...apologising for guilt tripping people, instead of for a few typos?

Working hard on all sorts of radical projects but you don't seem to believe we deserve a day off to catch up with old friends and take it easy?

That protestant work ethic dies hard, huh.

Anon, no one is saying you shouldn't have a day of rest, but it wouldn't have taken much effort to go to the Poor Doors protest least.

I agree the bookfair has become a bit of a joke in recent years and yes the ever falling numbers are disappointing but I for one hope it soldiers on and reminds people there were once alternatives to the present political system. We all accept that neo-liberal capitalism has won and the chances of either Socialism or Anarchism are now long gone but that doesn't mean those of us bright enough to understand there was once a better way should not continue to try and educate a new generation.

"Anon, no one is saying you shouldn't have a day of rest, but it wouldn't have taken much effort to go to the Poor Doors protest least."

I did, actually. Others (including some who I know personally have already done a f**k of a lot recently) didn't.

Their choice. I still don't think guilt-tripping is any way to build a movement. Grow up.

Sorry I couldn't make it this year.

I do believe the bookfair would be enhanced by a speakers corner outside the building.

I tried this spontaneously last year 2013. It was going well until a group of people came out of the building and tried to shut it down with chanting, abuse and lightweight physical assault.

Some of the folks enjoying the Speakers Corner then followed this group back to their workshop and gave them a taste of their own disruptive medicine. Hopefully we all leant the value of the freedom to assemble and to express and how basic it is to anarchism.

I was unaware of the drama in the building and had a second go at soap box speaking that went very well without an attempt to censor.
As in the first attempt there was plenty of engagement, interjection and debate. For example, I learnt a lot about Saudi Arabia by passing Muslim students who weren't attending the bookfair but were strolling by on campus.

As an educator, I find this format a lot more interesting and dynamic than the standard passive audience lecture format. For example, strangers in the spontaneous crowd that has assembled identify common interests in the toing and froing of debate and break off to form more specific conversations

Free speech - use it or lose it!
Don't let the lynch mobs get you down.
Ser you in 2015

dear author of the 'news' piece above

the date for this year's anarchist bookfair was set and publicised many months ago. as was the tuc march. if you want to attract lots of those people to your protest at parliament square, why not organise it to happen on a different day so there isn't a clash? and people aren't forced to choose between your event and the others?

some of those you condemn as 'bookfair anarchists' are people who work throughout the year to publish/ distribute anarchist info, people who often take direct action on all kinds of issues. the bookfair is an opportunity that we only get once a year: to be in the same building, to discuss and coordinate campaigns and actions with people from other places, to share and distribute information/ magazines/ pamphlets/books/ ideas with each other. why would we want to miss out on all of that to join in a relatively pointless reoccupation of parliament square?

today another annual event took place in london, just around the corner from you. a march from trafalgar square to downing street to remember/ commemorate all those who have died in police/ state custody. but i didn't see any of you making the effort to attend/ show your solidarity with the united friends and family campaign. obviously black and working class people suffer disproportionately from police harassment/ violence/ murder, and the occupy 'movement' in london appears* to consist primarily of white, middle-class folk, so i can see why you may not have prioritised -or even known about- the march

personally, i don't think guilt-tripping hardworking activists about their attendance/ non-attendance of political events is an effective or revolutionary strategy, so i won't.



*the small crowd in parliament square today was overwhelmingly white, especially in comparison to the uffc event.