KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 100-101, January 2020 [Double issue] has just been posted on our site. The PDF is up at:
https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/g1jz9m
You can get to the contents list at
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 100-101, January 2020 [Double issue]
Contents:
Looking back at the back issues "It seemed a simple idea: look through back issues of the Kate Sharpley Library’s bulletin to find some interesting articles, and then encourage people to read them and think about anarchist history..."
December 2019 message from the Kate Sharpley Library "Particular thanks have to go the comrade who sent us historic copies of
War Commentary and
Freedom."
Mini-reviews: Biographies (anarchist lives from around the world)
Death of a good comrade [Daniel Mullen] by Jack Wade (1942. From the First World War to the Spanish Revolution, via the fight for Irish independence)
The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism by Ruth Kinna [Book review] by Sonny Disposition "This is a book devoted to ideas, rather than a history. I found it thought-provoking: some is good, in some places I disagree with the analysis and in others I think ‘oh dear me, don’t go there’."
Beyond a footnote: ‘Class struggle anarchism’ "When and why did the phrase ‘class-struggle anarchism’ come into use?"
Something should be done (or How to revolt) [book review] "Freedom is its own reward, and is exhilarating. And even when you lose, you know that freedom is possible. That’s why you should read this little book."
Miguel Garcia: a personal appreciation by Gerfried Horst "Regarding his own life, he said he felt satisfaction to have always acted according to his principles. He told me that nobody could live without an ‘ilusión’, which is not ‘illusion’ in the English sense, but a ‘hopeful anticipation’, a dream that may become true."
Dialogue in the form of soliloquy by Louis Mercier Vega (1946) "there is a sensible need to come up with a practical solution to the painful contradiction between the dynamism of the young and the slightly amorphous wisdom of the old."
Extras on the website (just because we can't fit it all in the bulletin, doesn't mean you shouldn't have a look)
Speaking and Writing (Comment) by Albert Meltzer "This piece sheds a little light on how Albert’s style of discussion was formed in a movement where dealing with hecklers was a necessary skill, one where humour could be used for defence or attack."
Albert Grace by Joe Thomas "I have a vivid recollection of being rescued by Albert Grace in the course of having an ‘altercation’ with a mounted policeman."
W. A. Gape
Half A Million Tramps (1936) [Review] by Barry Pateman "Half A Million Tramps constantly articulates the tension between what an individual tramp may feel to be their rights and what charity, religion and the state decide these rights actually are."
Our Masters Are Helpless: The Essays of George Barrett edited by Iain McKay [book review] by Barry Pateman "You might disagree with him at times but his striving to reach those who are not anarchists, using language that is clear and effective, is important and impressive. In a time of apparent madness his assertion that anarchism is common sense remains an important message for us all."
The Trouble with National Action [Book Review] "This is not a book which is particularly concerned with government policy, nor with maintaining ‘business as usual’."
Liz Willis Obituary of the Solidarity member and historian, "she remained a ‘free rebel spirit’ to the end."
Ken Williams (ex-East London DAM) has died. We hope to have an obituary in a future issue
Biographies by Sergei Ovsiannikov (links to Russian anarchist lives including Anarchist Women in Maltsev Prison 1907–1908)
