Northern Anarchist Network Statement:

 by Barry Woodling

I  AM shocked by reports on HelenSteel12 Twitter account and Mums Net that Helen Steel was physically assaulted and thrown out of the [Manchester] Anarchist Bookfair last Saturday.    The Partisan Collective hosted the event and has a duty of care to those who attended.     Helen is well known for her environmental campaigning and for her support for the Blacklist Support group.    She was handing out leaflets at the bookfair re the issue of trans gender and was then was dragged out.    This bookfair has form, it physically assaulted 2 Unite Trade Unionists last year and forcibly ejected them.     I have been banned from attending for the last 5 years for the specious and nonsensical reason that I am an anti-Semite, despite many of my mothers relatives perishing in the holocaust.   The Collective supported our ejection last year!     I would hope that the Partisan Collective treat this matter with the seriousness that it merits and initiates a full investigation into last Saturdays incident.    If the Collective continues to back the bookfair organisers under the pretext of "safe spaces" it will continue to alienate many of its erstwhile supporters.   

Barry Woodling

Northern Anarchist Network.