Editing Freedom Press

{{Short description|Anarchist publishing house in London, England}}
{{distinguish|Freedom of the Press (disambiguation){{!}}Freedom of the Press|Free Press (disambiguation){{!}}Free Press}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Freedom Press
| logo = [[Image:Freedom Press logo.png|200px]]
| logo_caption = 
| image = File:Freedom Press, 2022.jpg
| image_caption = 
| native_name_lang = en
| industry = Publishing
| genre = Politics
| foundation = London, UK, 1886
| founder = Charlotte Wilson
| location_city = 84b Whitechapel High Street, London
| location_country = UK
| homepage = https://freedompress.org.uk
}}

'''Freedom Press''' is an [[anarchist]] publishing house and [[Radical bookshops in the United Kingdom|bookseller]] in [[Whitechapel]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom]], founded in 1886.<ref>{{cite book | last = Gay | first = Kathlyn | title = Encyclopedia of Political Anarchy | publisher = ABC-CLIO | location = Santa Barbara | year = 1999 | isbn = 0-87436-982-7 |pages=12}}</ref>

Alongside its many books and pamphlets, the group also runs a news and comment-based website and until recently regularly published ''[[Freedom (British newspaper)|Freedom]]'', which was the only regular anarchist newspaper published nationally in the UK. The collective decided to close publication of the full newspaper in March 2014, with the intention of moving most of its content online and switching to a less regular freesheet for paper publication.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Statement From The Freedom Collective|url=https://freedompress.org.uk/news/2014/03/10/a-statement-from-the-freedom-collective/|website=Freedom Website|access-date=8 July 2014|archive-date=14 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714183030/http://freedompress.org.uk/news/2014/03/10/a-statement-from-the-freedom-collective/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Other regular publications by Freedom Press have included ''[[Anarchy (magazine) |Anarchy]]'', ''[[Spain and the World]]'', ''[[Revolt!]]'' and ''[[War Commentary]]''.<ref>{{cite book | last = Goodway | first = David | title = [[Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward]] | publisher = Liverpool University Press | location = Liverpool | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-1-84631-025-6 |pages=182}}</ref>

==History==
{{Anarchism sidebar}}

=== 1886–1918 ===
The core group which went on to form Freedom Press came out of a circle of anarchists with international connections formed around the London-based radical firebrand [[Charlotte Wilson]], a Cambridge-educated writer and public speaker who was in the process of breaking from [[Fabian Society]] orthodoxy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4237/1/WRAP_THESIS_Thomas_1998.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4237/1/WRAP_THESIS_Thomas_1998.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Paths to Utopia: Anarchist countercultures in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain 1880-1914|last=Thomas|first=Matthew Jame|date=July 1998|website=wrap.warwick.ac.uk}}</ref> Among this founding group were Nikola Chaikovski, [[Francesco Saverio Merlino]], and as of 1886, celebrated [[anarchist-communist]] [[Peter Kropotkin]], who had been invited to Britain by Wilson after his release from prison in France in January of that year.

Wilson led a group of anarchists in founding Freedom as a [[social anarchist]] and anarchist communist group in September 1886, just a month after losing a vote in which the Fabians formally backed the parliamentary route to socialism. Alongside starting ''Freedom'' newspaper as a monthly beginning in October, the group also produced other pamphlets and books, primarily translations of international writers including [[Errico Malatesta]], [[Jean Grave]], [[Gustav Landauer]], [[Max Nettlau]], [[Domela Nieuwenhuis]], [[Émile Pouget]], [[Varlaam Cherkezov]], [[Emma Goldman]], [[Alexander Berkman]] [[Pierre-Joseph Proudhon]], [[Mikhail Bakunin]] and of course, Kropotkin himself. Discussion groups and public meetings were also begun early on.<ref name="Freedom History" />

In the early years of the paper Wilson funded and edited it out of a number of different offices while Kropotkin became a regular writer and provided its star turn. In 1895 Wilson resigned after a long series of personal difficulties<ref>{{cite book|editor-last=Rooum|editor-first=Donald|title=Freedom, a hundred years : October 1886 to October 1986.|year=1986|publisher=Freedom Press|location=London|isbn=0-900384-35-2|pages=10–11|edition=Centenary}}</ref> and [[Alfred Marsh]], a violinist, took over.

Marsh solidified the press alongside close collaborator [[Woolf Wess|William Wess]], and they were joined by ex-members of the defunct [[Socialist League (UK, 1885)|Socialist League]]'s publication, ''[[Commonweal (UK)|Commonweal]]'' – [[John Turner (anarchist)|John Turner]], [[Thomas Edward Cantwell|Tom Cantwell]], and Joseph Presburg. Marsh was able to acquire more permanent premises and printing facilities at 127 Ossulston Street in 1898.<ref name="libcom">{{cite web|last=Heath|first=Nick|title=Marsh, Alfred 1858-1914|url=https://libcom.org/history/marsh-alfred-1858-1914|work=Website|publisher=Libcom.org|access-date=9 June 2013}}</ref> ''Freedom'' collective member [[Donald Rooum]] notes:

"Freedom Press stayed in Ossulston Street for the next 30 years. The hand-operated press dated from about 1820, and needed three operators; two to load the paper and pull the handle, and one to take the paper off."

With the acquisition of its own press, albeit an elderly one, the group was able to publish more often, and in 1907 started a second paper, ''Voice of Labour'', which allowed former [[The Spectator|Spectator]] compositor [[Thomas Keell]] to become a permanent collective member, eventually taking over editorial duties at the paper in 1910 as Marsh's health declined.<ref name="Information for Social Change">{{cite journal|last1=Rooum|first1=Donald|title=A short history of Freedom Press|journal=Information for Social Change|date=Summer 2008|issue=27|url=http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC27/articles/5%20Freedom,%20Freedom%20Press%20and%20Freedom%20Bookshop.pdf|access-date=8 July 2014|archive-date=27 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927074042/http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC27/articles/5%20Freedom,%20Freedom%20Press%20and%20Freedom%20Bookshop.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

''Freedom'' became one of the most widely read anarchist publications in the period leading up the [[World War I|First World War]]; however, the collective split in 1914–15 over how anarchists should respond to the conflict, with Keel's anti-militarist position winning the backing of a majority of the national movement and Kropotkin leaving after he came out in favour of an Allied victory, a stance which would see him put his name to the ''[[Manifesto of the Sixteen]]'' in 1916. Keell and his companion Lilian Wolfe would go on to be imprisoned for the paper's staunch opposition to the war in 1916, though Wolfe was quickly released.

===1918–1945===
As with many other anarchist enterprises, ''Freedom'' had trouble maintaining itself after the war ended as many activists had died and the seeming success of [[Marxist-Leninism]] in Russia drew British radicals into the orbit of an ascendant [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]. While donations allowed it to remain solvent for over a decade and several of its core group remained, notably John Turner who became its publisher from 1930 until his death in 1934,<ref>McKercher, William Russell. ''Freedom and Authority'', Black Rose Books, Ltd, 1989, p.214.</ref> a crushing blow came in 1928 when the Ossulston Street building was demolished as part of a [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] scheme. Keell retired shortly afterward and while the collective continued to publish, it produced only an irregular newsletter over the course of the next eight years<ref name="Freedom History">{{cite web|title=A History of Freedom Press|url=https://freedompress.org.uk/news/about/history/|publisher=Freedom Press|access-date=8 July 2014|archive-date=9 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709143145/http://freedompress.org.uk/news/about/history/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Information for Social Change"/>

The paper was relaunched 10 years later as energy and interest in the anarchists swelled around the [[Spanish Civil War]], beginning with the publication of a fortnightly publication, ''Spain And The World'' (1936–38), which was renamed to ''Revolt!'', and then ''[[War Commentary]]'' (1939–45), before being renamed back to ''Freedom'' in August 1945. It was edited by Vero Recchioni (who later changed his name to [[Vernon Richards]]), the son of an Italian anarchist, and [[Marie Louise Berneri]], the daughter of [[Camillo Berneri]], an Italian anarchist who was assassinated in Spain. The Italian anarchist movement had been well-established in London since the 1920s.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Honeywell|first1=Carissa|title=Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945|journal=International Review of Social History|volume=60|issue=2|year=2015|pages=257–284|issn=0020-8590|doi=10.1017/S0020859015000188|url=http://shura.shu.ac.uk/12980/10/Honeywell-AnarchismBritishWarfare%28AM%29.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://shura.shu.ac.uk/12980/10/Honeywell-AnarchismBritishWarfare%28AM%29.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|doi-access=free}}{{rp|265}}</ref>

Much of the bookshop's history through this time was tied up with Richards, who was the driving force behind both the press and the newspaper from the 1930s until late in the '90s. Richards teamed up with Keel and Wolff as publisher and administrator respectively - the latter would remain so until the age of 95. In 1942 the press was able to buy a printing firm, Express Printers, at 84a Whitechapel High Street, which it did with the help of a rival printing firm and a supporters' group, the Anarchist Federation, which would become the nominal owner of the title until it declared itself autonomous in the 1950s. With an avowedly anti-war stance, the paper would continue to publish throughout the war, and would face prosecution for its stance only in peacetime Britain.<ref name="Information for Social Change"/>

===Post-War===

[[File:Freedom Press door.jpg|thumb|right|The Freedom Press door in 2014]]
''[[War Commentary]]'' was published with an overtly anti-militarist message, co-operating heavily with the pacifist movement, and in November 1944 the homes of several collective members were raided along with the offices of the press itself. When Richards, [[Marie-Louise Berneri]], [[John Hewetson]] and [[Philip Sansom]] were arrested at the beginning of 1945 for attempting "to undermine the affections of members of His Majesty's Forces,"<ref name="freedom">''George Orwell at Home'' pp 71-72 Freedom Press (1998)</ref> [[Benjamin Britten]], [[E. M. Forster]], [[Augustus John]], [[George Orwell]], [[Herbert Read]] (chairman), [[Osbert Sitwell]] and [[George Woodcock]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Orwell Today|url=http://www.orwelltoday.com/readerorwellanarchy.shtml|access-date=8 July 2014}}</ref> set up the [[Freedom Press Defence Committee]] to "uphold the essential liberty of individuals and organizations, and to defend those who are persecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, writing and action."<ref name="In Front of Your Nose">Orwell, Sonia and Angus, Ian (eds.). ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume 4: In Front of Your Nose (1945–1950)'' (Penguin)</ref>

In 1961, Freedom began producing ''[[Anarchy (magazine) |Anarchy]]'', a well-regarded series with noted front pages designed by [[Rufus Segar]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Picturing Anarchy: The Graphic Design of Rufus Segar|url=http://rectoversoblog.com/2011/06/27/anarchy-rufus-segar/|website=Recto Verso|access-date=11 July 2014}}</ref> and seven years later the press moved to its current premises at 84b Whitechapel High Street after Whitechapel Art Gallery bought out 84A. At this point the press was entirely owned and run by Richards. However, in 1982 he transferred ownership of the building to ''The Friends of Freedom Press'', a company which was limited by guarantee and without share capital. Richards also relinquished control over the paper's running from 1968, though would return periodically in editorially difficult moments and retained overall control of the press.<ref name="Freedom History" /><ref name="Information for Social Change"/>

In 1981 the printing function of the press was once again lost, with several members of the printing collective spinning off those functions into [[Aldgate Press]] using money raised by Richards.<ref name="Freedom History" />

The bookshop was repeatedly attacked in the 1990s by [[neo-fascist]] group [[Combat 18]] during street conflicts between fascist and anti-fascist groups in the East End and eventually firebombed in March 1993. The building still bears some visible damage from the attacks, and metal guards have been installed on the ground floor windows and doors, intended to ward against any further violence.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/zsqqLIbPbeA Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20101030233623/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsqqLIbPbeA Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite news|title=The Terror Squad|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsqqLIbPbeA#t=266s|access-date=8 July 2014|agency=World in Action|publisher=Granada|date=April 1993}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

A second arson attack occurred on 1 February 2013, causing significant damage, but no-one was hurt.<ref>{{cite web|title=Freedom bookshop torched|url=https://libcom.org/news/freedom-bookshop-firebombed-01022013|website=libcom.org|access-date=8 July 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
|url=https://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/04/freedom-press-oldest-radical-bookshop-arson-attack
|title=Britain's oldest radical bookshop is burned, but the ideas survive
|last=Gee
|first=Tim
|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]
|date=4 February 2013}}</ref> Donations allowed the press to survive, however cash losses from the paper forced its closure as a monthly publication in 2014,<ref name="libcom archive">{{cite web|title=Freedom Newspaper, 2014|url=http://libcom.org/library/freedom-october-2014|website=libcom.org|access-date=22 June 2017}}</ref> though free versions of the paper continue to be produced. In 2017 the press launched an archive, digitising more than 1,500 back issues of the paper covering the 1886–2020 period.<ref>{{cite web |title=Notes on the Freedom Anarchist Newspaper Archive |url=https://libcom.org/blog/notes-freedom-anarchist-newspaper-archive-21022018 |website=libcom.org |access-date=7 December 2021 |language=en}}</ref>

In March 2018 Freedom was made a core participant in the [[Undercover Policing Inquiry]], following confirmation that former undercover Met officer Roger Pearce had written in the paper in 1980–81, mostly on Northern Ireland.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Met spychief who infiltrated Freedom Press|url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/roger-pearce-infiltrated-freedom-press/|website=Freedom News|date=24 March 2018|publisher=Freedom Press|access-date=25 March 2018}}</ref>

==Organisation==
Today Freedom Press remains as a functioning publishing house with much of its printing still being done by [[Aldgate Press]]. The Freedom collective runs an open meeting and exhibition space called Decenter, alongside maintaining an archive, bookshop and website. It shares the premises with Dog Section Press, the [[Anarchist Federation (Britain and Ireland)|Anarchist Federation]], the [https://www.bargee-traveller.org.uk/ National Bargee Travellers Association], the [[Advisory Service for Squatters]] and [[Corporate Watch]]. The archive of the press is held at [[Bishopsgate Library]], and much correspondence from its early period can be found at the [[International Institute of Social History]] in Amsterdam.

==Authors and notable writers==
Having had a close affinity with [[Colin Ward]] and [[Vernon Richards]], Freedom Press has produced much of their extensive back catalogue, in addition to titles by [[Clifford Harper]], [[Nicolas Walter]], [[Murray Bookchin]], [[Gaston Leval]], [[William Blake]], [[Errico Malatesta]], [[Harold Barclay]] and many others, including 118 issues of the journals ''[[Anarchy (magazine)|Anarchy]]'', edited by Colin Ward and 43 issues of ''The Raven: Anarchist Quarterly''.

Over the years the ''Freedom'' editorial group has included [[Jack Robinson (anarchist)|Jack Robinson]], [[Pete Turner (anarchist)|Pete Turner]], Colin Ward, Nicolas Walter, [[Alan Albon]], [[John Rety]], [[Nino Staffa]], Dave Mansell, Gillian Fleming, Mary Canipa, [[Philip Sansom]], [[Arthur Moyse]], [[John Lawrence (political activist)|John Lawrence]] and many others. Clifford Harper maintained a loose association for 30 years.

Subjects of recent books include [[Emiliano Zapata]], [[Nestor Makhno]], [[Anti-Fascist Action]] and in 2021 the autobiography of "Greek Robin Hood" [[Vassilis Palaiokostas]]. At the end of 2018 the press published ''A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists'', to mark its 50th year at 84b Angel Alley. Notable modern authors include the Spanish political philosopher [[:es:Thomas Ibanez|Thomas Ibanez]] (''Anarchism is Movement'', 2019) and anthropologist [[Brian Morris (anthropologist)|Brian Morris]] (''A Defence of Anarchist Communism'', 2022).

==Published works==

Among the most popular books published by the press are:

*{{cite book |last1=Birchall |first1=Sean |title=Beating the fascists |date=2011 |isbn=190449112X}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Crute |editor1-first=Charles |title=The state is your enemy  Selections from the Anarchist Journal Freedom 1965-86 |date=1991 |isbn=0 900384 57 3}}
*{{cite book |last1=Kropotkin |first1=Peter |editor1-last=Ward |editor1-first=Colin |title=Fields, factories and workshops tomorrow |date=1974 |url=https://archive.org/details/fieldsfactoriesw0000krop/page/12/mode/2up |access-date=16 May 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Malatesta |first1=E. |title=Anarchy |date=1942 |edition=Seventh |url=https://archive.org/details/sparrowsnest-10276/page/n1/mode/2up |access-date=16 May 2025}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last=Ray |editor1-first=Rob |title=Why work Arguments for the leisure society |date=2019 |publisher=PM Press and Freedom Press |location=Oakland, California; London |isbn=978-1-62963-576-7 |edition=Third |url=https://archive.org/details/why_work_9781629635927/page/n3/mode/2up |access-date= 16 May 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Vernon |title=George Orwell at home (and Among the Anarchists) Essays and photographs |date=1998 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |isbn=0900384948}}
*{{cite book |last1=Rocker |first1=Rudolf |editor1-last=Walter |editor1-first=Nicholas |title=Anarchism and anarch-syndicalism |date=1988 |orig-date=originally 1973 |isbn=0 900384 45 X |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchismanarcho0000rock/page/6/mode/2up |access-date=16 May 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Rooum |first1=Donald |title=Wildcat Anarchist Comics |date=1985 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |isbn=0 900384 301 |url=https://archive.org/details/wildcatanarchist0000roou_j9c0/page/2/mode/2up |access-date=16 May 2025}}
*{{cite book |last1=Ward |first1=Colin |title=Anarchy in action |date=1996 |isbn=0 900384 20 4 |edition=Second |url=https://archive.org/details/freedom_press_1996_anarchy_in_action/page/n1/mode/2up |access-date=16 May 2025}}

==Gallery==
<gallery>
<!-- Deleted image removed: Image:Anarchist mural in Angel Alley.jpg|Anarchist mural in Angel Alley -->
Image:Freedom2.JPG|Outside the Freedom Press building at night, 2006
Image:Freedom Press.jpg|Freedom Press sign before the 2013 fire
File:Burned Freedom Press Archives 2013.jpg|Burned Freedom Press Archives in 2013
</gallery>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}

* {{Cite web |last1=Aslanyan |first1=Anna |title=Anna Aslanyan: Fireproof Cartoons |work=[[London Review of Books]] Blog |date=7 February 2013 |url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2013/02/07/anna-aslanyan/fireproof-cartoons/ |access-date=2018-01-24 |df=mdy-all }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Paola |first1=Pietro Di |title='The man who knows his village' Colin Ward and Freedom Press |journal=[[Anarchist Studies]] |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=22–41 |date=2011 |url=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A287386083/AONE?u=nypl&sid=AONE&xid=cd2cb434 |language=en |issn=0967-3393 |via=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |df=mdy-all }}
* {{Cite book |last1=Ray |first1=Rob |title=A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists |date=2018 |language=en |isbn=978-1-904491-30-9 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |oclc=1052463857 |df=mdy-all }}
* {{Cite journal |last1=Walter |first1=Nicolas |title=Anarchism in Print: Yesterday and Today |journal=Government and Opposition |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=523–540 |date=October 1970 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/government-and-opposition/article/anarchism-in-print-yesterday-and-today/BA5894E917502168AD434E3DB4BCB1C0 |doi=10.1111/j.1477-7053.1970.tb00514.x |issn=0017-257X |df=mdy-all |jstor=44484496 |s2cid=145321976 |url-access=subscription }}

{{Refend}}

==External links==
*[https://www.freedompress.org.uk/ Freedom Press website]
*[https://freedomnews.org.uk/ Freedom News site]
*[https://freedomnews.org.uk/archive/ Digitised Freedom Newspaper archive]
*[http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/3j9kq3 Freedom Press] documents from the [[Kate Sharpley Library]]
*[https://www.libcom.org libcom.org] British libertarian communist website linked to Freedom Press
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182823/http://recollectionbooks.com/bleed/Encyclopedia/Freedom.htm Freedom newspaper (1886–) Daily Bleed's Anarchist Encyclopedia about Freedom Press] (via [[Internet Archive]])
*[https://search.iisg.amsterdam/Record/ARCH00428 Freedom at the International Institute of Social History]
*[https://www.bishopsgate.org.uk/collections/freedom-press-library Freedom at the Bishopsgate Library]
*[https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/search.php?query=freedom+press&digital=0&logic=and&query2= Freedom at Sparrows' Nest Library]

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{{Freedom Press}}
{{Infoshops}}
{{Bookshops in London}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}

[[Category:Anarchist organisations in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Media and communications in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]
[[Category:Anarchist publishing companies]]
[[Category:Anarchist collectives]]
[[Category:Publishing companies established in 1886]]
[[Category:Publishing collectives]]
[[Category:Infoshops]]
[[Category:Bookshops in London]]
[[Category:1886 establishments in the United Kingdom]]