History.

        The collecting, preserving and making easily available anarchist history is a very important part of our movement. Our history gives us validity, it ties us to the real world of our ongoing daily struggles for justice and freedom. Without that history anarchism would have to be reborn day by day. I think it was Orwell who stated, and I paraphrase here, "the best way to destroy a people is to destroy their history". Without our history we were never there. That's why such sites as Spirit of Revolt, Tyneside Anarchist Archive and Sparrows Nest and others dotted around the world, are of extreme importance. So it is great to see another such site taking shape, let's give it support, after all it is part of our story.

From activistjourneys.wordpress.com

         Below is a series of interviews, recorded for a documentary, never finished by it’s original producers, which hoped to show anarchism in all it’s forms around the world today and in history. But, I think it succeeds even better at that task as a video catalogue for those interested enough to find the clips that peak their curiousity.

       The playlists were already on kollectiva.media, so feel free to share that link with friends. I just wanted to create this article and put them on youtube to make them easier to find and more accessible to researchers.

       Finally, this will be part of a series of posts where I try to help add to other people’s projects, and ideally get volunteers involved in a rare anarchist media archiving project. The next task will be making playlists out of a bunch of rare anarchist documentaries which Stuart Christie collected on his website over many years. A lot of them are to do with the Spanish Civil War. So, if you like that idea or want to lend a hand, check out the spreadsheet, maybe share my tweet asking for help &/or contact me.

Playlist Previews 

       Click the ‘see more’ buttons to be directed to each playlist of clips on youtube. And you can scroll to the bottom if you’d just like to see a shorter text table of all the information.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Sparrows.

         It is always sad when a comrade dies, an action fades, a gap appears and memories flood in, but soon the action resurges, the gap is filled and the memories are cherished, that's the nature of anarchism. This from The Sparrows Nest, an archive, like Spirit of Revolt collects store and digitises the history of anarchists, anarchism and libertarian socialists history and literature, and makes it easily and freely available on the internet. I have no doubt the Sparrows nest  will miss Chris, but will continue from strength to strength doing what they do with a passion. 

 Sparrows Nest <sparrowsnestlibrary@gmail.com>

To sparrownews

Hello,

      With great sadness do we report on the death of our dear friend and comrade Chris Richardson, committed Socialist, proud fighter for LGBTQ+ liberation, accomplished historian and author of A City of Light. Chris was also a very generous and active supporter of the Sparrows’ Nest, and e.g. helped to compile our collections of local LGBTQ+ papers.

He is greatly missed.

       Please find his obituary on the website of People’s Histreh, and attached to this email.

       Chris’ life and legacy will not be forgotten anytime soon. Not only do so many people cherish vivid memories of him, he also left a rich trove of published and unpublished records. He is exactly the kind of person future students of history will stumble upon long after we have all gone too, just as he rediscovered so many amazing people and captured echoes of their lives and struggles. We will work to make those future historians’ work easier, and hope you can help them too.

        If you want to share any documents, photographs, audio andl/or visual records and not least your personal stories of Chris, please contact: info@thesparrowsnest.org.uk

       In light of the Covid-19 crisis, Chris’ partner Richard McCance and several close friends have decided to hold an event celebrating Chris’ life at a time when people can get together again without undue risk.

      If you wish to take part in the preparations or to be kept up to date with those plans, please contact: info@thesparrowsnest.org.uk

Thank you and stay safe

A Sparrow

Sparrows Nest <sparrowsnestlibrary@gmail.com>
to sparrownews

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk