Some content seems to have disappeared.

Submitted by Rory Reid on September 21, 2017

Hi all,

I tried to access James Heartfield's an Unpatriotic history of ww2 and Roxanne-Dunbar Ortiz but they seem to have disappeared and the pages only show as blank.

Does anyone know why this is?

Mike Harman

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on September 21, 2017

He asked for them to be removed due to copyright.

This was shortly after we put up a critical introduction pointing out his relationship to Spiked Online and the political positions he's taken on there. I'm sure these two events are completely unrelated...

Khawaga

6 years 7 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on September 21, 2017

Mike Harman

He asked for them to be removed due to copyright.

This was shortly after we put up a critical introduction pointing out his relationship to Spiked Online and the political positions he's taken on there

What a coincidence...

Rory Reid

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rory Reid on September 22, 2017

It's still accessible via the Wayback Machine.

Rory Reid

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Rory Reid on October 5, 2017

Some of the Scotland and Edinburgh articles are difficult to find or don't connect well through the tags.

Heartfield

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Heartfield on October 9, 2017

No coincidence - I asked LibCom to take down my articles, because they prefaced them with a lot of personal attacks and mischaracterisations.
You can find most of the material at www.spiked-online.com www.metamute.org or www.heartfield.org

Fleur

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fleur on October 9, 2017

To be fair, there are other places hosting his work. I don't know what the criticism of him here was but he's a terfy bigot. Otoh, the Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz book is excellent and I'd recommend it.

Mike Harman

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on October 9, 2017

For reference this is the disclaimer that was added:

Libcom makes available James Heartfield articles and books which contain useful analysis of historical events. We do not share Heartfield’s politics which evolved along with the rightward trajectory of the RCP and Living Marxism, into his current affiliation with the pro-capitalist and anti-environmentalist Spiked-online. Heartfield mischaracterized people confronting white nationalist attacks in the US as anti-free-speech, and blamed the Grenfell fire mainly on big government and “green targets,” which stifled capitalist growth models.

I'd be interested to know what the 'personal attacks' and 'mischaracterisations' are in that.

@fleur I hadn't personally picked up on TERF-ism amongst everything else, but if we still hosted the content that would have been an obvious thing to add.

Hieronymous

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Hieronymous on October 9, 2017

Heartfield

No coincidence - I asked LibCom to take down my articles, because they prefaced them with a lot of personal attacks and mischaracterisations.
You can find most of the material at www.spiked-online.com www.metamute.org or www.heartfield.org

James Heartfield should be banned from libcom for being a defender of bourgeois private property rights and for being a right-wing reactionary Trotskyite ideologue. Spiked-online has fucked up productivist pro-capitalist positions. Their whole elitist milieu of pompous dilettantes has more in common with white nationalists — with their free speech fetishism — than they do with anti-authoritarian working class militants on the shopflooror, in the streets, or fighting against the social relations of capital — and its defenders — anywhere.

Steven.

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on October 9, 2017

Hieronymous

Heartfield

No coincidence - I asked LibCom to take down my articles, because they prefaced them with a lot of personal attacks and mischaracterisations.
You can find most of the material at www.spiked-online.com www.metamute.org or www.heartfield.org

James Heartfield should be banned from libcom for being a defender of bourgeois private property rights and for being a right-wing reactionary Trotskyite nutcase. Spiked-online has fucked up productivist pro-capitalist positions. Their whole elitist milieu of pompous dilettantes has more in common with white nationalists — with their free speech fetishism — than they do with anti-authoritarian working class militants on the shopflooror, in the streets, or fighting the social relations of capital — and its defenders — anywhere.

Hieronymus, we do not ban anyone from libcom for their views inherently (other than fascists say), but can do if people violate our posting guidelines, which James has not done so we will not be banning him.

I was disappointed when we received James's copyright takedown request, as his writings on World War II are excellent, and were a valued part of our history section. Considering some of James's writings on copyright, I didn't peg him as someone who supported capitalist copyright as such in any case.

I would echo Mike's question though about what he considers to be a personal attack or mis-characterisation as that was not our intention.

While we are primarily an online library, our policy is to preface texts by non-libertarian communist authors with a short intro spelling out our differences, which is as much for authors as for us, as authors of some articles on our site would not want to be taken to be libertarian communists when they are not!

Ed

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Ed on October 9, 2017

I'd also like to hear what serial name-googler (as that's obviously how he came across this thread), James Heartfield, felt these personal attacks and mischaracterisations were.

I literally can't see a single thing about him in that intro that he could possibly object to.

Heartfield

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Heartfield on October 10, 2017

In my world, we talk about the argument, not the person making it. If there were specific arguments in the articles that libcom posted then of course, why not append a critique. But to criticise other articles and arguments, not reproduced, and in a tendentious short-hand, that would seem to be the definition of an ad hominem argument.

DevastateTheAvenues

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by DevastateTheAvenues on October 10, 2017

What a load of trash. It's a plain fact that you're a regular contributor to that rag Spiked Online that reads no different from Breinfart, it's a plain fact that you circulated an image that portrayed the antifascists at Berkeley as being "anti-free speech", and it's a plain fact that you wrote "CO2 targets" and "the moral fervour of the climate-change campaign" were "behind" the Grenfell fire. If you need proof of any of this, just look through your own articles and social media accounts.

If informing people of your actual opinions is enough to be ad hominem, if this makes you blush in shame, maybe it's because your actual opinions make you a shitty human being.

petey

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on October 10, 2017

it's not an ad hominem argument, though the other articles and arguments could be referenced, by a link say. arguments and articles are not a person.

Mike Harman

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Mike Harman on October 10, 2017

We put up disclaimers not necessarily to critique the text they're attached to but to point out that, while the text itself may be of value, reproducing it doesn't amount to an endorsement of the author's wider work.

petey

it's not an ad hominem argument, though the other articles and arguments could be referenced, by a link say. arguments and articles are not a person.

That'd be a good suggestion if we still carried the articles on the site.

Reddebrek

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Reddebrek on October 22, 2017

Heartfield

In my world, we talk about the argument, not the person making it. If there were specific arguments in the articles that libcom posted then of course, why not append a critique. But to criticise other articles and arguments, not reproduced, and in a tendentious short-hand, that would seem to be the definition of an ad hominem argument.

Doesn't really seem adhom to me, but even if it were all that means is your ok with using your proprietary powers to stifle criticism. I can see why no ones morning the death of the UK RCP.

What is it with RCP's turning into horrible messes anyway?

Khawaga

6 years 6 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Khawaga on October 22, 2017

Yup, not ad hominem, which means to the person. If libcom.was attacking Heartfield the person that would be ad hominem.