[slothjabber]

ALB wrote:

How come that the CWO, which favours political action by a vanguard party and envisages a transition period with a state, are admitted to the Anarchists Bookfairs while we are banned?  Not that we are going to go begging to be allowed a stall there.

 This is a lie, though, isn't it? The SPGB was not 'banned' from having a stall this year, or for several years in the past. Is hasn't asked to have a stall, has it? And is 'asking' what you refer to as begging? What has actually happened is that the SPGB has given up asking, which is the primary reason it did not have a stall, and the CWO has not given up asking, which is why it did. It may be that the organisers would not have allowed the SPGB to have a stall – it's been pointed out (quite reasonably I think) that as it's an Anarchist bookfair there's no requirement to let Marxist groups in – but the CWO was allowed to have a stall after they put in a request, and were then contacted by the organisers to provide further information, which they did, after which the organisers accepted that they had a sufficient relationship with Anarchism to be given a stall – this year. Next year, things might be different of course. Perhaps the differences that the organisers might see between the SPGB and the CWO (were the SPGB actually to make an application of course) would include the fact that the CWO doesn't claim to be a party, unlike the SPGB; that the CWO doesn't see the class party taking state power, unlike the SPGB; that the CWO doesn't stand in elections, unlike the SPGB; and that the CWO is strongly in favour of workers' councils, unlike ther SPGB. All of these factors would put the CWO much closer to most Anarchists (whether they call themselves Anarcho-syndicalists or Anarchist-Communists or not) than the SPGB, which still somewhat bizarrely claims to be 'the parliamentary wing of the Anarchist movement'. But, whether the organisers would, or would not, have accepted the SPGB's application is a secondary question, because the SPGB did not request a stall. I think saying that the SPGB has been 'banned' or prevented from having or 'not allowed' to have a stall is a straight-out lie. It might have had a request for a stall turned down in the past. But for the last few years at least it hasn't even asked. Do you intend to make this clear to all your members and readers, many of whom have no doubt been left with the impression that this year the organisers decided to admit the CWO but not the SPGB?

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