeting space to groups pushing the ideas of say the Labour party, anti-abortion groups, Trotskyism or any organised religion.

In the past, we have explained to Ciaron that a number of points in his "open letter" are in fact incorrect. However, this does not seem to have stopped him repeating the same facts in the "open letter" on the Indymedia site. We find this a shame, and would question why he feels the need to repeat facts that he now knows are incorrect.

If anybody wants to see our full reply to Ciaron, then they can read it on our website www.anarchistbookfair.org

The organisers of the London Anarchist Bookfair.

Anarchist Bookfair
- e-mail: mail@anarchistbookfair.org
- Homepage: www.anarchistbookfair.org

Comments

Display the following 24 comments

  1. none — sweet jesus
  2. Do Popes shit in the wood? — Dave
  3. Clarification — Ciaron O'Reilly
  4. What about some answers then? — Johnny Mushroom
  5. Ciaron! — Mary
  6. It's sad that anarchists are excluding anarch — A Christian Anarchist
  7. the origninal open letter, in case you didn't — Christian Anarchist
  8. Catholic Worker activists in action this week — Aussie activist
  9. agree with Chr. A. — An Atheist Anarchist
  10. The LEFT must keep itself free of CHRISTIANS — Bill Bore
  11. Further Clarification — Ciaron O'Reilly
  12. Peace? — River
  13. anarchism or what? — michael
  14. CW seems a screwy outfit, fankly — bill bore
  15. Anarchist Dogma? How amusing — Bruce Friedrich
  16. Organiser comments — Martin
  17. An oxymoron — River
  18. be careful when... — frivolous or maybe not
  19. To Martin & Management — Ciaron O'Reilly
  20. Bored, Are We? — Alaidh
  21. Re Catholic Worker exclusion — Moana Cole
  22. The "Anarchist Club" — Jim
  23. Information — Martin
  24. Irish Catholic Church — Jim