A Justification for the 'Freedom Collective'?

by an Anonymous 'member'?

"By what right did the Collective make the recommendation?"

Having been asked if they would accept recommendations from the Collective the Friends said they would be happy to consider any put forwards. These were duly offered, and the Friends were under no obligation to accept any of them.

"Who were the members of the Collective at the time?"  

Come to a meeting and you can ask direct. The Collective does not give out personal details without permission.

"Did the members of the Collective exert undue influence"

No.

"Do the members of the Collective have any answerability to the Friends of Freedom Press"

The Friends is a dormant company with no formal financial or organisational ties to the Collective.

"The members of the Collective appears to have decided that the Friends of Freedom Press have all the financial responsibility"

The only responsibility the Friends have is to safeguard the building. As a dormant company this does not involve them paying for anything, day to day costs are covered by the collective and other building users.

"Given that the newspaper folded because it lost so many readers who would want to take over the building? Surely not the members of the Collective?"

I'm not sure what you're asking here. The Collective has no intention of "taking over the building" but the point is that it couldn't even if it wanted to.

"The Friends of Freedom Press are excluded from the decision-making but are supposed to put their hands in their pockets"

The Friends are not required to pay anything themselves, it is in their mission statement that they aim to raise funds but "aim" and "are required to" are not the same thing.

"Will a member of the Collective tell us exactly how it ensures that ‘those active in the anarchist movement today’ are enabled to ‘control’ the day to day activities of ‘Freedom’"

Anyone can come to the monthly meeting and have their say and anyone prepared to put in the minimal amount of work required to become a member has a direct vote on collective activities, how things run day to day etc. If you're asking whether anyone can walk in off the street and tell the collective what to do, then no.

"1. Look after the building, i.e. give money"

No money has to be given

"2. Fund the members of the Collective, i.e. give money but don’t ask any questions"

They can ask what they like, and usually do.

"3. Take responsibility for whatever disaster the members of the Collective might produce, i.e. give money, ask no questions, but don’t expect any of them to be accountable for their actions."

If the Collective were to go bankrupt the Friends would simply continue to own the building. There is no responsibility for them to bail the Collective out.

I hope some of those answers have been helpful. As an aside, it might be worth noting that Chris and Brian have developed a very personal vendetta against Collective members who they feel (wrongly) are their enemies and as a result their roundups are often inaccurate, where they aren't deliberately misrepresentative. They haven't met most of the Friends or indeed most of the Collective, and do most of their writing from the other side of Britain. Other than the odd article from Brian, neither of them has had a role in the paper or the press for well over a decade.

The best way to understand how Freedom Press works is to come to the shop and meet people, and if you do so you'll see that the situation is a long was from the insiunations and insults levelled on this blog.

My apologies for the anonymity, but I'd rather not present a target for Bamford and Draper's unpleasantries.