WE publish the report below just to keep our readers informed of the strange goings on at Freedom Press, which used to have the distinguished reputation of being the stable of one of the oldest journals in the country (founded in 1886), and is now a place where the inmates think nothing of operating bans and blacklists against fellow anarchists. The latest rumour is that the Freedom Collective, led by the Bookshop manager, Andy Meinke, wants to extend his local blacklist to include a Friend of Freedom Press who he believes is leaking info. to Northern Voices. The Collective under Andy Meinke got rid of the solicitor Richard Parry earlier in the Summer of this year, after Mr. Parry had sent a letter to the occupants of the building who sometimes pay rent to the Collective warning them they may have to move out as the Friends planned to sell the premises on Whitechapel High Street. On that occasion Mr. Meinke rallied a mob to intimidate the Friends of Freedom Press by using his Facebook page yet again.
ADAM Lawrence Barr, who was the latest editor
of Freedom, has now left the job he was paid to do apparently for good. He is the latest in an undistinguished line of holders this office to quit. In fact most people I
know connected with Freedom Press are embarrassed by both the printed version
of the paper and the website offering.
What was more curious than Mr Barr fleeting
participation at Freedom was the sudden conjuring up of the good lady Carolyn
Wilson, who was installed on the eve of Referendum Day (22/06/16) as a new
Friend of Freedom Press. Carolyn Wilson
was nominated by a departing Friend who had not only never met her but had no
knowledge of who she was. In other words
she was just another 'name' put forward by the Secretary of the Friends of
Freedom Press, Steve Sorba, who nominated the other new Friend, Jason
Holdway, who is an anarcho-syndicalist and seemingly has some connection with
the Solidarity Federation.
What must be troubling about all this is
that the director/ members of the Friends of Freedom Press are operating like puppets or nodding dogs;
nominating any kind of odd or sod who presents themselves at the Freedom
Bookshop in Angel Alley. I write this in
the knowledge that both Mr Holdway and Ms. Wilson are representatives of
that shy school of anarchists and did not want to give their details, and that
this presents a problem because Companies House to which the Friends of Freedom
Press are registered as Company Directors normally requires the full names and addresses of
the Directors on the board.
Further investigations by Northern Voices shows a Ms. Carolyn Jane Wilson has now been registered at Companies House together with the other directors, and perhaps we should not be surprised that her 'correspondence address' is registered as 84b, Whitechapel High Street: which is none other than the address of the Freedom Bookshop run by Andy Meinke.* She now takes the minutes of the meetings of the Friends, so Mr. Meinke will have advance warning of anything that may affect his plans or his money-making schemes of renting out rooms. Sources close to the Friends of Freedom have told Northern Voices that Mr. Meinke still hasn't provided proper accounts for his Freedom Bookshop operation. We have been told that when the Friends have their meetings Andy keeps out of the way and very often sneaks off to the pub.
The relationship between Ms. Wilson and Mr. Meinke would seem to stem from when they were both associated with 'Reclaim the Streets' some years ago. When in 2012 there was trouble between Freedom and a left-wing photographer, over the copyright theft of intellectual property when Freedom Press agreed to publish the book 'Beating the Fascists'; the photographer David Hoffman then advised that people should take closer look at Mr. Meinke.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jason Holdway is not registered as a director at Companies House, and has not attended any of the monthly meetings of the board of directors since he was crowned as a director at the AGM last June.
Further investigations by Northern Voices shows a Ms. Carolyn Jane Wilson has now been registered at Companies House together with the other directors, and perhaps we should not be surprised that her 'correspondence address' is registered as 84b, Whitechapel High Street: which is none other than the address of the Freedom Bookshop run by Andy Meinke.* She now takes the minutes of the meetings of the Friends, so Mr. Meinke will have advance warning of anything that may affect his plans or his money-making schemes of renting out rooms. Sources close to the Friends of Freedom have told Northern Voices that Mr. Meinke still hasn't provided proper accounts for his Freedom Bookshop operation. We have been told that when the Friends have their meetings Andy keeps out of the way and very often sneaks off to the pub.
The relationship between Ms. Wilson and Mr. Meinke would seem to stem from when they were both associated with 'Reclaim the Streets' some years ago. When in 2012 there was trouble between Freedom and a left-wing photographer, over the copyright theft of intellectual property when Freedom Press agreed to publish the book 'Beating the Fascists'; the photographer David Hoffman then advised that people should take closer look at Mr. Meinke.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jason Holdway is not registered as a director at Companies House, and has not attended any of the monthly meetings of the board of directors since he was crowned as a director at the AGM last June.
Since her elevation onto the Friends of Freedom Press, I have spotted the mysterious Ms. Wilson at various events associated with the left. She was at the London Anarchist Bookfair last October, and at the Greenwich Conference on Blacklisting in September. Her attendance at the Blacklist Conference is interesting because she seems to have been recruited by the Freedom Bookshop manager, Andy Meinke (see link below), her name being forwarded to Secretary Steve Sorba for her to become a Director of Friends of Freedom Press. Curiously Mr. Meinke is on record on his Facebook for participating in a campaign against Steve Hedley, Senior Assistant General Secretary in the RMT union.** Mr. Steve Hedley, was found to be on the Consulting Association blacklist and is a well known and respected trade union militant.
Mr. Meinke has not been a great supporter of the campaign against the blacklist in the British building trade; he sold all of 5 copies of the Tameside TUC 'Boys on the Blacklist' booklet in his Freedom Bookshop and anyone who wants to know more about him can always go on his Facebook page.
* WILSON, Carolyn Jane
Correspondence address: 84b Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 7QX
- Role Active: Director
- Date of birth: December 1974
- Appointed on: 23 August 2016
- Nationality: British
- Country of residence: United Kingdom
- Occupation: Voluntary Worker
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment