Friday 16 October 2015

Private Eye ponders problems of 'Freedom'


THE demise last year of Freedom newspaper, founded in 1886 by the geographer Peter Kropotkin, has now reached the columns of Private Eye.  In a feature story in the H.P. SAUCE feature (page 10)  entitled 'LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT...',  the journal today reveals that:
'The hitherto somnolent board of FFP Ltd (Friends of Freedom Press) – mostly old-school anarchists – will meet in London on 21 October to initiate formal eviction procedures [against a group of failed anarchists in residence].  Meanwhile, despite having spectacularly failed to publish a newspaper, the occupants of the anarcho hang-out refuse to recognise the board's authority and claim ownership of the building “on behalf of the movement”.'

The current occupants of the building who closed down Freedom newspaper describe themselves as 'the Freedom Collective', and imagine themselves as representing the British anarchist movement.  

The building they occupy at Whitechapel High Street has been valued at £1.1 million, and the Eye says the collective is composed of 'a bunch of scribblers, activists and Class War enthusiasts who style it an “anarcho hang-out”.'   

The strategy of the Friends of Freedom who own the building, if the Eye is to be believed, now seems to be to sell the building over the heads of the layabouts on the Collective who have failed to produce a newspaper as required.  Next weekend is the London Anarchist Bookfair, and one wonders what 'the movement' will have to say about all this.  Meanwhile, the Eye's H.P. SAUCE feature urges regular visitors to the Whitechapel Art Gallery to keep a eye-out for 'some lively impromptu performance-art next door in Angel Alley' from the colourful crowd who form the Freedom Collective.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

any apologies yet from Bammy or Florid Anus on this pile of crap?

Unknown said...

Not guilty Gov.! The above post is a just comment on a straight-forward report written by an Eye journalist in an issue of Private Eye. The main points in the Private Eye report about the legal position and/or the intentions of the Freedom Board has yet to be seriously challenged by either the Friends of Freedom Press or, bless them, the scribblers on the Freedom Collective such as the 'young thruster' Simon Saunders mentioned in the Eye piece. Indeed, these people on the Collective and their so-called Class War associates, seem incapable of serious debate.

Anonymous said...

pull the other one Florid Anus, its got jingle bells on it!

You've been rumbled and those at the Eye don't like being taken for mugs either.

Northern Anarchist Network - ha - fucktards!

Unknown said...

Dear me 'Anonymous', is this what passes for balanced rational debate in the shadowy circles in Angel Alley these days?

They'rehearingvoices said...

Glass houses Zyzzyzzzz, you've been spreading nutty shit for decades - you're like some sort of diarrhetic squirrel.

Editor said...

The Friends of Freedom Press are understood to be meeting today. One of several such meetings that have taken place following to the coverage given on this NV Blog, and the research done by Chris Draper. Since the Private Eye article the 'Friends' have done a tour of inspection of the building in Angel Alley, and members of the Collective were summoned to a meeting of the Friends (FFP) last year. It is believed four members of the Collective attended: including Simon Saunders and Andy - the man who polices the Freedom Bookshop. Not a bad job given that the Friends had not met in donkey's years!