Anarchist Bookfair, London, 18 Oct 2014
Solidarity | 19.10.2014 16:49 | Public sector cuts | Workers' Movements
The Anarchist Bookfair 2012 was held in London on the 27th Oct that year, on the same day that the far-right EDL staged their "return to Walthamstow" and simultaneous EDL demo in Parliament Square. On the day, visible EDL turnout in Walthamstow was zero, with a few dozen Nazis protesting near Parliament. Pathetic as the EDL turnout was, what's worse is that while a good turnout from the Bookfair could have helped the anti-fascist counter-protest totally dwarf the EDL, instead, of the 3,000-odd people who attended the Anarchist Bookfair, at best perhaps only 50 of these "radicals" bothered to tube it across London to oppose the EDL.
Fast forward to 2014, with the Anarchist Bookfair being held on the 18th Oct this year, on the same day the TUC organized 90,000 workers to protest against austerity in London (creating, in the process, a news item that took their message out to audiences of tens of millions). Perhaps it's not the Bookfair's fault they lucked-out on dates (?) again, but what's worse is that after Occupy Democracy organisers pleaded with people to join them in Parliament Square after the Bookfair, again only a handful of these "radicals" bothered (and, while at least Ian Bone did something rather than just whining about the TUC, still only a few dozen Bookfair attendees bothered to support Bone's Poor Doors protest JUST DOWN THE STREET*)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/10/501916.html?c=on
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29672049
* One blog post refers to Ian Bone addressing the "multitude" - beneath a photo of Bone addressing an audience of 27 people - http://tradeonion.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/class-war-takes-to-the-streets-against-social-cleansing-at-poor-doors-demo/
Congratulations to all the Anarchists who bothered. As for the rest, remind us why your actions are so much more effective than the TUC?
Apologies for earlier typos
Fast forward to 2014, with the Anarchist Bookfair being held on the 18th Oct this year, on the same day the TUC organized 90,000 workers to protest against austerity in London (creating, in the process, a news item that took their message out to audiences of tens of millions). Perhaps it's not the Bookfair's fault they lucked-out on dates (?) again, but what's worse is that after Occupy Democracy organisers pleaded with people to join them in Parliament Square after the Bookfair, again only a handful of these "radicals" bothered (and, while at least Ian Bone did something rather than just whining about the TUC, still only a few dozen Bookfair attendees bothered to support Bone's Poor Doors protest JUST DOWN THE STREET*)
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2012/10/501916.html?c=on https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29672049 * One blog post refers to Ian Bone addressing the "multitude" - beneath a photo of Bone addressing an audience of 27 people -
http://tradeonion.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/class-war-takes-to-the-streets-against-social-cleansing-at-poor-doors-demo/ Congratulations to all the Anarchists who bothered. As for the rest, remind us why your actions are so much more effective than the TUC?
Apologies for earlier typos
Solidarity
Comments
Hide the following 6 comments
how about...
19.10.2014 17:21
Working hard on all sorts of radical projects but you don't seem to believe we deserve a day off to catch up with old friends and take it easy?
That protestant work ethic dies hard, huh.
anonymous
!
20.10.2014 20:52
@
Review
21.10.2014 08:22
London Anarchist
enough guilt tripping already
21.10.2014 17:05
I did, actually. Others (including some who I know personally have already done a f**k of a lot recently) didn't.
Their choice. I still don't think guilt-tripping is any way to build a movement. Grow up.
anonymous
Apologies hope to see y'all in 2015
25.10.2014 00:08
I do believe the bookfair would be enhanced by a speakers corner outside the building.
I tried this spontaneously last year 2013. It was going well until a group of people came out of the building and tried to shut it down with chanting, abuse and lightweight physical assault.
Some of the folks enjoying the Speakers Corner then followed this group back to their workshop and gave them a taste of their own disruptive medicine. Hopefully we all leant the value of the freedom to assemble and to express and how basic it is to anarchism.
I was unaware of the drama in the building and had a second go at soap box speaking that went very well without an attempt to censor.
As in the first attempt there was plenty of engagement, interjection and debate. For example, I learnt a lot about Saudi Arabia by passing Muslim students who weren't attending the bookfair but were strolling by on campus.
As an educator, I find this format a lot more interesting and dynamic than the standard passive audience lecture format. For example, strangers in the spontaneous crowd that has assembled identify common interests in the toing and froing of debate and break off to form more specific conversations
Free speech - use it or lose it!
Don't let the lynch mobs get you down.
Ser you in 2015
Ciaron O'Reilly
Homepage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY6WSCM3vIg
hypocrisy of guilt-tripping people
25.10.2014 20:08
the date for this year's anarchist bookfair was set and publicised many months ago. as was the tuc march. if you want to attract lots of those people to your protest at parliament square, why not organise it to happen on a different day so there isn't a clash? and people aren't forced to choose between your event and the others?
some of those you condemn as 'bookfair anarchists' are people who work throughout the year to publish/ distribute anarchist info, people who often take direct action on all kinds of issues. the bookfair is an opportunity that we only get once a year: to be in the same building, to discuss and coordinate campaigns and actions with people from other places, to share and distribute information/ magazines/ pamphlets/books/ ideas with each other. why would we want to miss out on all of that to join in a relatively pointless reoccupation of parliament square?
today another annual event took place in london, just around the corner from you. a march from trafalgar square to downing street to remember/ commemorate all those who have died in police/ state custody. but i didn't see any of you making the effort to attend/ show your solidarity with the united friends and family campaign. obviously black and working class people suffer disproportionately from police harassment/ violence/ murder, and the occupy 'movement' in london appears* to consist primarily of white, middle-class folk, so i can see why you may not have prioritised -or even known about- the march
personally, i don't think guilt-tripping hardworking activists about their attendance/ non-attendance of political events is an effective or revolutionary strategy, so i won't.
*the small crowd in parliament square today was overwhelmingly white, especially in comparison to the uffc event.
bookfair attendee