First, Andy Meinke claims that ‘Richard [Parry] was appointed as a director of Friends of Freedom Press (FFP) for the simple reason that the Freedom Collective recommended him to the then directors.’ However, the reason isn’t simple because it begs four questions:
1. By what right did the Collective make the recommendation?
2. Who were the members of the Collective at the time?
3. Did the members of the Collective exert undue influence over the Friends of Freedom Press, who as I understand it, should be separate from and independent of the Collective?
4. Do the members of the Collective have any answerability to the Friends of Freedom Press, who own the building in which the members are based?
Second, Andy Meinke goes on to say, insultingly, ‘The clue is in the first word, “friends”.’ The members of the Collective appears to have decided that the Friends of Freedom Press have all the financial responsibility, including paying to support the unreported, and hence unknown activities of the members, while having no say in what the members do! However, the Friends of Freedom Press ‘own the building in trust for the good of the Anarchist Movement as a whole.’ What is the ‘Anarchist Movement’? How would I contact it? When I Google the phrase I find a Facebook page of gargantuan unpleasantness, which, thankfully has been inactive since 2011. So where is the ‘Anarchist Movement’, apart from its existence in the land of wishful thinking?
Third, Andy Meinke makes the point that the building ‘needs to be protected against any attempted takeover.’ Given that the newspaper folded because it lost so many readers, who would want to take over the building? Surely not the members of the Collective? Yet the Friends of Freedom Press are excluded from the decision-making of the members of the Collective but are supposed to put their hands in their pockets when they tell them to do so! There is appalling hubris in the next statement, about the supposed commitment of the members of the Collective ‘to ensure the day to day activity of Freedom is controlled by those active in the anarchist movement today ….’ Will a member of the Collective tell us exactly how it ensures that ‘those active in the anarchist movement today’ are enabled to ‘control’ the day to day activities of ‘Freedom’ – whatever Freedom is now supposed to be?
Fourth, if you’re still reading this post, and you’re one of the Friends of Freedom Press, be aware that Andy Meinke emphasizes again that basically all you’ve got to do is to fund the members of the Collective in whatever they fancy doing. After all, the members of the Collective are said to be ‘free from influence by those providing financial backing.’
This clear description of the role of the Friends of Freedom Press implies three components to the role:
1. Look after the building, i.e. give money
2. Fund the members of the Collective, i.e. give money but don’t ask any questions
3. Take responsibility for whatever disaster the members of the Collective might produce, i.e. give money, ask no questions, but don’t expect any of them to be accountable for their actions.
It seems to me that the post by Andy Meinke should deeply concern not only the Friends of Freedom Press but also everyone committed to anarchism.
Jennifer Welsh (July 2015)
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