Anarchist Book Fair returns to History Museum

 by Barry Woodling

THE Manchester and Salford  Anarchist Book fair returned to the People's History Museum on Saturday the 7th, Dec.    It passed off without public incident unlike previous Anarchist  Book fairs in London, Liverpool and especially Manchester, which on the last few occasions were marred by serious disturbances.  There was none of this last Saturday, and supporters of the NAN, who were once banned and blacklisted, participated fully in the workshops at this event.

There were the usual wide array of stalls including PM Press, Freedom Press, independent book sellers, as well as Anarchist organisations such as Anarchist Communists, Anarchist Federation and Solidarity Federation.    A number of Campaign groups also had stalls.

The workshops had a distinct Anarchist Studies emphasis.....Matthew Adams presented a paper reviewing a book written by Marie Louise Berneri entitled 'Journey through Utopia'.   The talk contained biographical material and also mentioned the liberal critique of utopianism associated with the works of Berlin, Popper and Arendt.   

The other workshop - I attended was presented by Ruth Kinna of Loughborough University and Anarchist Studies.  Promoting her own recently published book:  'The Government of No One'.

She referred to two key historical moments related to anarchism, namely the Paris Commune of 1871 and the Haymarket trial of anarchists in the following decade.    Her talk encompassed five broad headings:  

1) culture, 2) Education, 3) Activism, 4) Social arrangements  eg utopias and experiments, and 5) Prospects.    She focused on anarchism as a philosophy which opposed all forms of domination including class, power relations, patriarchy and law.

My overall impression was that the book fair was relatively successful in terms of attendance and organisation and this augurs well for the future after a sustained period of conflict which damaged previous book fairs although issues of freedom of speech still have to be resolved.*

Northern Voices has tried hard at the time of publication to contact the organisers of this bookfair for a comment, but we have been unable to get a response or to even find out who were responsible for the event.  However, quite separately someone who knows something about the intricacies of last Saturday's event has defended the organisers challenging the critics by saying:
'You’ve all been involved in organising events before.  And you’re all patently aware of how the organisers ALWAYS get the blame for everything.  The London Bookfair collective got so much abuse after 2017.'

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*  Barry has here reported honestly on the Bookfair as we all understood and appreciated it last Saturday night.  However, on Sunday Northern Voices became aware of an incident of which neither Barry Woodling nor anyone associated with NV or the Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) knew anything about, and we feel we must in fairness produce the link from 'MAKE MORE NOISE' for readers to consider:

https://twitter.com/MakeMoreNoise2/status/1203319566472040448?s=08

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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.

Jabob Rees-Mogg defends anarchist protesters

by Brian Bamford

JACOB Reese-Mogg sprang to the defence of the Class War anarchists around the ancient activist Ian Bone, who were busy querying the wages and working conditions of Reese-Mogg's kid's Nanny.  

Others súch as the Archbishop of Canterbury, strongly criticised the stunt tweeting:

'This is appalling. There are plenty of ways you can tell MPs you disagree with them. But targeting their children is shameful and disgraceful. We are – and must be – better than this. We'll be praying for @Jacob_Rees_Mogg’s family at @lambethpalace chapel this evening.'

Yet Mr Rees-Mogg* told LBC: 'I wouldn't get too excited about it.'
He added: 'It was a few anarchists who turned up and it wasn't very well organised.  It wasn't terribly serious.
'We are a free country. They weren't violent.  They aren't admirers of mine. I am in public life and not everybody is going to like me.  That is a reality of public life.
'I'd have preferred it if it hadn't happened but I don't want to get it out of perspective.  I think much worse things happen to many other people.'

What is ironic about this noble defence of the right to protest and free speech by the Tory MP Mr. Reese-Mogg, is that the Left has been much less tolerant.  For example in 2012 at the London Anarchist Bookfair, a number of members of the then Anarchist Federation led bizarrely by the former Oldham teacher, Sally Hyman, raided the Northern Anarchist Network bookstall and stole some books *, a month later a man with Jewish ancestors was accused of being an anti-semite and pushed out of another anarchist bookfair in Manchester, and more recently at last year's London Anarchist bookfair a woman famous for her part in a campaign against  McDonald's burger chain was attacked by a so called tribe of transsexuals for defending free speech, since then the bookfair organisers have cancelled future bookfairs.
*  Jacob Rees-Mogg is the son of William Rees-Mogg, who edited the London Times in the 1960s, when the anarchists were very active and influential in the peace movement.  In his editorials at that time he had many thoughtful things to say about the anarchists.

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

*******

Anarchy in Action?

by Chris Draper

ANARCHIST Bookfairs once demonstrated ‘Anarchy in Action’ – intellectually stimulating, friendly and welcoming to all-comers.  Now “Anarchist Bookfairs” routinely exemplify prejudice, bans, ejections and violence. First the London Bookfair was cancelled now Sheffield’s gone the same way. Manchester lost its prestigious “People’s History Museum” venue because of the blacklisting behaviour of its organisers and the 2018 Liverpool Bookfair first banned one anarchist and then physically ejected another. In an attempt to restore open-minds and open-access I recently emailed one of the ‘Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair’ organisers and I invite YOU dear reader to evaluate the response for yourself...

(a copy of the email sent by me to Maria, one of the Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair organisers)

*******

Dear Maria,

I email you as one of the organisers of the recent Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair.

Whilst I appreciate that organising such an event is a thankless task you would probably agree that several aspects of what transpired were rather negative. As an aged, lifelong anarchist who devoutly believes ‘The Personal is Political’ it is almost anathema to me to ban people from anarchist events. We should practice what we preach and live the society we advocate. Would we ban people from a post-revolution anarchist world?

Three people were to some extent subject to bans; Barry Woodling, Brian Bamford and another unnamed male. Whilst Woodling was almost immediately reinstated, Bamford was left outside in the rain and the third character was ejected late in the day. In none of these three cases was any open, democratic, ‘due-process’ evident. The Woodling example underlines the quixotic nature of such bans as he had previously been refused entry to the Manchester fair and was informed on arriving at Liverpool he was again banned and then for no apparent reason this decision was quashed and he was allowed in to no ill effect. You surely recognise that such conduct betrays an absence of justice and consistency. Anarchism should model improved relationships not exemplify irrational prejudice.

Moving on from the Woodling example, I realise that some comrades disagree with views expressed by the other two individuals, in fact in both cases I expressed my own criticisms to them personally, BUT one of the defining aspects of anarchism is that we relish disagreement and win over critics by exemplary argument and behaviour rather than repression and exclusion. Of course, we have a right to physically defend ourselves but where is the evidence that any of these three individuals had to be excluded to prevent them physically attacking anyone? I can only presume Mr Bamford was banned on the basis of prejudicial testimony as the objective account of a violent attack upon him at a previous book-fair given by respected bookseller, Ross Bradshaw (and available on his own website), makes clear that Bamford was the victim. (Ironically I noted the presence of the perpetrator of that particular violent act inside the Liverpool fair).

I appreciate your efforts in organising the bookfair, of which many aspects were admirable, but I don’t think such injustice should be brushed aside and then repeated next year (you have doubtless seen the negative publicity in Peace News etc). I don’t claim to have all the answers but I would ask you and the other organisers to constructively address this problem and would be happy to correspond about possible solutions.

For Peace, Love & Anarchy

Christopher Draper

********************************************************************************

Dear Christopher,

Thanks for your email, which Maria has forwarded to the rest of us.  We are happy to clarify that there was no ban on Barry Woodling attending.  We are not sure who told him to leave, but one of us

stepped in to say that he did not have to leave.  We did not discuss him or communicate with him prior to the bookfair because there simply was no reason to, and most of us did not even know of him.

We emailed Brian Bamford in advance of our bookfair as follows, after some correspondence with him:

"Dear Brian,

We appreciate that blacklisting is an important issue to you, and we

wish you all the best in your own campaigning efforts against it.

However, unfortunately we have to ask you to not attend the Liverpool

Anarchist Bookfair. It has come to our attention that that there is a

history of disruption and conflict associated with yourself at

bookfairs and other occasions elsewhere, so we have decided that in

the interests of all concerned - including yourself - and the smooth

and peaceful running of our event, it is best that you do not attend.

Thank you in advance for respecting this. Our decision is final."

Therefore when Brian arrived, we peacefully but firmly insisted that

he leave, in accordance with our prior decision. Brian chose to stay

outside the venue to talk to people coming into the building, rather

than to do something else elswhere; there were plenty of places he

could have gone to be much more comfortable and sheltered, such as a

cafe, pub, shop, or the cathedral or a museum for example.

The other person asked to leave during the bookfair was someone who

was distributing a transphobic leaflet, literature that expressed

prejudice against an oppressed group, against our safer spaces policy

https://liverpoolanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com/2018/03/22/safer-spaces/

. We asked him to step out of a workshop to talk with us, but he

refused and escalated the situation. This resulted in him being asked

to leave, and we escorted him out of the building with the support of

the venue staff. On the way out this person kicked someone hard in the

back from behind on a flight of stairs - very fortunately the person

they kicked was not seriously injured.

A one day event like the bookfair is not a situation where you can

hold some kind of in-depth process to resolve a conflict or address

harmful behaviour. As organisers we have a great many practical issues

to manage on the day to keep the event running smoothly. We expect

that the vast majority of people will behave in a reasonable and

respectful way towards others, but we have the right, and

responsibility, to ask anyone to leave if they do not. We took care to

think about and plan for dealing with possible problems and we

publicised the safer spaces policy, in advance online and in the

printed programmes on the day,  to make it clear what was not

acceptable.

Our decision to ask Brian in advance not to attend was not due to

disagreement with his views, and was not at the behest of anyone else,

but was informed by learning of various conflicts and difficulties

involving him, in particular his threats to sue one of the Manchester

bookfair venues, the People's History Museum, and his behaviour at the

Freedom Press Friends meeting in June 2016. Since the bookfair he has

emailed Maria making a threat to block trade union bodies from

supporting any future financial appeals by News From Nowhere bookshop,

where she works but which had absolutely no involvement itself in

organising the bookfair. This only confirms to us that Brian can be a

difficult person who is very focused on pursuing grudges.

It's very understandable why Brian and his friends like yourself feel

that he should be given some sort of hearing for his side of what

seems to be very complicated history of conflicts, but as Liverpool

event organisers we have no obligation or capacity to somehow attempt

to adjudicate on any past events and incidents that took place

elsewhere. We simply were not and are not interested in being drawn

into these conflicts, nor for our event to be used as an occasion to

pursue such conflicts.

best wishes

Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair collective

********

Liverpool Anarchists say: 'Have a happy bookfair!'

SHADES of  GEORGE ORWELL's 'MINISTRY OF LOVE'
by Brian Bamford

ARRIVING at the Black-E at 11,45am for last Saturday's Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair, I was greeted by the organiser 'Maria' of the 'News From Nowhere' Radical & Community Bookshop.  She set about scolding me saying severely:  'We sent you an e-mail and you can't attend!'  

Then up pops Pablito from Salamanca, who works in 'hospitality', who asks me 'Are you going to leave!'

I comply but only after noting down their utterances and swallowing a blood pressure pill.

As I picked up the bookfair program I observe on the front page the cheerful words 'Have a happy bookfair!'

Not so happy!

One of the local activists who came to address the talk on blacklisting at 3 o'clock, ended up saying that he would never attend an event 'like this again'.  

The spokesman from the Merseyside Trades Union Council, who came in a personal capacity to speak on blacklisting told me that he was 'disappointed at (the) lack of comradeship' at the event, and that regarding 'The individual concerned from the Blacklist Support Group' it was time to 'move on and make progress'.

The blacklist talk had been broken-up after a man was asked to leave because he supported Helen Steel in her dispute with the trans community.  At this point Pablito from Salamanca, as part of the squad for the defence of safer spaces, ended up with a kick in his backside flank. 

Others at the blacklist meeting complained that the bloke had been chucked out without proper consultation about the leaflet he had been distributing, and to which some people had objected.  The justification for excluding the individual was presumably rooted in the 'Safer spaces policy' of the 'Liverpool Anarchist Book Fair' which naively claims 'aims to be a welcoming, inclusive and safe space'.

What presents itself as a 'Safer spaces policy' is a charming catechism  which innocently enunciates a programme worthy of Big Brother and his thought policemen with beautiful elegance.  What is demanded in the text of this scheme is a censorship of language and thought such as Orwell's 'Newspeak' predicted in the 1940s.  

To survive the trauma of such linguistic cesspit one would have to bleach all natural thought processes of any original ideas to sink into the realm of stunted dialogue thus squeezing out all human passions and originality, for fear of making an odd unorthodox remark or stuttering some unintended outburst.  

Conversational Analysis of 'Safer Space' & 'Thought Crime'

A conversational analyst would be delighted with the text offered by the Liverpool Anarchist Book Fair 'Safer Spaces Policy'.  The text is rich in the straight-jacket of thought control.  

The 'Safer spaces policy' states 'Abusive, violent, threatening or harassing behaviour will not be tollerated'.

It then gives some examples:  'Oppressive language, literature or attitudes that insult, express prejudices or reinforce preconceptions about a group of people that are marginalised, disadvantaged or oppressed by mainstream society are not welcome.'

Then the organisers typically offer us a list of taboo topics:  'racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism and classism' .

The dogma of what can only be defined as a totalitarian epistle to the glories of  'thought crime' is delightfully documented  in the final paragraph where it says:  'Don't make assumptions (based on, for example, race, pronouns, class, sexual orientation etc.)  
 

One would be tempted to say all this is characteristic of medieval thinking that one might find in the Catholic Church before Martin Luther to having wayward and sinful thoughts, but it is more totalitarian than that in that it seeks to extend its bans and gags in a style of Soviet proportions in which the required terminology may change from overnight if not sooner.

The Safer spaces document says 'we refuse to normalise prejudice, reinforce oppression or recreate hierarchies' but instead on the ground yesterday Pablito and Maria engineering an good impression of a Fred Karno's Circus or the Keystone Cops* with the thought-policemen / women / transgender / creatures or whatever wading-in to exclude folk without any fair trial or due process.  Where is the justice in that comrade Pablito (the hospitality worker) or Compañera Maria (from News from Nowhere bookshop)?  

Of course, justice is not what is going on here.  

What's going on?  Anarcho-Bossism!

What's going on here is 'Malas linguas' (bad mouthing); false accusations; victimsation and yes, if you like blacklisting.  We could call this anarcho-Bossism and Blacklisting.

At one point as I stood outside looking like a drowned rat in the Liverpool rain, Compañera Maria suggested I go a cafe to warm-up.  I told her that in Manchester we were used to standing in the rain on picket lines with Steve Acheson to combat blacklisting at sites like MRI (Manchester Royal Imfirmary) or Fiddler's Ferry.  She said this is not the same kind of blacklisting!  

I asked her to please explain how this differs from the blacklisting by the bosses?

Compañera Maria didn't reply but looked very uncomfortable.

Later Maria told Milan Rai, the editor of Peace News, that the Liverpool Anarchist Collective had decided to ban me because of an obituary I wrote in 2012 about the former AF member, the teacher Bob Miller in 2011, and something about putting Simon Saunders from the Morning Star / Freedom  in a neck-lock on the 22nd, June 2016, following having been dragged out of the Freedom Bookshop by him and Andy Meinke and then being pinned to the wall in Angel Alley by Compañero Saunders and ten other comrades. 

The trouble with this argument is that the original application to do a talk on blacklisting came from me as Secretary of Tameside TUC, and by banning me they Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair is blissfully unaware that it is blocking the participation of a North West trade union body.  In short, the Liverpoll Anarchist Bookfair Collective failed to cover itself with glory yesterday.

*  The Keystone Cops (often spelled "Keystone Kops") were fictional, humorously incompetent policemen, featured in several silent film slapstick comedies produced by Mack Sennett for his Keystone Film Company between 1912 and 1917.

******

Partisan Venue Denied Donation

Cavalier attitude by Manchester Anarchists to trade unionists

by Barry Woodling

I have to inform readers that a resolution requesting a  substantial grant of £1,000 from Unite the Union was not passed at a recent meeting of the Manchester Unite Area Activists in February after issues were raised concerning the events at the Manchester Anarchist Book fair on the 2nd, December 2017.  A meeting requested on the blacklist by Tameside TUC was turned down and 2 anti blacklist campaigners were forcibly ejected from the building. This meeting was hosted by the Partisan Collective who have a duty of care to its users.   

I am still awaiting a reply to my numerous e-mails asking for a proper investigation of the shocking events at that book fair which have studiously been ignored.   It is a serious matter when members of a trade union are denied access to a public event.   I sincerely hope that in the name of natural justice I am least given the courtesy of a reply.

****** 

Barry Woodling on Liverpool Anarchist Bookfair

'I attended the LIverpool  Anarchist book fair and on entering the building my path was blocked by one of the organisers who informed me that I was banned.  The matter was resolved when another organiser quickly appeared on the scene and said I wasn't on the blacklist.  These shenanigans reminiscent of what has happened over the years at the Manchester Anarchist Book fair are destroying whatever credibility the British anarchist movement had left.   Proscriptions, bans and expulsions under the guise of "safer spaces" are a travesty of any democratic norms and natural justice.   They must be resolutely challenged!'

******

HATE CRIMES' REPORT

by Martin Gilbert (31.12.2017)
 Editorial Note:
SINCE Martin Gilbert wrote this report on the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair at the end of December, the Anarchist Federation [AF] in London has fallen apart, and issued a statement on New Year's Day critical of many in its former leadership who have now left the AF party.  The Trans' faction having taken over the party are now denouncing these skedaddlers.  This curious coup by an exotic tendency has thrown into relief the serious intellectual and moral bankrupcy of affiliated anarchism.
******

BRIAN Bamford has asked me to recall, to the best of my ability, the first five minutes or so of events around a Manchester anarchist book fair. That event was on Saturday 2^nd December 2017, held at 'The Partisan' Cheetham Hill Road.  I have added some back-ground information to that event, for clarity and to show that the incident was not unique or isolated.  I was in the company of Barry Woodling, Brian Bamford and Bob Crane.

Owing to past hate-filled incidents against Barry, and Brian we were all very uncertain about our reception at that book fair.  We all four met the previous evening to discuss our main purposes of that visit.  It was agreed that we were not looking for trouble of any kind.  We wanted to see the books and pamphlets on offer.  My suggestion was readily agreed to that we should try to negotiate with the book fair organisers about a better relationship between us.

Some years previously Brian had published (in my opinion) a highly insensitive obituary of Bob Miller [in Northern Voices No.12].  No apology was given in any form.   Bob’s widow Sally responded violently.  Soon after, at a London anarchist book fair Sally wrecked Brian’s stall, causing costly damaged.    Mr. Ilyan Thomas, a man in his 70’s was pushed to the ground by Sally’s supporters when he tried to intervene.   
For contemporaneous eye-witness report see:  

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

Subsequently, a book fair was organised in Manchester by the same anarchist faction that had supported Bob Miller and Sally.  They are now very small in number, calling themselves 'the anarchist federation'.   

 

Barry Woodling has long been a critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians on the West Bank and in Gaza.  On attending the Manchester book fair Barry was accused of being 'anti-Semitic' and man-handled out of the room at the People's History Museum.  The accusation was foolish, there being a vast difference between sympathy for victims of Israeli colonization and being anti-jewish.  It was merely an excuse to eject one who was and is a friend of Brian Bamford.  Also, Barry Woodling and I are of Jewish extraction. 

 

As we entered 'The Partisan', I was stood a little apart from my three other companions.   In that first five minutes Brian and Barry were not recognised immediately.  Peter Good, a long time opponent of 'Northern Voices' had his stall close to the entrance.  I believe that Peter Good signalled for Barry and Brian to be removed.  Barry called out that those who were pushing him were following orders.  Brian was then seized by young men half his age, as was Barry.  Bob Crane and I were untouched at that point.   

I immediately began explaining the vast difference between anti-Semitism and being critical of Israeli colonisation.  I am a public speaker with a loud voice.  I was then also similarly assaulted.  In this turmoil I glanced that Brian had been pushed close to Peter Good’s stall and happened to touch it.  Brian was pushed to the floor where he went limp as they carried him outside.  

A young man known as 'Veg' spoke at length with Brian and I, we were not provoked by his violently insulting language.  'Veg' seemed to know nothing about the long standing dispute between the handful of 'class war' supporters and those who are closer to our blog / 'Northern Voices'.  A main organiser of that event (who I only know as 'David-under-the-pavement') then wanted to talk with me.  He apologised for delay in contacting me about a matter of mutual political interest.  'David' then angrily asked why we had come 'where we knew we were not welcome'.  His tone gave no room for attempted negotiation.  It was all 'I will talk and you will listen'.  Days before this book fair I spoke with Chris Draper who is a long time supporter and contributor to our blog/ magazine 'Northern Voices'.  Chris complained that 'David-under-the-pavement' had accused him of threatening violence against him, a charge utterly without substance.

Eventually, Bob Crane was allowed to look at the book fair.  Later that evening he returned to 'The Partisan', where he got on quite well with other anarchists who were present earlier at the book fair.
 

On 4^th December, after the above events I received a phone call from 'David-under-the-pavement'.  He again asked 'why had we come…'   I argued that we had come to see a book fair and try to

negotiate/ explain past misunderstandings.   But this was a waste of time with him and his associates.  Abruptly I ended this conversation.
For more go to: Northern Voices: Alice-in-Wonderland 'Anti-semitism' Charge Against ... 

www.northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2012/12/alice-in-wonderland-anti-semitism.html

www.northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2014/.../banarchists-at-peoples-history-museum.htmt

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Anarchists Attack Anarchists at M/c Bookfair

by Barry Woodling
 

ANARCHISTS within Campaign against the Blacklist found themselves blacklisted by Manchester Anarchist Bookfair.   An incredible happening took place at Saturday's bookfair.  

A meeting at the event on the blacklist was refused by the authoritarian clique in charge.  When two Unite members and Northern Anarchist Network (NAN) supporters Brian Bamford and Barry Woodling attended they were forcibly removed by one of the organisers Veg and several of his henchmen.  Remarkably both are citizen journalists on Northern Voices, indeed Brian is the editor and the magazine received an invitation to attend.  Spurious and bizarre reasons were given for their ejection ranging from anti-Semitism to Health and Safety.   

The resort to violence, bans and proscriptions is taken right out of the Stalinist textbook and seriously damages the credibility of the wider anarchist movement and therefore should be condemned unreservedly.

******

Inevitable roughhouse at Manchester Partisan!

Background to anarchist bookfair antics

THE promoters of the Partisan venue in Salford on Cheetham Hill Road and within sight of Strangeways Prison, have declared in their mission statement as follows:

“The aim of Partisan is to create a space in Manchester for grassroots or DIY music, political and cultural events,” explains Kate Hardy, one of the founding members. “The aim is to make somewhere that everyone can go to, even when they don’t have much cash.”

Not so at the Manchester Anarchist Bookfair today when a few folk hitherto associated with the Northern Anarchist Network, attempted to gain entrance and enjoy the event at around 1pm.

First of all the veteran anarchist Barry Woodling and several others mingled peacefully with folk buying books untroubled, but then the tall man Barry who stood out like a sore thumb with his garish black and red fleece was spotted by one of the organisers.  Since the 2012 bookfair, when this same bookfair bod, who hides behind the name 'Veg', had accosted and abused Barry accusing him of being an 'anti-semite', there has been much bad blood between anarchists in Manchester over the events at this 2012 event.  This was entirely provoked by the 'Veg' attack on Barry Woodling and particularly because having called Barry an 'anti-semite' and pushed him, Barry had to leave the premises of the bookfair venue, the People's History Museum, using a fire escape.  The manager of the People's History Museum later told me that Barry had to leave the premises by this strange route in the interests of 'his own safety', a baying mob having assembled including the leader of the local Solidarity Federation, Ronny Marsden and the national leader of the Anarchist Federation, Nick Heath.

Today's events followed the usual uproar seemingly now common at anarchist bookfairs nationally, and which this year, following a confrontation between radical feminists and trans activists, has led to the organisers of London Anarchist Bookfair to abandon plans to have a London bookfair in 2018.

This is the background to what happened at today's Manchester Anarchist Bookfair, and we hope to have more news on today's events as soon as we have more information of what went on.

Meanwhile, the Marxists in Manchester and beyond are laughing their socks off.

Freedom Press Cartoons at Bradford*

Freedom Press cartoons on exhibition in Bradford
from Donald Rooum (former Friend of Freedom Press)

THE Peace Museum in Bradford is currently hosting an exhibition ‘Cartoons For Peace’ including at least two Freedom Press books.

The March to Death, a book of anti-war cartoons was first published by Freedom Press in defiance of war-time censorship in 1943. The drawings are by John Olday illustrating quotations chosen anonymous by Marie-Louise Berneri. The edition on display, with an introduction and notes, was published in 1995.

Wildcat Anarchists Against Bombs, by Donald Rooum, was published by Freedom Press in 2003 for the Defence and Security Exhibition International (arms trade) fair.

Anti-war and anarchist cartoons, by many artists from around the world include original drawings of Donald Rooum’s cartoons for Peace News in the 1960s.

The Peace Museum is at 10 Piece Hall Yard, Bradford BD1 1PJ,           

telephone 01274 770 241,  info@peacemuseum.org.uk
open Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 10am to 4pm, admission free.
‘Cartoons For Peace’, a temporary exhibition, opened on 18 October 2017.
No closing date has yet been announced. 

*   The cartoonist and former Friend of Freedom Press, Donald Rooum, who sent us the above e-mail may not be aware that his colleagues on the Freedom Press Collective  issued the statement below on the 23th, June 2016.  This statement apparently drafted by Simon Saunders, the one-time East Anglian privately educated schoolboy, who now juggles his job as part-time Freedom Editor with his real career as a Morning Star hired hack,  attempts to blacklist the 'Northern Four', Martin Gilbert, Barry Woodling, Brian Bamford and Chris Draper, who are all heavily associated with Northern Voices.
This doesn't say much for the ability of Freedom Press and Simon Saunders to influence 'progressive outlets' yo ban us, or for the coherence of the comrade anarchists in carrying out Simon Saunder's wishes.

Freedom Collective Statement on Brian Bamford | Freedom Press

https://freedompress.org.uk/freedom-collective-statement-on-brian-bamford/ Their brand of disruptive, bullying, self-aggrandising tantrum-throwing is unacceptable and should not be given any support by anarchist or progressive organisations. In our view they should not be welcome in anarchist spaces nor published in the anarchist outlets – they are persona non grata in our eyes. We hope other organisations will support us in rejecting their toxic approach.

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Julie Hesmondhalgh at Alternative Media Event

IS THE MEDIA TURNING ALTERNATIVE? JULIE HESMONDHALGH AND THE SALFORD STAR SPEAK OUT
Media for the Many, not the FewMonday, October 2nd 2pm-4pm The People's Event Marquee, Piccadilly Gardens free
As the Conservative Party Conference kicks off in Manchester, a public meeting on the media is taking place in Piccadilly Gardens, which asks whether a media transformation is taking place, with speakers including Julie Hesmondhalgh and the Salford Star editor. It's hosted by the People's Assembly as part of the Take Back Manchester Festival.

JULIE Hesmondbalgh, the actress, spoke of the good quality drama on TV now, such as she said 'Three Girls' the tale of sexual grooming by Asian gangs in Rochdale and beyond, she said the best work had been about real life situations.  She also claimed that class as a cultural aspect of people's lives had been side-lined and that this was a bad thing.
The event addressed the question of power and influence in the media.  The question asked:
'Is the power of the mainstream media slowly waning, while the influence of the alternative and hyper-local online press grows?' 
For example websites like Salford Star and Northern Voices.
It was also noted that:
 'Six months ago, the media landscape in Britain seemed to be locked up by a handful of moguls and monopolies whose relentless attacks on Corbyn's Labour threatened to condemn progressive politics to the digital wilderness' state the organisers  'But the 2017 election was hailed as a defeat for the 'billionaire' press; Grenfell an awakening of the long ignored voice of the progressive 'many'; and Murdoch's second attempt to take over Sky remains mired in political heat, despite widespread expectations to the contrary.'
People clearly read papers like the Sun and Mail but are seemingly less influenced by what they read in the mass media. 
The author of The BBC: Myth of a Public Service; Tom Mills said that the BBC had become increasingly and deliberately top-down and centralised.  He argued that:
'The BBC is one of the most important institutions in Britain; it is also one of the most misunderstood. Despite its claim to be independent and impartial, and the constant accusations of a liberal bias, the BBC has always sided with the elite.'
Tom Mills demonstrated that we are, in fact, only getting the news that the Establishment wants aired in public:  'Are we witnessing a historic transformation towards a genuinely more diverse, democratic and accountable media in Britain or is media power consolidating in more complex and less visible ways?" 
Mr. Mills asks:  "Can the BBC regain the trust of viewers alienated by its coverage of Brexit and Labour over the last two years?  Will emergent hyper-local and alternative left press online provide a sufficient counterweight to the dominance of corporate media and the Conservative press?'
This is just one of the questions that the public meeting aimed to debate, while a few hundred yards away the Tory Party Conference gushes on, with the party backed by the most of the billionaire press barons.

Stephen Kingston, the Salford Star editor, said that his blog had about 40,000 page-viewings a month, and as a regional media outlet had to confront the Labour Council in Salford and the Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, as well as the issues such as the fall-out from issues such as Grenfell Tower.  He said that it was the job of the alternative media to challenge those in power no matter who they were.
There was some implied suggestions that the 'alternative' media ought rather to be identified as 'independent' or even 'campaigning' rather than 'alternative'.  I was involved in the 1970s and 80s with  Rochdale's Alternative Paper (RAP), and some people on the left thought that RAP ought to have been a campaigning publication.  At the time I thought they were right, but now I believe that the notion of 'campainging' would have tied RAP into the realm on the fashionable addicts, and by doing so it would have undermind its value.
Steve Sweeney, the Morning Star, journalist, talked about the need for the voices of the left and said people ought to read two newspapers:  the Morning Star and the Financial Times to understand both points of view.

Barry Woodling questioned Justin Schlosberg, senior lecturer in journalism, where Mr. Schlosberg said that the Labour Party election campaign program was a 'radical' paper.  Mr Woodling claimed it was no really radical.  He claimed that it was the Tory Party failures to fight an intellegent campaign rather than the Corbynista campaign, that had helped the Labour party to do better than expected.  He said that the 'dementia tax' was a fatal move.

Ken Livingstone Hung Out To Dry!

by Barry Woodling

KEN Livingstone has been hung out to dry by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.  It ill behoves Corbyn to criticise Ken since the former has shared a platform with holocaust denials such as Hamas.  Livingstones comments are supported by a plethora of historical evidence from Zionist, German and other sources.

National Socialists and Zionists collaborated because they had similar ideologies re ethnicity and nationhood.  There is considerable evidence adduced by historians to demonstrate that the Hitler government supported Zionist and Jewish emigration to Palestine between 1933 and 1940.  Joachim Prinz a Berlin rabbi who later became head of the American Jewish Congress wrote in his 1933 book  "Wir Juden"  (We are Jews) that the National Socialist Revolution meant "Jewry for the Jews".  Stephen Wise President of the American Jewish congress and the World Jewish congress told a New York rally in June 1930 "I am a Jew. Hitler was right in one thing.  He calls the Jewish people a race. We are a race".  Even the SS was enthusiastic in its support for Zionism in its paper Das Schwarze Korps in May 1935.   Vide Francis Nicosia. The Third Reich and the Palestinian Question. (1985) p54/55.

The centrepiece of German-Zionist collaboration during the Hitler era was the Haavara or Transfer Agreement concluded in 1932 which enabled tens of thousands of German Jews to migrate to Palestine with their wealth. Hitler reviewed the agreement in July and September 1937 and January 1938 and decided to maintain the Haavara Agreement. (W Feildenfeld et alia. The Haavara Transfer Agreement 1932 p32). This was the most far reaching example of collaboration between Hitlers Germany and international Zionism. Hitlers Third Reich did more than any other government during the 1930s to support Jewish development in Palestine.

In conclusion, the Labour Party witch hunt against Livingstone for his comments about Hitler supporting Zionism is totally unwarranted and yet a further example of the political bankruptcy of the Labour Party and a "shameful" capitulation to the Zionist lobby.

A Modest Proposal for Freedom Press

'It is hard to tell someone who is shortsighted how to get to a place.  Because you can't say “Look at that church tower ten miles away over there and go in that direction".'

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Manuscript 107 70 c: 1929)

THE modest program below sets out to sets out to provide a signpost for the forthcoming Annual & General Meeting of Friends of Freedom on the 23rd, June.  The four advocates of this modest program for change at Freedom Press are Barry Woodling; Martin Gilbert; Brian Bamford and Christopher Draper.  

In 1962, Vernon Richards for the then editors of FREEDOM addressed the readers in a Preface to a volume of Selected articles: 

'You, our readers, will, we hope, agree with Mr. Colin McInnes when he described FREEDOM as “about the only authentically polemical weekly surviving in our country” (New Statesman 7/9/62) for this very reason, and in fairness to our correspondents, comrades and sympathisers, we must mention that these Selections reflect the editorial approach of FREEDOM, an approach which on certain issues has been hotly contested, by comrades we esteem as anarchists and friends.'

Like the philosopher Wittgenstein quoted above, Vernon Richards was the son of a foreign businessman.   Both also had European origins.  The Austrian, Wittgenstein carried Tolstoy's Gospels in his pocket and Vernon Richards identified with the Italian anarchist Erico Malatesta.  James Pinkerton, a former International Secretary of the Syndicalist Worker's Federation (SWF) and a severe critic of Freedom, had to admit that Vernon Richards and Freedom's position on civil liberties was a distinguished model of radical journalism in the UK in the 1950s and 60s.

Over a year ago Chris Draper and Northern Voices* played a major role in re-establishing the Friends of Freedom Press as a functioning body and helped to install David Goodway as a new Friend.  What everyone of goodwill now wants, including the Friends of Freedom, is that some tidying up is required at 84b, Whitechappel High Street, and that the Trustees must now fulfil their obligations: the requirement under the Memorandum of Association is for the Friends to ensure that 'the anarchist journal “Freedom” ' is published properly.  For this reason we believe all the signatories to this modest program below should now be elected to the board of Freedom Press at the forthcoming AGM:

*  The publication Northern Voices was founded on the initiative of a former Friend of Freedom Press, Harold Schulthorpe, and others in 2003.

OUR FRIENDS in the NORTH      June 2016:

* For over a century FREEDOM was uniquely important in the exchange of ideas between anarchists and the wider promotion of anarchist ideas and activities
* “Friends of Freedom Press“ (FFP) exists “To assist financially the printing and publication of the anarchist journal “Freedom” (Memorandum of Association; para 3(A)1).
* Despite this unequivocal obligation to ensure FREEDOM maintains its historic role, FFP (as currently constituted) has proved ineffective
* FREEDOM’s assets currently facilitate some positive activities but these assets are legally required to be used for maintaining FREEDOM as a lively, inclusive and effective Anarchist Journal (in print or web form). The existing website and recent print offerings have proved wholly inadequate and exemplify regrettable and embarrassing indulgence. 
* Having initially been instrumental in the revival of FFP and subsequently witnessed a demonstrable lack of progress towards re-publication, “Our Friends in the North” (OFIN) now propose a slate of four well-qualified candidates committed to resurrect FREEDOM with a clearly articulated programme;

** Within 12 months, selling the 84b Whitechapel High Street property to liquidate FREEDOM assets
** The creation and maintenance of a new, professionally designed, sophisticated FREEDOM website within 6 months of liquidation  
** A Webmaster-Editor to be formally appointed on a bi-annual basis by a newly created FFP Publications Sub-Group (PSG) with an annual budget of 15K (1% of liquidation capital), to include a modest stipend
** A three-person PSG to be appointed from within, and responsible to, FFP (by secret ballot if excess volunteers)
** Furthermore, to challenge London-centricity OFIN proposes convening all future FFP meetings in Birmingham
** All future FFP agendas and minutes to be published online

If appointed, all OFIN candidates commit to working cooperatively and constructively with existing FFP members to revive the fortunes of FREEDOM.  On this basis we ask you to endorse the following;

Brian Bamford – Rochdale

Christopher Draper – Llandudno

Martin Gilbert – Ulverston

Barry Woodling - Salford