Freedom News

Culture and Community

September 2nd: Nicholas Walter writes on Raymond Williams and his key literary contribution to the New Left.

Moving with the times … but not in step

August 2nd: Colin Ward critiques an interview from New Left Review of Alan Lovell, a regular Peace News writer in the 1960s and a member of the Committee of 100, by Stuart Hall and Paddy Whannel, looking at how anarchism was perceived within the group.

Aspects of syndicalism in Spain, Sweden and USA

July 2nd: Considering the relative weakness of anarcho-syndicalism in Britain historially, Philip Holgate compares three countries where the revolutionary union idea took off and made a major social impact in Spain, Sweden and the US. Holgate, born at Chesterfield, 1934, studied mathematics at Exeter and spent five years teaching in a progressive school.

Workers’ control in the building industry after World War One

June 2nd: James Lynch considers the brief period in 1918-1921 when British construction workers successfully took parts of the industry into the worker-controlled National Building Guild.

May 1936: The Congress of Zaragoza

April 29th: In this archive article from Anarchy Number 5, Philip Holgate looks at the Congres of Zaragoza, which took place in May 1936.

How the peace symbol came to be

April 12th: Peace News writes about its role in creating the globally-recognised icon.  ‘Without you (Hugh Brock), Michael Randel (sic) and Pat (Arrowsmith) there would have been no symbol.’ So wrote the artist and designer of the nuclear disarmament symbol, Gerald Holtom, in a letter dated 29 September 1973 to Hugh Brock, PN editor 1955–1964, and the chair of

Looking at Anarchist solidarity with prisoners and exiles in the Soviet Union

March 30th: In 2010 the Alexander Berkman Social Club and Kate Sharpley Library published The Tragic Procession: Alexander Berkman and Russian Prisoner Aid.

The events of ’68 (1868, that is)

March 28th: This year’s 150th anniversary of the first vote under a working-class franchise needs to be remembered.

A Oes Heddwch? Welsh peace activism historic and modern

March 26th: Ahead of Cardiff Stop The Arms Fair protests due tomorrow, Jane Harries writes about some of the peace movement’s historic associations in Wales, and about modern-day movements.

History: The Anarchist Ball of 1961

March 10th: As the British anarchist movement got going after a long decade on the back foot, Freedom’s October Ball showcased a burgeoning powerhouse.