The Green Anarchist, established in 1984 in
the UK, was a magazine advocating green anarchism:
an explicit fusion of libertarian socialist
and ecological thinking.
== Early years ==
Founded after the 1984 Stop the City protests,
the magazine was launched in the summer of
that year by an editorial collective consisting
of Alan Albon, Richard Hunt and Marcus Christo.
Albon had been an editor of Freedom whilst
Hunt had become frustrated with the more mainstream
green magazine Green Line for which he had
been writing.
The younger Christo had come from a more anarcho-punk
background – he was also a member of Green
CND, and had been involved in the blockade
of Ronald Reagan's car at the 1984 Lancaster
House summit meeting.
Early issues featured a range of broadly anarchist
and ecological ideas, bringing together groups
and individuals as varied as Class War, veteran
anarchist writer Colin Ward, anarcho-punk
band Crass, as well as the Peace Convoy, anti-nuclear
campaigners, animal rights activists and so
on.
However the diversity that many saw as the
publication's greatest strength quickly led
to irreconcilable arguments between the essentially
pacifist approach of Albon and Christo, and
the advocacy of violent confrontation with
the State favoured by Hunt.
Albon and Christo left Green Anarchist shortly
afterwards, and the magazine saw a succession
of editorial collectives, although Hunt remained
in overall control.
During this period he published articles which
were increasingly alienating much of the magazine's
readership.
Matters came to a head after Hunt wrote an
editorial which expressed support for British
troops in the Gulf War and extolled the virtues
of patriotism.
Hunt has stated that the rest of the editorial
collective wished to bring to Green Anarchist
a more left-wing political approach, while
Hunt wanted it to remain non-aligned.
Shortly afterwards he left to start another
magazine Alternative Green, which continued
to promote his own particular view of green
anarchism, and eventually became closely linked
to the National-Anarchist movement from the
mid-90s onwards.
== The Nineties ==
During the 1990s Green Anarchist came under
the helm of an editorial collective that included
Paul Rogers, Steve Booth and others, during
which period the publication became increasingly
aligned with primitivism, an anti-civilization
philosophy advocated by writers such as John
Zerzan, Bob Black and Fredy Perlman.
During this period the magazine expressed
sympathy for the criminal activities of Ted
Kaczynski and published a notorious article
entitled "The Irrationalists" that supported
actions like the Oklahoma City bombing and
the sarin gas attacks carried out by the Tokyo
based Aum cult.
This once again alienated much of the UK anarchist
movement, and led to strong criticism of the
magazine by Stewart Home, Counter Information,
the Anarchist Communist Federation and others.
Steven Booth, the writer of the article, has
since renounced the views expressed in it,
as well as the primitivist movement altogether.
== The GANDALF trial ==
Starting in 1995, Hampshire Police began a
series of at least 56 raids, code named 'Operation
Washington', that eventually resulted in the
August to November 1997 Portsmouth trial of
Green Anarchist editors Booth, Saxon Wood,
Noel Molland and Paul Rogers, as well as Animal
Liberation Front (ALF) Press Officer Robin
Webb and Animal Liberation Front Supporters
Group (ALFSG) newsletter editor Simon Russell.
The defendants organised the GANDALF Defence
campaign.
Three of the editors of Green Anarchist, Noel
Molland, Saxon Wood and Booth were jailed
for 'conspiracy to incite'.
However, all three were shortly afterwards
released on appeal.
== Booth and Rogers' Green Anarchists ==
In the late 1990s there was a further split
amongst the GA collective, leading to the
existence of two entirely separate magazines
using the Green Anarchist title.
These are respectively published by an editorial
team that includes Paul Rogers and 'John Connor'
(who subtitle their version of the paper as
the original and best), and Steve Booth, who
has publicly renounced some of his earlier
published views and expressed a wish to 'return
to the magazine's roots'.
== See also ==
Anarcho-primitivism
Green Anarchy
Green Anarchism
