CLOWNS FALL OUT –

BIG TOP TO BE SOLD?

(“FREEDOM’s” posthumous annual report 2 – July 2017) 

by Christopher Draper

REGULAR readers will recall how FREEDOM – one of the world’s longest running radical newspapers was destroyed by authoritarian “class warriors” who refuse to vacate its valuable (£1.5m) London premises.  FREEDOM’s Board (FFP) is obliged to resume publication of the newspaper but for two years made negligible efforts to regain the building or restore FREEDOM and effectively colludes with clowns claiming rents from fellow occupants of their self-proclaimed “anarcho-hangout”.  This situation provides nothing for anarchists around the country and achieves even less in spreading anarchist ideas.  On the contrary this whole embarrassing episode is a text-book example of anarchist ineptitude.  NORTHERN VOICES will not collude with this nonsense and we’re happy to expose the absurdist antics of the clown “collective”.

Andy Exits the Circus

Two of the funniest clowns Simon Saunders (“Computer Game-boy”) and Andy Meinke (“Beer-belly”) are jealous performers.  Last year they laughably named and blacklisted four of our NV team for publishing critical reviews.  Simon issued a fatwah – the Northern Voices 4: “should not be given any support by anarchist or progressive organisations…they should not be welcome in anarchist spaces nor published in anarchist outlets – they are persona non grata…”   Now Saunders has banned his fellow clown!  Apparently Andy over-indulged in the beer tent, made off-colour remarks about female artistes and on 7th June 2017 was sacked by the clown collective.  Simple Simon is now ringmaster but the Big Top’s tatty, the audience has drifted away and new management is itching for change.

Last Laugh?

Just a year ago Andy taunted audiences mourning the loss of FREEDOM with his arrogant boast, “Kropotkin might have started it but we fucking finished it”.
You might recall, Simon first entered the Big Top selling Syndicalist programmes whilst simultaneously proclaiming ignorance of anarchist politics – now he claims infallibility.  What a funny old circus!  There’s no performance and the Big Top leaks like a sieve.  Can a pair of plucky new governors save the day?

  Vero Richard’s Dying Circus

Decades ago, when wily old ringmaster Vero Richards re-founded the FREEDOM tradition he was smart enough to create a board of management (FFP) to guarantee the set-up after his death but before he was in his grave miscreants moved in, drove away audiences and threatened outsiders. When aged ex-performer Brian Bamford turned up at last year’s FFP AGM he was knocked to the ground by clowns Andy and Simon, whilst FFP Company Secretary Sorba deleted the digital evidence from the victim’s camera.  What a performance!

New Friends of FREEDOM

Now the show’s over, the clowns have had their day and the audience want their money back. Fortunately, since last year’s AGM management has been refreshed. There are now nine FFP members and the majority are not amused.  FFP now comprises the following nine members;
Stephen Charles Sorba – director of a printworks
Carolyn Jane Wilson - cycle trainer
Jason Holdway - unemployed (rarely attends FFP meetings)
Martin Howard - compiled quizzes for “Black Flag”
David Goodway - libertarian writer and historian
Ernest Rodker - veteran peace campaigner
Jayne Clementson - long-time stalwart of “old” FREEDOM
David John Douglass - libertarian communist ex-coal miner
Peter Marshall - anarchist author of “Demanding the Impossible”

Past Failures

Until now the FFP Board failed every bit as badly as the “collective” to act as anarchists, both preferring to operate as secretive cabals, accountable to nobody.  Neither “collective” nor FFP publishes minutes or identifies its members.  Fortunately, our contacts abound and NV is proud to Wikileak details of what’s been going on.  Now it’s time for radical change.
Whilst the first four people on our FFP list - Sorba, Wilson, Holdway, Howard seem determined not to re-establish the open-minded anarchism that long characterised FREEDOM the last five named are more solid FRIENDS OF FREEDOM.  Significantly the sectarian four all exist in the London bubble (with at least 3, Sorba, Wilson and Holdway concentrated in the South East corner of that bubble), whilst Goodway travels to meetings from Keighley, Marshall journeys from Plymouth and Douglass from South Shields.
Northern Voices has always criticised FFP’s London bias only to be dismissed by ringmaster Saunders for speaking “from the other side of Britain”!
FREEDOM newspaper was formerly the forum for anarchists across Britain, now the Aldgate “anarcho-hangout” is no more than clubrooms for metropolitans.  Anarchists are supposed to reject structures that dis-empower yet the collective are content to exploit their privileged position as Londoners.  Merely to travel to the FREEDOM building is an expensive disincentive for many anarchists around the country yet neither the “collective” nor FFP rotates its meetings around England or even offers a fare-pool so for the recent AGM NV put its money where our mouth is and chipped in £40 to enable one of the northern FFP members to attend.

Anarchism Begins at Home

From their next meeting in October 2017, FFP need to start acting as anarchists and tackle this issue.   Either move your meetings around the country or share the costs.  It is written into FFP’s formal constitution (para. 32) that members attending should have their expenses paid but this has just been ignored by Company Secretary Sorba and guess where he lives.
Next, FFP must put the old FREEDOM building up for sale.  It was bought to provide premises to layout and print the paper but this is no longer required to publish either an electronic or print edition. A sale would raise £1.5m to £2.0m which could finance a publications fund split between maintaining a new high quality FREEDOM anarchist news site and a separate book-publishing programme of say two titles per year.  This could be overseen by a publications sub-committee of FFP.  A website editor could be appointed by this group and granted, say, a renewable, modest biannual stipend.
The existing fixed metropolitan asset must be liquidated to discontinue further privileging a London elite and refocus on the needs of the widely scattered, isolated anarchist community.  When the clowns trashed FREEDOM and cast aside the loyalty of former subscribers, only FFP member and FREEDOM stalwart Jayne Clementson expressed any sensitivity or understanding of the harm they caused to the anarchist movement.

Time for a Change

Since FREEDOM was shut down Northern Voices has ceaselessly campaigned for a revival.  We’re heartened by the exit of Meinke and appointment of Dave Douglass and Peter Marshall and encouraged by the response of someone close to the collective, “I have no doubt your group’s commendable efforts precipitated this”, but fine words butter no parsnips.  We call on Dave Douglass and Peter Marshall to put some iron into the soul of other well-intentioned but irresolute FRIENDS.  FREEDOM, like the Norwegian Blue, might appear deceased but now, in July 2017, the FRIENDS have the individuals, the ideas and the resources to get FREEDOM squawking again. They owe it to anarchists around the country not to let a few London clowns reduce our whole political philosophy and movement to chucking custard pies.

Christopher Draper – for Northern Voices (July 2017)

Freedom's Metropolitan Bubble Bursts!

Anarchist Publishing House Broadens its Base
by Brian Bamford

LAST Monday at this year's Annual General Meeting, the Friends of Freedom Press have appointed two new directors from outside London.  In doing so, with the appointment of the former miner and trade unionist, David Douglass from Tyneside, and the writer, Peter Marshall from Plymouth, they have effectively broken the stranglehold of a metropolitan political clan which has continually served to castrate the publication of Freedom as a serious intellectual voice of radical anarchism.

News over the weekend came out that the Freedom Bookshop manager, Andy Meinke, is leaving his job, but it is still unclear as to whether he is leaving of his own accord or if he has been dismissed by the unofficial Freedom Collective, over which he had a degree of influence.  A year ago Mr. Meinke was questioned by the Metropolitan Police after an incident in the Freedom Press Bookshop in which he played a role trying to prevent someone from participating in last year's Friends of Freedom Press' AGM.

The story of the strange departure of Mr. Meinke came to Northern Voices on the evening of the 16th, June, when we got the following e-mail from someone unknown to us in London:
'Thought you would like to know I was listening to Dissident Island Radio earlier this evening. Andy Meinke, has a regular five minute slot on the two-hour show.  He said at the end of his usual schtick that he was leaving Freedom and there would be a farewell drink in the shop at 2pm this Sunday' 
Almost a week later this same source informed us:
'The edition of Dissident Island Radio I referred to last week is online.  The final section of Andy's slot where he mentions leaving has been removed and one of the shows sweary radio idents has been inserted to camouflage the edit.  Heaven knows what he's up to.'
Later, our informant further updated us:
'The situation has spilled over on to Facebook with Meinke and others, including that anarchist can't recall his name who works for the Morning Star (editor: this is presumably Simon Saunders, formally from Ipswich). Facebook is a no-go zone for me so I haven't followed it'
Our informant ends up with a warning by saying:
'I have no doubt your group's commendable actions precipitated this.  The only questions remaining are what carnage will be discovered in his wake, and if the place (Freedom Press Bookshop) doesn't collapse, who will replace him.'
Another metropolitan pundit writes today in response to the news of Mr. Meinke's departure:
'Good news for Freedom.  Maybe not so good for wherever he ends up next.' 
Ultimately. the Friends of Freedom Press (FFP) themselves, particularly the FFP Secretary Steven Charles Sorba appointed as secretary of FFP in 2002, should be asking themselves how they came to allow someone like Andy Meinke to be employed for so long, empowered as a virtual overlord to very dubious goings on, without the directors applying any obvious restraints. It may be just a coincidence but the decline of Freedom newspaper seems to date from 2002, when Harold Schulthorpe, then living in Hebden Bridge, resigned as secretary of FFP, and Steve Sorba took over.
Those readers interested in the details could do worse than read Chris Draper's accounts of the history of Freedom:
 northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/2015/.../who-killed-freedom-unauthorised-history.html 
northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/.../who-killed-freedom-unauthorised-version.html
northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/.../who-killed-freedom-unauthorised-history_6.html
 northernvoicesmag.blogspot.com/.../who-killed-freedom-unauthorised-history_7.html

Donald Rooum Quits Friends of Freedom Press

AT the last meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press on the 9th, Jan. 2016, the veteran anarchist and cartoonist, Donald Rooum*, aged 88-years, officially retired from the board of directors that is responsible for publishing one of the world's oldest newspapers, Freedom - the anarchist journal (founded by among others Peter Kropotkin in 1986).  The reason for Donald Rooum's departure was a bitter encounter later described as an 'anti-social-social', orchestrated by the so-called Freedom Collective led by Andy Meinke who runs the Freedom Bookshop.

A year ago  on the 6th, Jan. 2016, Northern Voices' reported that Mr. Rooum had resigned from his position on the so-called Freedom Collective owing to a 'conflict of interest'.  This was later denied by both parties, and perhaps because of this earlier confusion, this time Steve Sorba, the current Secretary of Friends of Freedom, had insisted that Mr Rooum must put in his resignation in person; which he duly did at the meeting on the 9th, January.

At this meeting Carolyn Wilson, who was appointed as a Director of Freedom Press at the last Annual General Meeting in June 2016, said that she would 'put out feelers' to get another director to replace Donald.  This Freedom Press AGM was quite memorable because of the rough reception given to someone merely presenting some alternative proposals to those approved by the so-called Freedom Collective:  the metropolitan police later were involve in an investigation as to what had transpired.

Problems still exist, we understand, with regard to the Freedom Collective's failure to provide clear and adequate accounts with regard to Mr Meinke's management of the Freedom Bookshop, and the rooms rented to various outside bodies using the rooms at the Freedom Press premises.
Donald Rooum's departure represents a final tragic 'ruptura' with the past and the great historic and intellectual tradition of Freedom, dating back to the post-war period of Vernon Richards and Colin Ward, and the influence of British anarchism as a real political force on the New Left and in the Peace Movement in the 1960s.  
The tragedy of Donald Rooum's retirement is that it comes at a time of serious dispute between elements on the 'Collective' with their narrow English political pedantry and 'sectarian chauvinism'; and those who seek a broader approach to anarchism rooted in everyday life.  Rooum represents the last of the old guard, none of the remaining Friends were part of the traditional intellectual tradition including Steve Sorba (the printer) and Jayne Clemenson (the layout artist), who were actually involved in the production of the Freedom newspaper, rather than the creation of the historic message and aims of Freedomite anarchism. **

*  Mr Donald Rooum's Company's House registeration on Friends of Freedom Press:    

Uk (British) • Retired • Born in March 1928 (88 years old) 17 Dec 2001 → 9 Jan 2017

**  Unfortunately, neither the Friends of Freedom Press or the so-called 'Freedom Collective' publish any serious minutes or reports; so the only place that people interested get to know what is going on is on this Northern Voices' Blog.

Friends of Freedom Press: Next Meeting

THE next meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press (FFP) will either be next Monday the 15th, August, or the following Monday, the 22nd, August.  At the last meeting the new Friend, Carolyn Wilson, was hauled over the coals by another 'Friend' because she apparently misunderstood the purpose of the Friends of Freedom board.
For some time the so-called Collective has had the wrong idea that the Friends of Freedom were there to raise money for the benefit of the Freedom Bookshop boss, Andy Meinke, Simon Saunders and his other mates in the Collective 'Hangout'.  Ms. Wilson is a new girl on the block and does not yet grasp the ropes.  She is in fact the replacement 'Friend' for Richard Parry, who was removed after the Advisory Service for Squatters (ASS) now based at the Freedom Press building, complained that he had a 'conflict of interest':  Mr. Parry is representing the ASS at the Pitchford Enquiry.  Ms. Wilson is also represented at the Enquiry by Mike Schwarz from Bindmans solicitors:  she is categorised as a 'Social and environmental activist' with 'Reclaim the Streets'.
Despite his exclusion it seems that Mr. Parry actually nominated Ms. Wilson for his place on the Friends of Freedom Press.  Meanwhile, the Secretary of FFP Mr. Stephen Sorba nominated Jason Holdway who has some affiliation to the Solidarity Federation, an anarcho-syndicalist body.
Collective member, Simon Saunders, recorded Ms. Wilson's special performance in the attempt to exclude a participant at the Friends of Freedom Press AGM on Wednesday the 22nd, June, from presenting some proposals she, Mr. Andy Meinke and young Simon Saunders apparently disagreed with.

*************************

Hello Brian!

Hope your wounds are doing well!  From all the 'Collective' in Angel Alley.

THE Statement from the Freedom Collective, which because we believe

in transparency we publish below in full, was posted on the Freedom web-site

on Thursday the 23rd, June 2016.  We have reason to disagree with much of the

contents as expressed by the author(s), and will in due course give a full account of

what happened on the premises of 84B, Whitechapel High Street, and later in Angel

Alley on the 22nd, June 2016.  But for now we just say that several persons within

the building behaved badly in so far as their actions were ultra vires: 

that is they breached their powers under the law.  The Collective Statement is
seriously flawed and may confuse the uninitiated reader, and for this reason I
(Brian Bamford) offer my own response to this 'Statement' at the end of the text.

Freedom Collective Statement

on Brian Bamford

Published June 23, 2016

We’re sad to report an incident which occurred today(June 22) at the Freedom building, in which a member of the Freedom Press collective and one of the nominees for the Friends of Freedom were attacked by Brian Bamford, a former contributor to Freedom newspaper who has been excluded from involvement for the last four years due to his unreasonable behaviour. Bamford and his three pals had previously been engaged in a lengthy campaign of online harassment against both the collective and its individual members, following a dispute at the 2012 London Anarchist Bookfair in which he felt we had failed to back his grievance against another organisation. From 230 miles away he took it upon himself to punish a collective he had mostly never met for not pushing what he wanted. He and his chum Chris Draper called this smear job an “expose.” This campaign culminated at the Friends AGM at which he appeared, unannounced, despite having been told he was not welcome in the building, in order to criticise the collective and attempt to have Freedom, sold to fund a website more in line with his own philosophy. After he refused to leave, the Friends allowed him to speak then asked him to wait outside. Having walked down the stairs he then refused to leave the building, attempting to push over the woman who was in his way. Two collective members subsequently took him by the arms and dragged him out. He followed this by charging at a collective member who was blocking the front door, bouncing off and falling over. He got up, and failing to push past, put them in a headlock and stamped on their feet until restrained from doing so.  This was a 72-year-old man repeatedly attacking a 35-year-old who refused to be drawn into a fight. Bamford’s conduct has repeatedly been disgraceful for most of the last four years. He has sneered at, defamed, doxxed and impugned anyone who disagreed with him, and dragged respected comrades and organisations’ names through the mud in his quest to pull down Freedom Press.  As a collective we have, until now, not commented publicly on his appalling behaviour as we felt that it served no purpose to give him the oxygen of publicity.  However following his bizarre physical attacks on members of Freedom Press and the Friends, we feel we should make it clear that Brian, and his three pals who have enabled him throughout, have no place in the anarchist movement.  Their brand of disruptive, bullying, self-aggrandising tantrum-throwing is unacceptable and should not be given any support by anarchist or progressive organisations.  In our view they should not be welcome in anarchist spaces nor published in the anarchist outlets – they are persona non grata in our eyes. We hope other organisations will support us in rejecting their toxic approach.

The Delegation Principle & Friends of Freedom

by Brian Bamford

THE recent attack on a pensioner during the Annual General Meeting of the Friends of Freedom Press at 84B, Whitechapel High Street in Whitechapel, and the altercation that has followed has opened up a can of worms.  It represents an interesting case in legal terms and I have written to the Secretary of the Friends of Freedom press accordingly:

'Since the events that occurred on the 22nd, June 2016, on the premises at 84B, Whitechapel High Street, an issue of the law relating to the Tort of Vicarious Liability has been raised in this context... The point here is does the Friends of Freedom Press have a 'particular legal relationship' to the persons who attacked me, and did the Friends 'exercise such care as a reasonably prudent person would use under similar circumstances'?'    

The precise relationship between the Friends of Freedom Press (the master) and the 'Collective' (the servant) is critical to the understanding of the mechanics of what takes place in the building known as Freedom Press, at 84B, Whitechapel High Street, Whitechapel near Aldgate East Tube Station.  In the law of Tort, a master is held liable for acts of his servant performed in the course of the servant's employment. 

It has been noted that supplying liqour to a constable on duty is an offence requiring mens rea and yet (in Sherras v De Rutzen) a licensee may be vicariously liable for his servants' act in so doing (Mullins v Collins [1874]) and the same considerations apply to the offence of suffering gaming to be carried out in licensed premises. (Bosley v Davies [1875]) mens rea required; Bond v Evans [1888] licensee liable for servants' acts)

Perhaps a better example and somewhat more relevant to the situation at Freedom Press now pertaining is the case of Allen v Whitehead [1930] and this involves the 'Delegation Principle': 

Under the Metropolitan Police Act of 1839, s.44, it is an offence to

'knowingly permit or suffer prostitutes or persons of notorious bad character to meet together and remain in a place where refreshments are sold and consumed'.

In the Allen v Whitehad case D, the occupier of a café, while receiving the profits of the business, did not himself manage it, but employed a manager.  Having had a warning from the police, D instructed his manager that no prostitutes were to be allowed to congregate on the premises and had a notice to that effect displayed on the walls.  He visited the premises once or twice a week and there was no evidence that any misconduct took place in his presence,  Then, on eight consecutive days, a number of women, known to the manager to be prostitutes, met together and and remained there between the hours of 8 p.m. and 4 a.m.  In this case it was held by the Divisional Court that D's ignorance of the facts was no defence.  Thus the acts of the servant and his mens rea were both to be imputed to is master, not simply because he was a servant, but because management of the house had been delegated to him.

In Linnet v Metropolitan Police Commissioner [1946] we have a closer example of the relationship between the Friends of Freedom Press and Andy Meinke, the manager of the freedom Bookshop who co-ordinates the 'Freedom Collective':

In the Linnet case it was held, following the case of Allen v Whitehead, that one of two co-licensees was liable for the acts of the other in knowingly permitting disorderly conduct in the licensed premises, although the other was neither his servant nor his partner, but simply his delegate in 'keeping' the premises.

It is not clear if people like the Freedom Bookshop manager, Andy Meinke, or his colleague, Simon Saunders, can be categorised as servants or partners in their relationship to the Friends of Freedom Press who own the premises upon which Mr Meinke operates but they would certainly appear to be their 'delegate' and seemingly the delegation principle would apply here in so far as he is 'keeping' the premises.  And if these people (Meinke and Saunders) are indeed 'delegates' then the Friends of Freedom Press could well be viciously liable for the acts of these delegates.*

In this respect the Friends could be liable for not only what took place during the altercations between these delegates at the time of the Friends of Freedom Press AGM when many of the affiliated Friends were actually on the premises, but they could also be liable for the actions of these delegate parties when the Friends are not on the premises such as at 'Socials' at which drink may be sold without a licence etc. by these same  delegates.  In these circumstances is no defence for the Friends of Freedom Press to claim that they had no knowledge of the actions of these delegates.  The situation is complicated slightly by the fact that we have learned that Donald Rooum, a Friend of Freedom Press re-elected at the last AGM, has been financing the 'Collective' out of his own pocket. 

 

*  Criminal Law, Smith & Hogan [1978]

PENSIONER ATTACKED at ANARCHIST HQ!

by Christopher Draper

This is the first of a two-part-update on the management of Freedom Press.

ON the 22^nd June 2016, a 75-year-old pensioner invited to address a small political meeting in London was dragged from the building by a couple of ruffians and deposited, bleeding on the pavement outside.  An accomplice egged on the bullies, snatched the pensioner’s mobile and outside on the pavement grabbed and rifled through the victim’s brief case, whilst he was restrained by his attackers.

After receiving medical attention the victim was advised to provide a comprehensive report of his assault to the Metropolitan Police.  I have a copy of that report before me and it identifies the assailants as Andy Meinke and Simon Saunders, who claim to be anarchists occupying the FREEDOM building in Whitechapel High Street.  This dramatic development demands an effective response from the body, “FRIENDS of FREEDOM PRESS” (FFP), which not only owns the building but is legally obliged to ensure it is properly used for the continued publication of FREEDOM journal.  Instead the self-proclaimed “FREEDOM COLLECTIVE (FC)” in occupation closed down the journal in 2014 with the triumphant declaration by Andy Meinke, “Kropotkin might have started it but we fucking finished it!”

This occupation of FREEDOM HQ is illegitimate.  The victim proposed a scheme to reclaim the building and restart publication so he was vindictively attacked and ejected by Saunders and Meinke.  I detailed the narrative background to this occupation at length elsewhere (“Who Killed FREEDOM?”) and here present an updated précis-analysis underlining the key roles of Meinke and Saunders.  This article concludes with the revival of FFP in June 2015.  Part two, “A YEAR IN THE DEATH of FREEDOM” (to be published here on August 1st,) will describe and analyse events at FREEDOM and FFP from June 2015 up to, and including, the violent assault of 22 June 2016.

 An Illegitimate Occupation

The FREEDOM building is owned by FFP, a legally constituted company with “Articles of Association (AoA)” and “Memorandum of Association (MoA)” registered at Companies House.  These documents commit the Friends of Freedom Press Board to 3 crucial legal obligations (nb my emphasis);

• FFP exists to facilitate, “the printing and publication of the anarchist journal FREEDOM and books, pamphlets and journals published by FREEDOM PRESS” (MoA 3(A)1)
• FFP owns “the Freehold premises at 84b Whitechapel High Street, London, E1 and the fixtures and fittings and machinery situated therein for the purposes of making the same available to FREEDOM Press for the printing, publishing and disseminating of the journal FREEDOM and other literature” (MoA 3(A)2)
• “In the event of FREEDOM PRESS ceasing to exist or for any reason being unable to continue the publication of FREEDOM and other anarchist literature, to assist financially and promote the publication of anarchist journals, books and pamphlets by such persons, firms or bodies as the Company shall approve of” (MoA 3(A)3)
  As the 'Freedom Collective' ('FC') are demonstrably not engaged in “the printing and publication of the anarchist journal FREEDOM” they have no legitimate reason to remain. The FFP Board is therefore obliged “to assist financially and promote the publication of anarchist journals, books and pamphlets by such persons, firms or bodies as the Company shall approve of”. As the building is the Board’s only asset it must therefore be sold to finance the resumption of publication of FREEDOM by persons deemed suitable by Friends of Freedom Press.  As I will demonstrate presently, FFP formally agree with both this analysis and the need for action.  I will explain in Part Two why this has not yet come to pass.
• The Aldgate Cuckoos
  The 'FC' have been allowed to get away with it for too long and have developed a misplaced sense of entitlement.  They NEVER believed in FREEDOM.  They only ever intended to exploit the legacy for their own ends.  Despite claiming allegiance to anarchism the 'Freedom Collective' have little understanding, appreciation or respect for the long-established ethics and values of FREEDOM.  In so far as they represent any form of anarchism it is a crude, self-proclaimed commitment to “class-struggle” and an alignment to the moribund “BLACK FLAG” politics of Albert Meltzer. Both Saunders and Meinke, claim allegiance to BLACK FLAG and exploited their base at FREEDOM to republish BLACK FLAG magazine.
  Whilst FREEDOM promoted tolerant, civilised, constructive open-minded anarchism, BLACK FLAG (as a faction and magazine) celebrated confrontation and destruction, dismissing critics with insults and intolerance. FREEDOM’s Aldgate HQ was bought half-a-century ago by veteran anarchist Vernon Richards to provide a publishing home for FREEDOM journal (founded 1886 by Peter Kropotkin and associates). Throughout much of his life Vernon Richards and FREEDOM were reviled by Meltzer and BLACK FLAG.  The Friends of Freedom Press Board Member and Socialist Historian, David Goodway, in his “Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow”, outlined Meltzer’s BLACK FLAG approach, he “romanticised anarchist violence, imagined the existence of a significant historic anarchist working-class movement in the British Isles and altogether indulged in much fantasy.”
  Despite his prejudices, it was typical of FREEDOM’s inclusive politics that Meltzer was invited to contribute an article to the journal’s commemorative centenary edition. Instead Meltzer devoted a special BLACK FLAG supplement, “LIARS AND LIBERALS – THE OTHER ANARCHISM” to trashing the FREEDOM tradition.  FREEDOM stalwart, Nicolas Walter maintained that, “In a sense, anarchists always remain liberals and socialists, and whenever they reject what is good, in either they betray anarchism itself.”  Meltzer and BLACK FLAG derided liberal values and Saunders and Meinke energetically maintain that tradition.  In 2006, Saunders as newly arrived FREEDOM editor, belittled stalwarts of the Vernon Richards era as, “reeking of allotments, of forgetting class, of irrelevance and reformism”, whilst Meinke arrogantly dismissed Vero as “someone of a rather liberal bent”.
  In 2007, a relaunched BLACK FLAG announced; “BLACK FLAG has returned…we are working closely with the editors of FREEDOM…Now we are sure that is something that Albert Meltzer would never have expected”!
  In the Summer 2009, BLACK FLAG exemplifies just how closely Black Flag was working with the Freedom Collective as it featured a lengthy interview with Andy Meinke written by Simon Saunders (under the guise of “Rob Ray”).  Despite exploiting FREEDOM’s assets the 'Freedom Collective' ultimately achieved no more success with BLACK FLAG than they have with FREEDOM.
  Meinke and Saunders aren’t alone in their quest to eradicate all trace of liberal, open-mindedness from FREEDOM.  In January 1985, class-war warrior Nick Heath, then proclaiming Libertarian Communism, now leading the misleadingly named “Anarchist Federation (AF)”, wrote to FREEDOM rejecting its liberal editorial policy: “Why devote so much space to right-wing libertarians and anarcho-capitalists… I’m sure most of the readership…don’t want to read such trash”.  As Donald Rooum observed in an email to me of 6.3.2015:  “Nick Heath wanted the paper to stick to an anarchist communist workerist line, while the editors, when I was one of them, wanted the paper to be open to genuine anarchists of other persuasions and to arguments against anarchism.”   Rooum helpfully contrasts the open forum tradition of FREEDOM with the narrow “class-struggle”, party-line politics favoured by both Heath and Meltzer.  Rejecting the option of arguing out his opinions in FREEDOM, as Rooum explains, Heath, like Meltzer before him, “went off to found a paper and an organised group more to his liking.”  Rooum here, as elsewhere, is being disingenuous, for Heath and the “workerist…organised group more to his liking” is now headquartered alongside BLACK FLAGGERS Meinke and Saunders at FREEDOM HQ!  With no suggestion of a Damascene conversion it’s evident that FREEDOM HQ is now occupied by individuals opposed to the politics it was bought to promote. 
• Regime Change
  To be fair to the class-war warriors, they didn’t force their way in.  They sneaked in through a gap opened up by Donald Rooum.  I’ve described elsewhere (“Who Killed FREEDOM?”)   how Rooum shoved out both FREEDOM’s existing editor and bookshop manager as Vernon Richards relaxed oversight and died (2002).  For the key role of FREEDOM editor Rooum imported a Marxist former General Secretary of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.  Rooum claims it was a modernising move designed to save money and spruce up the paper.  I agreed the paper needed a facelift but argued at the time that the unique politics of FREEDOM were being destroyed.  Slogans and depictions of petrol-bomb-throwing predominated and thoughtful analysis of alternative ways of organising society were rejected. Where eminent sociologists Laurie Taylor and Jock Young once offered insightful social analysis we now had an editor content to describe society as, “the fucking steaming pile of horseshit we live in”. Thus was established “New FREEDOM’s” literary house-style.
  The innovation of a “WHAT WE SAY” editorial column would have been risible were it not so ominously indicative of the arrival of authoritarian, sub-Marxist group-think. My correspondence with “New FREEDOM” charts the immediate and profound consequences of this regime change. Spurning Nick Walter’s advice, after 2001 FREEDOM not only rejected what is good in liberalism, it positively spat in its face.
  Lest sceptics fear I exaggerate, I offer a couple of observations of bookshop manager Meinke who relishes the change and welcomes the, “shift in the people attracted to FREEDOM.  Until 2002 it was virtually owned by someone who was of a rather liberal bent and that has shifted”. Meinke recognises the opportunistic nature of the takeover: “When Vernon Richards died he handed FREEDOM over to the movement on a plate but it was too surprised to notice. It was comrades coming out of the anarchist youth network who saw the opportunity with the paper and reclaimed it for class struggle.”
  From the outset, editors, in their own words, “enforced a strict class-first line”.  The unique FREEDOM ecosystem was shredded.  Meinke’s fellow assailant, Simon Saunders, admits the new regime, “broke with much of the old support network…severely weakened the structure of the paper…readers have been alienated, writers have stormed out”.
   The New Regime in Action
  The new regime systematically alienated FREEDOM’s readers, writers and subscribers. There’s some truth in the FC’s claim that the FREEDOM journal became unviable but they were the cause.  Inappropriate policies pursued by incompetent individuals.  When Saunders assumed editorship in 2005, he boasted of his ignorance of anarchism so why on earth was he gifted such responsibility?  The answer is helpfully supplied by Meinke:  "Within the FREEDOM Collective only a small minority were involved in producing the paper, not so much lack of commitment as not seeing it as central to what FREEDOM as a building was for”!  (nb This amounts to a total negation of the Friends of Freedom Press’s legal obligations)
• Originally the Freedom Collective agreed to publish “Anarchists in Social Work” produced by FREEDOM traditionalist, Martin Gilbert, but then “lost the manuscript” so Gilbert, had it successfully published elsewhere.  When I sent a review of the book to FREEDOM, editor Simon Saunders eventually admitted, “The review was then lost, found, lost again, re-found and finally disappeared altogether.”
• Perhaps Saunder’s incompetence rather than censorship was to blame but after elderly anarchist Barry Woodling was bundled out of Manchester Anarchist Bookfair in 2012, the FC simply refused to publish a letter signed by over 150 anarchists and socialists deploring this action. Although Donald Rooum revealed that the editor had received “threats” from Nick Heath he in any case justified the censorship by claiming “Any fracas within the movement should stay within the movement”.  It is just such collusion with censorship, bans, intimidation and violence that provides carte blanche for this most recent assault.  
  After publishing a very un-FREEDOM celebration of political violence entitled, “Beating the Fascists”, Andy Meinke had to hand £4000 of FREEDOM’s money to David Hoffman, a press photographer whose pictures had been stolen and printed without permission.  Hoffman said he would have settled for less but, “From the start Meinke refused to accept any need to apologise, let alone negotiate.  He didn’t actually say 'Fuck off, we don’t give a toss and there’s nothing you can do because we’re holy anarchists and can beat the shit out of you' but that was the subtext.”
  At that point Meinke & Co hadn’t yet entirely burnt through the last of a £70,000 legacy bequeathed by an old-school FREEDOM anarchist.  That went after Meinke forgot to renew the Buildings Insurance before the 2012 fire.
  Abusing and intimidating critics is de rigeur at FREEDOM.  Revolted by the FC’s continued, crude celebration of profanity and violence, in 2010, Ian Pirie, who had subscribed for 30 years (and his father before him) wrote, in sadness and disgust, to cancel, questioning, “What has this thuggery got to do with anarchism?...I will continue to do my best to propagate the positive and constructive aspects of anarchist politics where we I can. But FREEDOM is no longer any help in doing this.”  FREEDOM responded with a diatribe delivered by “Gawain the cunt Williams” (his self-chosen moniker) that concluded:  “Finally, Mr Pirie, maybe you should realise that if the word cunt offends you so much it might be because you are in fact…a cunt. FREEDOM’s been doing a cracking job.”
• Donald Rooum popped up again at this point to defend “Gawain the Cunt” and accuse Pirie “of yielding to prudery…and sliding into intellectual snobbery”.  No one would accuse Meinke of prudery after reading his “Bookfair Song” (FREEDOM 24.10.2009);
   “Cos our scene is not a playground,
  For wankers to hang out,
  And pose at revolution,
  Whilst fucking us about”
  (plus 4 more similar verses and chorus)
  The failure to publish FREEDOM is sufficient ground to prove the illegitimacy of the FC, but for more than a decade successive, self-appointed “Collectives” revelled in their rejection of both the ideology and ethics of FREEDOM.  In their behaviour and propaganda they dance on the graves of FREEDOM stalwarts Vernon Richards, Colin Ward, Nicolas Walter, Philip Sansom whose legacy they so shamelessly exploit.
  A Sleeping Giant?
  For a decade or so decent anarchists hoped FREEDOM would reform but it proved impossible to shift the London clique from afar. Determined not to allow the FREEDOM heritage to be extirpated, in 2012, after collecting opinions and information from comrades around the country I initiated a campaign to reclaim the legacy (see “Who Killed FREEDOM?”).  As it was evident that FC was beyond redemption our immediate goal was to revive the FFP Board.  Originally constituted by Vernon Richards to hold FREEDOM assets and maintain publication, the Friends of Freedom Press Board retains full legal powers to liquidate the assets and resume publication.  The problem was that although FFP existed on paper it hadn’t convened for years and in recent times its Secretary had improperly conducted its affairs.  Could I shame the few surviving members to reconstitute the Board on a proper, legal basis and then encourage the Friends of Freedom Press to take action against the illegitimate occupants?
  Victory for Common Sense!
  The Freedom Collective was incensed as the light of publicity was shone upon its shameful activities.  The rabble couldn’t decide when to respond and when to keep quiet and the ill-judged outbursts of Saunders and Meinke encouraged anarchists around the country to provide us with further information and encouragement.  Having initially improperly insisted our nominated candidates for Board Membership, Peace Campaigner Ernest Rodker and Socialist Historian David Goodway, first gain the approval of the 'FC', the FFP Secretary realised the error of his ways. Following further intellectual jousting with an improperly appointed Board Member, sanity prevailed and the FFP finally reconstituted itself on June 24^th 2015 to include Ernest and David our two nominated candidates.
  In proposing Goodway and Rodker we didn’t ask them to do anything other than act in accordance with their Friends of Freedom Press legal obligations to revive FREEDOM. Significantly, one of the FC’s favoured candidates was none other than “Gawain the cunt Williams”. When Gawain’s candidature was rejected by the Board and the full list of appointments revealed it appeared a “Victory for Common Sense”.  The confirmed new Friends of Freedom Press Board consisted of the following 9 members;

• Jayne Clementson – graphic artist, long-time layout artist for Freedom Press
• David Goodway – historian, author and admirer of the anarchism of Colin Ward
• Martin Howard - Solfed member, writer of “Svartfrost” column in Freedom
• Sonia Markham – anarchist, retire TV make-up artist and daughter of founding FFP member, pioneering feminist-anarchist and children’s author Olive Dehn
• Richard Parry – solicitor and author of “The Bonnot Gang”
• Martin Peacock – founder of the London Anarchist Bookfair
• Ernest Rodker – veteran peace campaigner
• Stephen Charles Sorba – FFP Company Secretary, printer with Aldgate Press
• Donald Rooum – Stirnerite anarchist and cartoonist

 A Prospect of FREEDOM?

It was impossible to predict how this new cookie would crumble.  First the Friends of Freedom Press had to apprise and agree an analysis of the Aldgate occupation.  We trusted that the facts would speak for themselves, and that any fair-minded observer would recognise the accuracy of our analysis.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t be entirely sure whether the personal and political allegiances of each and every Board Member would not interfere with their rational assessment of the behaviour of the 'FC'.

Even if FFP agreed that there was no proper publishing going on at FREEDOM would FFP have the courage to act appropriately?  Would the FFP Board survive intact the predictable slings and arrows the 'FC' would likely employ to resist eviction?

We felt the FFP deserved a decent opportunity to build up mutual trust and offered to abstain from publishing a blow-by-blow commentary BUT promised that at the end of the Friends of Freedom Press’s first year we would publish a comprehensive analysis of both the 'FC' and FFP's recent activites.  This will be published under the title, “A Year in the Death of FREEDOM” on this site on August 1^st 2016.

Christopher Draper (Llandudno)

13.8.2016

Whistle-blower Breaks Silence on Freedom!

by antigr0up on 18/06/16:

'A tenant acting as proxy for Andy's (Meike's) machinations (who pay little or nothing to Freedom) have sickened Richard Parry from staying? A pyrrhic victory. *slow hand clap* Unless Freedom can establish a viable financial plan Freedom will either fold or be forced to move to smaller premises within two or three years -which means the tenants are fucked. What's more the Freedom collective and their tenants have only themselves to blame. on FREEDOM - 'A Mausoleum'!'

Editor's Reply:

Yesterday, I was told that a couple of months ago buyer for 84B, Whitechapel High Street, had been round to the Freedom Bookshop to view the Freedom premises, and had been turned away by someone in the Bookshop.  Could it have been the Laughing Policeman?  If so, it has serious implications for everyone involved.  It would seem that the tenants are on a dodgy wicket here with the shakey situation over the rents (paid or unpaid), and even the Friends seem to have been asleep on the job.  Increasingly, it is looking like there could be tears before midnight unless the Friends clean-up their act and apply themselves to the task of carrying out what is required of them in the Articles of Association.  That is the simply reasoning behind the program of Our Friends in the North.