Catholic among the Pigeons.
Strolling out of the bookfair yesterday in search of a Veggies burger I happened upon the tail end of a slanging match between Ciaron O'Reilly and a gang of what, semiotically at least, were anarcha-feminist and queer types.
Ciaron, it is fair to say, has confined himself to the fringes of a fringe movement by attempting to square the circle of being a practising Catholic and an anarchist. He's a long term peace activist and his main mission at the moment revolves around Assange, Manning and their persecution following the Wiki-leaks revelations. If one thing came across yesterday it's his frustration that anarchists as a whole have done little to support either Manning or Assange.
Currently of course Assange is living in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden where two allegations of rape have been made. His supporters allege that that this is merely the first step towards an eventual extradition to the U.S where he will suffer the same fate as Manning. Given the nature of Realpolitik and the global reach of U.S power this seems likely.
Outside the bookfair however the consensus among the crowd haranguing Ciaron was that to stand up for Assange was tantamount to being a 'rape apologist'. (I actually intervened when one said “We should just get up there and give him [Ciaron] a slap”. When challenged on this threat of violence his immediate response was “I've got mental health issues” as if that was some kind of excuse). Certainly Ciaron was given no chance to speak and was unfairly abused – one woman was screaming “Have you got any idea what enthuisastic consent is? I bet you've never experienced it in your life” - a grotesque slur.
I managed to speak with a couple of the group shouting. Their position seemed to be that if Assange had been accused then he must be guilty and that he should be deported to Sweden a.s.a.p to face charges. This was based on the idea that a rape survivors narrative should be privileged above all. Obviously I was told that as a man I would have no understanding of the issues involved in any case 'cos of patriarchy. I was given assurances that there would be a fair trial and that Sweden would be in breach of its own laws were it to allow extradition to the U.S. I found this faith in fair-dealing at the level of international diplomacy to be breathtakingly naïve. That's without the contradictions inherent in anarchists demanding that someone submit themselves to a judicial system.
There is actually a really good piece here by Women Against Rape that points out exactly why the rape charges against Assange are being pursued with such zeal by powerful nation states. The US military or the British Foreign Office do not care about rape victims unless it is strategically useful for them to do so. Many liberals have been coaxed into supporting wars of aggression (with their attendant murders and rapes), especially in Afghanistan, by an appeal to feminist principles. It is sad to watch anarchists marching into the same trap.
However if I'm honest it was really the manner in which the dispute was conducted that disturbed me. It seemed emblematic of a new dogma which is spreading through our movement, a dogma that does not tolerate debate and is almost entirely inwardly focused. It revolves around personal identity politics and the creation of safer spaces. What you do or don't 'identify' as has become more important than what you do. Feelings are absolutely paramount and must not be challenged. Anarchists don't think anymore – they feel.
I'm not the only one to have spotted this cultural shift. The anarchist movement I haphazardly joined twenty years ago was characterized by its rough and ready “have a go nature”. It was outwardly focused – we tried to effect change in the mainstream world. Some of it was no doubt crudely optimistic – ten crusties in a transit van were never going to throw down global capitalism- but it was vibrant and outward looking. It earned the nickname DIY culture and did, with Reclaim the Streets and J18, strike a chord with thousands if not tens of thousands.
A substantial section of today's anarchist prefer to sit around in their local social centre arguing about how to turn it into an even safer space. You've got to watch what you say or do as comments can readily be misconstrued and if someone 'feels' upset then there will be no gainsaying their 'survivors narrative'. Everyone's a victim, everyone has a handy psychiatric tag to excuse their behaviour. Needless to say this creates a space that is effectively unsafe for everyone not already schooled in the cutting edge language of trans-queer white privilege theory. Not an attractive shop window for an ideology that hopefully still aspires to become a mass movement.
The shouting down of Ciaron yesterday was an example of how inwardly focused some sections of our movement have become and if we are not careful we will suffer an even greater disconnect with the society we are trying to change.
Strolling out of the bookfair yesterday in search of a Veggies burger I happened upon the tail end of a slanging match between Ciaron O'Reilly and a gang of what, semiotically at least, were anarcha-feminist and queer types.
Ciaron, it is fair to say, has confined himself to the fringes of a fringe movement by attempting to square the circle of being a practising Catholic and an anarchist. He's a long term peace activist and his main mission at the moment revolves around Assange, Manning and their persecution following the Wiki-leaks revelations. If one thing came across yesterday it's his frustration that anarchists as a whole have done little to support either Manning or Assange.
Currently of course Assange is living in the Ecuadorian embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden where two allegations of rape have been made. His supporters allege that that this is merely the first step towards an eventual extradition to the U.S where he will suffer the same fate as Manning. Given the nature of Realpolitik and the global reach of U.S power this seems likely.
Outside the bookfair however the consensus among the crowd haranguing Ciaron was that to stand up for Assange was tantamount to being a 'rape apologist'. (I actually intervened when one said “We should just get up there and give him [Ciaron] a slap”. When challenged on this threat of violence his immediate response was “I've got mental health issues” as if that was some kind of excuse). Certainly Ciaron was given no chance to speak and was unfairly abused – one woman was screaming “Have you got any idea what enthuisastic consent is? I bet you've never experienced it in your life” - a grotesque slur.
I managed to speak with a couple of the group shouting. Their position seemed to be that if Assange had been accused then he must be guilty and that he should be deported to Sweden a.s.a.p to face charges. This was based on the idea that a rape survivors narrative should be privileged above all. Obviously I was told that as a man I would have no understanding of the issues involved in any case 'cos of patriarchy. I was given assurances that there would be a fair trial and that Sweden would be in breach of its own laws were it to allow extradition to the U.S. I found this faith in fair-dealing at the level of international diplomacy to be breathtakingly naïve. That's without the contradictions inherent in anarchists demanding that someone submit themselves to a judicial system.
There is actually a really good piece here by Women Against Rape that points out exactly why the rape charges against Assange are being pursued with such zeal by powerful nation states. The US military or the British Foreign Office do not care about rape victims unless it is strategically useful for them to do so. Many liberals have been coaxed into supporting wars of aggression (with their attendant murders and rapes), especially in Afghanistan, by an appeal to feminist principles. It is sad to watch anarchists marching into the same trap.
However if I'm honest it was really the manner in which the dispute was conducted that disturbed me. It seemed emblematic of a new dogma which is spreading through our movement, a dogma that does not tolerate debate and is almost entirely inwardly focused. It revolves around personal identity politics and the creation of safer spaces. What you do or don't 'identify' as has become more important than what you do. Feelings are absolutely paramount and must not be challenged. Anarchists don't think anymore – they feel.
I'm not the only one to have spotted this cultural shift. The anarchist movement I haphazardly joined twenty years ago was characterized by its rough and ready “have a go nature”. It was outwardly focused – we tried to effect change in the mainstream world. Some of it was no doubt crudely optimistic – ten crusties in a transit van were never going to throw down global capitalism- but it was vibrant and outward looking. It earned the nickname DIY culture and did, with Reclaim the Streets and J18, strike a chord with thousands if not tens of thousands.
A substantial section of today's anarchist prefer to sit around in their local social centre arguing about how to turn it into an even safer space. You've got to watch what you say or do as comments can readily be misconstrued and if someone 'feels' upset then there will be no gainsaying their 'survivors narrative'. Everyone's a victim, everyone has a handy psychiatric tag to excuse their behaviour. Needless to say this creates a space that is effectively unsafe for everyone not already schooled in the cutting edge language of trans-queer white privilege theory. Not an attractive shop window for an ideology that hopefully still aspires to become a mass movement.
The shouting down of Ciaron yesterday was an example of how inwardly focused some sections of our movement have become and if we are not careful we will suffer an even greater disconnect with the society we are trying to change.
Comments
Hide the following 83 comments
Trolling the bookfair
20.10.2013 11:33
Anarchism is not about the rights of the individual to spout off their only personal interpretation of what everyone else should be doing, nor being intentionally being disruptive of events organised by err, other anarchists. That, seemed overwhelmingly to be the case with what this person was doing: trolling the bookfair.
I'll come back to deal with the dodgy analysis re: the issues in the comment above later, but for now it is essential that the above interpretation of events be *strongly* challenged by others who were present.
err, no
er, no 'err, no'
20.10.2013 12:15
Those present didn't just include 'err, no' and the enemies of free speech. Plenty of people were supporting Ciaron's analysis (which is far from lazy) and defending his right to speak.
You might have taken a dislike to Ciaron O'Reilly, but go and read Women Against Rape on the subject.
observer
Don't know much about anarchism, do you?
20.10.2013 14:06
Anarchism is NOT about a fashion statement wearing black clothes, being violent, or even about being on the left. Perhaps you might want to familiarize yourself with the history of anarchism, the various branches within that broad category, etc. before saying who represents the "fringes".
Try looking up Dorothy Day and Eamon Hennessy (and the "Catholic Workers").
MDN
Bookfair is no space for the likes of you
20.10.2013 14:14
anarcha-feminist and queer type
not really disruptive
20.10.2013 14:43
Not sure yet where I stand on the debate itself, but it certainly wasn't disruptive to the bookfair; anyone who didn't want to get involved could easily just walk past and it wasn't disturbing stuff going on inside.
anonymous
dreary me.
20.10.2013 16:05
as if their branch is more valid than Ciarans. for fucks sake. nothing like shouting someone down or threatening someone to prove your a anarchist.
fianna
e-mail:
punkarseholes@blueyonder.co.uk
Ciaron O'Reilly - Free Speech use it or lose it!
20.10.2013 16:29
- as consequence Ciaron is arrested, bashed, jailed, raided, fitted up.
2000 Melbourne, Australia - Ciaron O'Reilly & Julian Assange work on the blockade of the World Economic Forum
2003-06 Dublin, Ireland - Ciaron O'Reilly regular speaker at Speakers Square, Temple Bar, Dublin
Dec 2010 London, England - Ciaron O'Reilly solo addressing huge captive audience of international media about the killing of journalists "doing their job, just like you" in the Manning released/ WikiLeaks distributed "collateral murder" footage at Horsferry court the day Julian Assange is taken into custody and placed in solitary at HMP Wandsworth
2013 Vice Magazine Ciaron O'Reilly on disabling U.S. warplanes
Ciaron O'Reilly Beat Up but Upbeat
Soundtrack by Joe who plays Snr. Sgt Steiger on Australian tv series "Neighbors"
Ciaron O'Reilly
@
Bullshit
20.10.2013 16:40
Some dude
comments/questions
20.10.2013 16:41
" his frustration that anarchists as a whole have done little to support either Manning or Assange"... The suggestion that anarchists have not been doing anything else worthwhile, or supporting other prisoners??
Didn't Assange admit to penetrating someone who was asleep/didn't consent? So then surely by his own admission he is a rapist? Its not rocket science.
ps is this the same Julian Assange whose wikileaks page leaked membership information of thousands of UAF members for the benefit of the far right? -
MB
Listen to the women in question!
20.10.2013 17:21
If you bother to watch (the awfully biased) 'We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013)' (torrent it), you will hear first-hand that the women did NOT accuse rape against Assange, but of refusing to take an STI test.
Just to clarify, I do not support this idiot, nor the controlling and egotistical Assange, or rape apologists, but support the women in question, one of which is represented in this documentary. Worth a watch don't you think??
She made it clear that she went to the police after Assange refused to take an STI test, as they had sex without a condom. This was because he stupidly and (quite obviously) wrongfully refused prior to this. This led to the police looking into the case, and due to her testimony that he acted 'dominantly' in the bedroom, the police decided they wanted to question him on sexual assault charges. Additionally because he on both occasions refused to wear a condom.
The women in the documentary clearly stated this was not in their interests, or what they had said, they just wanted him to take a sexual health screening: real simple. In Sweden, there is criminal law surrounding this, hence police involvement. Furthermore, as Women Against Rape pointed out in August, he is not charged with rape, instead he is wanted for questioning about sexual assault: in this case, presumably his BDSM practices.
Given that Sweden, no doubt like many states, don't give a shit about complaints based on people refusing STI tests, to then want to investigate (with no allegations) claims of rape is quite obviously politically motivated. The only time we should even consider that a rape claim is false, is when the state generate such a claim themselves, when no person has made such a claim themselves. Such as this case.
This doesn't mean Assange is a hero, he refuses to wear a condom when having sex as well as STI tests, and has bizarre fantasies of building an empire based on his offspring. He is a self-obsessed, paranoid, male dominating authoritarian.
Support Chelsea Manning.
Queer
Be informed
20.10.2013 18:06
anonbloc
Comment from the bookfair (personal capacity)
20.10.2013 22:24
As one of the bookfair organisers for the last number of years "and the person who tried to step in at the end of the night to reduce the tension going on" I can only agree with "some dude". Each year after the bookfair I try and read comments on Indymedia, Libcom and other sites.
Every time its somebody moaning about this or that. Cieron; this meeting or that meeting was rubbish; Brian bamford being "pied" by people; the list can go on and on. Never do i read people making constructive comments about how to improve the event or for that matter actually saying its good that some people take the time to put on a open event that bnon anarchists can come along to to find out about what we think and believe in. Less surprising but depressing, is we get NO emails after the event offering constructive critism/praise about how we could improve the event in the future.
Yep, we get called fascists for banning dogs so kids can run free. Yep, we get moaned at for no safer spaces policy, even though we think we spend weeks if not months making the space as safe as we can for everybody who comes along. Yep, we get told we should make the event 2 days, even though we say to people that's great - you run the second day and we will help - only to never hear from them again. Again, i could go on.
I know the "incident" at the bookfair was real for a lot of people. If you want to make the space safer, or better, how about putting a S**t load of time in and actaully getting in contact with us and helping out?
A tired, depressed, old, moany too long in the tooth organiser
Tony
e-mail:
woodywood2@blueyonder.co.uk
Thought Through?
20.10.2013 23:13
1000's of anarchist types came through the Bookfair again this year and I doubt 5% of them sit around in social centres arguing for even safer spaces. Not a very though through statement.
JD
Bookfair 2013 appreciation
20.10.2013 23:17
Came away from the bookfair thinking that maybe things aren't so bad right now with the anarchist scenes. That must be good.
A
Good work Tony & other organisers
21.10.2013 05:48
It's pathetic that some people seem to think that just because this tiny collective didn't drop the 101 other things they needed to be doing on the day to sort out some people shouting at each other, they had somehow fucked up.
Good work on this years event!
To everyone moaning: realise this isn't some heavily stewarded, orchestrated conference with gangs of security on hand to clear people out if they upset you. Many of us wouldn't like it if it was either.
Just another anarcho
Round of applause for the bookfair
21.10.2013 06:19
Sorry if my Sunday morning rant was the only coverage of the bookfair on Indymedia. For the record I was there all day and thought it was a well run event. Obviously nothing I've written is a criticism of the organisers - I'm not suggesting that this spat was anything to do with them.
Take heart - 1000s turn up every year - you're obviously doing something right!
Grumpy Old Manarchist
Responses
21.10.2013 06:51
@anarcha-feminist and queer type “Ah, those halcyon days when anarchism was ten deadlocked white dudes in the back of a van”
If I can stretch my memory back through the haze of LSD and white cider I'm pretty sure there were some women involved, maybe even some 'people of colour'. To be honest though it's all a bit of a blur. Some of us had mohicans.
@MB – I was outlining a little bit of what Ciaron was trying to say – he is frustrated about the lack of support for Manning/Assange. I'm not sure that implies he thinks we don't do anything else. I don't speak for the guy and am not involved politically with him in any way.
The Rest
The point I was trying to make was about the way in which Ciaron was shouted down. This a nuanced issue – Assange may be a monster in his private life, it may turn out that Manning isn't 100% a victim. Who knows what allegations are going surface about Edward Snowden now?
However the whistleblower revelations have had a substantial impact – they are changing the way that ordinary people view government. That is why the whistleblowers are being pursued or have already been jailed.
If all the state has to do is make allegations of sexual assault against an individual for large swathes of the left to desert them then that's an obvious weapon and one that will be used again. If we suspend our critical faculties in favour of an automated response to such allegations we will, in Ciaron's words, be “played like a piano”.
Grumpy Old Manarchist
FFS
21.10.2013 07:02
He deserves all the heckling he gets.
Some of the avid bloggers and social media users who have spent much of the last two days dissecting a blow by blow account of a heated verbal arguement have reveled that they suffer from simular afflictions as him.
Demanding that bookfair organisers deal with him, complaining about the use of language by others, whilst being needlessly provocative towards 'all men', acting like this little spat undermines the entire event; it's all a bit sad.
2nd wave Fembot
Screeching students
21.10.2013 09:23
A Speakers Corner type affair outside would be a great addition in future years. Those who screeched Ciaron down will never end up working in a manual job but if they did they'd find that if you're serious about actually changing things you have to be prepared to engage with people who believe and say a hell of a lot worse things than Ciaron O Reilly had to say on Saturday.
If we were to use the logic of those (who seemed to me to be all middle class students basically parroting the Guardian line) who were screeching 'Rape apologist' at Ciaron and apply it to other prisoners it would make Mumia Abu Jamal , Leonard Peltier and a host of other campaigners 'Murder apologists'. If they had any serious arguments to make they could have made it by challenging him in a less infantile manner as a small group of African and Saudi students did on another topic leading to a calm and informative debate.
Just ot add the 'occupy' women and many others got pissed off at the juvenile shouting down of Ciaron by the po-faced Viz caricatures of feminists, wound them up verbally and were physically attacked with one brattish student tearing up an animal rights petition and another hanging on to a woman and refusing to let go.
mf
Bookfair coverage?
21.10.2013 10:27
Some dude
what would jesus have done?
21.10.2013 12:33
(cf Ciaron's appearance on Dissident Island Radio just after Chelsea Manning had 'officially announced' her wishes to the world)
rtj
Manning support??
21.10.2013 13:36
Perhaps you'll show your solidarity for Chelsea by turning up to shout down Ciaron at the fund-raising events he's organising along with Manning's mum and wider family in order to pay for their air fares to visit Chelsea in prison, thus far he is the only activist to have passed on funds (hundreds of pounds, raised at a variety of events) to the family, there is now a bank account you can contribute to, details are here
the independent newspaper covered the story of Ciaron and the Manning family here
mf
same old shit
21.10.2013 14:04
Little surprise too that the collection of decrepit bigots above find nothing wrong in bookfair being a welcome place for the most vile verbal abuse and intimidation. Just another incident in a long line of 'revolutionaries' trampling on women, queers, trans people, persons of colour, and anyone else who isn't comfortable with repeating the exact same oppressions state and capital delight in.
juvenile student
SOS
21.10.2013 15:07
Sounds like you got it all packaged up in your head neatly and woebetide anyone else.
A
her name is CHELSEA MANNING
21.10.2013 15:12
sam ambreen
Homepage:
http://samambreen.wordpress.com/2013/10/20/there-is-no-anarchism-without-feminism/
save old sods?
21.10.2013 16:30
By all means, explain why we should tolerate racists, transphobes, rape apologists, etc., in anarchist spaces...?
juvenile student
Average against the Machine
21.10.2013 16:48
If you " don’t give a shit about the average man" - why should he give a shit about you?
Is your article a spoof? I mean "Comrades shouted “rape apologist cop!” at him but this didn’t change his stance." really? sounds very persuasive.
Mr Average
Not sure who is more ridiculous, Ciaron or Sam!
21.10.2013 17:07
Maybe you both could get together and hey who knows...
Aunty Christ
THINK MOAR
21.10.2013 18:34
*Neither of the women accused him of rape*. Somehow, this vital (but little known fact outside Sweden) is lost in the morass. I wonder why. (With more than a little help from the usual conduits of state propaganda, of course.)
Another thing, the Assange people had a poster with Chelsea written over where they had Bradley previously and the smug puritans took issue with this, suggesting that this was somehow transphobic. This is Monty Python level supreme unthinking idiocy of the highest order. As idiotic as wearing a mask made in a sweatshop that makes profits for Warner Brothers while claiming to be anti-statist.
angry prole
Yeah I know a dignified silence would be best tactically,but ya know, here we go
21.10.2013 19:34
Julian, me & The Saints are from from Queensland. Julian and I are presently stranded
In terms of the rationale of justifying censorship on the basis of "safe spaces".
I can't recall becoming an anarchist at age 17, starting a Catholic Worker house of hospitality for abused & targeted aboriginal street kids at 22, disarming a B52 Bomber at 31 with the motive of inhabiting "Safer Space"
1, I understand free expression to be my inalienable right, not a state privilege to be granted or for a lynch mob to take away.
AS FAR AS I PRESENTLY UNDERSTAND IT (or so I have been told by people who know more than me)
2. Brits are not citizens with constitutional rights they are subjects of the Queen. British identitiy is intrinsically imperialist. "English/ Half English" identity
3. The reason they speak on soap boxes at Hyde Park is that is where you were granted your free speech just before they executed at Marble Arch, by pushing you off a soap box with a noose around your neck.
4. The indigineous people of England were colonised by the Romans. The indigenous of Ireland & Scotland weren't - that's why we generally speak figuratively when we communicate and the English generally listen & speak literally. This cultural escalated the confusion around the entrance to the London Anarchist Book Fair (LABF) approx. pm when I understood that the Occupy women were being physically attacked and I attempted to provide a decoy by street speaking (for the 3rd.time that day).
5. It's always hard to communicate with "the other" who have a different first language, accent or different age and terms of reference. Humour is high risk in these situations, as the English football manager found out when he tried to crack a joke at half time about the space program - a program that his young charges (given their age) were probably unaware.
6 No one understood me in the first few weeks of living in the U.S. because Australians don't pronounce "R". I had to consciously roll my "R's" to be understood., if I wanted to communicate successfully in the U.S. I had to roll those "R's". When I think I am not being
understood these daze, I often subconsciously default to rolling my "R's". I spent 3 years on the streets of the U.S. and 13 month inside various jails and Federal Pens.
7. The British are my historic enemy, they have colonised the Irish for 800 years. Colonisation is humiliating it leads to self hatred or anger or Christ's anti-imperial response.
As a working class person, the middle class are one of my class enemies. I am instructed by Jesus to l"ove my enemies", but first I must identify and understand my enemy to love them well
I am the historic enemy of colonised indigenous Australians. I assume if they are not too busy hating themselves, they will hate me, because I look like the people who destroyed their sacred land and stole their land & children. Whether I like it or not, their loss has definitely been my gain. I am pleasently surprised (& feel graced) when they don't hate themselves or me. The disconnect of being raised an Irish Republican as a "planter" in Australia explains my appearance.
8 I understand that I was an invited guest at the London Anarchist Bookfair. the large invitation/ poster has been stuck up at the entrance of the Giuseppe Conlon Catholic Worker house for several months. I understand I have certain responsibilities as a guest. Responsibilities that are different when I am functioning as a host.
9. I have, and will continue to, host many events with scant resources. I appreciate the stress and the work that hosting applies. I appreciate there are those guests who come to such events with the attitude of helping hosts "make it happen" (from promoting the event to stacking chairs at the conclusion) and there are those who come to such events with the self entitlement and expectations they will be serviced without a mutual response. This may be a class issue, I dunno?
10. I think an UNAMPLIFIED speakers corner at the LABC would be great initiative next year. There are so many random introductions & networking opportunities that can happen around a soapbox that can't happen in a workshop or a lecture theatre. A Speakers Corner would complement the bookstalls, lectures and in-house workshops well.
11. Street speaking is like skate boarding. You try, fall off, try again. get better. When we started the Queen St, Mall campaign just before the1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games only 3 of us anarchists ("People for Direct Democracy" network) felt confident enough to try street speaking. 12 months later, 20+ Brisbane anarchists felt confident in street speaking. it was empowering and some of us are still doing it 30+ years later. Others are working for the cops, joined the Green Party, got into heroin (some sadly died prematurely), became Professors, a Senator, feminist separatists, opened bookshops, restaurants, some became Catholic Workers, went to jail, to psyche units, hosted folks as they came out of jail & psyche units, had & raised kids etc etc
12 I have had a relationship of creative tension with the London Anarchist Bookfair. As an educator I know that i tis only in creative tension that we grow. We can choose to live a stunted life in our circle of certainty subcultures, but I do not to wish to live this way.
- 2001 (just after the NYC attack) I was blacklisted from launching my book at on East Timor
"Remembering Forgetting" (Otford Press, Australia) at LABC, even though I was returning from a book launch tour of Aotearoa & Australia, where most of the launches were organised by anarchists (Sydney, Christchurch, Brisbane) Go figure?
This action seemed to be based on an innocent ignorance of the Catholic Worker as one of the oldest anarchist movements in North America.
2002 -2012 Catholic Worker were permitted to have a stall at the LABC. We didn't have our shit together to get one organised in 2013
2012 - I stuck up 6 postcards "War Crimes Exposed! Don't Shoot the messenger! (with sniper scope and profile of Julian) FREE ASSANGE" designed by a radical feminist friend. When these were torn down in front of me I stood up and spoke about anarchism and censorship. The response of those who carried out the censorship was to run off and get management & some large young lads to deal with me. The LABC woman was calm, rational & respectful. My friend, a British combat veteran of the Iraq & Afghanistan from spoke calmly. I sat down and the lynch mob dissipated.
2013 I was talking to a younger taller Brisbane anarchist when I told him I was going to speak publicly about the war and solidarity with Assange, Manning and Snowden. I was positioned a good 20 yards away from the entrance to the book fair.
I was not attempting to hijack or "troll" the book fair. I was just a rank and file anarchist wanting to express an opinion at an anarchist book fair. In the Brisbane anarchist scene that would not be a problem.
Things were going swimmingly for about 20 mins, people were enjoying the phenomenon when this lynch mob invaded our space making it unsafe for rational discourse. Chanting the word rape with smiles on the faces. They were hysterical and irrational. I asked several times i they woudl like to engage in rational debate?"
They responded with insults and declined.
I asked "if that was because they were irrational?"
A woman I didn't know embraced me from behind calmly and gently. i didn't know if she was friend or foe. She was Occupy, from an anti-fracking camp.
One older Turkish gentleman, a stranger, who was filming and enjoying the street speaking approached the lynch mob calmly and asked them to respect free speech. These British activists chanted him down.
I observed "No surprises there, you people invaded Turkey and Ireland and now you are invading this space!"
I later talked to this man who is making a documentary on anarchism and couldn't believe the such behaviour at an anarchist book fair.
At 4.30pm I started street speaking again. A crew sitting behind me were apparently Occupy who had confronted the lynch mob at their own workshop inside the building. I was unaware of this intervention at the time. Apparently their presence dissuaded the lynch mob from repeating their previous authoritarian behaviour.
The speaking went well and concluded with an Ethiopian male questioning & clarifying some of the things I was saying and a couple of Muslim students educating me about the nature of the Saudi state and how it relates to Islam. I felt done for the day. I shook hands with the African males. the veiled woman did not wish to shake hands and I respected her culture and withdrew my offered hand. I sat down.
I was then informed that Occupy women were being attacked at the entrance of the book fair. I had, by this time, been informed of their earlier solidarity and felt obligated to go and support them. I thought the best thing I could do is act as a decoy by starting to speak about anarchism and free expression and then it kind of turned into a Wild West saloon scenario.
I was insulted and physically assaulted. I did not respond with physical violence. i stayed and talked to the guy who assaulted me and he apologised and I accepted his apology and then I went off to a kick ass old school punk gig at Tottenham Chances where a lot of folks thanked me for my activism at the book fair. I was tired
Ciaron
Homepage:
http://wiseupaction.info/
SOSS
21.10.2013 20:44
What Tony, one of the organisers said above was 'Yep, we get moaned at for no safer spaces policy, even though we think we spend weeks if not months making the space as safe as we can for everybody who comes along'.
You called him out: 'that a bookfair organiser considers complaints about transphobia, racism, and rape apologism as "moaning". "
You chose to highlight the moaning part and not the bit where he says the organisers try their best 'to make the space as safe as we can'.
Why did you do that?
A
Sam
22.10.2013 00:56
Is that your idea of safe space policy? I hope the accounts of other women being assaulted by group aren't true, for your sake.
ffs
Behold! The cancer that is killing Anarchism.
22.10.2013 03:50
Indeed mf, well put. Agreed with both your posts.
However I think that for a lot of the internet anarchists ghettoisation is exactly what they want. They want to be part of a edgy little scene, not a mass movement full of working class oiks who don't even know how to spell intersectionality.
I think both the middle-class identity politics liberals and the stupid reactionary rape apologist Assangists are cancerous if you ever hope to escape the slow and steady decline you are in decisive action ought to be taken.
Because whilst you're in your bubble getting into these arguments the far-right have got their shit together, and they are out there winning the kind of support from w/c people that you could only dream of.
SmellsLikeAnarchists
For Fucksake - building a straw man - support prisoner does not mean devotion
22.10.2013 06:45
O'Reilly has a long documented history of grassroots solidarity work around people on trial and in jail whose politics he does not share
- feminists in Liverpool & Scotland on trial for ploughshares actions.
- SWP & Republicans on trial in Belfast for Raytheon 9 action
- anarchist athiests on trial in Brighton for EDO 9
- british Navy medic Michael Lyons who refused to deploy to Afghanistan after reading WikiLeaks
(O'Reilly was key in raising a thousand quid for Lyons wife facing eviction during his imprisonment in Colchester)
- Animal Liberation prisoners
- hosting irish families at the Liverpool Catholic Worker who were visting relatives in Wa;ton Prison etc etc
- Mumia, Leonard Peltier solidarity work in the U.K. & Ireland
This does not include his solidarity work with prisoners in Australia & U.S. during the '80's & '90's
FS, If you are serious about solidarity work around Chelsea Manning that would free up O'Reilly and the few activists in the U.K. still active around Assange, Manning & Snowden. You can find them here
@
Not a rhetorical question -what objection do you have to this account of events?
22.10.2013 16:36
@
those who suffer most at the hands of imperialism are mostly ignored
22.10.2013 16:50
rape apologist St Julian worshipping skidmarks
...
grotty penis boil
Homepage:
https://anarchamoose.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/ciaron-oreilly-chelsea-manning-and-st-julian/
@grotty penis boil
22.10.2013 19:16
Barry Cade
OK mate ya lynch mob accusation cliches against likes of Pilger & Wolf right!
22.10.2013 20:04
But dufus, can you please get ya lynch mob organised & get ya cliche accusations sorted?
If people don't accept a "rape" has taken place due to the presence of consent like former keynote speaker at the London Anarchist Book Fair John Pilger & feminist Naomi Wolf
then they would be RAPE DENIERS not APOLOGISTS dufus.
?
Some common sense....
23.10.2013 02:48
On free speech: Maybe it's ok to go to a social space (ie outside the bookfair) and shout at people about how you think they should support Assange. Maybe that's what free speech is all about. Maybe. But if that's so, you can hardly complain when they shout back at you. You don't like that they interrupted your really long speech? Well maybe I don't like that you interrupted conversations I was trying to have! It isn't actually all about you.
On Assange: Where were the Catholic Worker when people were protesting a Roma activist getting deported from the UK, to face a possible death sentence, using the same extradition laws that Assange is facing? I didn't see them then. But they've put a lot of work into supporting one man who has hundreds of thousands of pounds behind him, and to be honest doesn't actually need grassroots support at all. And what has this man actually done? Published the work of Chelsea Manning. Really not even that - he was head of an organisation and helped other people to publish that work.
So I really don't get why Assange is so important. Maybe it's because he's a celebrity? Maybe it's because he's Australian? Who knows. Fact is that he's been accused of some bad things by someone, and many of supporters have responded saying that "it wasn't rape, it was sex by surprise!" and crap like that. What has Assange done to put his so-called "supporters" in line? Nothing that I can see. He's complicit in their misogyny and that's harmful to our movement. I don't see why we should accept holding back half of our class just so we can keep one celebrity on side. (but then, has the male-dominated London Catholic Worker movement ever really believed in mass struggle anyway?)
On Feminism: I've heard a lot of people criticise the people heckling Ciaron. Spontaneous action in the middle of a bookfair is never going to be the best way to call someone out - there's no time to plan and so it's not going to be done in the best way possible. Ciaron should have been called out sooner by the people he works with, for his contradictory support of Assange. His peers in smash edo could have written to him about it. Hells, being a keyboard warrior I could have put something on Indymedia about it. But we didn't. Ciaron is domineering and people are probably a bit scared of criticising him but that's no excuse - we dropped the ball on this one. The lack of words over this for a long time made what happened at the bookfair necessary and I have absolutely no criticism of what the hecklers did. Might have been imperfect but it was a lot better than anything anyone else has done! It takes courage to talk back to the 'respected' people of the anarchist movement and that should be celebrated!
So to end: Ciaron, you need to take some time and have a real think about whether your obsession with Assange is worth it. Are you sure it isn't misguided? Are you sure it isn't harming both the movement and yourself? You've clearly survived a lot of shit by sticking to your guns and being stubborn - but I don't think it is helping you this time. Everyone fucks up one time or another - I'm sure publicly changing your mind on this would mean a lot, to a lot of people. Maybe that's the best way to go?
anon
Rebuttal
23.10.2013 06:37
Ciaron's record seems to be his belief in free expression for all from the civil liberties struggle in Queensland of the 1970's to solidarity with the hunted & presently London Met surrounded Queenslander Julian Assange in London now.
- "from being a misogynist".
This is a cliche, It could be argued by many Protestants that Ciaron is part of a Christian deviation with an over emphasis on a woman, Mary. Witness the Radical Rosary Mystery Tour that he organised during the Queen's visit to Dublin (participation by athiests, post-Catholics, north Ireland Protestants & Catholics, a British veteran of north of Ireland). And a good song about the Irish experience of "British justice" & the lack of due process (this may relate to the Assange case by the British state and the lynch mobs of the British anarchist movement,
Radical Rosary Mystery Tour, Dublin during the QE2 visit
The accusation of "misogynist" is similar to the misapplication of the inappropriate "rape apologist" (in this specific case, when the accused does not believe the evidence has been presented for an offence to be rebutted),
Have you never had, or attended a court hearing, where the defence moves after the prosecution rests. for the charges to be dismissed for the lack of evidence? Where's the evidence? Sweden is one of the few countries in Europe where an international arrest warrant is not required to be before a magistrate for a EAW to be issued.
One would think that an"apologist" acknowledges an incident has taken place - for example, the "holocaust" and then "apologises" for it or rationalises it. A holocaust "denier" is someone who believes that their is not enough evidence that such an incident took place
- "Maybe it's ok to go to a social space (ie outside the bookfair) and shout at people about how you think they should support Assange. "
The evidence presented is that Ciaron set up 20 metres rom the entrance to the Book Fair. He has argued against amplification for a Speakers Square at London Anarchist Book Fair 2014
"You don't like that they interrupted your really long speech? "
In the first incident (approx. 12.30pm) the lynch mob interrupted 15+ people who were enjoying a Speakers Corner, by chanting like infants. Chanting the word "rape" with smiles on their faces, in earshot of people who had been raped and sexually assaulted. Ciaron encouraged rational interjection (Hyde Park has been abandoned by the left partly due to those who come to destroy the forums with irrational heckling not rational debate, this could be considered a form of censorship).
In the 3rd. instance (approx 5.30 pm) has moved towards the entrance of the book fair as it has been reported that Occupy women were being assaulted. This would never had happened if free speech, a speakers corner, had been tolerated at an anarchist book fair. Apparently, this is too big an ask for the adolescent anarchists who don't seem to understand the relationship between anarchism and free expression.
- "It isn't actually all about you."
Obviously for Ciaron, it's presently all about Assange, Manning, Snowden and the growing list of dissidents being pursued by the state and their apparent abandonment my Peace News, Stop the War and the London anarchists. Maybe knowing the Mannings & Assange families personally and being a former prisoner, Ciaron takes all this a little too personally/
"On Assange: Where were the Catholic Worker when people were protesting a Roma activist getting deported from the UK, to face a possible death sentence, using the same extradition laws that Assange is facing? "
The London Catholic Worker is a small fragile group that rejects state funding. Marginal in the London anarchist scene and marginal in London Catholic scene. LCW hosts/feeds/shelters 20 destitute male refugees & 10 homeless women (some victims of trafficing, domestic violence, war) & 4 homeless children at their 2 projects. Those Catholic Workers which have a nonviolent resistance wing tend to focus on an anti-war resistance, the phenomenon that generates refugees, premature death etc
- "And what has this man (Assange") actually done?"
At 17, Assange was hacking into Pentagon computers, arrested/charged/tried in Melbourne. See the film "Underground" (much better than the bigger budget "5th estate") directed by people with better politics (same director as "Balibo")
Assange & WikiLeaks was a passive recipient of Manning's whistleblowing. Unwisely, if understanandbly Manning did not work on a "need to know" basis & outted himself to Adrian Lamo - an activist who had been compromised by the state and had rolled over to entrap Manning (there is no shortage of such people. I would be surprised if such people were not in the crowd censoring Ciaron at the Book Fair last Sat).
Ciaron has been targeted by the state, since arriving in England in 1996. He was injuncted by BAe within 7 weeks of his arrival. The Liverpool Catholic Worker was immediately targeted by Lancashire Special Branch after the "Seeds pf Hope/ East Timor Ploughhares" August '96 acquittal, they were then infiltrated by a former member of 14 Company
(with previous service in the north of Ireland) former Sgt. Alistair (aka"Alan Fossey")
- "So I really don't get why Assange is so important."
What people consider important is very subjective, often to do with their own background and experience. Possibly, Assange being an abandoned Australian (Queenslander) in London, facing life (or execution) in a U.S. prison for exposing the war triggers Ciaron as a Queenslander who has done time in U.S. jails for anti-war activism.
- "Maybe it's because he's a celebrity?"
Who in England presently "celebrates" Assange after the Guardian has done such an effectove hack job on him?
For that matter, who celebrates oor defends (Wales raised) Manning? These anti-war dissidents have been long abandoned. Their natural support base - the liberal left - has been effectively white anted by the Guardian *Assange is Bad, Manning is Mad" campaign. In the U.S. this liberal let constituency is largely serviced by Amy Goodman of "Democracy Now" who is a more credible journalist and that is why attitudes to state's case Assange case are more critical & he is more "celebrated" in the U.S. "movement" in the U.S.
Most Australians think the Brits & Swedes have gone along with the U.S. in fitting up Assange. The U.K. is evidently the most hostile terrain for Assange, this is where the work has been put in to make in so. Assange has popularity at the fringe of empire - South America, Middle East not in it's traditional imperial centre of London.
- "male-dominated London Catholic Worker movement ever really believed in mass struggle anyway?) "
the Catholic Worker was founded by an anarchist woman Dorothy Day who converted to Catholicism and always remained a card carrying member of the I.W.W.
Many of the 200+ autonomous CW communities are lead by women. Presently the highest profile CW would probably be Kathy Kelly, a Chicago woman who led the busting of sanctions on Iraq and is now engaging the 12+ year war on Afghanistan. The CW always struggles outside the U.S. - where there are more than 50 million Catholics and more practising Catholics than western Europe and a stronger anarchist default positions on the left than (state socialist/ social democrat dominated) Europe
- "His peers in smash edo"
I am unaware of any formal meeting between "Smash EDO" and Ciaron, since he supported them at trial in 2010.
- 'respected' people of the anarchist movement and that should be celebrated!"
Where is the evidence that Ciaron is "respected" in either the English anarchist movement or Catholic Chiuch?
- "So to end: Ciaron, you need to take some time"
If others took up solidarity work around Manning, Assange, Snowden, the ongoing British wars etc. maybe Ciaron could "take some time". As far as I know the reason he is in London
is because of the jeopardy that Assange is presently in. Ciaron's natural terrain isA ustralia and Ireland where he is better connected. He is banned from the U.S.
- "harming both the movement"
there is no "movement", there is a remnant, a state infiltrated inverted subculture with an infestation of psychobabble & identity politics
"and yourself? You've clearly survived a lot of shit by sticking to your guns and being stubborn - but I don't think it is helping you this time. Everyone fucks up one time or another - I'm sure publicly changing your mind on this would mean a lot, to a lot of people. Maybe that's the best way to go? "
I'm sure Ciaron appreciates your concerns and has been in the middle of worse goatfuck shitstorms than the one he found himself in at the London Anarchist Book Fair last Saturday
@
Yet more
23.10.2013 07:23
The “where were you”? argument never really holds a lot of water except (ironically in Ciaron's case) when used to criticise an omnipotent and omniscient deity. No one can be everywhere campaigning on everything.
As I've previously stated I'm not really politically connected to Ciaron. I find the whole 'Catholic Anarchist' thing bizarre but as far as I can see he's done as much work around Chelsea Manning as he has Julian Assange. His support seems to be for the concept of Wikileaks and what it did for public understanding of the nature of imperialist war as a whole. So it's hard to see why his support is 'contradictory' or why anyone, like Smash EDO, should have called him out on it.
It's slightly unfair to suggest that Ciaron is one of the 'respected' people of the anarchist movement as if he was somehow on some untouchable pedestal automatically conferring bravery on those who challenge him. Quite the contrary – he is, as originally stated, regarded as a fringe element of a fringe movement.
Heckling is fine, stand up on a wall, give a speech and get what's coming to you. – a Speakers Corner at the bookfair would be great. But there are limits, and as I said in my original post it was the tone of the debate that I found disturbing.
Handily Sam Ambreen, one of the hecklers, wrote her version of events. It's here (
Basically she's admitting a total lack of knowledge and is happy to go along with whatever her friends think.
Judging by Sam's description of herself she's the one who shouted “Do you even know what enthusiastic consent is? I bet you've never experienced it in your life”
This could only mean that Ciaron is either voluntarily/involuntarily celibate, crap in bed or a rapist. The clear implication was that she meant 'rapist'. So Ciaron travels from apologist to rapist in one foul swoop. Quite an accusation for someone to throw around in what they want to be a 'safe space'.
And that's the issue – rather than accept that by shouting Ciaron down and by their own admission referring to him as a “fat racist”* and shouting “kill all men” they had kicked things off, they are then demanding that the bookfair organisers create a safe space for them to do so! It's the hypocrisy of it all that really gets me.
This was the gist of what I was getting at originally … that in the 'new dogma' a space has to be made safe not just from physical and mental assault but also from dissenting opinion and that for me has nothing to do with anarchism.
*Of course an anarcha-feminist using the word 'fat' as an insult is just beautiful.
Grumpy Old Manarchist
I see Ciaron has morphed into @
23.10.2013 08:14
Barry Cade
Not an alias!
23.10.2013 09:37
Grumpy Old Manarchist
Bazza have a bex and a think before you post again
23.10.2013 11:46
i don't think I've had the pleasure. But if you would like to get a soapbox we could meet at dawn. get yourself a second as it looks like you will soon run out of ideas...in not waving drowning kind of way.
And a big hello to all the cops and spooks reading this thread!
Can't see any real point you are making in your post here Bazz? Seems to be a common theme in London town.
Can i recommend some reading before your next insightful contribution - morphing anarchism into censorship (reminds me of those hot Brisbane daze when comrades chose to morph heroin addiction, sale and supply & freedom - but I guess coke is the London @ drug of choice these daze with the hipsters in this post yuppie rather than post hippy period. And as we all know when people are high on smack they are not that active and when it's coke they overestimate their abilities and prowess.
Anywayz a book they made us read backin OZ when we were 15 was "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee (her only book I believe) about a false rape accusation and the lynch mob frenzy it unleashed amongst white folks (this time we've gpt self proclaimed "anarchists") in the Deep South of the U.S. of A. (this time it's London town) and the target is a hippie kid (who didn't jump through all the hoops of OxBridge as did his Guardian assailants). This time the London @ crowd parrots the war making state line delivered by the liberal left Guardian.
Atticus (this time it's Assange lawyer Garteh Peirce - it was ever thus, with the Guilford 4, Birmingham 6, Maguire 7, yesterday's Irish & today's targeted Muslims) - advises Scout to empathise. walk around in the other person's shoes. Not enought time to read...get the movie. gregory Peck plays Atticus. Peck later made a film of r. Dan Beri=rigan SJ play "The Trial of the Catonsville 9"
So Baz I suggest you take a stroll down Harrod's way absorb the hyper wealth, the Saudi Princes in the Lamberginis & Russian oligarchs ... just soak it up mate. This is the town you know & love so well, isn't it. There behind a curtain is dissident surrounded by 10 of your Met at an expense thus far of 4 millions quid thus far (and counting).
If you think it is all about a Swedish inquiry, you are self evidently an idiot Bazz, but that's your choice. The lynch mob kids from the creche on Saturday have the excuse of being young and stupid (we all had that indulgence, when we were young). What's your excuse now Bazz?
As they say in Ireland,
"better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than open it and confirm it"
as you have done here today. Why not keep alittle mystery about your intelligence (or lack thereof) bazz?
Another great saying from the old country is
"What do you expect from a pig? But a grunt!"
I wasn't disappointed in the behaviour of British anarchists attempting to silence an Irish anarchist. After 800 years I have no expectations of the British.
Best bring the para next time, tho Bazz!
And another thing, you may take the EDL seriously but they don't take your Anarchist Book Fair seriously at all. Where was the EDL last Saturday?
Not anywhere near your gathering Bazz.
They were outside the Irish Centre in Camden heckling & harassing Julian Assange's lawyer as she & others spoke. Maybe you could get together with the EDL and build a broad censorship front.
above is a response to this shit below from Barry/Bazza ..who may or may not exist
Enough about you and how brilliant you have been and are Ciaron. Any chance you get and now under an alias you go on and on and on about yourself. Respect for some of the stuff you have done but lots and lots of folk using Indymedia have done equally as fantastic things (without the god inclusion) but they don't want or expect so much admiration for it. Get over yourself. Everything that was said by our comrade above (anon) in the common sense thread is exact. Read it, absorb it and move on and please enough about YOU....
Barry Cade
Ciaron
Geeze, and I don't mean your imaginery friend Ciaron....
23.10.2013 12:49
Barry Cade
Ciaron, a quick question....
23.10.2013 13:16
British Anarchist
@British Anarchist
23.10.2013 17:35
Casual racism and crass anti-religion really isn't helping....
For any anti-irish and anti-migrant racists on here - that's no better than being a misogynist. You're just turning an attempt to call Ciaron and his supporters out into some kind of Irish Australian vs English Anarchist thing. All this will do is confirm them in their veiw they're being victimised for who they are and not what they've said.
Anon
that blog post...
23.10.2013 19:26
'I went to my first Anarchist Bookfair to get some badges (I got some really cool ones with anarfem slogans btw) but unfortunately I ran into the FAT DREADED WHITE MAN RAPE ENABLER. It was OK though because we shouted 'rape apologist' at him, he knew he was wrong. Some other misguided apologists took offence to us shouting 'kill all men', sadly they don't even know that they're part of the problem and it's just a turn of phrase, poor fools. Here's the thing; I don't give a shit about the average man, we are the vanguard, if you disagree with me you hate women/queer/trans/non-whites and their struggles. Next, I could sense this other horrible looking man (with bad clothes lol) that was desperate to hit me, you could literally feel the woman hatred seeping from his pores- that didn't last long, we called him a rape apologist cop and he soon learnt his lesson, especially when his puny self was up against my large male friend. I've never met any anarchists apart from people from my group but really, some of these people need to read more- I bet half of them didn't even go to university. I might have to start questioning my identity and take up a well paid position speaking up for the oppressed within the next 10 years if they don't start implementing rules in the anarchist movement.'
Without getting on to Ciaron or Private Manning or 'Safer' Spaces any legitimate arguments raised are blown out of the water by the levels of superciliousness.
I couldn't care less what gender you identify with, if you do with any, your sexuality or whatever, it won't affect my feelings about anyone as a person, why should it? You come across as a privileged student with a narcissistic streak flirting with radical identity politics and no understanding of a bigger picture. Still, keep on blogging with your real name, The Guardian will be waiting to snap you up once you've done your masters and internship.
@
Response to BRIT anarchist - try English/ Half English for an I.D.
24.10.2013 05:29
Meanwhile it's getting all "Life of Brian" in Liverpool as people who "have done nothing for" WikiLeaks whistleblower military prisoner Manning over the past 3 years are putting out a call for other people to "do nothing for Manning" on Nov 2nd. We could be on the cusp of a mass movement of people doing "nothing for Manning" - as we (like the LABC) organise a fundraiser for Manning's mum, aunts, uncles to go visit the one they love in Ft. Leavenworth.
You. go figure? I haven't got time to waste considering such stupidity. If these people were ambulance chasers (hoping to promote their politics/sexual choices/whatever on the basis of Manning's hi profile incarceration), I think they just skidded off the road and wrapped their ambulance around a tree!.
One of the major guys driving that Liverpool ambulance father works for Serco. My father worked for Australia Post, I use to get casual work for Australia Post because my father worked foe Australia Post. Is anyone getting any casual work for Serco or associated private spooks by trying to make my life difficult in Liverpool again.
This is what BAe, Special Branch were worried about taking root in Liverpool & England and this is why they launched an expensive operation amongst me and others in the 1990's
VIDEO SEEDS OF HOPE TRIAL & ACQUITTAL LIVERPOOL 1996
I am actually a shit hot organiser (doesn't necessarily make me a nicer human being - but I can organise with minimal resources in hostile terrains. Phil Berrigan (wh did not "blow smoke up anyone's ass" said I was one of the best anti-war organisers in the U.S. in 1993 that's over 20 years ago and I've learned a few tricks (which I am quite happy to pass on, since then)
Being targeted in Liverpool by spooks & "useful idiots" (as Stalin would say) will not be a new experience. I was injuncted by the High Court in 1996 (having only been in the country 7 weeks) in Liverpool, the Lancashire Special Branch offered a former policewoman 200 quid a meeting she attended with me (she exposed them to the Guardian), BAe put a former member of 14 Company around me for 3 years, he picked me up at Heathrow when I returned from Australia and drove me to Liverpool and then worked with resentful envious people to have us evicted and closed down a nonviolent threat to BAE.
There is never a shortage of envious, resentful people who can be employed by state players against dissidents - as we are finding out once again in the Assange case. It's these who do the most damage as you brace yourself for James Bond coming at you - it's some petty little prick who twists the knife in your back!
I tell ya that for nuffin!
Misunderstanding in communication is not a problem unless the reader is a Brit, a Yank who doesn't take Gore Vidal's advice and retreat from Empire to being a Republic. My understandig is that the "Brit" identitiy is implicitly an imperial identitiy. Hopefully that identity will be put in the historic cupboard with the Romans, the Reich, the Soviets, Yugoslavs and those of you who haven't got a Welsh Scottish Irish identy can take Billy Bragg's advice & explore your radical Englishness
As I was being censored by teh Brit pack at the Book Fair I happened to be wearing a t-shirt that betrayed my identitiy "London Celtic Punks" with a big green shamrock.
I think the inclusive nature of my culture is well represented in this anti-racist song by Neck from Co. Holloway
In the meantime, don't worry about me, I rarely encounter the British people in my day to day life. I apparently live somewhere on the Turkish/ Kurdish border - I live at Giuseppe Conlon House in Harringay!
The Catholic Worker (a U.S. phenomonen) has always been and continues to be fragile in England. There are reasons for this
- the historic hostility towards Catholicism by the British state, the internalisation of this by British people including British anarchists.
- If it wasn't for the migration associated with the Irish Famine, Catholicism would have died out in Britain in the 1800's, It would face a similar extinction if not for the African Caribean Latin American etc migration.
- I missed mass last Sunday, the day after the incident at the Book Fair I was emotionally ok, but physically weary from the confrontation at the fair and the old school punk gig at Tottenham Chances that followed the Fair. I can tell ya Mon morning mass had a higher proportion of women,, "people of color", "working class people. people with disabilities than the London Anarchist Book Fair.
After spending 35 + years as an adult Catholic and also around the anarchist scenes in Australia, Aotearoa, North America, Ireland and Scotland - I've got to say I find active Catholics a lot more tolerant, engaged with the poor, generous in their solidarity and hospitality and rooted in reality, much better around death & including folks with disabilities & serious physical and mental health issues. I increasingly find the anarchist scene like some weird politically correct morally superior exclusive SAVED Protestant Church. Thanx but no thanx, don't find cults that attractive - I think I'll do my time with the inclusive, working class, ehtinic 1.2 billion Catholics
Presently 4 (out ol) long term CW members have left Giuseppe Conlon House in the last 5 months. At the moment there is me who has lived in CW communities for 31 years, an English-Indian chap who has been with the CW 9 months. Also there is a U.S., a Bekgian & a Swede living in a volunteering and discerning. The approx. 20 homeless folks we host are not form Britain. Some of the locals who come and cook/ volunteer are English, but many are also Carribean & Irish. Around the Assange Manning solidarity on the streets in London there has been very few core organiser activist types who are middle class Brits who tried to silence me at the Book Fair.
An Irish guy told me when I landed here in Britain, "This is a nation of haircuts!" It resonated with me (maybe because the last time i had a haircut I was handcuffed to a chair in Boggo Rd Jail 1988)? I still don't understand what he meant, but that's ok we are a figurative.... not a literal people...so I will hold it in my mind tossing and turning it like a zen koan... "a nation of haircuts", "all hat and no horse". Or as my Da would say as a child "a Brit would rather be made a leading hand than get a pay rise" indicating a more class laden society than Australia or Ireland maybe and that class/ status obsession is ever present - are you above or below me at the book air, too fat, tool old, too grey, too vulgar, not vulgar enuff.
That class obsession in your Brit culture is sick and hopefully it will disappear with your identitiy when the Scots vote you our of existence.
I wil; be in Liverpool in 5 daze...if anyone wants to challenge me to a soapbox duel on the issues raised on this thread eg. free expression, my behaviour at the Book Fair, how can a Man U fan support Chelsea Manning. I am willing to do that. I don;t think we will see that because these people are not so much cowards as timid. For some deluded reason they have to come to the anarchist movement for "safe space" even those they occupy the safe space of the empire's centre while others are being butchered on its fringes. They make the mistake of thinking I am a soft target, obliged to turn the other butt cheek when assaulted & kicked in the ass last Sat at LABC.
Those people who are boycotting the fundraiser at the Casa on Sat night. I think you have made the correct decision I think we all have aright to associate and disassociate. you have shown no compassion for the Manning family up to this point, why would anyone think that would change? Why don't you duel power us, put on your own gig the same night and send the money to the Manning family as they prepare for their 5th. expensive trans atlantic visit to the prisoner. Yours will be the first financial contribution from the British anti-war movement to the Mannings that has had nothing to do with my solidarity efforts. I would respect that initiative.
In conclusion to your question "Brit anarchist when Julian got lifted in 2010 & abandoned by the anti-war movement I said to myself I won't leave London until Julian is allowed to leave safely (at the time I thought that would be 3 ,months max and counting - it is now 3 years). The British govt. - like the Australian & Irish governments - are sychophants in relation to U.S. power. I don't think Julian is going to be able to leave, and me go home, or a very long time.
Ciaron
News From Nowhere bookshop refuses Manning fundraiser posters
24.10.2013 11:29
Screen shot of their twitter account
"We totally support Chelsea Manning: books, information, flyers; but not happy to endorse a talk by Ciaron O'Reilly at present while there are allegations of misogyny & trans-phobia levelled against him. Sexism of some left men often puts feminists in difficult position. Our enemy's enemy does not always act as our friend. Please challenge other men's sexism so we can work together"
News From Nowhere,
96 Bold Street, Liverpool L1 4HY
0151 708 7270 nfn@
Concerned
Ciaron O'Reilly on Dissident Island Radio - 6 September 2013
24.10.2013 11:29
Download: Ciaron O'Reilly on Dissident Island Radio - 6 September 2013 - mp3 25M
Make you own mind up about the "grotty penis boil", "rape apologist", "grade A shitbag" [1], "mansplaining, misogynist, rape apologist fuckhead" [2].
[1]
[2]
Dissident Island
Homepage:
http://www.dissidentisland.org/show/dissident-island-radio-06-september-2013-episode-125/
News from Where?
24.10.2013 12:33
the poster @newsfromnowhere refused to put up
Are all the books, magazines and pamphlets in the shop vetted for political correctness?
William Morris
Homepage:
http://www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk/
See the bigger picture
24.10.2013 12:35
No wonder the Right laugh at us.
Really sick of this crap
Morning response
25.10.2013 07:45
This thread is pretty much the only forum I am responding to this lynch mob goatfuck
.
I took Julain's advice a long time and never went on facebook (as I told him from the get go "I am a defendant/ prisoner solidarity activist and not very techie"). I know Juian's father personally, I know Chelsea's mother, 2 uncles & an aunt personally and I know what my mother & father went through when I was incarcerated in U.S., Australia & ireland - so yes, it's kind of personal. I am pretty much oblivious to the sizeist, ageist attacks in the blogosphere.
My attackers have the Sid & Nancy option "to die young and look pretty" or sell out soon so there radical youth will always be enshrined looking "slim, trim taut and terrific" as they go running home to mummy and daddy to sort themselves out. The divide at the end of "Whitnail and I"
What have we learnt thus far?
1) Unlike Brisbane, free expression is not a basic value of the British anarchist scene. Those formative years under the authoritarian corrupt hillbilly rule of Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen
2) Although I come from am Irish Republican physical force family background & formation, I have a new testament of Radical Christian anarcho pacifism. In Incident 1 (approx 12.30 pm Sat) when our speakers corner was censored by he mob, I was pushed by a young woman trying to close down our free specch forum, who through my bag away I did not respond with physically force.
She may have been hoping to provoke a violent response as the Irish Special Branch did when our vehicle was stopped under Offences against the State Act on the way to the Brigid's Festival
In Incident 3 (approx 5.30 pm) when as I was acting as a decoy on the intel that the Occupy women were being assaulted, I was kicked in the ass and pretty much "turned the other butt cheek". I hung in with my assailant and he eventually apologised, wouldn't shake my hand which I accepted and his partner gave me a hug and told ld me "to look after yourself"
3) People will take action at the book fair on the internet in response to the suppression of free expression and/or in defence of me. Some of these people are not pacifists. I have little influence over their actions. Some of them like me, some of them don't, a lot of them think I am "soft" for being a pacifist.
3) People in our movement that have fought in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ireland & elsewhere and others who have been through harsh prison environments as consequence to resistance to the war, may be suffering with PTSD
I am pretty sure I have been made sick by the situation I have been put in for the last 3 years - trying to generate solidarity for Manning & Assange. Two people who were looking at decades in jail (or to be set up to be killed in custody) by an an anti-war movement that once was 1.5 million strong on the streets in London.
Yesterday, I went and stood outside the Ecuadorian embassy in solidarity with WikiLeaks with an older Chilean woman (who had survived the Pinochet coup, whose husband was disappeared & tortured, whose hospital workmates were tortured & killed, also a Colombian woman, a Portugese woman & a Kiwi bloke. That is the mainstay of the daily solidarity with WikiLeaks & Julian Assange vigil in one of the most elite neighbourhoods in the world. These women are radical feminists, they understand that feminism was hijacked by the U.S./U.K. to launch an ongoing war on the women, men & children on Afghanistan. Just as radical gays know when the state of Israel is hijacking the gay issue to militarily target Palestinians and radical Christians know when their tradition is being hijacked to facilitate imperial wars.
I your Irish, you should know a fit up when you see one - after the Guilford 4, Maguire 7,
Birmingham 6 etc. I met Patrick Maguire at the performance of his play at the Camden Irish Centre
These attacks are a distraction to the job at hand - to support the Manning family support the ne they know and love personally.
Ciaron
What have we learnt thus far?
25.10.2013 10:05
"I want to cut his fucking cock off and make an example of the wanker."
Outer Space
Statement from News from Nowhere
25.10.2013 11:55
Yesterday two women came in to the bookshop and asked us to display a poster for an event in Liverpool in support of Chelsea Manning, which is to be MC'd by Ciaron O'Reilly.
We have previously hosted an event with Ciaron about East Timor, and Ciaron himself came in the bookshop recently and I had a friendly conversation with him.
Since then we had read a number of accounts about the confrontations at the London Anarchist Bookfair between Ciaron & a group of feminists who, we understand, criticised his support of Julian Assange and called him a rape apologist. We also read that he had called a trans woman a "bloke in a dress". We were not there so have no first-hand knowledge. (Neither was the woman who asked us to display the poster.) But this, plus other reports we have heard and read about him, had led us to be sceptical of Ciaron's politics with regard to feminism, and had disturbed us to the extent that women and feminists were yet again being put in a very difficult position, as they have by Assange's sexism; because we are of course not naive and are well aware that the US is using the allegations of the Swedish women to attempt to extradite him, but feminists are clear that a man must be answerable to allegations of sexual abuse and Wikileaks is not just Assange.
So yesterday I said we were unhappy at displaying the poster, which would thus endorse a talk by Ciaron while allegations of misogyny and transphobia were currently being levelled at him. I had a discussion with one of the women, during which we agreed that as neither of us were at the London Anarchist Bookfair, we were both operating on what we had heard and read. She later tweeted: "Refusal to allow my manning solidarity poster today was based on hearsay and presumption of guilt". a) we both were arguing our points from a position of what we had heard/read, and b) I did not “presume guilt” but expressed my concern that NfN putting up a poster implies endorsement and I was not happy to do this while there were what seemed like valid criticisms of Ciaron on the basis of sexism & transphobia. I made it clear repeatedly that we totally supported Chelsea Manning, and that our objection was to endorsing a talk by Ciaron. Ironically the women were standing right in front of a book stand featuring a book about Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning, which many of our customers will have seen us promoting for many months. We also have had a poster up in the shop advertising the event (which doesn't mention Ciaron's name) and have therefore been publicising the event, and many people will know about it as a result. This poster is still up on the noticeboard, now with added information about how people can contribute to the Chelsea Manning Family Fund. So it is not correct nor ever has been that we are not publicising the event, and this woman knows this.
We debated and listened to each other for some time, including free speech, definitions of rape, the value of Wikileaks, feminist positions on Assange, etc, during which I expressed the hope that as women we could respect each other's positions. Clearly feminists have been divided on the issue but it is well-known that there are a number of valid criticisms to be made. I also said that our enemy's enemy is not necessarily our friend. i.e. just because the US is out to get Assange does not mean we have to support him against women's allegations of abuse.
I thought by the time they left we had aired our opinions and had at least some respect for each others' positions. One of the women we have known for years and we consider a friend of the shop and she said little during the exchange, the other I don't know and she was clearly critical of us.
But ...
Later last night, after working til 9pm at a bookstall, I became aware that News from Nowhere was the subject of a mini twitter storm.
A number of twitter users had retweeted a post, the information for which must have come from the woman who I had been debating with, stating: "@newsfromnowhere refusing fundraising posters for Chelsea Manning event" which was a somewhat selective statement and understandably caused twitter to demand to know why.
I replied: "We totally support Chelsea Manning: books, information, flyers; but not happy to endorse a talk by Ciaron O'Reilly at present while ... there are allegations of misogyny & transphobia levelled against him. Sexism of some left men often puts feminists in difficult ... position. Our enemy's enemy does not always act as our friend. Please challenge other men's sexism so we can work together."
We then received a number of abusive and threatening tweets including:
"@newsfromnowhere complete bollocks, I will personally be waging a campiagn against your shop."
"You lying bunch of bastards, Ciaron O Reilly was attacked by some of the people you allow in your bookshop"
"PUT OUT A FUCKING FULL STATEMENT you FASCIST BASTARDS" [this at 11pm, while I was at home attempting to relax after working a 12-hour day]
"@newsfromnowhere Justice is coming"
Someone then posted my tweets onto something called Pastebin, and tweeted: "Statement from @newsfromnowhere telling us why they are joining in on the attack on Ciaron O Reilly"
I replied: "We have made no statement on pastebin. We are not "joining in the attack on CiaronO'Reilly".I think he can survive us not puttin up a poster" in an attempt to inject some humour into the proceedings, and to put our declining to display a poster into perspective.
We hope that you will agree that the above abusive and threatening tweets are very much more serious and deserving of challenge than our small act of feminist solidarity.
We are concerned that a misleading tweet opened the door to very upsetting abuse.
I spent a sleepless night last night feeling sick with fear, the same feeling I used to have when we were under attack (repeated arson and physical assault) from [real] fascists.
I repeat: Please challenge other men's sexism so we can work together.
On a more hopeful note, we received many messages of support on twitter - thank you all.
We will of course continue to support Chelsea Manning.
Mandy Vere
e-mail:
nfn@newsfromnowhere.org.uk
Homepage:
www.newsfromnowhere.org.uk
Responding to Mandy at News from Nowhere
25.10.2013 13:52
The original poster, with NfN's addition and donations info above
During our conversation, Mandy defended the actions of the women who had torn up my Assange solidarity postcards at the bookfair in 2012 and also the actions of the people who had attacked Ciaron outside the bookfair this year, stating that 'No Platform' was a legitimate approach that many people supported. The point I made in our phone conversation today, when Mandy called me (to complain about the stress that had been caused to her by threats on twitter, to suggest that I had misinformed people about what had happened leading to the twitter attack, and request that I announce on twitter that the original event poster is still up in the shop - which last I subsequently did) was that when people - not Mandy - act like a lynch mob and then go on to publish hate filled tweets and blog posts, some advocating or inciting physical violence, it is perhaps unsurprising that others may respond in kind.
News from Nowhere got itself embroiled in this storm by taking a position on a poster for a solidarity event to raise funds for the family of Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning. I had no gripe against NfN when I entered the shop. I've been there many times before, have bought books and delivered leaflets there. Mandy took a position that was far from neutral based on what she'd been told by radical feminists she knows who she says has the greatest respect for, although at the time she spoke she admitted that she had not heard an account directly from anyone who was actually at the bookfair. She also said she had read blog posts by women involved and made it clear that the collective had not had time to discuss the matter but said she was taking personal responsibility for the refusal on behalf of the shop.
I had no way of knowing from our conversation in the shop that what Mandy had apparently meant to convey was "You can't put up a poster because we won't endorse this event, but actually we are going to leave up the poster we already have on the board and add our own note suggesting that if people want to support Chelsea they can make a donation" (rather than come to the gig, presumably). I'd been told in no uncertain terms that NfN could not endorse the gig "while there's such controversy". Mandy also specifically invited us to bring in any material about events for Chelsea Manning that Ciaron was not involved with.
I did not misrepresent this situation to others and to accuse me of being selective in my tweet is ludicrous. We were in the bookshop for ages and as I tried to leave for the first time Mandy called me back and said she didn't like people just walking off, so we stayed for a rather pointless second round. Tweets are, like, very short... so I summarised.
When Mandy called today and requested that I issue a tweet to let people know that Ciaron's original poster has been left up and would be left up (so NfN can't be accused of not letting people know about the event), she neglected to mention that a note had been added to it to deter people from attending (see pic). If she'd mentioned that fact, I may have declined to oblige.
WISE Up Wales
Nowhere indeed!
25.10.2013 17:16
Subsequently a liverpool lefty bookseller refuses to promote a benefit for transgender Chelsea manning on the grounds that the man organising the support for the transgender manning is eh 'transphobic'.
Notably, thorough all this and in the pathetic wordpress blogs linked to by the frankly hilarious 'anarcha feminists', the women who challenged the student brats do not count as 'feminists', nor it seems do the women who went to put up the poster for the Chelsea Manning gig, an approach now shared by' News from Nowhere'.
What an utterly pathetic farce, 'News from Nowhere ' are an utter disgrace, refusing to support a benefit on the grounds of hearsay spread by a crew of juvenile jokers who will be the kiss of death to any political grouping they decide to join and indeed to the bookfair if they are given a forum in future years. No platform for fascists, no platform for alleged mysoginists, no platform for alleged transphobics, JOhn Pilger supports Assange , no platform for him, just safe spaces for student brats...
mf
Response to Mandy Vere
25.10.2013 18:02
last night you made a statement on twitter. Those words are public and you did this from the News from Nowhere twitter account. Therefore, making it an official statement from your collective. You have taken a major decision on behalf of your collective without having first reached an agreement. You have taken that decision because of personal friendships. you have not investigated this matter and have left yourself open to this sort of criticism.
You have passively supported violence towards activists. Including Ciaron O Reilly and others. Should any of your friends, who have promised on twitter to attack the event in question then we will hold you personally responsible.
BKK
Single issue bullshit..........
25.10.2013 19:16
Bored and Angry
GarethPerice - lawyer Guilford4, Birmingham6, Assange, Gitmo detain - on Manning
26.10.2013 07:36
YOUTUBE (12 mins 2 secs) - Gareth Peirce speaks on Bradley Manning: ' "Dispatches from the Dark Side"
Vid
If Gareth is a too high pitched 4u, sprinkle some Brand on on ya Paxman cynicism
26.10.2013 07:59
Russell Brand's deals with Paxman on Newsnight
(Would Russell have been "no platformed" at the London Anarchist Book Fair?
Probably!
Vid 2
nothing but the same old story
26.10.2013 09:27
donny mark
perspective
26.10.2013 11:22
This statement is perspective to what is going on now with the attacks on Ciaron O Reilly.
In June 2012 I was contacted on twitter and TOLD to stop communicating with a named activist in Liverpool. I told the person in no uncertain terms that I take orders from no one. The named activist had been investigated and it was deemed he was a ‘VIOLENT SEX PEST’. A statement was put online and a life and reputation were destroyed.
A kangaroo court was held in Liverpool and very serious allegations were made against an activist. No evidence was produced, there was no clear process involved, it stunk of a witch hunt.
Without going into the details of it, I believe the majority of it was untrue. I came to this conclusion having briefly investigated this myself and was continuing to speak to people, including the person who was named in the statement.
The same players in this scenario are the ones behind the attacks on Ciaron O Reilly; in both scenarios they have threatened violence.
In fact the same people met again in Liverpool to agree on putting up a statement about me. They used the word ‘tout’ to give the massive insult to me as a former Irish Republican. It also put my life in danger and affected my travel back home to visit my family.
For a year and a half I have sustained almost daily abuse by the same people. One in particular who threatened Ciaron O Reilly was the same person who threatened me and was the main player in putting the statement up on LIBCOM. There will come a time when this person will be given the opportunity to stand over his words.
These hate campaigns are being decided on and carried out by people calling themselves ‘anarchists’ These meetings are possibly being held in the bookshop that is now refusing to host a poster promoting an event to raise funds for Chelsea Manning’s family.
In response to the hate campaign they waged against me, I contacted a number of their employers and informed them that hate campaigns was being waged from their offices. I would do the same again.
On one of the many blogs written at that time, an allegation of rape was made against me, that was the final straw. Under legal advice I went to the police and had it investigated. The person who made the allegation has in the past accused two other people of rape or sexual assault. I believe they will do the same again to someone else. Why has this not been addressed? Because of her PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS with ‘gatekeepers’ in East London.
In the course of a number of months I attended a South London Police station and the investigation, which I had initiated, was dropped. During this time a former female member of the ‘WOMBLES’ had also been in discussions with me and investigating the allegations and reached the same conclusion.
The backlash has been as a bad if not worse than the hate campaign being waged against Ciaron, Among the things I have been accused of
Being in the EDL, burning Freedom Bookshop, arson (Carries a 15 year sentence), hacking. Now this would be all very amusing and funny if it didn’t come without its consequences. I have been arrested twice and held on court bail on trumped up charges for over 3 months.
During that time the minions of known ‘gatekeepers’ tried to have my court bail revoked, even going as far as to send false evidence to the MET police. This was on top of the 15 pages of police statement made against me which included the above allegations
Young members of my family have been deeply affected by this and for that reason I will not rest until those involved are held accountable.
This needs to stop, because someone will get hurt. Either from their own hand or the hand of someone else. These players will do this again and as they say in the lottery advertisement, IT COULD BE YOU
Seamus
Bristol Anarchist Bookfair 26 April 2014 - all welcome
26.10.2013 23:34
Think it'd be great to organise a coach and bus over everyone who's been posting here if we can afford it.
Bristol Anarchist Bookfair
Homepage:
http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org
VID - New York Catholic Workers get grief during Occupy in NYC
27.10.2013 07:46
VIDEO GITMO (12 mins)
-Occupy Wall Street Movement encounters Catholic Workers in Union Square/ NYC (hangin' out there since 1933!)
@
"students" and unsafe spaces
27.10.2013 08:30
However this is a rather minor issue compared to "anarchist feminists" using physical and verbal attacks to "no platform" peace activists in the name of "safe spaces".
"Safe spaces" my arse.
libcon
dont make me laugh...
27.10.2013 10:05
i would have hoped she'dhave felt at least a bit of shame over her antics but no.
DM
Compare and contrast
27.10.2013 14:41
Then I glanced through the next post down, about Russell Brand:
Seems to me that the author of the first, AnarchoDoom - "Liverpool-based anarchist blogging on whatever comes to mind" - falls way behind Brand commentator The Croydonian - a self-confessed "sixth form student" - in the maturity, credibility and self-awareness stakes.
So, less of them student insults, please!
The Croydonian says:
"Our victories are small, our presence is largely misunderstood, limited or even non-existent." Very true.
"And specifically with regards to Russell Brand and others like him, we can do this alongside by using this topical event as an opportunity to talk about our views, an action which does not imply we 100% endorse everything he has ever done or will do."
Indeed.
I'm a woman and I definitely don't want to live in the world envisaged by the Next to Nowhere 'anarcha-fems', their bookshop benefactors upstairs and whoever in the state is encouraging, funding or steering them to do its dirty work.
Anyone got any idea at all what these folk have done for Chelsea Manning to date? She's been held for over three years so there's been plenty of time to organise. Trying to disrupt a fundraiser for the cause will look exactly like what it is. Maybe by next weekend they'll have got their shit together and organised an alternative fundraiser for Ms Manning to prove they aren't transphobic.
more libcon
@ 'this bullshit is the reason why i don't call myself a anarchist'
27.10.2013 15:21
Aunty Christ
Thread on U75
27.10.2013 17:26
Linkz
Solidarity Meeting
27.10.2013 18:05
Black Kat Kollective
e-mail:
blackkatz@riseup.net
Homepage:
www.blackkatz.org.uk
One more time now, with feeling
28.10.2013 09:00
Two things about the O'Reillys
- they do what they say they are going to do. People of their word. In this case, stay on the streets for Manning & Assange until they are out of jeopardy or someone with a better skill set comes along to take the baton.
- with the O'Reilly's from Queensland, you don't want to think about fucking with our free speech. We fought for it when we were teenagers under Joh in the' 70's - we were arrested, bashed, raided, our mother humilated at the laundry where she worked, black listed, fitted up. If you are going to come at us to take our free speech, you better send more than a bunch of middle class Brit 'thought police" so filled with self entitlement that they don't feel obliged to present a rational or coherent argument to justify their attempted authoritarian intervention.
A group too timid to return,approx 4.30, (when they saw unbeknonest to me), that Occupy men and women fresh from an anti-fracking camp had my back. Due to their retreat we had a repectful speakers corner where Muslism students felt safe to engage (in a country that has been bombing the shit out of their people for the last 12 years).
I will not dignify the lies and accusations conjured by these clowns about me, prejudices I don't possess and words I have not spoken ... with a response.
We live in strange times. I was at a Sex Pistols gig in Ireland a couple of years ago. Some young wannabe nostalgic (or aspiring Mark Chapman) threw a full can of beer at an aging John Rotten. John stopped the music looked into the crowd and rationally informed the idiot.
"Mate, you've got real enemies and I'm not one of them!"
I don't understand the new set of enemies I've managed to collect recently. I am collecting intel & will get back to you. They appear to have done nothing for Manning during the 3 years of arrest, torture, F.B.I. raid of Mrs.Manning in Haverford West/ Wales in 2010 - they are now setting outto sabotage one of rare first in Liverpool) solidarity events for Manning. Go figure? We do know that the British anarchist scene has been heavillyinfiltrated
I met Mark Kennedy Stone/Flash/Stone while I was awaiting trial in Ireland. he was travelling with a woman who I met in Liverpool during a Reclaim the Streets/ Dockers mobilisation.
Some of the other experiences I have where state agents use petty resentful people against the activism I am doing include
Dan Van Blarcon '78-82 ran the anarchist press in Brisbane (funded by who) where we most anarchist meetings were held
"Alan Fossey" aka Sgt. Alaiste 14 Companyr/ Liverpool 06-99
This young fella Sigurdur Thordarson
Things always happen twice, fisrt time tragedy - second time farce.
We recently conducted at Giuseppe Conlon Venue, one of the few events to mark the British/ U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Donations were to go to the Manning transport fund, but some people decided to launch an attempt to sabotage the event and called for a boycott. This clip shows how the event went
The boycott was targeted at me and was silly, self defeating and disrespectful to our guests one, Joe Black, who had traveled form Dublin, photojournalist Guy Smallman & Andy Worthington who making time in hectic schedules.
A lot about Manning is speculation, which is understandable as s/he had been held incommunicardo for 3 years.
A lot of this group targeting the Manning event is speculation as they are not transparent. I assume one is a state player,
others have (as we all do) mental health issues, others see "anarchism" as inverted elitest subculture (if they are Brits you can safely assume they are obssesed by issues of class & status. My experience of them in Liverpool (at Unite against Facism) and London (Book Fair) is that they are irrational and hysterical - have difficulty stringing a coherent argument together - may explain thier obssession with "closed platorms" (that's got to be a Trot or Maoist concept in disguise as anarchist....read "The Dispossessed" Ursla LeGuinn all is not good on the "anarchist planet" or in these people's world.
I got a gig to organise on minimal resources, so I haven't got much time to spend fighting a generation that cyber bullies high school kids to suicide, that has failed to engage the wars their generation has been sent off to kill & be killed in, who treat "anarchism" as a fashion statement/ elite subculture in their inverted British class system.
I agree with what Noam Chomsky said, when he met with 60 of us anarchists in Dublin
"Anarchism is basically common sense!"
A bit of common sense could go along way as we head to Liverpool & Wrexham to support Manning's family
Ciaron
's not the arrivin in Liverpool that grieves me,but darlin' when I think of thee
30.10.2013 07:49
Called meself a fool, I could no longer stand it.
Blood began to boil, temper I was losing;
Poor old Erin's Isle they began abusing.
"Hurrah me soul" says I, me Shillelagh I let fly.
Some Galway boys were nigh and saw I was a hobble in,
With a load "hurray !" joined in the affray.
We quitely cleared the way for the rocky road to Dublin.
One, two, three four, five, Hunt the Hare and turn her down the rocky
road and all the way to Dublin, Whack fol all the Ra !"
VID - Dubliners "Rocky Road to Dublin"
Which goes to prove not every Dub is a West Brit Jackeen!
Some comment above refered to "plastic paddies", obviously a geezer who likes his Paddies to be "self hating" - if you want one of those try Sir Bob Geldof. As any fool can tell ya the most German people in the world are not in Germany - they are in Pennsylvania, they are called the Amish. The ethnic identity of diaspora (under siege) isa always stronger.
So I am with Neck, the lads from Couty Holloway. "Plastic and Proud!"
VID
The only place you are not going to suffer discrimination for being Irish is the 26 County Free State. Try being irish 90 miles north, could pay with your life. Try buying Irish on derby day in Glasgow, in U.S.,OZ, London in recent history. The last time I did an agresive violent act was at high school when some dude insulted my father on the basis of his ethnic identity and Irish accent. the level of violence scared me.
Liverpool historically, like Belfast & Glasgow, is a sectarian town. Our gig on Sat night will be on Hope St that links the two Cathedrals Bishops Shepherd (good name for a Bishop) and Warlock (not such a great name for a Bishop) did a lot of good work to reduce sectarianism in Liverpool.
The anti-papist drivel you hear from "British anarchists" (like their parroting the state line on Assange) is merely an echo chamber of their state's discrimination. Dress it up in
a mohawk, or post modernist feminisit rhetoric it is still at it's core deeply anti-Papist/ anti-Irish. It can be easily argued that the internal ethnic group targeted most severely by the modern British state has been Irish Catholics interms of shoot-to-kill, fit ups, internment etc.
Manning's maternal family - Fox - is Irish diaspora paternally - their father was from Dublin. So it is no surprise these cyber bulliy Brits don't lose any sleep over bringing additional stress to the family as we stage the first (and maybe the last) solidarity event in Liverpool. Any idea of binviting the Manning family to this event has been dropped due to these idiots.
Who are they, what do we know? They are cowards driven by fear. Fear of their own shadows, fear of me.
I am heading off to Liverpool today. All I have to do for Haloween Thurs night is rock up on Bold St. to News & Next to Nowhere dressednas myself "Mr Transphobe Misogyny Man" aaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHH BBBBBBBoooooooooooo
I am not going to do this. because the reason I am going there is, as a former prisoner of the U.S. support the Manning family whose love one is presently imprisoned in the U.S.
Believe me, of all the Irish I am the least of your problems - I am a pacifist.
And believe me of all the ethnicities your state has conquered, raped and slaughtered
the Irish are the least of your problems.
You really are clearly clueless - like your American buddies - of how much your accent is detested throughout the world - how many orphans fanticise about wreaking revenge on you. You think anyone who has had their home trashed by your military, lost a child or a parent is going to make any discrimination beween who you perveive as guilty and innocent?
I am not here to threaten you, but to warn you.
As Bill Hicks told us at the end of evey show. The choice is between living a life based on fear or based on love.
I am heading off to Liverpool today. All I have to do for Haloween Thursnight is rock up on Bold St. to News & Next to Nowhere as myself "Mr Transphobe Misogyny Man" aaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHH BBBBBBBoooooooooooo
Am I scared of going to Livepool. Although my gandparents had a pub on Paradise St, in the 1890's Liverpool has been a titch traumatic
- In 1996, I was reluctantly deployed to Liverpool by the feminist support group for 4 women held on remand in Risley following their 1996 disarmament of a BAe Hawk
- I was given a desk & a phone for 5 weeks pre-trial at a Trade Union Build
ing on Hardman St. (that name should have been a warnig)
- The month leading up to trial I house sat for Rev. Chris Gray a vicar on the West Deby Rd. A week after I left Chris was stabbed 27 times on the doorstep of that house. That was traumatic.
- within 6 weeks of being in Liverpool (8 after arrivingi n England) I was targeted for a High Court injunction. I was fingered by BAE spy "Alan Fossey" (aka Sgt Alaister 14 Company), 4 ot 13 of us injuncted reused to co-opearte, had our few hoursin jsudges chambers at were left with a 100 grand legal bill each. 2 of us went out and openly broke the injunction.
- the Liverpool Catholic Worker was eventually evicted by the BAe spy working with a group of resentful envious (believe it or not!) people.
Many lies were spread about me (as in thisinstance today), the classic was that I had tried to run over someone in a car when I was living in the U.S. I don't know how to drive a car, I have never driven a car (well 3 times while hitching in the Outback and driver showed me the basics while he had a snooze)
No one can make that choice for you. As Fr Dan Berrigan SJ (now 93) said "If you're going to follow Jesus, you better look good on wood!"
I saw Julian briefly yesterday. Where the U.S./British/Austraian governments expect him to be by now - is curled up in the foetal psoition crying himself to sleep. I can assure you that Julian Assange is no where near that. This I know, that Manning, Assange & Snowden are not cowards and that gives me hope for the younger generation.
People have the right to associate and to disassociate. There are good people who will not work with me. There are NGO careerists who perceive me as some kind of threat - because I do organising work better, with no resources and for free. NGO careerists find me a threat to their identitiy & economic base - bit like those OxBridge Guardian journalists find WikiLeaks a threat to their gatekeeper identities & economic base.
Anyways all aboard for Liverpool, shaping up to be a great night and hopefully something ongoing Liverpool based can come out of it in terms of support for Manning & family over the long haul
Ciaron
—Bookfair Timeline
01.11.2013 07:37
Seems to be rather edited, biased and anonymous.
lynx
Homepage:
labtimeline@gmail.com
Ya got to be innit to winnit = Rugby League ball isgned by Julian Assange raffle
01.11.2013 09:27
........Manning is 4 years into a 35 year sentence. Julian Assange has been surrounded for 501 days by the London Met and protected by Ecuador in Knightsbridge. to Manning family are about to embark on their 5th. journey to see their love one. Journeys made with no financial support from the British anti-war movement
We're re in Liverpool, Wrexham & Bristol over the next few daze in solidarity with Manning & family. Of course the state is keeping an eye on us with the well infiltrated anarchist scene in Liverpool trying its best to sabotage our efforts.
See this book for our easy it is to infiltrate this scene
Julian Assange (a poltIcal football for U.S./U.K., Sweden, Australia etc) has signed a football to raffle for the fund to defray prison visit travel costs of the Manning family.
VID (2 mins) - Pack a Scrum of Solidarity for the Manning Family
--
Donate to help Private Manning's family in Wales with the cost of prison visits.
manningfamilyfund.org
Ciaron
you must think we'll believe anything
01.11.2013 12:27
watch out for fibbers!
Independent Witness Statement about events at the Bookfair
01.11.2013 17:15
Below are the emails that I sent to the Bookfair organisers and News from Nowhere.
I have twittered Mediocre Dave a couple of times. The first time was a general conversation about the bookfair to see what he had to say, he made mention of silly little things. Then started to see the twitter storm and the bullshit about the event and watched to see if he would answer your questions , he didn't. So I decided to ask him directly whether it was him that was in the group that was shouting down Ciaron, I already knew it was him, and whether it was him that attacked Ciaron, still no reply. I feel that I have given him enough chances to clarify his reasons for acting the way he did that day. everybody makes mistakes.
I was taken aback by it all. he was at the back of the group smiling through the whole process seeming to take great delight in it all and then starting the chanting that didn't allow Ciaron to answer their accusations. One of the chants he started was , " White man in dreads being oppressed". How fucking racist is that? I couldn't believe that this was the same Mediocre Dave that I had conversed with many a time on twitter. His behaviour was very odd and was aimed at pure confrontation rather than any attempt at constructive discourse or cogent argument.
It didn't help that a scuffle kicked off directly behind me at the same time so trying to take it all in was difficult. I feel that Assange needs to be discussed so we as a movement can move forward. But they seem to have their position and anyone that disagrees with them is a rape apologist.
It was my first bookfair and I don't deal with large crowds very well but with the rise of the far right across Europe, the privatisation of the NHS and the attack on welfare recipients i decided that I need to stop being an armchair anarchist and try to do whatever I can to fight these problems.
Anyway, here are the emails. Any questions feel free to ask.
To the bookfair , sent 23 October:
Hi ******
I would just like to thank you for organising the book fair. It was my first one and I really enjoyed most of the meetings, especially Chris Knight's.
I have been reading a lot about the imbroglio with Ciaron and the fems outside at which I was present. They seem to be accusing the book fair of not providing safe spaces. I can't speak for what happened afterwards but I can't see how they can raise this criticism when they were the aggressors. They raised an interesting point ( giving a suspected rapist a platform) but then they wouldn't give Ciaron, or anyone else for that matter , a right to reply.
When it was suggested that they debate the subject they just started chanting new slogans, or shouting and swearing at people. In fact seemed to revel in the attention and tension that they were creating and the male member of their group( who I believe to be Mediocre Dave from twitter) seemed to be especially pleased with himself to the point of smugness whenever he started a new chant that would inevitably drown out Ciaron. They made offers of violence, some of it tongue in cheek I suspect ( "dead men don't rape"), though some of it serious ("you should be hanging from a lamp post"). One lady did get up to seemingly debate Ciaron but gave up when she had no valid retort and pushed and kicked him, but I don't think that she was in the main group to be fair. It caused a lot of tension and at one point it seemed as if sides were being taken and that it could turn nasty.
I was going to refrain from letting you know my take on this because I didn't want to let it spoil what was obviously a great effort on your behalf, but it seems that this wasn't an isolated incident plus their version of events was in danger of being the prevalent one.
Ciaron did go on to say some ill advised things , but anything positive he did say was jumped on and twisted to try and make him look like the rape apologist they accused him of being , and I think he lost his patience with them.
I didn't personally witness any racist, homophobic, transphobic behaviour by Ciaron at this incident. I don't know if they have a personal vendetta against him but they seemed to be determined to stir up feelings against him.
I was a bit shocked that people calling themselves anarchists could act in such an authoritarian way and it did put a bit of a downer on everything.
Sorry to bring it up but I felt it was necessary in the interests of clarity and truth.
Once again thanks for all your hard work.
To News from Nowhere:
----- Original Message -----
To:
Sent: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 10:39 PM
Subject: Enquiry via website - Ciaron O Reilly
Hi,
I believe that you are not allowing Ciaron to talk at your bookshop because he has been accused of sexism.
I was at the book fair on Saturday and I witnessed the events between Ciaron and his accusers. The accusers were confrontational and aggressive from the start and shouted down anyone who tried to counter their accusations. i did not witness any sexist statements by Ciaron. I do not know him personally and I had never even heard of him before this furore.
I don't know if you know that this wasn't an isolated incident and that the same people went on to harrass others that didn't agree with their position. i did not witness these later incidents but the same people ripped up an Occupy petition and a further confrontation resulted in Ciaron being physically attacked by a male aggressor. there has been a lot of chatter on the internet regarding this an Ciaron I feel has been unfairly treated. I just thought that I would let you know that there is more than one side to this story.
Investigation
VID - Julian Assange opens M.I.A. gig in NYC - do you "no platform"/censor her?
04.11.2013 00:53
@
What side would you''ll have taken on The Scottsboro Case ?
16.11.2013 06:42
For those that don't know the Scottsboro men were Young Black men who were accused of raping some young White women while they all were ''riding the rails '' (illegally traveling in Railroad Box cars ) desperately looking for work during the depression .
When Railroad police evicted them from the boxcars they accused the Black men of ''rape ''.
There was no evidence other than their word but especially in the Deep South that's all was needed when White women, even poor ones , made that statement .
A massive international campaign primarily backed by the Civil Rights org, the NAACP and globally by the various Communist parties literally saved their lives but they all spent years in prison .
While the CP's dominated the defence effort just about every progressive group in the planet including Anarchists called for their freedom .
They were well that literally hundreds of Black men and boys had been lynched over the centuries based on allegations of ''violating white womenhood ''. .
There;s no doubt that there has been tremendous growth in consiousness re sexism that existed even in the most progressive circles in the 1930's .No doubt in many ways they were backward by all standards ,
But at least they never believed in a knee jerk manner the accusations of our class enemies !
Conor from San Leandro California
The state is likely behind this "PC gone mad" divisive behaviour
13.12.2013 03:17
Anarchists have been problematic to the state too.
The state has a history of targetting people like Ciaron and infiltrating groups like anarchists.
It looks like this bonkers "transectionalism" might be part of their latest strategy.
Using ideas like "safe spaces" and twisting ideas that were meant to empower the weak not to oppress free speech, in fringe movements and activist groups is devious and devisive and stinks of state involvement.
I'd be very suspicious of groups of hysterical middle class "transectionalists" roaming about disrupting anarchist and other groups and making everybody cower and tread on eggshells, rather than boldly standing up and speaking truth to power as they should be doing.
Cop on folks. We're being played here.
lefty
Australian comedian Steve Hughes on being offended.....
08.01.2014 14:00
OZ
South Park takes on "Safe Space" censorship
12.11.2015 00:10
Kenny