anarchistmonthly OrganisingAnarchy DAM. Clydeside The new collectivehas done all it humanly can, short of alwayssuppressing the truth, D to create good relations with Block Flog. They have been snotty and paranoid in return. Our policy is to ignoretheir crap, without forgetting what it saysabout their a 'pofitics'. lt's not iust Freedomwho find them impossible,so don't lecture us when o possibly you can't know how disgustingand uncomradelythey can be. We won't G mention them in our pagesif you don't. o ( j I DearComrades, Commonweolrailed againstFreedom's Enclosedis my subscriptionfor a yearin founders,'theKropotkin-Wilson crowd'. people who edit it, and don't want to t approval of the proposedchanges fot The llord frothed against Freedom's read his personalattacks. And we alsodo t Freedomin the new year. editor Tom Keell. ln 1945 one of Free- not need paragraphsand paragraphsof t However,I must take issuewith Sttl dom's rivals even stooped to physical self-justification from you; the paper I about the reasonsfor myselfleaving, the attack, smashingtype on the presswith shouldbe good enoughto speakfor itself. I subscriptionlist wasa matterof concerrl sledgehammers. These days there is no Black Flog hasthe sameproblem; loads I but not the main reasonfor me leaving. threat of physical attack, but the tradi- of silly personalslaggings off and gossip. I After all someof usappeared with mono. tion of written abuseis carriedon by yet We don't needit. lf anotherpaper makes I tonousregularity year after year producingi anotherenvious contemporary. allegationsagainst Freedom, pleasetry to I a fortnightly the difficultiesof whichthe Freedom's rule has been to ignore ignore it. The spaceyour repliestake up I present,editors now, no doubt, fullyt abuse from dotty comrades,as a self- could be fat better spent on more I appreciate;you either get tired or sorn€. respectingadult would ignoreabuse from constructivearticles. a thing happensthat you cannotstomach, a drunken colleagueor a dementedrela- Here'sto more Freedomslike the one I then you leave. tive. There have been lapsesfrom the for October. a I myself left for the latter reason,and rule, when the gratuitousinsults became JohnnyYen in doing so helpedto startanother maga- too much for a particular editor; re- Actually it was the October issue that zine, the GreenAnsrchlSf where we have grettablelapses. causedthe row with Albert . glad you ground of found a whole fertile new As anyone who has been on a demo liked it. peopleinterested in anarchistideas. will testify, yelling back at people It is interesting'tonote in regardto shouting Bollocks! from the sidelines Hopefully the new collectivecan make DavidK oven'sletter that thoseof uswho doesnot shutthem up. lt only encourages Freedom a little more outgoing and less havegiven help in supportof minersand them. the in-grouphouse journal that it hasbeen familieshave also been asked for political Donald Rooum for so long. Freedom (the 1886 version) literatureof all sorts. started out as anarchist+ommunist,and Finally,I hope that spaceis not going; variousFreedoms since then haveclaimed to be given to vacuous and irrelevant to be anarchistcommunist. argumentsabout who holdsthe holy writ 7ffii then do you devote so much Why of anarchistthought in this country. spaceto the right-wing'libertarians'and Fraternally. 'anarcho+apitalists'.Most of the reader- Alan Albon shipclassifies itself as anarchisttommunist, I was only pulling friendly legsover the anarcho-syndicalist or libertarian-socialist, subs saga,Alan. I know you had more October, Yes - December, No and I'm surethey don't want to readsuch than honourable re:$ons for leaving. trash. Good luck with the Greenthing. As an irregularreader of your paperover The Decemberissue had one and a third' Stu the yearsthere is one thing that annoys pagesdevoted to tlriscontroversy.Cou ldn't me,and this isall the personalslaggingoff it be more usefullyused to reporton the of other anarchiststhat goeson. When I miners'strike, other industrialmilitancy, first read Freedomfive yearsago, I found andaction in the communityand the anti-' that I had to buy it regularlyto keepup war movement? with allyour correspondentsand ed itorials, And couldn't we have a bit lessof as a letter in one issueinevitably sparked the sectarian bickering in the pagesof off a seriesof repliesand further replies Freedom? | know you have to reply to that could last for months.This often attacks,but couldn't you limit the space tends to be introspectiveand petty; And for this? anyway,we all know that the one thing I agree with Walter Westphal that we anarchistsagree on is that we disagree. libertarian publicationsshould be sold I thought at one stagethat this habit more widespreadly,and includingdemon- wasdisappearing, eipecially when I bought strations. But for such papers to be InsultingFreedom the October issue.This, I thought, was :sellable,they shouldattempt to introduce one of the best Freedoms I have read. libertarian ideas and libertarian ways of As long as there has been an anarchist The dearth of so many slaggingoff letters organisingto working classpeople, and press, there have bepn papers claiming meant better newscov€rage, more diverse ,they should drop the obscurelanguage to be anarchistpropaganda sheets, which articles and excellent book reviews. and obscuretopics that seemso popular in practiee denigrated anarchism by Great. at the moment. slagging off other anarchist papers. ln UnfortunatelyI missedthe November llor Commentary was a classstruggle this country Freedom was always the issue.When I picked up the December paper,they reportedon the latestindustrial main target of such nonsense,because issue I fsund the old recrimination action,they hadgood cartoons from John it was the first established,and tried to syndrome back worse than ever. Most Olday, etc. Can't you turn Freedom into present anarchismas intellectuallyre' people who read Freedomdo so because somethinglike that? spectable. they like the paper;they don't givea toss Nick Heath 4 I I DearFriends, ' to consider anarcho-pacifismas a valid NewLondon Group Thingsare quite excitingover here. 'alternativeto the 'Bomband Burn'school Quite a lot of directaction (ogcupation of thought(though?) We are a group of anarchists, anti- of WesternMining offices, die ins at re- ,._lt would be good to devote an entire militaristsand non-party socialistswho cruitingoffices, protests at warships and, isiueto the questionof violence;after all, are committedto direct action.Our acti- plenty of course,the womenspeace camp at there are of argumentsfor rejecting vities so far have-ranged from participa- CockburnSound). Most gratifyingafter violence as being incompatible with tion in masseveirts such as'Stop the City', previous years of dull meetingsand anarchism. Anarchists have always ReclaimChilwell and the blockadeof nothingmuch doingJ ust hope it lasts. criticisedMarxism for its belief that the LancasterHouse, to smalleractions like Inter-anarchistdisputes are incredibly end justifies the means(eg, the dictator- the recent incursionsin Upper Heyford boringif you don't know the personali- ship of the proletariatwill lead to the USAF base. We were instrumentalin ties involved(which few heredo). lt may abolition of the State). How can the initiatingthe occupationof the CEGB in be that politically I would be closerto organ of violence that is the State be supportof the minersthis July, and have the BlackFlag mob - if I werein London. abolishedby armed revolutionaries,who been making regularcollections foi the Certainlysocially I think I'd feelmore at will themselves become an organ of minerssince the strike began.We believe homewith you lot - if I wasin London. violence - a new State?All anarchisti in the masstransformation of society by But l'm not and find the wholething recognisethat authority restson violence; the activeparticipation of all people. looks a bit silly. lf I wasyou I'd be why is it they cannot(or do not want to) Pleaseadd our name to your list of totally ruthlessin suppressingthe issue seethat the reverseis alsotrue? Authority contacts: from the pagesof Freedomand put all is violence;violence is authority. [Eds: StreathamAction Group, energiesinto gettingout a really good Rubbish!l clo'121 Books, anarchistpaper - which Freedomthese The criticism levelled at anarcho- 121, RailtonRoad, days shows some signs of becoming pacifism- implicit in the label'quietist' London,SE24. again. - that its plan for action (total non- Mike participationin the Stateand non-violent LibertarianResource Centre resistanceto it, as well as the creationof Volya is an independent democratic Fremantle,W Australia alternativestructures) gets nowhere is just journal. Our aim is to providea regular as true of ?evolutionary' violence. sourceof news and analysisconcerning Violence only givesthe State an excuse the strugglesof workers, dissidentsand for even greaterrepression and awakens oppressedminorities in the so-called not revolution, but reaction in your socialistcountries of the world. lt is our average Johnny. Violence cannot be contentionthat thesecountries are not, in compatiblewith a belief in the dignity fact, socialistor at leastdo not exemplify and inviolabilityof human life, with a the kind of socialismwe areinterested in Pacifism and Violence belief in the right of everyindividual to promoting,namely free, democratic, graSs- rule over their own life. Oh, I see,you roots socialism.Instead these countries It wasirolic that half of the issuein which meant every individual you