Donald Rooum Resigns from Collective
PROVISIONALLY it is anticipated that the next meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press will be held next Monday the 11th, January 2016. The last meeting of the Friends which we are told was poorly attended was held in December last year.
None-the-less, the board of Friends which has ultimate power and responsibility for the running of the property in Angel Alley is now meeting on a regular basis following criticisms on this Northern Voices' Blog and in the national journal Private Eye.
As yet, there is little sign that a serious anarchist newspaper will be produced, as is required under the Articles of Association: which are the rules under which the managing body must operate. The Freedom website, edited by the well-intentioned student Adam Lawrence Bar, is at present a rather poor substitute for the journal which I remember in the last half of the 20th century. During that time it was edited by mature intellectuals like Vernon Richards and Colin Ward; experienced shop-floor workers like Bill Christopher, and the building worker like Peter Turner; people interested in the arts like John Rety and Arthur Moyse. More recently in this century the quality of those who have contributed to Freedom seems to have declined to the likes of Simon Saunders, who not long ago admitted he didn't know the meaning of the word 'syndicalism', and the rather voluble figure of Nick Heath, a one-time librarian/ historian and leader of the Anarchist Federation.
A source close to the Friends of Freedom reports that the veteran anarchist and cartoonist, Donald Rooum, has now resigned from the Collective that closed down Freedom newspaper. Mr. Rooum , who is also on the Friend's of Freedom Board has done this because he does not want a conflict of interests.
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4 comments:
Wrong again, Barmy Bammy. I never once wrote an article for Freedom in the period you describe, bar one biography of a French anarcho-syndicalist that I had originally posted on libcom and was reprinted in Freedom without the courtesy of asking me first and which had its text altered, again without my assent, as well as another biography of the English anarchist Clara Gilbert Cole where a photo of Sylvia Pankhurst was attached to the biography and wrongly credited as that of Cole.
Ex-librarian, Yes, of course , and also ex-hospital worker, ex-kitchen porter, ex-roadsweeper etc etc
when are we going to get a report on the last Friends of Freedom Press meeting? I could just ask the Friends themselves but your account is always more interesting
'Northern Voices' has been asked not to report in detail on this last meeting of the Friends. Problems apparently cropped-up over the absence of records of earlier meetings of the Friends. It is understood that minute-taking is a legal requirement on such occasions. Naturally, Andy was policing the bookshop during the meeting, but coincidentally on this occasion he had a guest with him - none other than Mr. Nick Heath.
The next meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press is set to happen next Monday, 22nd, Feb. 2016.
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