Who Killed Freedom?

      Away back in 1951, or there about, I started reading the newspaper, Freedom, and more or less from then on continued to read the paper. I also wrote a couple of pieces for my favourite paper. Of course it was never perfect, but since 1886 it was a voice of reasoned anarchism, it was always there when others faltered and failed. I was utterly gutted when it folded and just couldn't understand why. The final statement in the piece "Transforming Freedom" by Andy Meinke still rings in my head, as the sort of statement one would have expected from some fascist group that closed down the paper Freedom, "---Kropotkin might have started it but we fucking finished it".

An article from a couple of months ago, by Christopher Draper in Northern Voices, throws some light on the demise  of that long standing flickering light of Freedom:

Who Killed Freedom?: an unauthorised history 1.

Christopher Draper

FREEDOM the world’s oldest anarchist newspaper is no more. Founded in London in October 1886, for over a century FREEDOM was universally recognised as the most thoughtful, open-minded, newspaper of the British anarchist movement.  In October 2014 this unique institution, having survived police raids, violent attacks and two world wars, was declared dead by its editorial collective.  FREEDOM blamed its demise on the combined effects of declining interest in print media and insufficient support from the anarchist movement.  The truth is rather different.  FREEDOM was destroyed by three young men deficient in knowledge and authoritarian in practice and one old man who knew better yet encouraged these miscreants to do their worst. T he consequence, though tragic, was utterly avoidable. 

Democratic Clique

   

FREEDOM was never officially the newspaper of the anarchist movement. It was started in London in 1886 by a small band of anarchists with no formal ties to any other political organisation.  As David Goodway observed:  'It was published monthly as a sober and thoughtful journal surviving while other publications appeared and soon folded in the tempestuous and often violent world of contemporary anarchist activism.'  Despite initially promoting debate between individualist anarchists and those of a more socialist persuasion FREEDOM soon adopted an explicitly anarchist-communist outlook. Other interpretations of anarchism continued to be expressed and debated within the paper and throughout its long, varied and sometimes interrupted history FREEDOM continued to provide open-minded, unsectarian coverage of anarchist affairs.  Although nominally controlled by a self-elected libertarian collective FREEDOM not infrequently relied on key individuals within the group to safeguard the newspaper’s anarchist integrity.  When Tom Keell in 1915 acted precipitously to keep the paper out of the hands of Kropotkin’s pro-war faction he was denounced as a dictator by fellow editor George Cores but backed by the wider anarchist movement. Once again in 1928 FREEDOM was kept alive as an irregular bulletin through the dedication of Keell who published it from his home at Whiteway Colony.  From 1930 until his death in 1934, John Turner carried the editorial baton and then after a two year gap the paper was revived in a new guise by Vernon (Vero) Richards. 

Read the full article HERE:

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

Glasgow's Lost Comrades.

        Just back from our travels down south, and a wonderful time it was, the weather was great, very warm. So much so that I burnt my baldy head and was forced to buy a "bunnit", which seemed to create a considerable amount of laughter each time I placed it on my head. Which made me all the more determined to wear the thing.

       Our first stop was Warwick University Archive department, where we spent some time prowling through old issues of the Freedom paper, 1900's. What surprised me was the amount of names that appeared from Glasgow. It would appear that there were a considerable amount of active comrades in Glasgow at that time, who seem to have been lost to us, or at least to me.

      In Glasgow there were at one time, three names of individuals from whom you could get your Freedom. There meetings being arranged and literature being published by people we seem to have forgotten, that shouldn't happen. Perhaps it is my ignorance. I would be delighted if anyone anywhere, can provide any detail to the names that follow. Any information, date of birth, death, where, and if they worked, family, activities, addresses, writings, etc., of course photos would be icing on the cake.

     Blair Smith, 15 Sunnybank Street Dalmarnock and Paisley, seems to have been very active around 1902/03, he also published a pamphlet in September 1900, called "Direct Action Versus Legislation" it would be great if somebody could tell me where I can lay my hands on a copy. Also, P. Josephs 198 Main Street Gorbals. Other names that cropped up in articles/letters etc., are, Moscow, John Turner, Arthur St. John, Fred Charles,  McKay, Paisley/Glasgow 1904, Macfew Seklew, listed as "Individualist", A. P. Howie, 91 Aitkenhead Road also 69 Toryglen Street, 1905, and 99 Trongate 1905, (Seems Tronagte was a popular address from those comrades.). There was a J. Docherty, who wrote in Freedom, "Notes from Scotland" May, 1903.

     There was a D. Baxter 126 Trongate, around 1903, also listed at 127 Trongate, perhaps a typo, George Dallas, also listed as 126 Trongate, published Voice of Labour, 1904. Was 126 Trongate an office or book shop or a residence, or what, was Howie's 99 Trongate a typo?

       I hope someone, out there somewhere, can come up with some details, anything so as to get a better picture of who they were and of Glasgow at that time. I would be delighted if I could add them to Strugglepedia.

 Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk