Keith Hebden speaking at Occupy Democracy, 17th of October 2014

Anarchist Bookfair London October 19th 2013

Booking stalls, meetings and adverts

We have now stopped taking bookings for meetings. Check out our meetings page on the website for all the meetings and running order. We will be bringing Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin (Anarchism and the Black Revolution) and JoNina Abron-Ervin (Driven by the Movement: Activists of the Black Power Era) from America to speak at this year's bookfair. This is part of a nation-wide speaking tour we are also organising. Check out the “other events” page for speaking dates around the UK. We will be updating this page, as we get more confirmed dates arranged.

The venue

We will be holding the bookfair at Queen Mary’s university on the Mile End Road again. In 2012, there were a few problems with the venue, including some of the meeting rooms being too small, crowding on the main staircase and the lift being out of action for part of the day, which made it difficult for people with mobility problems getting from floor to floor.

We spent the time after the bookfair looking at other possible venues, but we couldn’t find anything that suited the event better than Queen Mary’s. Most didn’t have the space we needed for 110 stalls, 60 meetings, films and three children and youth spaces. Some did, but they were either far too expensive, or had bad connections (i.e. the Excel building runs the arms fayre as well).

So, we stuck with Queen Mary’s but we have been chatting with the venue and have identified some bigger rooms for meetings, and we can use other staircases in the Bancroft building for getting around the building. This should solve a lot of the problems of 2012 – although the problems are of our own making, as the bookfair is just too successful! We are also looking at the situation with the lift so this problem doesn’t happen in 2013.

Anarchism and the bookfair

The bookfair is one of a number of spaces for anarchists around the UK and the world to come together. But, as the Anarchist Bookfair is one of the bigger public events we put on as a movement, we want it to also be a place where those interested in anarchism can find out what we are about.

So, in 2013 we will be looking for thought-provoking and rabble-rousing meetings. It can also be a space where we counter the rubbish talked about anarchism by sections of the media and our opponents. We want to continue to make anarchism a threat again.

We will also need people to help us publicise the event to every nook and cranny in London. If you are new to anarchism, check out the pages websites and bookfairs. There are links to anarchist and campaigning groups around the country and anarchist bookfairs throughout the world.

Access

All the meeting rooms are now wheelchair accessible. If you have any other access requirements, please let us know nearer the time of the bookfair so we can try and meet your needs. If you are Deaf and require BSL interpreting and/or speech-to-text provision, please give us as much notice as possible and we will do our best to organise these. To discuss any specific access needs, please contact us at access at anarchistbookfair.org.uk.

Dogs

To make the bookfair a safe environment for children and adults alike, we ask people do not bring dogs to the event - except guide dogs. Thanks.

Getting to the venue

The venue is Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS.
If you are coming by public transport the following buses stop near the college on Mile End Road: 25; 205; 339. If you are coming by tube the two nearest stations are Mile End (central line / Hammersmith & City line or District line) or Stepney Green (Hammersmith & City line or District line).

See map of the venue and surrounding area. 

Freedom Bookshop in Arson Attack

Freedom Bookshop, home of the famous Freedom Press which has been the home of such amazing folk as Peter Kropotkin and Colin Ward, has been firebombed. The small upstairs shop, hidden from view in Whitechapel has been at the heart of the London Anarchist scene since - I don't know - since the first dinosaur tries to impose hegemonic tyranny! 

Anyway, the point is this is a terrible thing. But as anarchists don't go off to the police to hunt down perpetrators, and don't throw their lot in with insurance, it's time to come together and support them ourselves. 

I don't know who did it. I'm assuming it's fascists of one sort or another. 

Either way: cheques made payable to "Freedom Press". 

Freedom Press
84b Whitechapel High Street
London E1 7QX

website of Freedom Press

Cleanliness as catchword for imperialism

Jonathan Bartley asking police whether they have permission to "clean" the steps of St. Paul's.
Making room for the moneylenders is being sold as an action for peace, safety and cleanliness.


Ce n'est qu'un début...

St Paul, patron Saint of the Occupy Movement?

If you live in or around London there is a workshop on Thursday at 1 pm at the Bank of Ideas you might be interested in. "Would St Paul the Tentmaker have camped with Occupy?" with Juliet Kilpin. 


Since the movement in Britain has focussed around St Paul's Cathedral, and St Paul was an itinerant awning-maker who challenged the ideology of empire in his day, it's a question worth exploring. 


Understandably folk are often put off by St Paul's letters, often verbose and sexist, but an increasing number of scholars are separating those early letters from the real Paul with later letters that bear his name. What they're finding is that the original Paul was far more radical than we have given him credit for. 


If you haven't read it, I'd recommend 'The First Paul' by Crossan and Borg as an accessible and thorough introduction to the radical Jewish mystic who could easily be the patron saint of Occupations. 

ASBO Activist Calls Time On War

ASBO Activist Calls Time on War

ASBO to ban anti-war activist from City of Westminster for 10 years

Chris Cole, (Right) at Downing Street in October. 

A Christian peace activist has been served notice by the Metropolitan Police that they are seeking an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) to exclude him from the City of Westminster for ten years.   

Chris Cole (48) from Cowley, Oxford was served with papers as he attended a pre-trial hearing following a demonstration at Downing Street on October 7^th to mark the 10^th anniversary of the Afghanistan War.  

Cole, along with Catholic Priest Fr Martin Newell face charges of criminal damage following the pouring of paint on the Downing Street pavement.

The ASBO seek  to ban Cole from being in the City of Westminster except while passing through as a passenger on the London Underground;  being in possession of any can of spray paint, tin of paint, marker pen, chalk or charcoal in any place outside the city of Oxford or being in possession of bolt croppers in any place outside the city of Oxford.   

The application for the ASBO sites fourteen occasions over the past twenty-one years that Cole has been arrested at anti-war protests involving spray paint or bolt croppers.

Chris Cole said “Waging war is the great anti-social behaviour of our time.  Thousands of people have been killed and injured in the great follies of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, while billions have been wasted on preparations for nuclear war and arms companies continue to make vast profits from hawking  weaponry around the globe.  Rather than spraying bullets in Iraq or spilling blood in Afghanistan, I have spilled paint on the Downing Street pavement and sprayed paint on the MoD walls.  In all honesty, which is the real anti-social behaviour here?”  

The application for the ASBO on Cole will take place at the end of his trial for the protest at Downing Street, a date for which is yet to be set. In 2005, a District Judge refused to impose an ASBO on anti-war activist Lindis Percy. District Judge Anderson said: "I am firmly of the view courts ought not to allow anti-social behaviour orders to be used as a club to beat down the expression of legitimate comment and the dissemination of views of matters of public concern."

Visions of tomorrow: This is what democracy looks like

Those involved in permaculture know that it's on the boundary between environments (e.g. hedge meets the meadow) that the most productive signs of life are found.

So creating boundary places and stepping back is often enough.

The OLSX camp at St Paul's Square is doing just that and those people on the boundaries (established church, activists, bankers) can't help but be drawn into it. It catches them off guard to be drawn into the real world in this way.

But it's not just boundaries. It's bridges as well. Activists over the last couple of decades have been rediscovering the 'internationale' of radical politics. A soldier, in uniform, stood outside St Paul's and declared the soldiers as 'the 99%' being exploited in wars that only benefit the wealthy. What a source of truth!

And the OLSX began as an act of solidarity with the Adbusters call to Occupy Wall Street. UK government policy is often little more than an arm of US foreign policy so the demands of Occupy Wall Street to 'take the money out of politics' as concrete and direct implications for UK political life.

As with all big social changes a combination of unavoidable factors and social pressure create great changes. Slavery was abolished in Britain because of a change in economics as well as social pressure. Women got suffrage because of the Suffragettes but the reality of it became unavoidable when after the war women found they had been skilled up to do paid work and extending women's right became near impossible to avoid.

The US is losing it's super-power status bit by bit. We saw it in the decision by UNESCO to invite in Palestine against US/Israeli wishes. We see it in the economic changes that are taking place around the world. There is no better time to demand global and local change.

Luke Bretherton, writer on Christianity and politics and a participant in London Citizens, offers a wonderful and simple analysis of what is at play in St Paul's Square.

If you've had to face down the irritating "they don't even know what they're protesting about" bollocks that some people are parroting from the mass media then this might be helpful document to turn to for a less than straightforward but an extremely helpful response. 

I don't want to summarise it because it's worth reading in full. So have a look here. 

London calling: war is over

May this Christmas inspire you to fight the good fight...

New Catholic Worker House in East London

The opening of the of the 'Guiseppe Conlon House' on November 22d was attended by around 200 people including a wide mix of refugees, advocates, punks, hippies, vicars, activists, lawyers, squatters, academics, Muslims, Christians, atheists, Buddhists, musicians, locals and internationals. The internationals introduced themselves in a welcoming ceremony with representatives from Outer Hebrides to Japan, Kosovo to France, and Sweden to Uganda among many others.

The house has already been functioning as a refuge for undocumented refugees and others in need of shelter and support, but the main building (originally a Methodist church, then taken over by Roman Catholics and more recently disused for two years) has now been officially opened both as a continuing shelter and as a community facility.

The new centre is named after Guiseppe Conlon, who was the father of Gerry Conlon, who at the age of 21 was one of the four Irish men wrongly convicted for the Guildford bombings in the early seventies. despite no connection to the IRA, and sound alibis for Gerry and one of the others, it took until 1989 for human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce to finally get them released, and another 16 years until the British government offered an apology when for political reasons Tony Blair made a surprisingly unreserved statement.

Gerry was beaten in police custody until he made false confessions implicating completely innocent members of his family, and as a result Guiseppe, an ex-marine, was arrested in London where he was trying to find a solicitor for his son. He was not a well man, and died, a convict, in prison in 1980. His widow Sarah was charged £3500 to fly his body home, and the home office billed her for his repatriation - his body was flown back and forth four times as the press shamed him, before he finally rested.

He was the only one from the Guildford Four, Birmingham Six, and Maguire Seven, who didn't live to be vindicated and see his freedom. his treatment remains a terrible blot in the dark history of Irish repression.

The Catholic Worker communities, as well as offering shelter to people suffering injustice and violence, are also pro-active in seeking out and confronting the roots of those injustices. Catholic workers have been involved in acts of challenging civil disobedience, and one of the organisers at the new centre was imprisoned for 13 months in the US for taking a hammer to a B-52 bomber. The hammer was returned on his release and was later used against BAE in the UK, returned once more, and used again in a recent ploughshares action.

After an opening welcome ceremony and a song from Irish singer/songwriter Joe Black, the human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce took the stage to wish the project well and to movingly describe her experience of the lies and corruption around the Guildford Four and Gerry Conlon's family, the Maguires, and Guiseppe.

After more music from local duo, Lovers Electric, Ciaron O'Reilly spoke more about the project and the difficulties he has faced as an anarchist catholic - untrusted by the left as a catholic and untrusted by the catholic establishment due to his anarchist way of doing things and his past incarcerations in various nations round the world for acts of non-violent civil disobedience.

Poet Stephen Hancock then provided some excellent conscious and political verse, before Angolan journalist, Rosario Miranda, spoke about the campaign for justice for Jimmy Mubenga. Jimmy was the man who during a forced deportation was killed at the hands of GS4 security aboard a passenger flight to Angola. Passengers, though concerned by the blood, his screams for help, and the violence of the guards, were either too intimidated or too disempowered to intervene. Rosario compared the media attention some woman got for putting a cat in a bin - the cat survived, the woman was hounded, she lost her job, she was prosecuted and she was vilified. In contrast, the GS4 officers remain in work, no-one was prosecuted, and the newspapers have forgotten the matter. He asked poignantly whether the cat was more precious than a black man?

Joe Black, who traveled from Dublin then provided a full set of songs, including a special one written to celebrate the opening and to commemorate Guiseppe Conlon, and finally local singer Raz ended the formal entertainment.

Before and after the timetabled events, there was a huge spread of donated food and drink, and more entertainment from the 'Bow Creek Ramblers String Band'.

The Guiseppe Conlon House intends to continue its work with homeless refugees, and to act as a hub for non-violent resistance to the war machine.

For more information, including news of the current campaign to close down the "army shop" recruiting centre in a shopping mall in Dalston, see the London Catholic Worker website.

London Anarchist Bookfair

Michael Albert was said to be the big name speaker at this year's London Anarchist Bookfair. One could give him credit for consitency - he is saying the same things and telling the same anecdotes (the left is out of touch with reality and won't even go to football games) that he has for years. His vision for a particpatory economy was hopeful but a bit old-school and when gently challenged by a primitivist he showed no desire to enter into sensible conversation. Shame.

There were talks about the Con-Dem cuts, a debate on Chomsky between a Peace activist and a radical anthropologist, a great talk by Milan Rai on deconstructing Gandhi and much more.

As ever with these events the highlight is wandering the stalls meeting old friends and making new ones. The London Catholic Worker's had a stall full of home made organic preserves, t-shirts and books. The Cunningham Ammendment were as hospitable as ever and it was great to see Jonathan from Anarchist Voices and Alex Christoyanoupolos with Anarchist Studies Network.

The bookfair gets bigger year-on-year and this year there were around 100 stalls so thousands of visitors, many new to the fair. And of course a wild-eyed, suited and booted Christian stood outside rantily denouncing us to fast moving traffic.

London Catholic Worker

Three Christian peace activists were arrested at AWE Aldermaston after opening the base for disarmament.

Fr.Martin Newell (43), Passionist Priest from the London Catholic Worker, Susan Clarkson (63) of the Oxford Catholic Worker, and Chris Cole (47) father of three - also from Oxford, cut a doorway into the outer fence of nuclear base. The group then attached a sign saying ‘Open for Disarmament: All Welcome’.

The three then entered the base, through the new gateway knelt and prayed.

In a statement the three said: “We come to the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston to open a new gateway into this tightly guarded factory of death. We come inspired by the message of Jesus to love our enemies, to be peacemakers and to live act nonviolently at all times."

All three have been involved in several non-violent direct actions and been jailed as a result over the years and have their prophetic witness rooted in their personal commitment to marginalised people in their own communities.

Susan and Martin have been part of the Christian anarchist conferences over the years. Chris Cole is Director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, based in Oxford.