Anarchism in the UK initially developed within
the context of radical Whiggery and Protestant
religious dissent. During the English Civil
War and the industrialisation English anarchist
thought developed in the context of revolutionary
working class politics.
== William Godwin ==
Modern anarchism sprang from the secular or
religious thought of the Enlightenment, particularly
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's arguments for the
moral centrality of freedom. From this climate
William Godwin developed what many consider
the first expression of modern anarchist thought.
Godwin was, according to Peter Kropotkin,
"the first to formulate the political and
economical conceptions of anarchism, even
though he did not give that name to the ideas
developed in his work". In 1793, William Godwin,
who has often been cited as the first anarchist,
wrote Political Justice, which some consider
to be the first expression of anarchism. Godwin,
a philosophical anarchist, from a rationalist
and utilitarian basis opposed revolutionary
action and saw a minimal state as a present
"necessary evil" that would become increasingly
irrelevant and powerless by the gradual spread
of knowledge.
== 19th century to World War II ==
In the late nineteenth century, opposition
to the existing order of society and a feeling
that one could do without it, was not uncommon.
It varied from the gradualist support for
the English republic of Charles Bradlaugh
to the revolutionary republicanism of Algernon
Charles Swinburne, to the anarcho-socialism
of William Morris and Oscar Wilde to the full-blown
anarchism of Peter Kropotkin and his sympathisers.
The Socialist League was an early revolutionary
socialist organisation in the United Kingdom.
Around the middle of this same year, 1887,
anarchists began to outnumber socialists in
the Socialist League. The 3rd Annual Conference,
held in London on 29 May 1887 marked the change,
with a majority of the 24 delegates voting
in favor of an anarchist-sponsored resolution
declaring that "This conference endorses the
policy of abstention from parliamentary action,
hitherto pursued by the League, and sees no
sufficient reason for altering it." Frederick
Engels, living in London and a very interested
observer in the League's affairs, saw the
role of William Morris as decisive. He recounted
the events of the 3rd Conference to his friend
Friedrich Sorge in a 4 June 1887 letter:
"The anarchist elements which had gained admission
to [the conference of the Socialist League]
were victorious, being supported by Morris,
who has a mortal hatred of all things parliamentary...
Resolution — in itself quite innocuous as
there can after all be no question of parliamentary
action here and now — adopted by 17 votes
to 11...
"What really clinched the matter was Morris'
declaration that he would quit the moment
any parliamentary action was accepted in principle.
And since Morris makes good the Commonweal's
deficit to the tune of £4 a week, this was
for many the decisive factor.
"Our people now intend to get the provinces
organised, which they are at present well
on the way to doing, and to call an extraordinary
conference in about three or four months'
time with a view to quashing the above. But
it's unlikely to succeed; in the fabrication
of voting sections, the anarchists are vastly
superior to ourselves and can make eight enfranchised
sections out of seven men.... The anarchists,
by the way, may shortly throw our people out,
and that might be all to the good."
As the tenor of the organisation became increasingly
clear, a steady attrition of many of the group's
international socialists began to take place.
In August 1888, the London branch of the Socialist
League to which Tussy Marx and Edward Aveling
belonged seceded in favor of establishing
itself as an independent organization, the
Bloomsbury Socialist Society. By the end of
1888 many other parliamentary-oriented individuals
had exited the Socialist League to return
to the SDF, with others who remained hostile
to the SDF's parliamentary emphasis choosing
to involve themselves in the burgeoning movement
for so-called "New Unionism." As the socialist
factions left, the anarchist faction solidified
its hold on the organisation. By 1889, the
anarchist wing had completely captured the
organisation. William Morris was stripped
of the editorship of Commonweal in favor of
Frank Kitz, an anarchist workman. Morris was
left to foot the ongoing operating deficit
of the publication, some £4 per week — this
at a time when £150 per year was the average
annual family income in the kingdom.
== Post-war era ==
Ethel Mannin (6 October 1900 – 5 December
1984) was a popular British novelist, travel
writer and anarchist. Mannin listed Bart de
Ligt and A. S. Neill as thinkers who influenced
her ideas. Mannin's 1944 book Bread and Roses:
A Utopian Survey and Blue-Print has been described
by historian Robert Graham as setting forth
"an ecological vision in opposition to the
prevailing and destructive industrial organization
of society". When Vernon Richards and three
other editors were arrested at the beginning
of 1945 for attempting "to undermine the affections
of members of His Majesty's Forces.", Benjamin
Britten, E. M. Forster, Augustus John, George
Orwell, Herbert Read (chairman), Osbert Sitwell
and George Woodcock set up the Freedom Defence
Committee to "uphold the essential liberty
of individuals and organizations, and to defend
those who are persecuted for exercising their
rights to freedom of speech, writing and action."
The Syndicalist Workers' Federation was a
syndicalist group active in post-war Britain,
and one of the Solidarity Federation's earliest
predecessors. It was formed in 1950 by members
of the dissolved Anarchist Federation of Britain
(not to be confused with the current Anarchist
Federation which was founded as the Anarchist
Communist Federation in 1986). Unlike the
AFB, which was influenced by anarcho-syndicalist
ideas but ultimately not syndicalist itself,
the SWF decided to pursue a more definitely
syndicalist, worker-centred strategy from
the outset. The group joined the International
Workers Association and during the Franco
era gave particular support to the Spanish
resistance and the underground CNT anarcho-syndicalist
union, previously involved in the 1936 Spanish
Revolution and subsequent Civil War against
a right-wing military coup backed by both
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The SWF initially
had some success, but when Tom Brown, a long-term
and very active member was forced out of activity,
it declined until by 1979 it had only one
lone branch in Manchester. The SWF then dissolved
itself into the group founded as the Direct
Action Movement. Its archives are held by
the International Institute of Social History,
and a selection of the SWFs publication have
been digitally published on libcom.org.
Colin Ward was editor of the British anarchist
newspaper Freedom from 1947 to 1960, and the
founder and editor of the monthly anarchist
journal Anarchy from 1961 to 1970. Over the
years the Freedom editorial group has included
Jack Robinson, Pete Turner, Colin Ward, Nicolas
Walter, Alan Albon, John Rety, Nino Staffa,
Dave Mansell, Gillian Fleming, Mary Canipa,
Philip Sansom, Arthur Moyse and many others.
Clifford Harper maintained a loose association
for 30 years. Albert Meltzer was a contributor
in the 1950s to the long-running anarchist
paper Freedom before leaving in 1965 to start
his own venture Wooden Shoe Press. Soon Meltzer
was to be involved in a long and bitter dispute
with fellow anarchist and former comrade at
Freedom Press Vernon Richards which entangled
many of their associates and the organisations
with which they were involved and continued
after both their deaths. Although the feud
started in a dispute arising from the possibility
of Wooden Shoe moving into Freedom premisses,
there were also political differences. Meltzer
advocated a more firebrand and proletarian
variety of anarchism than Richards and often
denounced him and the Freedom collective as
"liberals". Meltzer was a co-founder of the
anarchist newspaper Black Flag and was a prolific
writer on anarchist topics. Amongst his books
were Anarchism, Arguments For and Against
(originally published by Cienfuegos Press)
[1], The Floodgates of Anarchy (co-written
with Stuart Christie) and his autobiography,
I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, published
by AK Press [2] shortly before his death.
Meltzer also was involved in the founding
of the Anarchist Black Cross. He joined the
anarcho-syndicalist Direct Action Movement
in the early 80s and was a member of it, and
its successor organisation the Solidarity
Federation until his death.
A leading anarcho-pacifist, Alex Comfort considered
himself "an aggressive anti-militarist", and
he believed that pacifism rested "solely upon
the historical theory of anarchism". He was
an active member of the Peace Pledge Union
(PPU) and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament,
and a conscientious objector in World War
II. In 1951 Comfort was a signatory of the
Authors’ World Peace Appeal, but later resigned
from its
committee, claiming the AWPA had become dominated
by Soviet sympathisers. Later in the decade
he actively supported both the Direct Action
Committee against Nuclear War when the Committee
of 100 was formed, Comfort was
imprisoned for a month, alongside Bertrand
Russell and others, for refusing to be bound
over not to take part in the Trafalgar Square
protest in September 1961. Among the works
on anarchism by Comfort is Peace and Disobedience
(1946), one of many pamphlets he wrote for
Peace News and PPU, and Authority and Delinquency
in the Modern State (1950). He exchanged public
correspondence with George Orwell defending
pacifism in the open letter/poem, "Letter
to an American Visitor", under the pseudonym
"Obadiah Hornbrooke". Comfort's 1972 book
The Joy of Sex earned him worldwide fame and
$3 million. But he was unhappy to become known
as "Dr. Sex" and to have his other works given
so little attention.On the last day of July
1964 an 18-year-old Stuart Christie departed
London for Paris, where he picked up plastic
explosives from the anarchist organisation
Defensa Interior, and then Madrid on a mission
to kill General Francisco Franco. This was
to be one of at least 30 attempts on the dictator's
life. After his release he continued his activism
in the anarchist movement in the United Kingdom,
re-formed the Anarchist Black Cross and Black
Flag with Albert Meltzer, was acquitted of
involvement with the Angry Brigade, and started
the publishing house Cienfuegos Press (later
Refract Publications), which for a number
of years he operated from the remote island
of Sanday, Orkney, where he also edited and
published a local Orcadian newspaper, The
Free-Winged Eagle. Christie wrote with Meltzer,
The Floodgates of Anarchy and later We, the
Anarchists! A study of the Iberian Anarchist
Federation (FAI) 1927-1937 (2000).
== Organisations ==
Anarchist Federation
Class War
Diggers
Gerrard Winstanley
Queer Mutiny
Movement Against the Monarchy
No War but the Class War
Reclaim The Streets
Solidarity Federation 1994–present
The Angry Brigade 1970–1972
WOMBLES
== See also ==
"Anarchy in the U.K.", a song by the Sex Pistols
== References ==
== Further reading ==
H. Gustav Klaus and Stephen Knight (2005)
To Hell with Culture: Anarchism and Twentieth-Century
British Literature. University of Wales Press.
ISBN 0-7083-1898-3
David Goodway (2006) Anarchist Seeds Beneath
the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British
Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward.
Liverpool University Press. 2006 ISBN 1-84631-025-3
John Quail (1978) The Slow Burning Fuse: The
Lost History of the British Anarchists. London:
Paladin
George McKay (1996) Senseless Acts of Beauty:
Cultures of Resistance since the Sixties.
London: Verso. ISBN 1-85984-260-7.
George McKay, ed. (1998) DiY Culture: Party
& Protest in Nineties Britain. London: Verso.
ISBN 1-85984-028-0.
Benjamin Franks, (2006) Rebel Alliances: The
Means and Ends of Contemporary British Anarchisms.
Edinburgh. AK Press. ISBN 1904859402
Evans, Rob (December 3, 2013). "At least four
undercover spies infiltrated anarchist groups".
The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077.
Lewis, Paul; Evans, Rob (2012). Undercover:
The True Story of Britain's Secret Police.
London: Guardian Faber Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78335-034-6.
== External links ==
Oral History Collection of Pioneers on Anarchism
in post war Britain at the International Institute
of Social History
