'The Libertarian Communist' Makes a Stand!

A.F's Conspiratorial Cancer spreads to Solidarity Federation 

LAST year, someone close to the Anarchist Federation in Manchester wrote to the editor of 'The Libertarian Communist', a small left-wing journal published in Poole, Dorset, berating Northern Voices for publishing the obituary on Bob Miller. The Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) was blamed by the implication that some of its supporters had relations with Northern Voices and its editor. Thus, the editor of 'The Libertarian Communist' removed the NAN from its directory of contacts.

In the latest issue of 'The Libertarian Communist', the editor has excluded both the Anarchist Federation (AF) and the Solidarity Federation (Sol. Fed.) from its directory on the grounds of their unacceptable behaviour at the book fairs (in London and Manchester). Both the AF and the Sol. Fed. are membership organisations attached to what is loosely called the anarchist movement in the UK, each probably has an active membership of under one hundred. What is interesting here is that the Solidarity Federation has for the first time been punished alongside the AF.

Is this more evidence of collateral damage in the growing problems effecting the British anarchists? In the report of last year's London Anarchist Bookfair on the Five Leaves Blog on the 28th, Oct. 2012, it was announced that not only the editor of Northern Voices got covered in salad cream, but a neighbouring stall-holder, Trevor Bark, was also a victim of the AF and Sally Miller's scatter-gun attack.

Why has the Solidarity Federation, an anarcho-syndicalist body with decent trade union members, now become implicated in the actions of another organisation? Unlike the AF, which is a conspiratorial group with, it seems, few moral side-constraints, the Sol. Fed. has a proper constitution and clearly stated aims and principles. The problem is that sadly the Sol. Fed. has allowed itself to be implicated owing to the actions of one of its members in Manchester, Ron Marsden, who has incited Sally Miller/ Hymen and other members of AF to attack people associated with the NAN for his own reasons over several years. According to Barry Woodling, Ron Marsden of the Sol. Fed. was alongside Nick Heath berating Barry, when he was removed from the Manchester Bookfair, last December.

Many of the people supporting Barry Woodling and the Burnley Declaration (see the post below), have never thus far heard of the body called the 'Anarchist Federation': for all they know, they think Nick Heath & the AF is a kind of pop band. The problem for the anarchists now, today, is that they cannot deal with the issues of this culture of conspiracy and violence within its midst or get the leaders of the AF to disassociate themselves from these elements that are bringing the anarchist movement into disrepute.