'Anti-Semite' but oh too Jewish!
Clearly it is theoretically possible to accuse someone who is Jewish, like Prof. Noam Chomsky, of being 'anti-Semite' because of their negative attitude to the State of Israel, and Chomsky has had much to say about this. But to suggest that a Jew or anyone else can't wonder about the cost of something without fear of retribution takes us into the realms of the Spanish Inquisition and George Orwell's '1984' and the 'thought police'.
Last Saturday, I went to the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair merely to drop off a few copies of Northern Voices with a book dealer before going to attend the Rank & File conference of construction workers at the Mechanics Institute at noon. What did I find having greeted two of the organisers and entered the arena of the bookfair itself was that I was grabbed by the arm from behind and I turned to find that the pale-face one calling himself 'Veg' (aka Vegetable) had hold of me in what I suppose was a citizen's arrest. I indicated my displeasure and he detached himself from me. The person who I recognised as the organiser-in-chief (Mr. Under-the-Pavement) then strode up and confirmed that 'Veg' was indeed an 'organiser', and as 'Mr. Under-the-Pavement' beckoned us we all adjourned to the entrance area; where I was told that as I was a friend of Barry Woodling and that Barry had caused some people some offence a year ago that I too 'was not welcome' at the Bookfair for fear that my presence, owing to my friendship with Barry, may upset others at the Bookfair.
What is this world that English anarchists are living in: Alice-in-Wonderland or '1984'? The poet Shelley wrote about frail and fragile plants, but there can be few so touchy or fragile as those who venture to go to the Manchester & Salford Bookfair. What is the rational for this perculiar behaviour for it suggests a small-minded mentality of small groups, as the only way small groups can feel important and bigger is by excluding others from their number. So it was that only last month questions were raised on the Bookfair website about whether the International Brigade Memorial Trust (IBMT) should be welcome at the Bookfair or banned, in the event the IBMT was accepted, but others have been excluded over the years not just the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) and Mr. Barry Woodling.
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7 comments:
This isn't why you were not allowed into the bookfair. Stop lying.
The problem you have now is that everyone knows you are lying.
And Barry was involved in distributing a pamphlet outside last years bookfair - which you wrote most of - that compared your treatment and the actions of the bookfair organisers as something that could be rightfully compared to "kristallnacht".
Why don't you publish that leaflet? Come on Brian, grow a spine!
The antics of the organisers of the Manchester Book Fair beggar belief. They have clearly taken a leaf out of the Stalinist "hymn book". Bans, proscriptions and guilt by association make a laughing stock of the anarchist movement.
The clowns that are running the book fair in Manchester are definately of an authoritarian mindset. They seem to have a bent for banning things or people. What immediately comes to mind, is the Vatican with its list of of forbidden books and organisations. If this is what purports to be English anarchism than God help us, it hardly seems to bear scrutiny. What would these people be like if they had any real influnce?
Might I venture to say this is worse than an 'authoritarian mind-set'. What we have here is a totalitarian attitude: to describe Barry Woodling as an 'anti-Semite' was clearly absurd last year; based as it appeared to be on the contents of a leaflet handed out before last year's bookfair. The new allegation now that Barry may have put out some gossip about the cost of a funeral is if anything worse, in that it seeks to ban gossip, free speech and even, dare I say it, free thought from everyday life in the manner of the 'Thought Police' in Orwell's novel '1984'. Orwell's book '1984' and his essay 'Tolstoy, Lear and the Fool' were warnings against this approach and state of mind. This totalitarian mentality that seeks to ban gossip, criticism, jokes, throw away remarks, is something Orwell, in his essay on Tolstoy, thought some forms of anarchism were particularly prone to.
All this stuff about 'anti-semitism' and Northern Voices is just a red herring intended to deflect people's attention from the real issues. Anyone with any sense ought to give this bookfair and the people who organise it a wide berth because they can't be trusted. Several years ago, someone gave the name and address of an AF member to the police who had booked a stall at the bookfair on behalf of the Target Brimar campaign. This bloke was grassed up and his personal details given to the police who were targeting the Brimar campaign and fishing for information. This is what copper's narks do and wants investigating!
M said:
'This isn't why you were not allowed into the bookfair. Stop lying. The problem you have now is that everyone knows you are lying.'
The truth is that it was not only the bookfair organiser who said that Barry Woodling was banned from the bookfair because of something he had said at the last bookfair in 2012, but that this was later confirmed by an independent authority who said that Barry had been specifically named as someone who would not be allowed into the bookfair if he came. As it happened Barry didn't go to the bookfair. For my own part I had no intention of visiting the bookfair other than to drop off some copies of Northern Voices for one of the booksellers who had a stall. This was allowed by the bookfair organisers.
Anonymous said: '...Several years ago, someone gave the name and address of an AF member to the police who had booked a stall at the bookfair on behalf of the Target Brimar campaign. This bloke was grassed up and his personal details given to the police who were targeting the Brimar campaign and fishing for information...'
it was the managers of the now defunct bookfair venue who grassed up the organisers themselves what a daft comment.
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