Freedom News

Orwell among the anarchists

Vernon, Richards George Orwell at Home (and Among the Anarchists): Essays and Photographs, (1998) London: Freedom Press. Photographs by Vernon Richards. Essays by Vernon Richards, Colin Ward, and Nicholas Walter. Review by Raymond S. Solomon There are few people who had the knowledge and understanding of George Orwell as did the three contributors to George

Long review: The works of Marie Louise Berneri

In this long-read review Raymond S Solomon reflects on the life of a key figure at Freedom Press in the 1930s-40s, Marie Louise Berneri, analysing her peers, philosophical and historic setting and impact through two of her works. Books reviewed Journey Through Utopia. 1949 Routledge and Kegan Paul. Neither East Nor West: Selected Writing 1939-1948. updated

Book review: A beautiful idea … and a messy reality

A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists Rob Ray Freedom Press, 2018 ISBN: 978-1-904491-30-9 Review by George F. Rob Ray’s history of the Freedom Press anarchists is like getting sat down next to that eccentric blue-hairred aunt at a wedding that you’d always heard stories about, but never quite gotten the full picture

Book Extract: World War, and Freedom’s nadir

When the Great War broke out in 1914 most anarchists took their customary anti-militarist position, but the conflict also led to two of its heaviest hitters, Errico Malatesta and Peter Kropotkin, throwing down in the pages of anarchist journal Freedom. In the following extract from A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists, Rob Ray

Spycops Inquiry: An ugly picture has emerged

Freedom’s recently uncovered links to the scandal of Metropolitan Police officers infiltrating and manipulating peaceful radical groups are just part of a series of major revelations and events swirling around the Undercover Policing Inquiry over the last week. The probe into police spying against over 1,000 organisations over a 40-year period has seen multiple new

History: The Anarchist Ball of 1961

As the British anarchist movement got going after a long decade on the back foot, Freedom’s October Ball showcased a burgeoning powerhouse. The 1950s had been a relative low period for anarchism in Britain. Post war, Soviet dominance of left discourse had drawn most of the broader movement into forms of Leninism and the Communist

Freedom Press cartoons on exhibition in Bradford

The Peace Museum in Bradford is currently hosting an exhibition ‘Cartoons For Peace’ including at least two Freedom Press books. The March to Death, a book of anti-war cartoons was first published by Freedom Press in defiance of war-time censorship in 1943. The drawings are by John Olday illustrating quotations chosen anonymous by Marie-Louise Berneri. The edition