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The death of east London's most radical bookshop

the-londoner.co.uk

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

#131

Post by no_time »

kmeisthax wrote: post #79
Joeboy wrote: 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…

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.

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

#132

Post by harvey9 »

rtpg wrote: post #96
tolerance wrote: post #12

> 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…

I think if you serve dine in food you are legally required to have a customer toilet.

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

#133

Post by harvey9 »

pydry wrote: post #122
analog31 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I wonder is how this didn't also happen to the right.

A) It does, sometimes. B) The far right has a lot of wealthy donors because it is safe for capital. In this case, I think money would have smoothed over most of the issues.

They seem to have had someone bankrolling a loss-making cafe. How much more money was needed to smooth that over?

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

#134

Post by watashiideogram »

immibis wrote: post #118
watashiideogram wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What I wonder is how this didn't also happen to the right. Well, the "right", or more aptly conservatives, actively resist change in culture and society. They conserve it (hence the name).

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

No true Scotsman? Yes, there are conservative loonies today (just as there always have been). There are also hangers ons/co-opters/johnny come latelys who adopt the "conservative" label as a means to legitimize their platforms. None of these are relevant to what is being discussed in this thread.

The first sentence of the Wikipedia article on conservatism is exactly what I mean:

> Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values.

By promoting the incumbent ideas, there's no chance that they "freak(s) out wider society" as the OP said. The ideology is simply to resist change, which will almost always be less controversial than advocating for change.

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

#135

Post by Gooblebrai »

gdbsjjdn wrote: post #99
tbrownaw wrote: post #27

> Since opening, the Scarlett Letters hadn’t made a month-by-month profit, but had been kept afloat by savings and a monthly donation of £10,000 from an anonymous “angel investor”. Sounds like it wasn't so much a business as a piece of performance art.

This is insane overhead if you want to try and run a "leftist" business. It sounds like Scarlett is a trust fund baby with more money than sense. I've been running a retail business with similar inventory costs for a couple years. I have one employee and I pay them generously. I personally chip in about 20-30k annually to keep the whole thing afloat. It's definitely possible if you keep things small. Edit to add: 10k…

Seems like you are assuming they sold the books to cover their monthly burn. But seems it was kept afloat due to donations more than due to inventory sales

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

#136

Post by Lio »

halo wrote: post #76
mhh__ wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The last time Labour wasn't like this we had waiting lists to get a telephone!

That telephone monopoly was privatised - and later dragged their heels on rolling out broadband because ISDN was so profitable, causing untold damage to the UK tech economy as the country fell behind on connectivity. It’s a great parable of badly-managed state-run monopoly vs badly-managed privatised monopoly.

If the Tory government hadn’t reserved the market for cable TV exclusively for two US companies, NTL and Telewest, BT would have rolled out fibre to the home in 1990.

I don’t think I blame BT for not wanting to invest in a market it was barred from making a profit in. This is the result of heavy handed local regulation strangling a national incumbent for the sake of foreign interests.

At any point other competitors could have made the same investment but didn’t want to either until relatively recently.

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

#137

Post by Gooblebrai »

pelagicAustral wrote: post #88

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.

It's everywhere in any major bookshop in London like Waterstones and Foyles

And once the TV series is out, you'll see it even more

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

#138

Post by specproc »

tbrownaw wrote: post #27

> Since opening, the Scarlett Letters hadn’t made a month-by-month profit, but had been kept afloat by savings and a monthly donation of £10,000 from an anonymous “angel investor”. Sounds like it wasn't so much a business as a piece of performance art.

I've actually been in there, didn't love it.

I'm very much on the left, from an economic perspective at least, and a bibliophile, but I found the selection underwhelming. There weren't that many shelves and I just don't read much gender stuff, which was very much the focus.

I did buy a few books, none of them particularly good. The vibe there was also a bit odd, now I reflect on it.

I can definitely recommend Bookmarks off Tottenham Court Road for this sort of stuff. Great range, friendly staff, some nice merch. Got my prized Jeremy Corbyn tea towel there.

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

#139

Post by gpvos »

Sophira wrote: post #128

This article makes it seem like the whole thing is over and nothing came of it, but The People's Letters have a X account that they're doing updates on[0], and the new location opens on October 1st (this Wednesday)[1]. I'm not entirely sure why the article didn't talk about this. [0] https://x.com/PeoplesLetters [1] https://x.com/PeoplesLetters/status/1971482419502198960

The article dates from 26 July, the tweet from 26 September.

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

#140

Post by john01dav »

harvey9 wrote: post #132
rtpg wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I think if you serve dine in food you are legally required to have a customer toilet.

In this case I've had success explaining the problem to people, stating my proposed solution that they won't like, and asking if they have a better idea. If they have a better idea, then the problem is solved. If not, then they've thought of it from my perspective and it is shifted from me imposing something unpleasant to there being something unpleasant that none of us know how to get rid of.
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