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The death of east London's most radical bookshop

the-londoner.co.uk

151–160 of 191 posts

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#151
post #6

Performative radicalism that freaks out wider society instead of slow steady progress has led to the near complete irrelevance of the left in the west, especially the anglosphere. I mean, UK Labor is a centrist pro-capital party now. It's over.

The extremely effective general strike that happened in Italy of a few days ago didn't start from academia, but dock workers in Genoa. Grumpy, robust, very left-wing dock workers.

The biggest issue of most "performative", as you call it, left wing movements is the lack of direct experience with everyday politics. Real-world politics are extremely messy, often in direct conflict with our ideals. Stuff like, How far you can push your message, how far can you pull the strings of the people and the institutions around you.

Those workers have a very good understanding of working both with strong forces and delicate equilibriums (...equilibria?). Both in their everyday work and their contractual situation. Otherwise people die, for real. They knew exactly what they were doing to get their end goals.

I see the same approach in people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Interestingly enough, she has too a working class background in a field where power balance is paramount. On the other hand I can't think of a single well-known British Labour politician who shares the same.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#152
post #96

> To Parker’s mind, for a project started with the aim of platforming sex workers [...] to have reached such a point was mortifying. How had things gotten so bad? I’m intentionally omitting all the objectives that actually make sense for a book store to have, in order to highlight what apparently was the main one... This was a remarkable story. I’m sensing a pattern. When people of certain ideologies band together un…

> Often, the objectors feel as though it's the responsibility of the other side (usually the leadership) to afford them with some sort of power of their own. reading this story, it sounds like leadership was also just bad. The toilet story is just odd! > Keen to thwart any further opportunistic toilet-users, Scarlett had a new policy. Staff were to personally escort anyone who asked to use the toilet to ensure they d…

Yes. The leadership was also just (as) bad.

But combine incompetent leadership with impetuous personnel and I’m sure some other lame issue would’ve been set to fester for the dissolution of this bookshop.

And I’m not one to try to inject politics into every issue but it’s a good place to start and it sure has a way of being evoked by the parties under question one way or another.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#153
post #9

People who enjoyed this may also enjoy the Blocked and Reported podcast's episode about Glasgow's Pink Peacock cafe, "the only queer Yiddish anarchist vegan pay-what-you-can café in the world". If I remember it right, it closed among similar drama, also specifically involving issues with the building's toilet. I have to admit to finding these things hugely entertaining. But for balance I'll point out that Housmans ha…

According to their website[0] they will be taking on New York soon!

[0] - https://pinkpeacock.gay/

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Radical left-wingers subdivide into two groups: 1. Those who intuitively understand power dynamics and endeavor towards a "don't kill, and don't be killed[0]" mentality, even if they understand that the radical change they want is generational 2. People who want to wear the boot To be clear, every organization and movement has #2. Libertarian conservatives are chock full of Trump bootlickers, neoliberals were basical…

I don't understand how RMS ties into this otherwise well articulated comment.

In fact, one of the most repeated anecdotes about RMS hinged on him not wearing boots.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#155
post #149
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The so-called conservatives are radical centrists at best. While today’s „far-right“ would have been considered moderate conservatives not so long ago.

The “far right” has become just a schoolyard name calling label to brand anyone the left disagrees with

More like a nice way of saying fascist

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#156
post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also incorrect. The current crop of so-called conservatives are extremely radical.

The so-called conservatives are radical centrists at best. While today’s „far-right“ would have been considered moderate conservatives not so long ago.

I have no idea what you're talking about. The current "far right" is rounding up the brown people (except the ones they agree with) and sending them to concentration camps. That would have been unthinkable a few decades ago, even on the right. And it's definitely not centrist.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#158
"A newly launched account said they were in “open dispute” with their employer over the threats to fire staff and the failure to meet all its demands. “The workers are queer, trans, racialised, disabled, sex workers and students,” it argued. “Their identities have been used to advertise and fundraise for the bookshop as a radical space whilst their voices are not listened to.” As might be expected, there was an outraged response online. Responses on Instagram accused the bookshop of being a “marketing campaign” as well as “colonial”.

Eight days later, Scarlett fired back on the shop’s Instagram, claiming they had attempted to, or were in the process of meeting, almost all the union’s demands. “Trying to create a space like this in advanced capitalism is extremely difficult,” it read. “The management targeted by this dispute is not a faceless collective of executives in boardrooms. It is one person, who is multiply marginalised, a known member of the community and for the past year has been working for six or seven days a week for the fraction of the salary offered to the booksellers.”

And all the above is a good summary of why for all the deep nuttiness of MAGA-level conservatives, the deep left is just as fucking off the deep end.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#159
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a joke right? No one refers to people as "melanated POC", do they? I actually got in spat with a coworker once at a previous company for politely and sincerely asking what one of these neologisms meant (latinx in that case).

Melanated just means dark-skinned, in case you’re indeed being sincere. And yes, there are people who talk like this.

OP's point is it's an affectation, aimed at signalling to an in-group. It's not a common phrase. Like "folx" or "foid", the jargon/cant is there to exclude "normies". Even an appeal for help comes with a barbed "... but not from YOU, outsider" meaning.

Re: The death of east London's most radical bookshop

#160

I know this is a tangent, but I just want to share this oddity. I am 38 years old, and I have been trying to buy Neuromancer since 1999. I have been in Santiago, Rome, London, Miami, Madrid, Bogota, live, in situ looking for the book on mainstream bookshops and I have never found a copy to buy. I know Neuromancer by heart but I have never been able to buy a copy of it. 38 Years.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=neuromancer
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