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Timeline of anarchism in Britain, 1930-2016

Rob Ray

Rob Ray

Weight is meaningless
<NB/ Have also posted this on libcom, but there's people who post here who don't there etc>

So for those who don't know, Freedom's hopefully going to be printing some new Slow Burning Fuses soon, which I'm sorting out atm. But one thing that did get me thinking was the timeline at the back, which does a useful job up to 1930 but then stops along with the book. One thing I'd like to do is update a bit, so I was wondering about timelines after that point.

Annoyingly the changes on Facebook destroyed the working class history timeline, and there's some bits in the libcom library but nothing simple/comprehensive that stood out, so I was hoping folks on here might be able to help? I'm reckoning to mix in stuff where anarchists were particularly influential, major groups, noteworthy publications and (latterly) websites. As an initial haphazard, off-the-top-of-my-head thing:

1930s
1936: Anarchist Federation of Britain (AFB) founded
1936-39: Anarchists join the International Brigades in Spain
1936-39: Spain And The World published, later becoming Revolt!

1940s
1939-45: Spain and the World becomes War Commentary
1944-5: Bernieri, Richards, Hewetson and Samson arrested for sedition, major free-speech case.
1945: War Commentary formally renamed to Freedom

1950s
1950-70s: AFB becomes Syndicalist Workers Federation
1959: Anarcho-pacifist Direct Action Committee pushes CND into backing Aldermaston march

1960s
1960: Committee of 100 founded
1960-1992: Solidarity group and journal formed
1961-1970: Anarchy magazine published
Mid-late 1960s: British anarchism sees period of revival
August 1964: Stuart Christie arrested attempting to smuggle explosives into Spain
1967: Anarchist Black Cross Founded
1968: Anarchist Communist Discussion Group founds Anarchist Federation
1968-69: London squatting campaign

1970s
1970: Black Flag magazine founded
1970-72: Angry Brigade bombings
1975: Advisory Service for Squatters founded
Late '70s/Early '80s: Anarcho-punk

1980s
1979-94: Direct Action Movement
1979-1987: Roads protest movement
1981: London Anarchist Bookfair founded
1983: Class War paper and organisation founded
1983-4: Stop The City demonstrations
1984: Green Anarchist begins publishing, splits in late '90s
1985-1995: Anarchists with DAM heavily involved in street-level anti-fascism
1986: Class War refounded as Class War Federation

1990s
1988-1991: Anarchists heavily involved in anti-Poll Tax campaign
1991-2003: Reclaim the Streets founded, following on from road protest movement
1992: Radical Routes forms
1992: Earth Liberation Front founded
1993: Combat 18 firebombing of Freedom Press
1994: Solidarity Federation founded by former DAM members
1994-2014: Schnews published as free weekly newssheet
1995-7: Gandalf raids and trial
1999: Carnival Against Capital
1999: Indymedia founded in November, UK branch from 2000

2000s
200: No Borders Network founded
2000-2007: WOMBLES group
2002-2004: Anarchist Youth Network
2002-present: libcom.org founded as enrager, becomes libcom in 2003
Oct 2004: European Social Forum clashes/interventions in London
2006-2010: Camp for Climate Action

2010s
2010: Student fees protests
2010: Mark Kennedy revealed as police spy, sparking series of unmaskings
2011: Anti-cuts protest sees first large black bloc in London, following on from student protests
2014: Freedom newspaper ceases monthly publication and moves online, continues irregular freesheet
2016: Pitchford spycops inquiry opens
 
Rob Ray said:
<NB/ Have also posted this on libcom, but there's people who post here who don't there etc>

So for those who don't know, Freedom's hopefully going to be printing some new Slow Burning Fuses soon, which I'm sorting out atm. But one thing that did get me thinking was the timeline at the back, which does a useful job up to 1930 but then stops along with the book. One thing I'd like to do is update a bit, so I was wondering about timelines after that point.

Annoyingly the changes on Facebook destroyed the working class history timeline, and there's some bits in the libcom library but nothing simple/comprehensive that stood out, so I was hoping folks on here might be able to help? I'm reckoning to mix in stuff where anarchists were particularly influential, major groups, noteworthy publications and (latterly) websites. As an initial haphazard, off-the-top-of-my-head thing:

1930s
1936: Anarchist Federation of Britain (AFB) founded
1936-39: Anarchists join the International Brigades in Spain
1936-39: Spain And The World published, later becoming Revolt!

1940s
1939-45: Spain and the World becomes War Commentary
1944-5: Bernieri, Richards, Hewetson and Samson arrested for sedition, major free-speech case.
1945: War Commentary formally renamed to Freedom

1950s
1950-70s: AFB becomes Syndicalist Workers Federation
1959: Anarcho-pacifist Direct Action Committee pushes CND into backing Aldermaston march

1960s
1960: Committee of 100 founded
1960-1992: Solidarity group and journal formed
1961-1970: Anarchy magazine published
Mid-late 1960s: British anarchism sees period of revival
August 1964: Stuart Christie arrested attempting to smuggle explosives into Spain
1967: Anarchist Black Cross Founded
1968: Anarchist Communist Discussion Group founds Anarchist Federation
1968-69: London squatting campaign

1970s
1970: Black Flag magazine founded
1970-72: Angry Brigade bombings
1975: Advisory Service for Squatters founded
Late '70s/Early '80s: Anarcho-punk

1980s
1979-94: Direct Action Movement
1979-1987: Roads protest movement
1981: London Anarchist Bookfair founded
1983: Class War paper and organisation founded
1983-4: Stop The City demonstrations
1984: Green Anarchist begins publishing, splits in late '90s
1985-1995: Anarchists with DAM heavily involved in street-level anti-fascism
1986: Class War refounded as Class War Federation

1990s
1988-1991: Anarchists heavily involved in anti-Poll Tax campaign
1991-2003: Reclaim the Streets founded, following on from road protest movement
1992: Radical Routes forms
1992: Earth Liberation Front founded
1993: Combat 18 firebombing of Freedom Press
1994: Solidarity Federation founded by former DAM members
1994-2014: Schnews published as free weekly newssheet
1995-7: Gandalf raids and trial
1999: Carnival Against Capital
1999: Indymedia founded in November, UK branch from 2000

2000s
200: No Borders Network founded
2000-2007: WOMBLES group
2002-2004: Anarchist Youth Network
2002-present: libcom.org founded as enrager, becomes libcom in 2003
Oct 2004: European Social Forum clashes/interventions in London
2006-2010: Camp for Climate Action

2010s
2010: Student fees protests
2010: Mark Kennedy revealed as police spy, sparking series of unmaskings
2011: Anti-cuts protest sees first large black bloc in London, following on from student protests
2014: Freedom newspaper ceases monthly publication and moves online, continues irregular freesheet
2016: Pitchford spycops inquiry opens
Click to expand...
Anti-poll tax campaign didn't end in 1991; Haringey solidarity group founded out of Haringey Anti-poll tax union c.1993
 
Class War have been up to stuff this decade - might warrant including. Poor Doors....Stuff on gentrifcation (Fuck Parades)...
 
Quite a few anarchist bookfairs now...many started relatively recently i think...sheffield, bristol, dublin, cardiff, belfast, swindon

im no good on dates though.

United Voices of the World?

Funny, I remember Wombles running alongside RTS stuff rather than after... im really bad with timescales though...so im surely misremembering
 
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Personally Id say the public response to the refugee crisis in going over to calais/dunkirque/beyond the last couple of years, including the help in building accommodation and general support was as much anarchism in action as anything i've ever witnessed. Yes there were official aid organisations involved within the bigger picture, but that doesnt take away from the fact. Massive networks of autonomous individuals and small groups, self organising, and pure mutual aid
 
I'd also stick the founding, growth and decline of Earth First! in there, and maybe the "final" issue of Class War and subsequent conference?
 
I see the 1970s has largely been sent to the "phantom zone" :)

You're missing the whole 'and yeah verily, the Organisation of Revolutionary Anarchists begat the Anarchist Workers Association, and the AWA begat the Libertarian Communist Group and the Anarchist Communist Association etc' line of things. Of course there are definitional issues as that illustrates - were the Libertarian Communist Group still anarchists ? They finished up in an electoral alliance with the IMG and Big Flame. Yet by the same token all the seeds of the LCG existed inside the previous groupings.

I see Solidarity are included who weren't anarchists (although they were regarded more sympathetically by a lot of anarchists than the LCG were :) ) If you're including them then Social Revolution also weren't anarchist but in some ways were closer to anarchism than Solidarity was. Where do you draw the lines ? Particularly when it comes to things which were collaborative projects involving anarchists and non-anarchists (and not necessarily initiated by anarchists), be it one off things like the paper Ludd during the seaman's strike in '66, or attempts at more ongoing projects like the Libertarian Industrial Network in the mid 70s. Do you just annex the ones you like as being 'anarchist' ?

There were IWW groups in the 70s. Very good lot in Hull. But the IWW presents an interesting problem - is there really any kind of genuine continuity as a national organisation since the '70s or has it really been an intermittent history of local groups ? ( A question which could reasonably be asked about other 'national' groupings of course).

The Syndicalist Workers Federation is listed as 1950s to 70s. My clear understanding is that it faded away in the late 60s. There was then a gap of some years before the Manchester SWF was formed by unrelated people. You have the Direct Action Movement as starting in 79 - that was when it constituted itself as a national membership organisation. Prior to that for a couple of years it had been a loose federation of groups, including the Manchester SWF and the London Workers Group.

The LWG wasn't a specifically anarchist group (by design) but two of its three founders were anarchists as were lots of the people involved. Class War also at various times declined to define itself as anarchist. In both cases this reflects the fact that at the end of the 70s and the start of the 80s there were a number of groups and individuals who stopped using the term (or only did so with severe qualifications) but which were far closer to anarchism than say Solidarity was. (In the LWGs case this was because it was started by people from different 'traditions' who saw those differences as irrelevant to common activity. In Class War's case because it wasn't impressed with the state of much the anarchist movement. There was in practice a commonality between these approaches which defined a lot of activity at that time).

That 'drawing the line' exercise is also a little difficult in the early 80s when there were a number of groups and projects which existed in the space between anarchism and the 'ultra-left' currents that had developed in the late 70s (a lot of them out of anarchism). In much the same way, in the early 70s there were groups and projects which existed in the space between anarchism, the broader 'libertarian movement' and the 'counter-culture'. It's the same problem of definition that is posed by Guy Aldred and his various activities years before, or for that matter Sylvia Pankhurst. Quail includes Aldred - but Quail was in Solidarity and his history (and its associated timeline) is closer to the view of 'libertarian communist' history that Bob Miller and others developed in what was then the ACF. A more 'orthodox' 'mainstream' anarchist timeline produced in the 80s or 90s would have excluded all of them.

Utterly pointless trying to include everything that might vaguely be treated as 'anarchistic' of course. It still leaves the problem that some interesting stuff declined to define itself as 'anarchist', although it could as well have done, whereas some of the stuff which did define itself as 'anarchist' was - however you measure it - not merely useless but embarrassingly and un-archistically so (if that's a word - it is unfortunately a reality). Of course Quail had the great advantage of writing long after the event when differences which were doubtless very important to the participants at the time were either invisible or seemed less significant. (And when there weren't any old scrotes still around to push their own agendas :) ).

There were other anarchist papers in the 70s - Anarchy Series II, Zero, Xtra, Wildcat (the 70s one, not the 80s one), Bread and Roses (lol). And that's just the printed ones I can think of. Obviously lots of duplicated (or later photocopied) small press stuff - Virus for example. There were publishing projects : Cienfuegos Press, Bratach Dubh (the forerunner of Elephant Editions). There was A Distribution which was also the seedbed for the Bookfair. There were a number of projects which existed in the space between being a 'bookshop' and being a 'centre'. There were anarchist printers. And there were significant one off 'events' - you mention the Angry Brigade (which of course has a 'complex' relation to anarchism), at the end of the 70s there was the 'Persons Unknown' trial in which all the defendants were anarchists from different groups, and which also had a fairly significant impact at the time on anarchist currents.

Now obviously a lot of that isn't appropriate for a 'timeline', although it includes things have which shaped anarchist currents and activities to this day, but the decisions about what to include (and what to omit :) )and how to present it are important ones IMO. By its nature a timeline stresses continuity and favours relatively formal organisations, and activities which leave more obvious traces, particularly publications.

Another way of looking at anarchist history is to see it as a series of periods of more intense activity in society as a whole within which anarchist currents (defined in the broadest sense) have flourished, interspersed with periods of much less activity. Quail's book covers two such periods and its structure and his timeline is defined by that. There was another such period in the late 60s and 70s. I think acknowledging this in constructing a timeline is important if only because such periods actually break 'continuity'. "1968 and after" in the broadest sense posed a significant challenge to the groups and individuals which had existed beforehand - some rose to that challenge in interesting and creative ways. Others, sadly, did not. And looking at the fairly dramatic ways that organizations changed - this is as true of Freedom as it is of Solidarity - the word which comes to mind is hardly 'continuity'.

The other thing that characterizes periods of more intense struggle is that struggles have a multiplier effect on one another. One consequence is that the differences between different kinds of struggle become porous and categories start to break down. Anarchist groups are affected and influenced by this as much as any other kind of group. There is however a kind of 'anarchist history' which dislikes this kind of 'promiscuity' intensely. You can almost hear the sigh of relief when such periods end and anarchist orthodoxy can once again be written in terms of the organisations which exist (survive) between them.

And of course there has always been the basic 'mouldy fig' versus 'dirty bopper' tensions between the 'formal and 'informal', and between partisans of 'organisation' and partisans of 'movement'. Timelines by their nature tend to take one side, and the consequence, rather like the way in which a significant amount of anarchist historiography has been appropriated by academics, is to produce a somewhat one-sided, at times even distorted and misleading perspective on anarchist history. (Well unless you're on the 'winning' side of course).

I'm boring on I'm afraid. Pretty much all of what I've referred to is London-centric. There were active scenes in many other places - Manchester, Glasgow, Belfast and so on (yes yes I haven't listed them all) - including lots and lots of them at the start of the 70s which have left little or no trace.
 
I'd also list the big RTS events seperatly (Camden,Islington, M40)

The big roads protests with core anarchist involvement separately (Twyford, Solsbury Hill, M11, Pollock, Newbury, Fairmile...hell, I'd be tempted to add stuff like Jesmond Dene and Cardiff Bay too).

Anti-opencast stuff had significant @ involvement as did antiGm.

Son publications worth listing from the period:

Contraflow
CounterInfo
Schnews
Squall
The FINs that popped up everywhere
The Bristolian

Oh and don't forgert the Liverpool Dockers stuff
 
Openly classist, various conferences - Bradford, 09 London, recent Anarcha-feminist one, anti-Iraq war stuff, Hunt Sabs, Greenham Common, post-WII squating movement, not mention the various free party movements - rave, 60's-70's free festivals etc.
 
ska invita said:
I think Indymedia deserves a mention. Rip indymedia
Click to expand...
Also various video and audio projects coming out of, reflecting or serving the needs of ‘anarchists’:

Undercurrents, Conscious Cinema, iContact

Savage Yet Tender, Interference FM, Radio 4@
 
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