Saturday 14 February 2009

Colin Ward: A Clarification Needing Clarification

I received an encouraging email from Laurens Otter today some of which I feel honour-bound to republish here and in the next A Pinch of Salt. Many thanks Laurens.

"Colin Ward was never editor of Freedom, he worked closely with Vero Rheccione / Vernon Richards who was, (The AFB had - in order to avoid war-time regulations - vested owndership in Vero and Dr John H[?], when the split happned, Vero was left as owner) & for a short time after the '44 split there was (I believe, it was before my time) an editorial board round Vero & Mary Loiuse, & that may still ahve existed when Colin joined, so that he could have been a member of that; - you'd need to check with David Goodway (of the journal "Anarchist Studies").

When, after Suez-Hungary, the CND started, & interest in left politics was growing, Colin was in touch with people sympathetic to the New Left who found Freedom intellectually barren. Colin was then a "Revisionist Anarchist" & there was a fairly prolongued argument in Freedom with Colin wanting much longer articles. The few of us who were then active ... were equally disastisified but for different reasons. When the new paper was first proposed it was to be called Autonomie; it was only just before the launch that the name was changed."

I would welcome comments or further clarification on this from any readers? Help! I'd like to get this sorted out in my head for issue 19.