The beginning of 1945 was a turbulent time for Freedom Press, along with anarchism in Britain and western Europe
~ Rob Ray ~
While the Germans were mounting their last, doomed offensive, the outcome of World War II was already no longer in doubt. The fascists had been routed in the East, invaded in the West, and to the South, Rome had fallen. It was time for what remained of the anarchist movement to consider its future.
The signs were bleak. On the one hand, the war had largely sidelined the anarchists, as it had the peace and socialist movements, buried beneath the urgent necessities of global conflict. Its bombs and production quotas. The movement had lost some people to the war itself, some to the greater lure of the Communist Party. Even worse and unreported (for obvious reasons) in its major paper War Commentary was a rift in the movement that opened during 1944. As of January this had led to the splitting of the Freedom Group from the larger Anarchist Federation (not the same as the modern group).
The subject of today’s reprint is not on that topic specifically, but research by the Kate Sharpley Library is worth reading on how the crisis played out, leading to a group centred around Vernon Richards and Marie Louise Berneri taking full control.
So by January, 80 years ago, the Freedom Group and its small band of anti-war activists were struggling on a number of levels, having worked throughout the war to bring out the paper while barely being tolerated by a security service which had arrested the occasional contributor, such as John Hewetson (in 1942, for draft dodging), and outright banned the Communist Party-aligned Daily Worker from 1941-42.
As of late 1944, however, even the limited tolerance of “more trouble to repress than to ignore” ran out. This change was linked particularly to the State’s own shift in priorities, away from total war to how on Earth it could reintegrate nearly 3 million armed and trained working class soldiers into a shattered capitalist economy with flattened housing and few prospects. Where War Commentary’s insinuations that perhaps more suitable targets than foreign fighters existed could be brushed aside in the fight against fascism, there might be rather more concerning implications for such language reaching the masses in years to come.
On December 12th this rising concern led to a series of raids, including on the Freedom Press premises, then at Belsize Road, and at the homes of two comrades looking for incriminating materials. These were far from the only attempts to gather information on or repress the anarchists at the time, with Albert Meltzer recounting the story of Fay Stewart’s home being raided in an attempt to get the subscriber list for radical newsletter Workers in Uniform, and John Olday being arrested first for identity theft, then for desertion.
Unlike the monthly Freedom papers of 1914, War Commentary had in large part kept up a hectic pace producing two papers a week with a volunteer staff, so it had more space and could react more quickly to events. Here I reprint the first of two articles in the January 13th and 27th issues. This would mark the beginning of a famous legal showdown known today as the War Commentary Trials, of which more will be written later in the year.
Police still holding Freedom Press files!
Though four weeks have passed since the Freedom Press offices were raided, none of the goods seized have at the time of writing been returned by Scotland Yard. In fact, so far, not even an inventory of the items seized has been sent to our solicitors. We mention this not so much to explain any delays and errors in dispatching War Commentary and our publications to readers who sent orders at the time of the raid, but to show how it is possible under the pretext of obtaining information for one suspected offence to deal a blow which has no relation to the suspected offence and which can cause considerable inconvenience to the persons concerned.
Paragraph 2 of Defence Regulation 88A (the regulation under which the search warrants were issued) states that “A person authorised by such warrant … may seize any article found in the premises … which he has reasonable ground for believing to be evidence of the commission of any such offence. … Now the suspected offence is covered by Defence Regulation 39A the gist of which is that no person shall endeavour to seduce from their duties persons in His Majesty’s service, etc. … The method used by Inspector Whitehead and his men to find the evidence was to empty the contents from the different letter trays straight into sacks, seize invoices and account books which dealt entirely with transactions with bookshops and bundle them into sacks as well, seize the office typewriter and boxes containing stencils of addresses, letter books and other material without which it is virtually impossible to run a concern like Freedom Press.
During the search at the homes of two comrades professional notes which had not the remotest connection with politics and accounts from business firms for-goods supplied, as well as the account books and publishers invoices for Freedom Bookshop Bristol (2025 note, the Bristol bookshop, pictured above, ran for a time from premises at 132 Cheltenham Rd) were removed, such seizure presumably being classified as “reasonable ground for believing it to be evidence”!
It could be argued that it would have taken more than five hours to sort out all the material on the spot, but the fact remains that over four weeks have passed and the material seized is still in the hands of Scotland Yard. By retaining these documents they are making it extremely difficult for Freedom Press to carry on its “lawful business”. Many subscribers will be without their copies of War Commentary; we have no means of sending out renewal notices. We are also in the unenviable position of not being able to send out accounts for money owing to Freedom Press which now runs into several hundred pounds sterling, nor have we details of payments made and to be made for goods received thereby jeopardising our credit with suppliers. What means are there for redress? Our solicitors have written two letters to the Commissioner of Police explaining the position outlined above. As we expected, they have obtained no satisfaction; only a vague promise of an inventory of the material seized.
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Meanwhile the note which appeared in the last issue of War Commentary on the raid and of our having to move from Belsize Road has resulted in a very large number of letters from readers expressing their solidarity with us in this difficult period and their whole-hearted support for the work Freedom Press has been doing during these past years (see also Letters column on page 4). These expressions of solidarity give us that added amount of determination required to carry on when so many obstacles are being put in our way.
To our readers in the Services who have been subjected to the indignities of being searched and their reading matter confiscated (2024 note: these included a teenaged Colin Ward) we have little to say. Their letters to us, in which the outstanding feature is their determination to maintain their opinions in spite of threats and searches, show a spirit which is a source of inspiration and of hope for the future. And they can be sure that Freedom Press will not waver in its fight for the rights of Free Expression in the cause of that future society we all desire in which man will be really Free.
