Annual Report of the Friends of Freedom Press

Editorial Note:

WE are happy to publish below the Annual Report of the Friends of Freedom Press for the last year, which was sent to Northern Voices yesterday.  This itself is something of an achievement because it clearly lays out the difficulties encountered by the 'Friends' in their management of the company over the last year. 
In the past things have been allowed to drift, and there are now considerable complications regarding the condition of the building structurally, and certain sociological dilemmas with regard to some of the occupants of the building.

******

The Friends of Freedom Press Annual Report for 2015-16:

THIS is the first year of the resurrected Friends of Freedom Press (FFP), and this report is intended to look back on what we have achieved in the last year.   

Firstly, we have met regularly and discussed the situation facing Freedom as a publisher, as a building and as something approaching a social centre. That situation remains stark -  the building is in a poor condition. The Friends own the building, the Collective occupy it and try to maintain it and there is not any money. The remit of the Friends, “to facilitate anarchist publishing” (Editor's emphasis), is very barely being continued. 

The issues as FFP see them are the lack of publishing, both a paper and books; the condition of the building (including fire certificates and lack of disabled access/toilets); and the inability to insure the building.  Richard (Parry), Donald (Rooum) and Ernest (Rodker) each paid £200 for a comprehensive survey of the building, from which came the figure of £50,000 for repairs. 

With this background, and the only asset available being the building, the Friends decided to see how much it might raise. While there was never any intention to sell it without consultation, poor communication compounded by wild rumours saw this attempt to move forward shut down by the building’s users and their allies in a meeting originally billed as a “social”. The buildings users’ agenda was one of defining the role of FFP as merely fundraisers, accusing FFP of being a stalking horse for Northern Voices and failing to consult. The last of these points is the only one we are prepared to concede. The meeting did not address whether it would be in Freedom’s best interests to stay or move and how any activities would be financed. 

There has been some talk that the purpose of the Memorandum of Association should be amended to change the purpose of the Friends to suit how the building is currently run. Legal advice appears to indicate this is not possible. This is one area that the Friends will need to address with the Collective in the coming year.  

We understand that the Collective has set up working groups to address both fundraising and the repairs required. We look forward to hearing more from both these initiatives. 

At this AGM, the three longest serving directors will be standing down, though they may stand for re-election. 

Finally, we would like to pay tribute to Sonia Markham, a Friend until ill health forced her to resign in 2015, who sadly died earlier this year.

(Annual Report presented to the Friends of Freedom Press AGM: 
22nd, June 2016)

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

Friend of Freedom Press Sonia Markham dies

Sonia Markham, who was a trustee Friend of Freedom Press

and wife of Ernest Rodker, died earlier this week aged 69. 

She had been suffering for several years from an asbestos

related illness.  Her father the actor David Markham

and mother Olive, had been anarchists and

friends of Vernon (Vero) Richards who had

been the editor of Freedom for many years.

SONIA Markham, who was the make-up supervisor of Doctor Who for the majority of the Hartnell era has died at the age of 78.

Her connection with the show began early on when she was a make-up artist on The Sensorites (1964), assisting Jill Summers, and she continued in that capacity until promoted to senior designer on for the second production block, beginning with The Rescue. During her tenure her responsibilities included Kevin Stoney’s distinctive look as Mavic Chen in The Daleks’ Masterplan (1965/66), ageing Ewen Solon as tribe leader Chal in The Savages (1966) and applying series star William Hartnell’s wig, an act she was photographed performing by the Daily Mirror in a series of memorable behind-the-scenes shots. Her final credit for the show was on The Smugglers (1966).

Sonia Markham was born in 1938, the daughter of the actor David Markham and radio dramatist Olive Dehn. She was the eldest of four daughters – respected actress Kika (Edward & Mrs Simpson, A Very British Coup) is the widow of Corin Redgrave; Ace of Wands star Petra played Safiya in the Doctor Who story The Crusade (and so was made up by her elder sibling); the poet and dramatist Jehane is the widow of Only Fools And Horses and Rise Of The Cybermen actor Roger Lloyd-Pack.

After Doctor Who she worked on The Three Musketeers (1966), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1967), and Dombey and Son (1969).

Having given up her career in television she retrained as a psychotherapist and counsellor and campaigned for humanitarian and environmental issues. She and her husband wrote to The Guardian in 2015 highlighting their opposition to government plans to charge for demonstrations and signalling their intent to join the forthcoming Climate Change march. She also contributed to the DVD commentaries on her stories The Sensorites and Planet of Giants and was happy to give interviews about her time on the show.

She married Ernest Rodker, her long term partner, in 2002. He survives her, as do their two sons Oliver and Joel.

Sonia G Markham 1938 – 2016.

With thanks to Anneke Wills.

Freedom: A Managerial Mystery Story

ANDY Meinke merely adds to the mystery behind the 'election' of Richard Parry as a director to the Friends of Freedom Press Board (FFP).  The Articles of Association of FFP clearly state that a new Director must be elected after an existing director has given notice 'of his intention to propose such a person for election, and also notice in writing signed by that person (in this case Richard Parry) of his willingness to be elected'.  Now Richard by his own admission didn't know he had been elected, and until now only FFP Company Secretary, Steven Sorba, seemed to have been aware that Richard had been registered with Companies House on the 20^th, February 2012 as a director of Friends of Freedom Press. 

 

That was the position as it was understood until this week, but now Andy Meinke has intervened to write that it was he and the Freedom Collective that 'recommended' Richard Parry to the 'then directors' when the 'Freedom Collective had a meeting in 2011 and suggested some people and Richard responded'.  Andy doesn't say to whom on the FFP Board he and / or the Collective 'recommended' the name of Mr.Parry, but I suppose it would be reasonable to assume that it was to Company Secretary Sorba.  Neither of the other two directors, Donald Rooum or Sonia Markham, seem to have had any knowledge of the existence of Richard as a director when asked in 2014.

 

The problem here is that the FFP Company Secretary, Mr. Stephen Charles Sorba (appointed to FFP Board on 22^nd, April 2002), is not just the only director to be aware that Richard Parry was registered as a director with Companies House, it is Mr. Sorba, who as manager of Algate Press, had the expense of printing Freedom newspaper for free and therefore benefited when it closed down.  I suppose this is what is called a conflict of interest.

 

Meanwhile, people are asking what does Andy Meinke, and the Freedom Collective do in Angel Alley, now that Freedom newspaper no longer exists.  Andy himself has described the premises as an 'anarcho-hangout' - a kind of gang-hut for a Whitechapple elite who claim to represent the 'anarchist movement'.  I can't think that this is something that either Peter Kropotkin or Vernon Richards would have welcomed.

Letter from Richard Parry of Freedom Press

I want to respond to this blog as a Friend of Freedom Press (FFP).  Firstly, the Articles and Memorandum of Association are public documents available on the Companies House website, they have never been hidden or secret.  Although AGMs are mandatory, the Articles provide that the “directors may meet together...as they see fit". There is no other provision for regular meetings but since our EGM on 30 March we have agreed we should meet at least quarterly.

Paragraph 8 of the blog misrepresents my letter of 3 March 2015; I said “If David Goodway and Peter Marshall wish to be involved in assisting Freedom Press please can you ask them to contact the Freedom Collective directly.”  This does not suggest the approval of the Collective; as you know David came to the AGM in June and was unanimously elected as a Director.  The blog says that Sonia Markham knew nothing of the letter of 3 March 2015 - and yet I sent it to her!  And she clearly knew nothing of Chris Draper’s letter to Steve Sorba of 20 February 2015.  I wrote to her:

“I have since spoken to Steve Sorba, the Company Secretary, and we have agreed that it might be a good idea to have a Director’s meeting to think about the future of the Friends and indeed of Freedom Press itself. Can you please let me know if you still want to be a Director and if so would you be interested in coming to a meeting at Freedom in the near future.” 

 I am pleased to say that Sonia responded positively and the criticism made by CD and Northern Voices was discussed by all 4 Directors at the EGM on 30 March 2015.  So if anyone was pushing to get FFP working it was me!

CD maintains that Sonia Markham was ‘the sole member to attempt to get a grip on the whole debacle’ - but in fact of course it was I who had tracked her down and spoken to Ernest Rodker, and encouraged them both to come to the meeting on 30 March. I also brought copies of the Articles and Memorandum to that meeting for everyone. Following my letter to Chris Draper, he had sent a letter to me, oddly ‘in a personal capacity’, dated 27 March 2015: 

'I look forward to receiving written notice from you acting in “your capacity as a Director of FFP” that the 3.3.2015 letter has been formally rescinded and by implication, assurance that all improprieties have been resolved. If I do not receive such a statement from you by 5pm on Friday 10th April 2015 I will have no alternative but to lay evidence of what appears series transgressions before the appropriate legal and regulatory authorities and other interested parties.' 

So much for his anarchism, I wonder what State agencies he had in mind?

If there was any impropriety in my election as a 4th Director it was in the failure to tell me about it. We reviewed all the procedures at the meeting on 30 March 2015. Nobody was ‘rumbled’, we all agreed to hold an AGM and elect more Directors. The Friends of Freedom Press is being rejuvenated and I am playing an active and positive part in this. We are all very pleased at the increase in the number of Directors and aware of the responsibilities we have.  We are also aware of the history of Freedom and want to be faithful to what Vernon Richards and others were trying to achieve in setting up the FFP. We also recognise the value of the Freedom Collective and the day to day users of the building who give it life. I hope we can all move forward productively and NV (Northern Voices) will report more accurately in the future.  As you know I have had no personal history with NV and have no animosity towards NV or any individual members.

Yours, Richard Parry.

Who Killed FREEDOM?: update 3: July 2015

A VICTORY FOR COMMON SENSE!

IN 2014, the world’s oldest radical newspaper, FREEDOM, ceased publication.  As N.V. explained previously, the rot set in back in 2001 when FREEDOM abandoned its traditional free-ranging, tolerant approach and enforced a 'class-first' political line.  In February 2015 (with help from NV comrades) I identified the culprits and causes in a detailed critique, 'Who Killed FREEDOM?' (available on this website).  If you’ve been following the thread you’ll know that whilst individual members of the FREEDOM collective offered intemperate insults, all refused our challenge to openly debate our analysis before an anarchist bookfair audience.

FREEDOM should never have sunk so low as responsibility for publication ultimately lies with its trustees, THE FRIENDS OF FREEDOM PRESS (FFP).  Sadly, as narrow-minded incompetents squandered a 10K annual subsidy, a 6K rental income, wasted 4K on copyright infringement and forgot to renew the insurance just before a fire caused extensive damage the supposed FRIENDS OF FREEDOM PRESS slept more soundly than Rip Van Winkle.  Then one day FFP were rudely awakened by 'WHO KILLED FREEDOM?' 

Although our original article lifted the lid on the death of the world’s oldest radical newspaper the FREEDOM collective blithely insisted the paper’s demise was inevitable, they were not to blame and we were making a fuss about nothing.  All the while FREEDOM’s so called FRIENDS did nothing.  Undeterred we continued to campaign for action, aware that the only hope of reviving FREEDOM was to breath life into FFP and we can now announce that our campaign has succeeded.  Despite determined efforts to bury their heads in the sand and ignore their responsibilities FRIENDS OF FREEDOM PRESS has been entirely reconstituted and will now meet regularly for the first time in forty years.  We rattled the cage and the apparently dead parrot sprang to life! 

We didn’t aim to 'capture' or control FFP but wanted the FRIENDS to address the dire state of FREEDOM.  Our original piece revealed Who Killed FREEDOM?  This update records how the FRIENDS were revived.

1. October 2014, end of FREEDOM after 128 years publication explained away by collective as unavoidable due to the combined effects of financial loss, the internet and the apathy of the anarchist movement.  Although FFP has ultimate responsibility for publication of FREEDOM it did not initiate, was not consulted nor even informed of the newspaper’s closure by the FREEDOM collective.  The collective was responsible for the collapse of the paper but in doing nothing FFP became complicit, the members of FFP slept on undisturbed.

2. In January 2015 'Who Killed FREEDOM' (published on this website) challenged the excuses offered by the FREEDOM collective and blamed the collapse of FREEDOM on the intolerance and incompetence of named individuals.  The essay concluded with a call to FFP 'to belatedly get a grip on the legacy, both intellectual and material handed down to us by anarchists who didn’t hide behind aliases or enforce their own narrow political creed.' 

3. With the cooperation of comrades around the UK we researched FFP and obtained copies of key FFP documents, including the 'Articles of Association' and 'Memorandum of Association' and compiled a comprehensive history of all appointments and resignations from the Board.

4. FFP was formally incorporated on 4th February 1982 with seven directors; Vernon Richards, Colin Ward, Philip Sansom,, Geoffrey Ostergaard, John Hewetson, Olive Markham and Mary Canipa.  The Board was the legal owner of all the assets of FREEDOM PRESS and the primary responsibility of Board Members was to facilitate and ensure the continued 'Printing and publication of the anarchist journal FREEDOM'.  The Memorandum of Association makes crystal clear that FFP is obliged to act; 'In the event of Freedom Press ceasing to exist or for any other reason being unable to continue the publication of FREEDOM…'

5. FFP owns a building worth a million pounds and as the FREEDOM collective formally ceased publishing the paper, then FFP had lots of possibilities available to continue production but doing nothing wasn’t an option.  Although obliged to meet regularly, keep written minutes and formally approve resignations and new members, FFP had become as dysfunctional as the FREEDOM collective.  By 2014 it nominally comprised just 4 members and only Company Secretary, Stephen Charles Sorba, claimed to know who the other three members were!

6. Our researches revealed that on the 20th February 2012 Company Secretary Sorba had registered Richard Parry as a director of FFP at Companies House yet when I contacted Parry he emailed back to express ignorance of his appointment.  Sonia Markham and Donald Rooum expressed similar ignorance of Parry’s appointment.

7. On 20th February 2015, I wrote to Company Secretary Sorba asking him to ensure that FFP  belatedly complied with its formal obligations to maintain publication of FREEDOM, and  proposing the addition of more active, representative Board Members.

8. Curiously, on 3rd March 2015 I received an email response, not from Company Secretary Sorba, but from Richard Parry, 'In my capacity as one of the Directors'.  This letter claimed all was fine with FREEDOM, rejected the specific offer of respected historian Dr David Goodway to join the Board and instead insisted any potential new directors first present themselves to the FREEDOM collective for approval (an inappropriate reversal of the responsibilities of the Board).

9. I subsequently learned that Sonia Markham, the longest-serving Board member, knew nothing of this letter.  Clearly it wasn’t just the FREEDOM collective that was controlled by a clique that cared little for open, democratic procedures.

10. Despite formally representing himself to me as 'one of the Directors', Parry openly admitted the impropriety to Andy Meinke of the Freedom Bookshop who emailed the collective on 24th February 2015, 'Richard rang this morning, he wasn’t even sure he was on the board!' (the exclamation mark is Meinke’s)

11. It is indicative of just how far FFP abrogated its responsibility to an inappropriate collective that Meinke’s February email went on to say; 'ps.  We really should ask some more people to join FFP as four is a bit risky if they all fly on the same plane.  Let’s ask Martin Howard of Solfed and Nick Heath of AF, that’ll cheer Draper up.'

12. To her great credit, Sonia Markham was the sole member of FFP who attempted to get a grip on the FREEDOM debacle yet when she asked Company Secretary Sorba to provide her with the Board’s 'Articles' and 'Memorandum of Association' she was given the run-around.  Fortunately, I was able to supply interested parties with appropriate documents.

13. Realising they had been rumbled, the remaining three 'members' of FFP finally agreed to hold an AGM, the first for years.  Even better they were forced to reconsider nominations from outside their own sphere of influence.

14. That meeting was held on Wednesday 24th June 2015, and it produced an excellent result.  Six new members joined the Board and a constructive discussion ensued.  After Donald Rooum, the sole member of both the FREEDOM collective and FFP, grumbled about our campaign to expose the shameful manoeuvrings at FREEDOM it was generally recognised by all that without our intervention the FRIENDS would have become completely moribund.  From now on the newly revitalised Board of the FRIENDS OF FREEDOM PRESS is pledged to meet quarterly (next meeting 16th September 2015) in order to discuss and discharge their proper responsibilities. 

15. The residual FREEDOM collective are uncomfortable at the prospect of proper oversight and have already met to express an obdurate determination to resist any legitimate intervention by FFP.

16. In contrast, we congratulate FFP on its Phoenix-like rejuvenation and trust members will continue their initial move to restore the ethical and intellectual credibility of FREEDOM.  Typifying the juvenile, sarcastic, 'That’ll cheer Draper up!' approach of Meinke and co. was the collective’s attempt to get a character featured in 'Who Killed FREEDOM? – Update 1' onto the FFP Board.  Exercising impeccable judgement the born–again FFP had little hesitation in consigning the nomination of Gwain the cunt Williams (his self-chosen appellation) to the dustbin of history.

17. The sort of issue FFP might next care to address is the arbitrary judgement and abuse of power by FREEDOM bookshop manager Andy Meinke who, for example, refuses to stock Northern Voices magazine.  Asked why he rejected a popular magazine produced by Northern anarchists and others he recently informed editor Brian Bamford, 'Because I don’t like you Brian'!  Such narrow-minded prejudice needs to be exorcised from FREEDOM and a proper publications policy restored.

18. The ten members of the born-again Board of FFP are as follows:

* 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, writer of 'Svartfrost' column in Freedom.

* Sonia Markham – anarchist, retired TV make-up artist and daughter of founding FFP member, pioneering feminist-anarchist and children’s author Olive Dehn.

* Lois Olmstead – anarchist originally from Ohio, ex-member of Freedom collective. 

* Richard Parry – solicitor and author of the 'Bonnot Gang' .

* Martin Peacock – founder of the London Anarchist Bookfair .

* Ernest Rodker – veteran peace campaigner .

* Donald Rooum – veteran Stirnerite anarchist and cartoonist.

* Stephen Charles Sorba – FFP Company Secretary, printer with Aldgate Press. 

19. FREEDOM was traditionally a resource for all open-minded anarchists but terminally declined under the influence of a narrow-minded clique.  The rejuvenation of the FRIENDS is a great success and a positive encouragement to us all to continue the struggle for free-speech, fellowship, peace and anarchy.

Christopher Draper:  3^rd, July 2015.