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 Not only do so many people cherish vivid memories of him, he also left a rich trove of published and unpublished records.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   

The People's History Of Struggle.

        I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you about “Spirit of Revolt”, this is an archive of struggles by the ordinary people, no party political material or support, no trade union history or support, simply a record of the direct actions by people in their daily battles for a better life and for justice. The material we collect is from and about, activists dead and living, events major and small, mainly from the Glasgow/Clydeside area. Why do we feel passionate about, collecting and preserving this material? It is obvious that if you write a history and a large slice of that history is ignored or lost, then you are getting an inaccurate record, a false history, a jigsaw with parts missing. If history fails to record the day to day struggles of the ordinary people, which in many cases it does, then that people become a people without a history. However the ordinary people are certainly not without a history, they have a rich history of ingenuity, resilience, imagination, courage and endless struggles against injustice. It is important to have this recorded and preserved and made easily accessible to the people, it is a history of which we can all be very proud.
      We at Spirit of Revolt feel we do a very important job, all of us are volunteers, most are deeply involved in that history. Our aim is to collect and preserve this material, but not to have it gather dust on some shelves in dark corners of a back room. We wish to bring it alive, make it easily accessible to the public at large, by digitalising it and putting on our website for all to see, read, and hopefully learn from. We also hold exhibitions highlighting events from that grass-roots working class history, hoping that it will help people to see the value of their own history and learn from that history. 

From our poster collection.

       Sadly we live in a capitalist world, and though we are volunteers, we do have costs. Our biggest cost being the need to have a qualified archivist to catalogue this material to international standards, for ease of access and study. There are other cost involved, web design and hosting, computers, scanners and other miscellaneous equipment. All of this trying to raise funds, takes up our time, time that we could devote to the archive itself, improving access, and developing outreach projects.
        So now the pitch, if you think we do a good job, which you think is valuable, and you would like to see us continue, then perhaps you can be tempted to support us financially in some small way, no donation is too small. It can be a one of donation, or better still a small monthly direct debit donation of say two, or five pounds a month, or what ever you feel you can afford. We will be extremely grateful for every donation, you can rest assured it will help us to prolong and improve the archive and its accessibility.

 Unity Trust Bank plc.

 Account name: Spirit of Revolt

 Account number: 20290793

 Sort code: 60-83-01

 Contact us with any questions and enquiries.

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