Anarchists and the Peace Movement
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' rm =|__ K -.'. 1:;-' iv”:r . ' ._' -. -.w- -to Eric Harrison 1922-1993 Eric Harrison died on the 19th Decem- 50p ber 1993 after a short illness. In his I w later years he suffered from arthritis °0\-.1-. --1 which affected his walking ability. He leaves a daughter, Deborah, and six grand-children. ‘A Eric was a natural Pacifist and one of . 4 Anarchis_ ts er“ the most gentle men I have known. He - - .- -. .-I ~-,-,-*- -1° c,- ' "-‘I’ . 43 ~, '5-. ,, _ _ ,-"J". left school at 14 and trained as a tool- I I. .? F l‘ .‘f -L‘-K 'Q_ 0‘ I I, . .-:Q4L"-'_-_\.q I. ;H20‘; '115 .-*3!‘ur ‘.5 - 2-'-‘, ‘I... 'f .I. &‘ -' , . _ Ifrl., 0 __ maker with the Daimler motor oom- ' ,1,‘ . ‘ 1 '1-.____‘_~ .6 ‘E ._‘\..€ 4‘. P _ 9 _ i . 9- \ I. _" " 7- - .‘ - '7,_ _ Q I, pany. He became a shop steward ‘I _ _-_ _‘ ,1 t _ i. _ ' ‘-Q n ' Q; ._ - l Q‘if\l- F.... \§ ".9 '0F.’|. I "1:-‘rm20- active in the Trade Union movement. I ' I‘ p. ;- it Q . _ ' Qt’ " , -5- . ' III . - n ' . -' . first met him in Coventry when I was _.~v\'-13I ‘l_ $ there with the Film Van in 1963; he be- came a very keen supporter and in his ‘on later life became a Trustee with us -a and the v- ,o.o,;s-..'— | - here at the Brotherhood. During the l. ._?. I‘ ¢- : "‘ ., . ~ ' l J 5‘ 4'. : * " l sixties he was active with the Commit- sf "=" -c,;f+"I.-.e:5::§ 1 _\ ‘ e I . ' '3; l ' '-r '-'4' 3 -_,"-1'; ' " . ' tee of 100 and the "Spies for Peace" I 3 2% v Q ‘IE , -ll-' _ ‘L,’ -' " _ .'. ‘?f' _ ¢-' _ ‘I - ‘ I .‘ n.\'_' -I3 -2., V . ' _ \ with the CND. He spent some of his n‘ _) ' 1- - '. I -_ .1 - ' 1" "1 - ~-.<¢ . ' ‘ -. P‘ time-working for the Factory for Peace _w ‘ti’-fin * - Ar ' I A. - - . -.,- l - . _'q . as a representative and sales rep, the v :1‘. _‘ vg‘ 0 . I I idea of worker participation in the run 9. n . f ning_0f a factory being something he I. believed ‘-‘ ‘ zpl As a younger man, he had been a keen it cyclist and walker, having walked the Lyke Wake Wal-k and across the Pen- nines supporting the Ramblers with Movement access to the countryside. He was a keen photographer, developing his own films. .‘]\\e. -r: 4?;._5,."l .: A.“."‘._ ; In his later years he spent much of his t|-zvegkiqn..' go~ 0 °O5‘ .11’, ,5_ time with us, coming on a motorcycle, Q ' Q. e I ""4:'.\._'5'" ~.1':."9'P " --'.~3;1_'r:__. .5-9 'I "‘-‘.-t.- - or we would collect him from the end 3'-'.‘L'.-1'-fl‘ 9 9II;' of the road when he travelled by train ¢ or bus. We shall miss Ericvery much, particularly his knowledge of the ‘Peace Movement’ and his many cam- A view of the Anarchist paign trips to the Continent with Coventry CND carrying the Coventry contribution to the Peace banner. A memorial service will be held at the ll/lovement of the 7960 ’s Brotherhood Church in early May; a date will be publicised later. P&P Syndicalisi Bulletin, Len" Gibson, Brotherhood Church, West Yorkshire, England College Farm House, Laurens Otter Peace News February 1994 Mill Lanes wellington: Sal0P~ SY/VDICAI./ST BULLETIN PA/VIPHLET /vo 2 MAY 7.9.94 1 l l l l The C of 100 arose, at the beginning of the Sixties, out of discontent within CHD & the New Left with the policies of the implies that a body which is moving. on a pre-determined course, leadership of the former, (which was supported by what appeared from one place to another, has -_been forcibly taken over & as the New Left leadership, the then editor of New Left Review,) diverted to an entirely different destination. It is hard to which was totally oriented to the Labour Party's Tribuneite Left, imagine how this is supposed to have happened. & rigidly constitutionalist in approach. It could be argued that, in the later Sixties, various groups I will revert to this point later in this pamphlet, but it tried to divert, (for a time successfully.) large sections of both needs to be said now that the Committee was not initially the anarchist & the Peace ltovements into support for Vietnamese anarchist; but it was open to anarchist influences, 8: many people Stalinists; (i 1) & presumablyby-some analogy, it could have who supported it at the beginning were already evolving towards been possible to divert sections, of a similarly unstructured anarchism. ‘~ - anarchist movement into an illibertarian peace movement. Eric Harrison was one of those; one of those alleged to have I don't know if that is what Hick Heath meant happened, 8: I hi-jacked the movement; while this author might fairly be sup- haven't read, the. original allegation by Albert Heltzerr so I have posed to have been one of the hi-jackers in chfef, it is perhaps no idea if he meant anything or whether this -was ,a normal piece incumbent on me to set the record straight. of meaningless name-calling-_ from that quarter. iihatmasthenehiclezthatmashia-_iackerL?_ It must be stressed that neither Heath nor lieltzer were around the anarchist movement at the time. FILE. was too young, he From the time that Lillian Wolfe & Leah Feldmann stopped sell- became an anarchist later in the Sixties, when this hi-jaclring ing Freedom at Hyde Park in 1955, until I started in 1957, no one had allegedly already happened; A.}i'., though he had previously sold any anarchist paper in Britain, on the streets, or at demos. been an anarchist was not then politically active, - he did at Freedom, ever since the war, has always insisted that as it cat- this period publish a small humanist journal, but it had -no pol- ers for a wide variety of anarchist currents, it spurns any sin- itical cohtent, (for instance the main article in issue no. 2, was gle blueprint for attaining anarchism; 8: a brief perusal of Free- on the problems of Latin America, it made no mention whatsoever dom's contents at that time will cast doubt as to whether it was of either capitalism or U.S. Imperialism,_ wh;en reproached for then a paper with a clear goal. _ l ' A this lack, all three of_ Hr Heltzer's co—editors GI‘ 2) insisted that he vetoed any discussion of these two topics.)J Neither Direct Action had ceased publication in 53. Though remnants then write from personal observation, &..Hick did not cite any of the original Freedom Group survived and insisted that it had other sources who may have claimed to have witnessed the hi- nothing to do with Freedom Press they published nothing. Though jacking. ‘ - ' three British addresses appeared in the Industrial Worker, none of them replied to letters, (unless sent via Chicago, & then only to say "write to us in future," & one of these had actually died.) The lialatesta Club survived, but nearly all of those who still Yhat really happened in the Sixties -3.- -2- __1948, there were negotiations, - though unfortunately abortive, - attended disclaimed the description anarchist. The London Anar- to fuse the Anarchist Federation, the ILP & Common Wealth into chist Group had discontinued its central London meetings, -8: an united Libertarian League. started off-centre ones; not in a laudable attempt at decentral- ization, but because none of its established members could be Common Wealth had been founded as a left reformist party dur- bothered to meet anyone other than old comrades. ing the War; basically it had been the remnant of the Popular Front agitators, after the Stalinists had changed their line; but, There were a number of small (anarchist 8: pacifist influenced) in three splits successive layers of the founding leadership left communities still surviving; a number more of anarchist or anar- at the end of the War. The party had been left in the hands of cho-pacifist life-style activists (e.g. "back to the lande-rs";) a group whose first direct experience of political activity had there were a few other very small groupings, often revolving been illegal organization within the armed ,_forces, &i who were not round one particular theorist, which overlapped with anarchism; in consequence over committed to constitutionalism. These start-' for instance a former Hungarian Communist refugee, who had taken ed to evolve in an anarchist direction 8: though CW only finally the English name Alfred Reynolds, ran a discussion circle called adopted the anarchist label in the late 60s; it had been commited The Bridge Club, [the inspirer was not embarassed,that it was to direct action to attain anti-state socialism fpr twenty years described by others as "anarchism for public school boys,l with before that. a Journal callled the London Letter. Besides these there were quasi-anarchists in both the ILP 8: CW. It may surprise younger comrades, used to the fact that a re- Sllinnecetheallegedhiziaoker formist group in the Labour Party, now pretends to be the ILP; [D|-0 that there was until 1978 a party of that name that had a strong There have always been anarcho—pacifists; there have indeed syndicalist wing; perhaps they'd be more surprised to learn that been connections between these and Freedom; Ithe war-time, the largest organization that supported the Spanish Syndicalists Freedom co-editor, John Hewetson's family, as also Lillian Wolfe's in the late Thirties was the ILP; that the connectioin went back son & family ‘lived in the early Sixties, at Vhiteway’s Community, further.