Lakoff's assertions against our group are either intentionally dishonest, purely speculative, or further illustration of the Bookshop's isolation from the very social struggles its members recognize as significant.

On February 9th, 2004, The McGill Daily ran a story, called «Things have changed», about Montreal's Alternative Bookshop. Adam Kaufman interviewed Bookshop collective members about problems they had been having recently with other anarchist groups. As a member of Groupe anarchiste (1) Bête Noire, now called Groupe anarchiste La Commune, a local member of the Northeastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists (NEFAC), I would like to respond to inaccuracies published about us and to comment about our relationship with the Bookshop.

Kaufman states that «...a number of anarchist groups in Montreal, like Groupe anarchiste Bête Noire/NEFAC Montreal (which runs the occasional book Kiosk at Café Chaos on St. Denis Street) have started boycotting the Alternative Bookshop.» Both elements of this statement are inaccurate.

The Anarchist Kiosk at Café Chaos is the joint effort of several local distributors of anarchist literature, including Maikan distribution, La Sociale, Groupe communiste libertaire, Journal LeTrouble, La Mauvaise Herbe, NEFAC-Mtl and others. To assert that we run the Kiosk alone is to ignore the mission of the new Distributors Coalition. Contrary to current practices at the Alternative Bookshop, our goal is to popularize anarchist thought through as broad a representation from the movement as possible, taking advantage of the strong potential for mass public appeal for ideas from different anarchist tendencies. Gathering to promote these ideas in a social, public event is a concrete counteraction to the Bookshop's self-imposed isolation. It seemed obvious to us that if Distributors Coalition supporters wanted to encourage our new effort by making purchases from us, they would choose not to shop at the Bookshop. However, in no way has a boycott against the Bookshop become a public campaign of NEFAC-Mtl or of any other single group from the Coalition.

We had long found it unacceptable that the only public space in Montreal where anarchist literature was widely available was dominated by a single collective with a stranglehold grasp ona common resource. We sought to change this. But, in an assembly last August of the AEELI (the non-profit that runs the building in which the Bookshop is located), Bookshop members blocked a proposal to share organizational responsibilities on an equal basis with participating distributors. Afterwards, we in NEFAC-Mtl made a decision to pull our literature (2) from the Bookshop's shelves. We will continue to withhold our literature unless all of Montreal's anarchists are allowed to participate in this important undertaking as partners and comrades. A committee made up of delegates from different groups, running the building as well as the Bookshop, would make it a much more vibrant and efficiently run space than is currently the case.

It was gratifying to read Moishe's acknowledgment in print that «French litterature is lacking in the store». But this remark is inconsistent with the Bookshop's unfortunate past practices against the wider distribution of anarchist literature in French, given that Moishe himself and other collective members have rejected many French-speaking member applicants who would have been the most knowledgeable and skilled in selecting and providing these materials. Furthermore, in light of Moishe's statement, the Bookshop's widely known bias against NEFAC-Mtl and other (mainly) French-speaking anarchist groups as invaders of 'their' collective space now seems contradictory if not hypocritical.

But the most distressing part of «Things have changed» is the end, in which Aaron Lakoff describes a divide between so-called «capital-A» anarchists and «little-a» anarchists, placing NEFAC in his category of «capital-A» anarchists. NEFAC, probably the most explicitly anarchist organization in our region, has, in Lakoff's opinion, a «rather dogmatic, by the book, purist ideology». This is opposed to the «little-a» anarchists who, as far as he understands, do not reject national liberation struggles and are involved in anti-racist politics. Lakoff suggests that «little-a» anarchists are the only ones aligning themselves with social justice struggles.

It seems silly to do so but perhaps we should inform Lakoff that the last issue of NEFAC's English language publication on the Bookshop's shelves (The Northeastern Anarchist, Summer/Fall 2003) was entirely dedicated to exploring the intersections of race and class struggles, with a focus on our organizational strategy of building a militant working class movement that is cross-race and gender equal. Furthermore, NEFAC-Mtl has steadily supported strikes (Vidéotron, Old Port, Labatt); has been involved with solidarity groups for non-status immigrants and refugees; has fought, ideologically and physically, the racist Mouvement de Liberation Nationale du Quebec (MLNQ); has distributed thousands of leaflets against the war in Iraq in mass marches; and has recently made an effort to create an anti-authoritarian pole in the struggles against the Charest government. Lakoff's assertions against our group are either intentionally dishonest, purely speculative, or further illustration of the Bookshop's isolation from the very social struggles its members recognize as significant.

We in NEFAC-Mtl would agree with Moishe, who wants «(...) the building [to] be a meeting place for all those involved in social struggles». We hope that the building on St. Laurent near Ontario will one day become this. We are willing to work with anyone who will treat comrades fairly. At this point, it is simply sad to note that the Bookshop takes more pains to discredit anarchists than it does to promote anarchist ideas.

Nicolas Robertson
Groupe anarchiste La Commune/NEFAC-Mtl

(1) There is no pun intended here : Groupe anarchiste is gramatically correct in french with a «little-a» in french as anarchiste is the adjective to the noun Groupe.
(2) Our magazines, Ruptures (french), the Northeastern Anarchist (english) and many other publications from anarcho-communists organizations abroad.