Authoritarian Fascists expose anti-libertarian politics

by Christopher Draper (York)

I'VE been an anarchist for forty years and always considered English anarchism a broad church but it now seems more like a asylum with lunatics on the rampage.  After a pack of Anarchist Federation (AF) bullies attacked a lone representative of the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) at the recent London Anarchist Bookfair (27.10.2012) it is surely time for everyone who professes alliance to Anarchism to stand up liberty and denounce these party-building authoritarians.

An objective account of the attack on Brian Bamford of the NAN and theft of publications from his bookstall appears elsewhere on the web posted by 'Five Leaves Publications' who had no prior connection to Bamford or the NAN but were simply shocked to witness 'anarchists' acting like this.

If one stall-holding organisation attacked another stallholder at an ordinary commercial event one might expect the organisers to do everything in their power to support the victim in seeking recompense.  In this case it appears neither the organisers nor the AF intend to do anything to repair the damage.  Apparently the Anarchist  Federation claim the violence is justified as the perpetrators object to an article published in 'Northern Voices', a magazine edited by Bamford.  The bookfair organisers do not feel impelled to disabuse AF of such perverse, authoritarian notions and prefer, instead, to treat the matter as a little local difficulty that could be resolved over a quiet pint.  I profoundly disagree.

I also profoundly disagree with Martin Gilbert's posted aversion to anarchists 'washing their dirty linen in public'.  I have written previously of Freedoms' refusal to practice free speech and whilst I have no hestitation in identifying the Authoritarian Fascists (AF) as a real enemy of anarchism, I am troubled by many libertarians' tolerance of intolerance.  Anarchism is more than laisez-faire, to actively promote freedom we must first stand up to bullies and have no hesitation in identifying them even where they've already infiltrated our ranks.

We don't need the 'Sex Pistols' or the 'Sun' to convince the public that Anarchy means chaos if we tolerate such violence.  Furthermore, this was no sudden impulse for my own researches reveal not only premeditation and planning but also a sustained campaign by AF members to disrupt publication of 'Northern Voices'.  Over the past two years AF members have repeatably intimidated both sales outlets and the magazine's printers in an unsuccessful attempt to close it down.

Anarchist tolerance should never extend to such intolerant behaviour.  If we don't speak out we are complicit in their evil, authoritarian ways.  Personally I would go further and ask anarchists who quietly cling to peaceful, constructive, thoughtful engagement with their fellow-men and women to speak up a little more and come out of the closet as anarchists.  When I worked as a teacher and whenever I published an article or take part in any community action or event I always identify myself as an anarchist to help promote a sane, positive image of our philosophy.  I feel the conspiratorial, play-acting that starts with anarchists' using pseudonyms on the web encourages make-believe revolutionary fantasy more suited to devotees of 'dungeons and dragons'.  Perhaps even now deluded members of AF are celebrating their attack as a victory over the dark forces of Satan.

Reflections on the Anarchist Bookfair & the A.Fed.

by Martin Gilbert

THE day before the London anarchist book fair (on Oct. 27th), I went to Freedom book shop. By chance, there I met Brian Bamford. After a short time Nick Heath (Anarchist Federation [A.F.] founding father) entered the shop emitting a string of verbal abuse against Brian. Freedom book shop is visited by comrades from all over the world as well as people who are quite new to our ideas and actions. Nick’s outburst, whatever the cause could only give the worst of impressions. The following day at the book fair I met a comrade who told me that Brian’s stall, booked in the name of Northern Voices had been wrecked, apparently by Anarchist Federation supporters. While looking for Brian in the very crowded venue I came upon the AF stall. I complained to those present with more or less what I had written for the northern voices blog. Just because Brian had been so offensive that was no reason to ban all those who support the Northern Anarchist Network [NAN] (from selling literature that we had all agreed on) at the Manchester book fair. There is more to the NAN than Brian Bamford, I stressed, we have various differences of opinions with each other, I am far from alone in my arguments with him. We cannot 'all be tarred with same brush'. To wreck his stall was the height of stupidity.  Only teasing an Anarchist Federation supporter there, I suggested that we could not expel Brian.  Quite seriously, the AF’er said that the NAN should expel Brian. I replied that we are anarchists and do not expel people, suggesting also that some of the AF need to shed their Marxist luggage. I then turned to face Nick Heath who seemed to deny knowledge about Brian being assaulted, suggesting that it was not officially agreed by the Anarchist Federation. 
For na independently witnessed account of what transpired at the London Anarchist Bookfair in 2012, go to:

Five Leaves Blog: Salad (cream) days

www.fiveleavespublications.blogspot.com/2012/10/salad-cream-days.html

Falling over Five Leaves

The Doghouse is the spiritual home of Northern Voices!

Malcolm Muggeridge once described the job of an editor as that of 'a blind man with a stick'.  In other words an editor ought not to be a single-minded campaigner who knows everything, because monomania is not a luxury he can afford if he or she is to do the job properly.  On Northern Voices our editorial approach is to stumble forward as best we can nervously deciding how to deal with such tricky problems as that presented by the interview with Sophie Lancaster's mother, Sylvia Lancaster, and deciding on a sincere attitude in our leading article in NV13 to her call for an extension of the Hate Laws to deal with horrendous crimes like the murder of her daughter for being a 'New Romantic' or a 'Goth'.  I was much less anxious about Northern Voices' criticising someone I knew like Bob Miller, than I was at challenging the views of a stranger like Sylvia Lancaster, because I thought that someone who was within the libertarian and anarchist tradition would appreciate the need for criticism, and while accepting that there would be those who would spring to his defence I expected them to employ reasoned arguments.  How wrong can one be!  Sylvia Lancaster thanked Northern Voices for airing the issues surrounding her daughter's death and she said that she was in no way offended by our obvious differences over the matter of our opposition to her Hate Law campaign, while the friends and family of Bob Miller employed methods more commonly associated with right-wing organisations in this country:  the people involved would appear to have been associated with the national organisation called the Anarchist Federation (formerly the Anarchist Communist Federation), although it is understood that Nick Heath has described the attack as an 'unofficial action' by members of the Anarchist Federation.

Perhaps, if Northern Voices is to engage in the investigative and independent journalism commonly associated with Private Eye down South, we must expect that our spiritual home may come to be the Doghouse.  Last Saturday, at the London Anarchist Bookfair an incident occurred in which we were certainly were placed in the Doghouse and for the moment we leave it to a report on the Five Leaves Blog fiveleavespublications.blogspot.com/ (dated 28th, October 2012) below to describe what happened:

'Congratulations to the organisers for another great Bookfair.  But there was an unpleasant incident. Five Leaves stall was next to that of Northern Voices. Early in the day a small group from Manchester asked the one person at NV to leave. It was not clear to me at that moment why. It turned out that the magazine had some time ago written a rather unfavourable and, indeed, rather unpleasant obituary of the Manchester anarchist Bob Miller. Some time later in the morning a large group of people, from Manchester and elsewhere, returned to the stall, and when the stall holder refused to leave, wrecked it, stealing most of the material on display and covering the stall-holder and the stall (and one unrelated stall-holder behind NV) with salad cream. Though the stall-holder was uninjured, save for a bruised face when he fell and some irritation from the cream getting into his eyes, he was pretty shocked, as was anyone seeing the incident. I have no doubt that his original article was unwise and should not have been published - the best critique of it appears on NV's own rather good blog, October 4th at www.northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com  - but a dozen or so people attacking one person and his stall (with little heed for collateral damage) was bullying.  I've mentioned in a previous posting (about David Hoffman vs. Freedom magazine) that when negotiations between injured parties break down that people must find a way of resolving their difficulties without going to law or, in this case, force of numbers and salad cream - ideally by arbitration. Fortunately this incident took place at a quiet time, in a quiet corner of the Bookfair.'