FAQ and Misconceptions
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1) What is the London Solidarity Network (LSN)?
The London Solidarity Network (LSN) is a coalition of affinity and advocacy groups representing marginalized participants at the Dickens Christmas Fair (DCF) who have chosen to collaborate in their efforts to pursue greater equity and justice within the DCF community. The LSN is comprised of those groups who have decided to work together in support of each other's goals, even if those goals do not apply to each individual group.
2) Is the London Solidarity Network (LSN) a Union?
While the LSN aims to engage in collective bargaining to better protect and represent our members, we are not a formal union and do not collect dues. It is perhaps more accurate to think of the individual affinity/advocacy groups as the metaphorical "unions" and the LSN as the corresponding "labor council". Each group has its own specific interests and agendas, and being part of the LSN allows us to coordinate our efforts for more effective collective action.
3) What groups are part of the London Solidarity Network (LSN)? Why not ALL groups?
Barry Society (BSoc)
Disabled at Dickens (DaD)
Gentleman Jack’s (GJ)
Londoners of the African of Diaspora (LoAD)
Order of the Golden Needle (OGN)
Society of the Limehouse District (SoLD)
South West Asians & North Africans at Dickens (SWANAaD) - on Hiatus, seeking a new rep
Survivor Advocacy and Support Society (SASS)
Some affinity groups have chosen not to affiliate with the LSN for their own reasons, and they pursue their interests independently of our collective bargaining. We are more than happy to support their efforts and offer solidarity with non-LSN advocacy initiatives.
4) Who is in charge of the London Solidarity Network / How are decisions made?
The LSN has no one leader. Rather, all decisions are voted on by representatives from every member group. Major decisions in the LSN are implemented by majority vote, which can be called by any representative, and require a minimum of 5 out of the 8 member groups' assent in order to pass.
5) How are London Solidarity Network (LSN) representatives chosen?
LSN representatives are first nominated internally from the groups themselves. Nominees then meet with a group of three current LSN representatives for a short vetting interview to ensure that they are committed to active advocacy and understand the requirements and parameters of the position. They are then officially voted in by a simple majority, barring any objections from existing representatives.
6) What if I don't feel my interests are being accurately represented?
If your group has representation: speak to your representative! Make sure that they know what issues matter to you and what you hope will be done about them.
If your group doesn’t have a representative: become a representative! Speak to your fellow group members about engaging in more active advocacy, get approval from your group, and contact an existing London Solidarity Network (LSN) representative about getting onboarded.
If you are not in a group: speak to an LSN representative about the issues that matter to you. They may be able to direct you towards the organizations taking action on that issue already (if they exist) or provide you with the information to start advocating for that issue independently. This is how most of the existing LSN groups were first formed!
7) What is the difference between the Anti-Racism Initiative (ARI) and the Minimum Safe Requirements (MSR)?
Short version: The Minimum Requirements for a Safe Dickens Fair (informally called the Minimum Safe Requirements, or MSR) is the list of requirements to end the boycott — the minimum necessary changes required to make the Dickens Christmas Fair (DCF) a safe place for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) participants. The Anti-Racism Initiative (ARI) is the long-term plan of what would make DCF actively anti-racist in its work.
Long version: The ARI is a complex, multi-year plan that the Londoners of the African Diaspora (LoAD) created to address systemic racism and inequity toward BIPOC at DCF. This Initiative was specifically requested by the Pattersons after their initial statement of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in July 2020 gave rise to a conversation about anti-Blackness within the DCF community. This plan was the result of many weeks of extensive research and discussion by LoAD’s leadership, and was presented to Red Barn Productions (RBP) with the understanding that the process of realizing those objectives would take many years of active negotiation and incremental progress.
After RBP failed to come to the table and discuss the ARI with them for ten straight months, LoAD issued its Statement of No Confidence, which kicked off the LSN’s boycott shortly thereafter. In May of 2021, LoAD published the MSR, a bullet-point list of the specific parameters that must be either met or at least actively addressed before the boycott can be safely ended. This list is shorter and more concrete than the ARI in terms of its reach. It focuses on those items that most directly impact the safety and welfare of BIPOC Dickens Fair participants, as well as specific urgent issues brought up by other marginalized groups at the time of its creation.
As of the writing of this FAQ (10/28/22), the LSN is working on creating an updated/revised MSR that better reflects what is legally feasible for RBP to do, as well as the progress that has been made on certain existing items.
8) Is a Board of Directors a required part of the Minimum Safe Requirements?
No. The Minimum Safety Requirements specifies that the parameters it presents are what the London Solidarity Network considers to be an acceptable alternative to the creation of a Board or other direct oversight — not a supplemental set of requirements that Red Barn Productions must meet in addition to those presented in the Anti-Racism Initiative.
9) Are all London Solidarity Network (LSN) members boycotting?
No. The LSN maintains the boycott as a collective, but does not require that individual group members participate in it. Regardless of whether they are participating in the boycott or not, we encourage all members of LSN member groups to work towards collective change and support the objectives of the boycott itself.
10) What about all of the progress that Red Barn Productions (RBP) has made?
It is true that RBP has made noticeable changes on specific issues. Their progress on those fronts is commendable. However, they have done so while soliciting little to no input from the groups most directly harmed by their previous failures to act. It is impossible for RBP to rebuild the trust they have lost with participants without directly and consistently consulting the groups in question regarding their requirements and expectations. As such, no amount of work that RBP does can bypass the part that they long refused to do: speaking directly to the London Solidarity Network (LSN) about the specific objectives listed in the Minimum Safety Requirements.
As of the writing of this FAQ (10/28/22), Drew Patterson has recently reached out to various affinity groups, including those within the LSN, in an attempt to start this dialogue. However, no conversation has happened yet in practice. Preliminary negotiations between Drew and the LSN are still underway. This answer will be updated as things progress.
Common Misunderstandings
1) Isn't it true that you all refuse to return unless the Pattersons are gone?
The presence of the Pattersons is not and has never been a requirement for ending the boycott. That being said, personal stances among London Solidarity Network members vary on many issues, and we are all free to have our own individual standards for when we personally feel safe enough to return.
2) Is the Dickens Fair Cast & Crew Community (DFC&CC) group on Facebook run by the London Solidarity Network (LSN) or LSN representatives?
While a few of the early DFC&CC group moderators were members of the LSN, no current moderators are LSN members or representatives. In fact, LSN representatives now deliberately refrain from volunteering to moderate the DFC&CC group, so as not to give even the appearance of abusing that power over members of the Dickens Christmas Fair community who may not be aligned with us.
3) Hasn't Red Barn Productions (RBP) reached out to you over the past year?
On 8/30/2022, RBP reached out in an email sent en masse to each individual affinity group — both those with London Solidarity Network (LSN) representation and those who are uninvolved — as well as the LSN regarding the Culture Club. Since then, there have been 3 further emails on the subject addressed to all affinity groups, including those not in the LSN. There have been no attempts at a discussion with the LSN as a distinct collective.
This has been a major barrier to making progress on the items in the Minimum Safety Requirements (MSR). By nature of being a collective, individual member groups cannot negotiate separately with RBP. This is meant to ensure that RBP cannot pick and choose which of our marginalized experiences are worthy of their effort and attention. As such, it's important that those conversations be distinct: the conversation RBP has with the LSN about the MSR must be distinct from the conversations had with individual affinity groups.
4) A for-profit company can't be required to have a board unless it's publicly traded!
Correct: the London Solidarity Network is not a formalized legal entity, and thus has no ability to directly enforce legal consequences to pressure Red Barn Productions (RBP) into taking such a measure. However, as participants in this event, we have a different form of leverage: our time, money, and labor. As a result, we are making our requirements known and opting to withhold those resources from RBP until those requirements are satisfied.
An important note: the Minimum Safety Requirements states at its very beginning that the demands listed therein are to be fulfilled in lieu of installing a Board. These demands are what would be required for the boycott to end without RBP installing a Board.
5) You can't expect a small family business to make drastic changes in a year or two!
Agreed. The contents of the Anti-Racism Initiative (ARI) were never meant to be an urgent ultimatum. The authors of the ARI presented it as a 5-10 year plan, to be worked on incrementally in collaboration with the Londoners of the African Diaspora. The Minimum Safety Requirements (MSR), on the other hand, is a list of the most urgent points that must be met in order for Dickens Fair to be safe for marginalized participants and patrons to engage with again. The MSR should be read as a collection of issues to be actively addressed and negotiated over a series of conversations between Red Barn Productions and the LSN, not problems that can be resolved immediately.
6) You can't just get rid of a bunch of vendors to give spots to PoC!
Nor do we wish to. Since both the Anti-Racism Initiative and the Minimum Safety Requirements were meant to be implemented over the long-term, there would be no need to get rid of vendors or for vendors to get rid of their employees. A certain amount of turnover is expected every year, and we simply want to encourage Red Barn Productions and the vendors at the Dickens Christmas Fair to make an effort to offer open positions to marginalized members of the community. We also want to emphasize the importance of all parties involved examining their own internal biases, which have been part and parcel of creating such an overwhelmingly white scene.
7) Wouldn't it be better to change Dickens from the inside?
We wholeheartedly encourage those participating in Dickens Christmas Fair (DCF) this year to do so. The Anti-Racism Initiative and the Minimum Safety Requirements were both crafted out of a deep love for our community and a desire to see it flourish and become healthier. But for some of us, DCF is not a safe place to be. Some of us have been harassed by members of the very community we are trying to protect. Some of us have been slandered to the point where we no longer feel welcome. Some of us simply don't feel safe due to the past policies and behaviors of both Red Barn Production's management and members of the community. So for now, those who choose to boycott will exert pressure from the outside.