Bristol Anarchist Bookfair is go!

[october_lost]

That's trouble isn't it? It's a 'scene' not a serious alternative for workers.

Scene is a more realistic term given the nature of some of the dynamics within the anarchist 'movement'. I think were talking identity politics essentially. Thats certainly not the way myself and others want it by any means, but a number of anarchist/libertarians demos draw in almost exclusively anarchists, with exceptions like LCAP. Im involved like numerous other anarchists in workers struggles, community issues, but it would be difficult to claim were the majority of those in the capital and wider who are active.

 

[bristol_citizen]

Because apparently they have a no platform position to groups seeking election. That's what my enquiry was met with.

There's something a bit off-putting about a bookfair - which presumably is meant to be a meeting of ideas? - being resistant to new or different ideas.

 

[The Black Hand]

That's trouble isn't it? It's a 'scene' not a serious alternative for workers.

You mistake a few things - things are never either totally one thing or the other, in the real world it is workers who have helped to make the scene. Not all workers are stereotypical - that is 20th century modernist thinking - that world died out thankfully

 

[TheCoffinDodger]

You mistake a few things - things are never either totally one thing or the other, in the real world it is workers who have helped to make the scene. Not all workers are stereotypical - that is 20th century modernist thinking - that world died out thankfully

What does all that mean? I never said all workers were the same I know they're not (being a worker myself not a pseudo intellectual). It’s often Marxists and anarchists who seem to think of the working class as some homogenous lump.

I also know not all anarchists are the same. I’ve met some anarchists who frankly I wouldn’t give the time of day to, full of shit, unrealistic ideas and false hopes. I’ve also met a few (very few) who are down to earth, realistic and actually talk a lot of sense.

Fact remains that anarchism is generally distrusted by workers because it is a ‘scene’ which is outside the reality of most of us and out of touch with our daily lives.

 

[Taxamo Welf]

Because apparently they have a no platform position to groups seeking election. That's what my enquiry was met with.

your enquiry on behalf of the IWCA?

...are you in the IWCA?

 

[Taxamo Welf]

There's something a bit off-putting about a bookfair - which presumably is meant to be a meeting of ideas? - being resistant to new or different ideas.

bringing us to another point - why is it alway a fucking BOOKfair? Why is this anarchism's answer to 'meeting' or 'conference'?

I don't want to buy any sodding books.

 

[JTG]

I do

 

[butchersapron]

your enquiry on behalf of the IWCA?

...are you in the IWCA?

Yep. Why do you want to know?

 

[JHE]

I don't want to buy any sodding books.

Don't worry, Wilf. There'll also be pamphlets, magazines, cider, cannabis, weird herbal 'teas', soya milk, petuli oil, 'New Age' magic and delicious vegan stew.

You'll also have the chance to have a long chat with some dishevelled unfortunate who believes the real reason he was sectioned was that the CIA, MI5 and Special Branch ordered him to be locked up after he had sprayed an A in a circle on the front of the local police station.

 

[TheCoffinDodger]

Don't worry, Wilf. There'll also be pamphlets, magazines, cider, cannabis, weird herbal 'teas', soya milk, petuli oil, 'New Age' magic and delicious vegan stew.

You'll also have the chance to have a long chat with some dishevelled unfortunate who believes the real reason he was sectioned was that the CIA, MI5 and Special Branch ordered him to be locked up after he had sprayed an A in a circle on the front of the local police station.

Ooh why didn't you say. I'll be there!

 

[Spion]

apparently they have a no platform position to groups seeking election. .

Teehee, what a ludicrous stance

 

[steve0223]

hi

I'm helping to organise this. We don't have this stance.

There was a confusion , a mistake was made that has since been sorted out. There's nothing more to it than that. We are not striving for a ultra purist event, we want movement. We have a process where we accept applications from groups, then we decide later this month how to allocate them.

On a side note what happens if people come who engage in class struggle, organise at work AND like to read pamphlets and drink wierd 'herbal' teas?

 

[Spion]

On a side note what happens if people come who engage in class struggle, organise at work AND like to read pamphlets and drink wierd 'herbal' teas?

I don't know, what does happen people come who engage in class struggle, organise at work AND like to read pamphlets and drink wierd 'herbal' teas?

 

[steve0223]

Who knows, that's the wonder of it all.

Anyway moving on what sort of workshops/events would people be interested in seeing at the bookfair? What are the relevant areas of struggle?

I am wondering about what happens when the subprime housing foreclosures/repossessions that are happening in the states start to kick off over here.

 

[steve0223]

Anyway , have to go, but if anyone has any productive suggestions please email them to the collective:

http://www.bristolanarchistbookfair.org/
ta

 

[The Black Hand]

What does all that mean? I never said all workers were the same I know they're not (being a worker myself not a pseudo intellectual). It’s often Marxists and anarchists who seem to think of the working class as some homogenous lump.

I also know not all anarchists are the same. I’ve met some anarchists who frankly I wouldn’t give the time of day to, full of shit, unrealistic ideas and false hopes. I’ve also met a few (very few) who are down to earth, realistic and actually talk a lot of sense.

Fact remains that anarchism is generally distrusted by workers because it is a ‘scene’ which is outside the reality of most of us and out of touch with our daily lives.

A truism which is just Not true. You are a politico objectifying what 'workers think about anarchism'. You have no evidence. It is just wishful thinking.

Politics has to be based on far more than that.

 

[The Black Hand]

bringing us to another point - why is it alway a fucking BOOKfair? Why is this anarchism's answer to 'meeting' or 'conference'?

I don't want to buy any sodding books.

What I have said all along Tax. There is no politics in our movement, no forums for the open and honest exchange of ideas etc...

 

[The Black Hand]

Yep. Why do you want to know?

hahahahahhaahhahaahahahahahahahaha

What is there to know. They do not exist. They are Oxford IWCA.

 

[The Black Hand]

bringing us to another point - why is it alway a fucking BOOKfair? Why is this anarchism's answer to 'meeting' or 'conference'?

I don't want to buy any sodding books.

Incidentally it is not either/or. As usual I prefer a dialectical 'both'.

 

[The Black Hand]

your enquiry on behalf of the IWCA?

...are you in the IWCA?

the home for the well meaning and inneffectual.

 

[TheCoffinDodger]

You are a politico objectifying what 'workers think about anarchism'. You have no evidence. It is just wishful thinking.

And you are full of shit. I don't know you but looking at your posts on here you talk bollocks. I'm not a member of any political party or group. I am a member of a trade union though. I consider myself a socialist but not aligned to any particular viewpoint although I am sympathetic to syndicalist ideas, or at least what I understand about them.

So my evidence is just my experience sorry about that.

 

[The Black Hand]

You are a politico objectifying what 'workers think about anarchism'. You have no evidence. It is just wishful thinking.

And you are full of shit. I don't know you but looking at your posts on here you talk bollocks. I'm not a member of any political party or group. I am a member of a trade union though. I consider myself a socialist but not aligned to any particular viewpoint although I am sympathetic to syndicalist ideas, or at least what I understand about them.

So my evidence is just my experience sorry about that.

And no grounds for generalising beyond your experience at all... perhaps you should have said 'in my experience'...