Intercom: The Ultra-Left Review

A complete online archive of Intercom, a publication produced by members of a range of UK ultra-left/libertarian communist groups in the early 1980s, including Wildcat, Careless Talk, Workers Playtime, Black Star and Glasgow Anarchists.

Intercom was preceded by the New Ultra-Left Review.

Author
Submitted by R Totale on December 24, 2018

Scans taken from Sparrows Nest and Splits & Fusions archives.

Comments

R Totale

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on December 24, 2018

Oops, having created this page I now realize that the one PDF of an issue of Intercom I've been able to find is 33.8 MB, so just over the limit to upload - although the last two pages of that PDF seem to actually be Wildcat #7, so if anyone's got good PDF editing software, they could break it up into two parts and upload them separately? Or just get rid of this page, one or the other.

Fozzie

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on December 24, 2018

https://smallpdf.com is your friend, comrade.

Fozzie

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on December 24, 2018

Also I think Wildcat 7 is part of the leaflets etc section so should stay. But the back page is missing? Maybe.

Also well done for finding this, I’d never seen it. :)

jondwhite

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by jondwhite on December 24, 2018

Send a link to me and i will see what i can do

Serge Forward

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Serge Forward on December 24, 2018

Thanks for adding this. By the way, the articles by Louis Robertson in that were by the late Bob Miller (Knightrose here on libcom). Bob, myself and others compiled that issue and churned it out on a gestestner in our front room :)

On the issue of the last bit being Wildcat, yes, the last few pages were always leaflets by the groups involved - Wildcat (Manchester), Careless Talk ((North Staffs), Subversive Graffiti (Aberdeen) and, I seem to recall, elements from London Workers Group who did Workers Playtime.

R Totale

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on December 25, 2018

Well, it's uploaded now, merry xmas everyone! Shame about missing the back page tho. Also I now realise the "Wildcat No 7" that makes up the last two pages of this seems to be a completely different publication from the "Wildcat No 7 - Riot Special" that's also in the Sparrow's Nest archive, so I have no clue what's going on there.

Spikymike

3 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on December 12, 2020

To clarify a couple of points;
The 2 page short free Wildcat bulletins included in the Intercom publication were produced by a temporary collective made up of dissident members of the autonomous Manchester Solidarity Group and similar dissident members of the Manchester local ICC (World Revolution) group plus a couple of local anarchist communists. This was a forerunner of the subsequent Wildcat (UK) paper phase one.
My hard copies of Intercom and related material is mostly out on loan just now. (edit: Haven't managed to retrieve these as yet but note that 'Intercom' continued to at least issue no 5, in April 1984, together with a series of small conferences and supportive groups from Manchester, Stoke, London, Glasgow and Milton Keynes as well as correspondence from others in the UK and internationally. By number 5 however it was clear that the Wildcat groups interest in pursuing Intercom as a project towards national regroupment was not supported by most.)
Edit: There are still at present more copies of the Intercom journal and earlier versions of the Manchester based 'Wildcat' paper available online (together with other related left-communist and libertarian communist journals) here:
https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/left-communists-and-libertarians/

Fozzie

5 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on December 26, 2018

Oh blimey, yet another phase of Wildcat I wasn't aware of :D

Am I a terrible nerd for wanting to see the back page of this so I can pointlessly test myself against the "ten points for participation in Intercom"?

Fozzie

3 years 11 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on December 18, 2020

Sparrows Nest just uploaded a scan of #5 today so I have compressed that and added it here. I assume this is now a complete archive?

Fozzie

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on January 31, 2021

https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/2021/01/30/more-notes-from-the-swamp/

Short post on Careless Talk and Subversive Graffiti which may be of interest. Also and Intercom supplement that can be grabbed for here.

Spikymike

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Spikymike on January 31, 2021

I'm sure they wouldn't agree, but I cant help thinking that the 'Lets Get Rooted' networking proposal from the Angry Workers group seems to resemble, (if not the much earlier UK Solidarity network) then, to some extent, the initial intention (if not success) behind the 'New Ultra Left' Review and Intercom, in so far as most of the contributing groups at that time were fairly 'rooted' in their local working class struggles whilst maintaining important international connections. Maybe this latest initiative in a different period will learn some lessons and fair better than Intercom?

Serge Forward

1 year 7 months ago

Submitted by Serge Forward on May 7, 2023

There's a Careless Talk archive here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f1il57fflir1y6e/AADXsGuAsNrY-KlrjezSunDSa?dl=0
Anyone good with computers fancy uploading it here as well?