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The death of east London's most radical bookshop
- rs_rs_rs_rs_rs 1y agoThis read like an episode from Portlandia.
- fiduciarytemp 1y ago[dead]
- Reason077 1y agoIt's basically the plot of Empire Records, the 1995 classic starring young Renée Zellweger and Liv Tyler. Except with a radical left bookstore instead of independent record store. And no happy ending.
- ecshafer 1y agoEmpire Records was anti-corporate. The record store goal needed to stay independent, under Joe's management, and they did want to actually pay money. They didn't strike and just demand to become owners. Ironically though, there is a line by the owner of Empire Records on how he would be a rich man if his hippy father hadn't turned his grand fathers toilet emporium into a record store. But considering the state of record stores right now in the world, he is probably right, and long term a toilet store was a better option.
- oldpersonintx2 1y ago[dead]
- horns4lyfe 1y agoThis is a great read. Just hilariously unserious people
- aanet 1y agoThat was my first thought too
- lysace 1y agoI enjoyed reading the initial part of their currently most popular story: https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/karl-marxs-labubus/ https://www.the-londoner.co.uk/karl-marxs-labubus/ Karl Marx’s Labubus - The memeification of the communist grandee’s final resting place
- rjbwork 1y agoPerformative 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.
- worik 1y ago"Performative radicalism" is a problem left and right Look at UKIP, blaming the cluster fuck of the Brittish economy on immigrants, who are weak, other and easy to blame for damage caused by making taxpayers pay for banker's misfortune and Brexit I am in New Zealand and we have the same problems, on the left and the right.
- mhh__ 1y agoGiven that UKIP don't really exist anymore as a major party may I gently contend that it may be slightly more complicated than you imagine
- lostlogin 1y agoReform: UKIP lite. The Russian money and dog whistles remain.
- overboard2 1y agoHow do you feel about WWI era Germans funding the Bolsheviks in Russia?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- cafard 1y agoShort-term or long-term?
- reitzensteinm 1y ago
- rahimnathwani 1y agoThis reminds of this discussion about the closure of a 'cooperative' bookshop in New York: https://x.com/narrenhut/status/1970884747833585690 https://x.com/narrenhut/status/1970884747833585690
- jbm 1y agoThis 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).
- School-Cotton 1y agoMelanated just means dark-skinned, in case you’re indeed being sincere. And yes, there are people who talk like this.
- jbm 1y agoI can guess what it means, but it sounds like a pastiche and an exaggeration from far right activists that are trying to portray leftists as being out of touch.
- amiga386 1y agoOP'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.
- amiga386 1y agoPerhaps they just "didn't feel like being customer-servicey" often enough: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8KoiQKPmXf/ https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8KoiQKPmXf/
- fnord77 1y agoThese people have diverged from reality.
- Joeboy 1y agoPeople 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 has been open since 1945 and Freedom since 1886. It's not the inevitable fate of radical bookshops to implode like this.
- amiga386 1y agohttps://old.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/142etak/heartbroken_over_the_closure_of_pink_peacock_cafe/ https://old.reddit.com/r/glasgow/comments/142etak/heartbroke... > The owners of the Pink Peacock Cafe faced an uphill battle against prejudice, discrimination, and hatred, making it nearly impossible for them to continue their noble mission of creating a safe space for everyone. Top comment: > Your place was an absolute fucking disgrace. You displayed more hatred and bigotry than any of the folk you are accusing. You didn't fall because of 'the system', you failed because you are a pseudo-intellectual circle jerk with staff who are abusive. Fuck off and good riddance. Also: > You failed because opening whenever you could be bothered while selling piss-poor coffee and average food in a cafe which often resembled a messy student's bedroom isn't going to bring the punters in. > And be honest here, you're closing because you can't afford to fix the disabled toilet. You'll all be fine though. You've got trust funds and wealthy parents who'll help fund your next doomed to fail venture but those poor wee sods that did rely upon you will be let down by nobody but you.
- woodpanel 1y ago[flagged]
- Forgeties79 1y agoHoly shoehorn, Batman
- rcakebread 1y ago
- onetokeoverthe 1y ago[dead]
- tolerance 1y ago> 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 under ostensibly noble causes (cue all the aims previously omitted above) they tend to implode rather quick. 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. Also I'm a bit let down it never disclosed how Blaise Agüera y Arcas wound up there. If a Google employee is introduced in the beginning of a story it must be explained as to why. But if I was watching my competitors face legal issues for supposed illicit processing of intellectual property, I’d definitely send my guys out to embattled book stores to get their stock for the cheap.
- ZeWaka 1y ago> Also I'm a bit let down it never disclosed how Blaise Agüera y Arcas wound up there. I'm assuming the article forgot to mention (or weren't certain) that they were the angel investor, given that it was heavily implied.
- basisword 1y ago>> This was a remarkable story. I’m sensing a pattern. When people of certain ideologies band together under ostensibly noble causes I think this is the issue - they didn't band together. They all shared the noble cause but one was employing the others. Wrong business structure if the aim is to 'band together' and all equalling share in the hurt of running the business.
- renewiltord 1y agoThese frequently happen among these people. I'm reminded of the Current Affairs episode and my favorite since it was so irrelevant: Matt Yglesias getting lambasted because he dared suggest hiring cleaners for the Vox office.
- selimthegrim 1y agoWhat happened with Current Affairs?
- renewiltord 1y agoHere's an article that you can use a seed around which to find out https://yasminnair.com/march-what-really-happened-at-current-affairs/ https://yasminnair.com/march-what-really-happened-at-current...
- tbrownaw 1y ago> 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.
- nativeit 1y agoThat’s probably true of most book stores at this point.
- alexey-salmin 1y agoNot really, margins on coffee are extremely high and a library-like environment can attract paying customers if you play it right.
- nenenejej 1y agoBeing in hospitality is not high margin. You want people to buy a coffee and breakfast or lunch and go away fairly quickly.
- bombcar 1y agoIndependent bookstores stay afloat if they own their building, usually. At least the ones I know of that have remained open are in a building owned by the owner (so they don't have to pay rent).
- badpun 1y agoA business that is only reasonably profitable if it doesn't have to pay rent is not really profitable. If the owner owns the building, he might as well rent out the place and get majority of income without doing any work. The bookstore is just a hobby on top of rental income, which he chooses to plow into his own bookstore.
- bombcar 1y ago
- grumple 1y agoThis played out much like many coffee shops that I’ve seen in my city and others [0]. Basically some leftist with a little money and little to no business acumen opens a low margin business and hires far-left employees. Those employees, dissatisfied with their low wages - they are, after all, baristas at coffee shops that are barely profitable, if at all - form a union. When the owner tells them they can’t pay more and offer benefits because they are literally losing money, the employees then take to social media, destroying what little customer base the business had. The business closes, and the employees are now unemployed, having destroyed their own livelihood and a place they actually liked working, because they had this absurd idea that their queer/trans owner that was scraping by was some maniacal oligarch that deserved to be crushed by the workers. The real lesson is that if you’re opening a small coffee shop or bookshop or similar small business, you have to work full time and not hire people unless absolutely necessary. And if you do hire others, avoid the communists. 0. https://www.34st.com/article/2022/08/minas-world-lgbtq-coffee-shop-black-malpractice-philadelphia-queer-sonam-parikh-kate-egghart https://www.34st.com/article/2022/08/minas-world-lgbtq-coffe...
- nativeit 1y agoIf I’m a barista at an indie shop shitting on my small business employer for not giving me more money, then I’m sort of by definition not much of a communist. The handful of sincere communists I know would absolutely label those people (correctly) as ignorant dipshits larping as communists (or at the very least, deploying convenient tropes as cudgels for their own narrow self-interests). No one who’s serious in their communist ideals would seek validation from their capitalist employers in the first place, and anyone who does should take the opportunity for some self-reflection. The best people I’ve known from all over the political spectrum shared a capacity to bring me into their corner, for a few select issues anyway. They could only get to the point in the conversation where my mind is changed because they were sincere, humble, informed, curious, empathetic, and open to having the discussions. I feel like so much of contemporary public discourse is shaped by the worst, most transparently dishonest idiots in society. This perspective of mine is also probably bent by the fact that I left Facebook around 2012, and haven’t really spent much time on social media since. I logged onto Instagram not long ago, and it all feels really weird from a naive point of view.
- pimlottc 1y agoIt seems that this business was incorporated as a community interest company (CIC) [0]. The Wikipedia article for CIC [1] talks about more the concept of "asset lock": > The articles of a CIC must also provide that its assets cannot be used except for the benefit of the community. This is known as the asset lock. It sounds like this is why the employees believed they had a right to the books. But it seems hard to say without knowing what the specific articles for this company. Of course, I know little of UK law, perhaps someone who is more familiar can chime in? 0: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15566212 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_interest_company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_interest_company
- krisoft 1y ago> But it seems hard to say without knowing what the specific articles for this company. The Articles of Association seems to be available under your first link. (From filling history / Incorporation / View PDF) I assume the employees either wanted to form an other asset locked entity or that hoped 3.2 b applied in their case.
- pimlottc 1y agoAh, I missed that link, thanks!
- basisword 1y agoThis kind of thing would only work as a co-operative or non-profit passion project where everyone has equal standing. Either you all want to put equal effort into running the non-profitable enterprise or you want fair pay, rights etc. in which case it needs to be profitable - and that's pretty much impossible for something like this. And in fact the employees clearly recognised it needed to be a co-operative) There are a lot of comments linking this to 'left politics' but in reality this community bookshop was setup and only functioned by taking advantage of the 'employees' wanting to contribute something good to society. They come out of this looking bad but in reality their good nature was taken advantage of because if you can only run a 'business' on zero hours contracts and no sick pay (keeping in mind workers rights in the UK are much higher than in the US where a lot of readers may be from) you're taking advantage of people who are either desperate or too idealistic (to their own detriment). Take this paragraph for example: >>Trying to create a space like this in advanced capitalism is extremely difficult,” it read. If the 'advanced capitalism' they're talking about is capitalism where workers have rights...good. >> “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.” Wonderful. That's what founders do. They work hard and suck it up hopefully for some sort of pay off later on. Struggling as a founder does not give you any right to take advantage of your employees.
- austinjp 1y agoWhile I very much appreciate the story, I wish it was written in a more straightforward style. The cross-paragraph callbacks from a Google employee to someone living in a basement... well, that's fine for fiction (although I'd still find it tiring) but for this I found it needlessly difficult to follow. But maybe that's just me. I appreciate this is a stylistic complaint, so I doubt everyone will agree. Still, for a factual piece that I expected to read more like reportage, I found this article fiddly to process.
- fnord77 1y agoSo in the beginning of the story, a google VP was mentioned, then no follow up. Why was that person there?
- nenenejej 1y agoMaybe there were some rare books missing from their training set.
- ttctciyf 1y agoThought it was going to be about Freedom Bookshop in Angel Alley, Whitechapel, but thankfully that seems to be alive and well[0]! Being "the oldest and largest specialist anarchist bookshop in Britain" without succumbing to internecine bickering and factionalisation is pretty darn radical, I would have thought. 0: https://freedompress.org.uk/about-freedom/ https://freedompress.org.uk/about-freedom/
- 113 1y agoI also thought this would be about Freedom, the title is really a bit misleading.
- woodpanel 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- ruined 1y agoah, it wasn't a collective. of course it failed. in seattle's pike market, left bank books has been a collective operation for over fifty years now. it doubles as an event space and community center. and it's not just a static group of old comrades, many young people are involved.
- pelagicAustral 1y agoI 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.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- firefax 1y agoYou could check it out from a library and just not bring it back. They'll charge you the MSRP.
- sandspar 1y agoCheck large chains like Indigo Books in Vancouver - Gibson lives there.
- cm2012 1y agoFor what its worth, I just checked my local Barnes and Nobles in the suburbs of New York and they had it.
- globular-toast 1y agoThis is a funny comment because just last week I bought a second-hand copy in Berwick-upon-Tweed. I haven't read it yet but it's been on my list forever and it's a mint copy with a nice yellow cover. It was published in the UK as part of the "SF Masterworks" series which is a trove of previously out of print stuff. If you come to London again you should find it in most large bookshops like Waterstones.
- Gooblebrai 1y agoIt'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
- harvey9 1y ago
- rdtsc 1y agoThis is just very said. It just seems on the surface that none of the parties here thought ahead more than one step ahead. > They were simply too kind, too feminine, too British: “You are all extremely nice, assigned female at birth, in customer service, mostly British etc., and all of this sometimes doesn’t lend itself to ‘no,’” the WhatsApp message explained. That's like throwing a molotov cocktail into a fireworks storage warehouse. What did they expect the response to that would be? It's just tremendous lack self-awareness at play here. The shop is closing so we'll just ... occupy it? And then what, the owner will give them shares of ownership as a reward? This randomly reminded me of Slavoj Žižek's when he said he would have liked to see "V for Vendeta -- The Sequel". This is probably what it would be -- the winners would be fighting over clogged toilets, starting campaigns on Instagram and occupying each other's offices and making deals with locksmiths to be there at 4am to break in to take back their space.
- jl6 1y agoSounds like a textbook purity spiral. There’s a failure-mode of liberal open mindedness, where your mind is so open your brain falls out.
- Sophira 1y agoThis 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 https://x.com/PeoplesLetters [1] https://x.com/PeoplesLetters/status/1971482419502198960 https://x.com/PeoplesLetters/status/1971482419502198960
- gpvos 1y agoThe article dates from 26 July, the tweet from 26 September.
- southernplaces7 1y ago"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.