Freedom Press: Who is to blame?

I think Chris Draper should be congratulated for exposing the frightful mess at Freedom Press.  A board of trustees (Friends of Freedom Press, F.F.P.) found to be asleep on the job, while a bunch of useless tossers, run amok and have turned the building, into an 'anarcho-hang-out'!  If this is how so-called anarchists, run a magazine, then spare us all, from an anarchist society.


However, while Draper seems to blame the 'oiks' and 'morons' of the Freedom collective, for much of this debacle at Freedom Press, this is not where I feel blame ultimately lies.  The fundamental question, is who brought these people on board in the first place? 


The recent Private Eye article, quite rightly referred to a 'somnolent' FFP, but it was the Freedom veteran, Donald Rooum, who seems to have had his hand on the tiller, for much of the time, and who made, most of the appointments.  Donald may well have thought the Rev. Toby Crowe, (definitely not an oik with a name like that), a 'big strong boy', but is this a sufficient qualification, to edit an anarchist magazine?  And Toby, seems to have been one of Rooum's better appointments after the collective, gave Freedom editor, Charlie Crute, the heave-ho, to make way for one of their cronies.

Given that the trustees barely met before Draper gave them a kick up the arse, should anybody be really surprised at what has been going on at Freedom Press.  They're lucky they've got any assets left.

 DP (28th, Oct. 2015)