Type | Fortnightly |
---|---|
Publisher | Freedom Press |
Editorial group | |
Founded | November 1939 |
Political alignment | |
Ceased publication | August 1945 (relaunched as Freedom ) |
Headquarters | Newbury Street, London |
War Commentary was a British World War II era anti-militarist anti-war anarchist newspaper published fortnightly in London by Freedom Press from 1939 to 1945. [1] The paper was launched as a successor to Revolt! and Spain and the World and was opposed to World War II along anti-capitalist and anti-state lines. [2]
Regular contributors to the paper included Vernon Richards, Marie Louise Berneri, John Hewetson, Philip Sansom, and Ethel Mannin, with John Olday contributing cartoons. Occasional contributors included Tom Brown, Reginald Reynolds, George Woodcock, and Colin Ward. [3]
The British state had been reluctant to take action against Freedom Press and War Commentary, though the government were monitoring the paper while Special Branch and MI5 spied on those involved in the paper. [1] [4]
However, as the war coming to a close, police action against the paper increased and in 1945 the four editors of the paper – Berneri, Hewetson, Richards and Sansom – were arrested and charged with conspiring to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces under Defence Regulation 39a. The four day trial at the Old Bailey saw significant press coverage and public controversy. [5] [6] [7] : 186 The Freedom Defence Committee was launched, which included notable figures such as George Orwell, Simon Watson Taylor, Herbert Read, Harold Laski, Kingsley Martin, Benjamin Britten, Augustus John, and Bertrand Russell. [1] The committee had been formed in part because at the time the National Council for Civil Liberties had been considered a communist front. Richards, Sansom and Hewetson were sentenced to nine months imprisonment, while the charges against Berneri – who was married to Richards – were dropped as legally a wife could not be prosecuted for conspiring with her husband – about which she was reportedly furious. [1]
With Richards, Hewetson and Sansom in prison, Berneri was joined by George Woodcock who together took on editorship of the paper. [8] The court case greatly raised the profile of War Commentary and Freedom Press. While the Freedom Defence Committee continued to organise until disbanding in 1949.
In August 1945 the paper was relaunched as Freedom .
Freedom is a London-based anarchist website and biannual journal published by Freedom Press which was formerly either a monthly, a fortnightly or a weekly newspaper.
Freedom Press is an anarchist publishing house and bookseller in Whitechapel, London, United Kingdom, founded in 1886.
Colin Ward was a British anarchist writer and editor. He has been called "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century, and a pioneering social historian."
George Woodcock was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel writing. In 1959 he was the founding editor of the journal Canadian Literature which was the first academic journal specifically dedicated to Canadian writing. He is most commonly known outside Canada for his book Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements (1962).
Anarchism in the United Kingdom initially developed within the religious dissent movement that began after the Protestant Reformation. Anarchism was first seen among the radical republican elements of the English Civil War and following the Stuart Restoration grew within the fringes of radical Whiggery. The Whig politician Edmund Burke was the first to expound anarchist ideas, which developed as a tendency that influenced the political philosophy of William Godwin, who became the first modern proponent of anarchism with the release of his 1793 book Enquiry Concerning Political Justice.
Vernon Richards was an Anglo-Italian anarchist, editor, author, engineer, photographer, and companion of Marie-Louise Berneri.
Marie Louise Berneri was an anarchist activist and author. Born in Italy, she spent much of her life in Spain, France, and England. She was involved with the short-lived publication, Revision, with Luis Mercier Vega and was a member of the group that edited Revolt, War Commentary, and the newspaper Freedom. She was a continuous contributor to Spain and the World. She also wrote a survey of utopias, Journey Through Utopia, first published in 1950 and re-issued in 2020. Neither East Nor West is a selection of her writings (1952).
Anarchy was an anarchist monthly magazine produced in London from March 1961 until December 1970. It was published by Freedom Press and edited by its founder, Colin Ward with cover art on many issues by Rufus Segar. The magazine included articles on anarchism and reflections on current events from an anarchist perspective, e.g. workers control, criminology, squatting.
Abel Paz (1921–2009) was a Spanish anarchist and historian who fought in the Spanish Civil War. He is considered one of the noted Spanish anarchist historians, writing multiple volumes on anarchist history, including a biography of Buenaventura Durruti, an influential anarchist during the war. He kept the anarchist tradition throughout his life, including a decade in Francoist Spain's jails and multiple decades in exile in France.
The Manifesto of the Sixteen, or Proclamation of the Sixteen, was a document drafted in 1916 by eminent anarchists Peter Kropotkin and Jean Grave which advocated an Allied victory over Germany and the Central Powers during the First World War. At the outbreak of the war, Kropotkin and other anarchist supporters of the Allied cause advocated their position in the pages of the Freedom newspaper, provoking sharply critical responses. As the war continued, anarchists across Europe campaigned in anti-war movements and wrote denunciations of the war in pamphlets and statements, including one February 1916 statement signed by prominent anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Rudolf Rocker.
Philip Richard Sansom was a British anarchist writer and activist.
The Freedom Defence Committee was a UK-based organisation set up on 3 March 1945 to "uphold the essential liberty of individuals and organisations, and to defend those who are persecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, writing and action." Chaired by Herbert Read, with Fenner Brockway and Patrick Figgis as vice-chairmen, the Committee's secretary was Ethel Mannin. Later, George Orwell became a vice-chair and George Woodcock, secretary.
Spain and the World is the name of an anarchist publication initiated in response to the Spanish Civil War and the struggles of the CNT-FAI carrying analysis of events as they unfolded. In Britain, the Freedom Paper had begun to peter-out. Thomas Keell had attempted to close the paper down as a reflection of the poor state of the British anarchist movement. Though there was a brief dispute which resulted in two rival 'Freedoms', both had run their course by the early 1930s. The fortnightly publication, Spain and the World had been started by Francesco Galasso and Vernon Richards in 1936 to compete with News Chronicle and New Statesman who were supportive of Soviet policy in Spain. "After the first issue, Spain and the World became a Freedom Press publication, with Tom Keell and Lilian Wolfe" according to Rooum. The paper would go on to revive the fortunes of the Freedom paper with input from important activists like Marie-Louise Berneri and Frank Leech.
NOW was a British political and literary periodical founded in 1940 by George Woodcock, its first editor, from 1940 to 1941, and by Freedom Press from 1943 to 1947.
Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow is a 2006 book about anarchism and left-libertarian thought in Britain written by David Goodway and published by Liverpool University Press, then republished in 2011 by PM Press.
Anarchism: A History of Libertarian Ideas and Movements is a 1962 book about the history of anarchism by George Woodcock.
The Anarchist Prince is a biography of Peter Kropotkin by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović.
John Christopher Hewetson was a British anarchist doctor, writer and newspaper editor. During the Second World War he was an editor of the anarchist newspaper War Commentary, which saw him imprisoned on three occasions. From the 1940s onwards he was active in advocating for freely available contraception and abortions.
Tom Brown (1900–1974) was a British anarcho-syndicalist trade unionist, anti-fascist, engineer and writer. Brown contributed articles to papers including War Commentary, Freedom, and Direct Action alongside authoring numerous pamphlets. Brown was known for his compelling public speaking and ability to communicate effectively in everyday terms. He placed a strong emphasis on federated local groups rather than centralism, and on workplace-based revolutionary trade unionism.