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The magazine Green Anarchist was for a while the principle voice in the UK advocating an explicit fusion of libertarian socialist and ecological thinking
(Green anarchism), although such ideas had arguably been
co-sympathetic for decades if not generations beforehand.
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 newspaper, 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.
Above; Cover of the first issue of 'Green Anarchist' magazine (Summer 1984), featuring artwork by then editor Richard Hunt
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 arguements 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. Shortly afterwards he left to start another magazine Alternative Green, which continued to promote his own particular
view of 'Nationalistic Anarchism'.
Into the Nineties
During the 1990s Green Anarchist came under the helm of an editorial
collective that included Paul Rodgers, Steve Booth and others,
during which period the publication became increasingly aligned with primitivism, an anti-technological philosophy advocated by John
Zerzan.
During this period the magazine expressed sympathy for the Unabomber actions
of Ted Kaczynski and published a notorious article entitled "The
Irrationalists" that apparently supported 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 [1] ,
the Anarchist Communist Federation
[2]
and others.
The GANDALF trial
Starting in 1995, the Hampshire Police
under 'Operation Washington' began a series of at least 56 raids, which eventually resulted in the August to November 1997 Portsmouth trial of Green Anarchist editors
Booth, Saxon Wood, Noel Molland and Paul Rodgers, 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'. Eventually, all three were
released on appeal [3]
See Also
- Green Anarchy
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