As one of the authors who signed the petition against Baillie Gifford, I accept that the Edinburgh Book Festival has done the right thing and will no longer accept any money from them, and I am extremely happy to be able to buy a ticket to and attend an exceptional festival untainted by BG and its harmful investments.
But there is a clear inaccuracy in BG's statement: there was no coercion in signing the statement. I signed for personal reasons as a conscientious objector and left it there. It is up to others whether they want to participate. Of course, there would have been protests at the Edinburgh Book Festival, given that BG is also invested in Israel's current apartheid/genocide. That is normal.
Some defeatists ask how the arts can survive without the likes of BG. If Scottish culture depends on crumbs from the table of toxic investment companies, then they are asking the wrong question. The question to ask is how the arts have become the plaything of global investment companies. [Ironically cos of punk – Ed]
I grew up in the punk era of the 70s and the way to do things was to “do it yourself”. That has been the guiding principle of my life in the arts. When I felt that Scottish literature needed more excitement and working-class voices, I just did it and founded Rebel Inc. When Michael Pedersen and I felt that we could create unconventional magic around poetry, music and visual arts, we did it with Neu! Reekie! When I felt that Edinburgh needed its own international poetry festival that also embraced hip-hop, film and music, I tentatively booked the whole of Summerhall for the summer of 2019 for £10,000. I make no profit from it. It only happened because I connected with Jenny Niven and we built the initial vision for Push The Boat Out from the grassroots. Funding came later from Creative Scotland and other sponsors. A big festival needs funding and needs to be run as a tight-knit business. If that wasn't the case with Neu! Reekie!, it would have collapsed at the start, but the organisers need to be creative without compromising their integrity.
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Toxic investment companies are not needed for most artistic projects. I think the arts need this timely impetus. These are new and difficult times. The fossil fuel industry is the dinosaur industry. They are suffocating the planet. Not taking action is not an option for many young people. And for older people like me. The more idealists like Greta Thunberg there are, the better for me.
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While corporate-dependent defeatists sit around, there are younger, more dynamic artists, writers and thinkers out there with the ideas, imagination and ethics to create a new Rebel Incs, Neu! Reekies or PTBO festival. The Edinburgh festival started small and grew organically. It will happen, as it always does. DIY was punk. And DIY is the future.
The Edinburgh Book Festival must now adapt to survive. It will be tough, which is why many of us are not willing to bristle at this announcement. Those of us who wanted BG to leave the arts have a moral obligation now to fully support the Edinburgh Book Festival – buy your tickets, help promote it. But beyond that, the Scottish Government and arts-loving public need to ask themselves deeper questions about the funding and value of major arts and culture festivals, and whether we should be relying on festivals like BG.