Direct Action: Anarchist Federation of Britain masthead

Partial online archive of Direct Action, a paper produced by the Anarchist Federation of Britain.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 2, 2025

PDFs courtesy of the excellent collection at the Sparrow's Nest Archive, Nottingham.

Many of the members of the Anarchist Federation of Britain went on to form the Syndicalist Workers Federation in 1950. The SWF continued production of Direct Action and our archive of this version can be found here.

There is a useful chronology of events leading up to The 1945 split in British anarchism by Kate Sharpley Library.

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syndicalist

4 weeks ago

Submitted by syndicalist on February 6, 2025

Great stuff!

Atrocities - Allied Policy Threat To Workers

The first issue of the newsletter of the Anarchist Federation of Britain. Including: British establishment's whitewashing of the holocaust, "Redundancy" - a new buzzword for unemployment, Tom Brown on factory committees, 35,000 Spanish anarcho-syndicalists hold conference in France.

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Submitted by Fozzie on January 2, 2025

Undated but almost certainly May: e.g. "Ten years ago; May 1955."

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No Peace In Europe? IWMA call to the workers of the world

Undated issue of Direct Action, including: IWMA against war, news, Spanish and Swedish syndicalists, Stalin's puppet government in Austria, Don Coventry obituary, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 3, 2025

Undated but refers to May in the past tense, including "700 workers, labourers, storekeepers, chasers and inspectors employed by Handley Page Aircraft, London, struck work at 10 o’clock on Monday, May 28, for a wage increase."

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Our Task

Including: post-war conditions of working class people, sedition prisoner T.W. Brown gets extended sentence, 5,000 Napier engineers sacked, report on exiled Spanish anarcho-syndicalists conference in France, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 4, 2025

Undated but refers to events in May - and "In our last issue we published an appeal by the International Working Men’s Association" refers to previous June issue.

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World of Plenty

Including: post-war austerity, transport workers in struggle part two, critiques of Labour and Communist parties, International Working Men's Association, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 7, 2025

NB: dated August 1945 on the masthead, but reports on a meeting from September 23rd. So probably dated late September or more likely October.

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Direct Action (AFB) Vol-01 #02 cov

Including: threat of nuclear war, revolutionary violence redefined, first Anarchist Federation national congress, Kropotkin on law and authority, industrial notes, an American view on the Labour Party in power, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 8, 2025

Undated but reviews events in September 1945.

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Direct Action AFB v1 7 cover

Including: Gandhi urges workers control in India, repression in Russia, austerity in the UK, fascism in Spain, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 13, 2025

NB: "May Supplement". Possibly implies another May 1946 issue?

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westartfromhere

3 weeks 6 days ago

Submitted by westartfromhere on February 7, 2025

Random selection of quotes from this issue of Direct Action, Organ of the Anarchist Federation of Britain, May Supplement 1946:

After the War is over,
After the slaughter’s done,
After the people are ruined,
After the victory’s won,
Labour will go on drudging
Wondering what it was for,
Paying for generations.
After the war.

At school we were told that, happily, the days of religious persecution were passed; that the horrible story of deportation, torture, imprisonment and execution was ended with the passing of the middle ages. The rise of Fascism and Communism [and Democracy, Islamism and Anarchism], however, created political persecution on a scale undreamt of by any medieval fanatics.

Finally a word about thorium. This mineral, most extensively used in the manufacture of atomic explosives, has recently been discovered in Ceylon—the largest thorium field in the world. The prevalent feeling here is that this thorium should be used exclusively for industrial and humanitarian purposes. Free India will resist all attempts to use it to help manufacture a material designed to destroy human life.

DA-v2-2cov.png

Including: resistance to Franco, austerity in Belgium, thousands of anarchist and syndicalists jailed in Bulgaria, London busmens' strike 1937, socialism and the state by Tom Brown, Nuremburg trials, unions collaborate with bosses in Norway and Finland, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 23, 2025

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DA-v2-2.pdf (11.13 MB)

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DAv2-3cov.png

Including: Labour Party sets army on strikers, Tom Brown on anarchists and private property, German P.O.W.s in England, Bulgarian state suppresses anarchists, Franco, Victor Kravchenko on Russia, Ret Marut / B Traven, German syndicalists and the Nazis, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 24, 2025

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DA-v2-3.pdf (11.39 MB)

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Direct Action AFB v2 issue 4 cover

Including: UK crisis, surviving Polish syndicalists regroup, conditions in the catering industry, Tom Brown on the middle class and the labour movement, syphilis, fascism in Austria, racism and the Communist Party, conscription, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 27, 2025

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DA-v2-4.pdf (12.15 MB)

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da-v3-2.png

Including: Communist Party acts for Russian imperialism, crisis in World Trade Union Federation, repression against resistance movement in Spain, Durham miners, London dockers, Consumers' Co-operatives, Glasgow canteen workers, Bulgaria concentration camps, anarchism in Ukraine 1917-21, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 4, 2025

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DA-v3-2.pdf (10.92 MB)

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DA-v3-3cover.png

Including: Labour government and cost of living crisis, fascist paper sellers flee Piccadilly, South Wales miners "stay in strikes", nuclear threat, the producers co-operative, history of Makhnovist movement pt 2, prisoners, Spain, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 5, 2025

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DA-v3-3.pdf (11.84 MB)

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DA-v3-4.png

Including: USA vs Russia - aeronautics, Buckingham Palace strike, Civil Service purge of "subversives", Stalinists maintain Buchenwald for anti-fascist prisoners, Spanish anarchists receive death sentence, Makhnovist movement part 3, Portugal: colony of Anglo-American imperialism, distribution in the free society, KKK threatens black people and trade unionists, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 6, 2025

NB: This issue includes some archaic language which may now be considered racist. This is in the context of an anti-racist article about the Ku Klux Klan.

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DA-v3-4.pdf (11.31 MB)

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syndicalist

4 weeks ago

Submitted by syndicalist on February 6, 2025

Very much appreciating read these AFB "Direct Action" edition. Post WW-2 pieces of value.

Fozzie

3 weeks 6 days ago

Submitted by Fozzie on February 7, 2025

Yes it's interesting to see the developments as the months roll by...

westartfromhere

3 weeks 5 days ago

Submitted by westartfromhere on February 8, 2025

In regards to the anti-racism of the Left, readers may be interested in reading Gilles Dauvé on anti-fascism and its flaws.

Direct Action v3 issue 5 cover

Including: IWMA May Day manifesto, Russia and nuclear weapons, police repression in Northern Ireland, USA defends Italian ruling class, racism in southern USA, agricultural collectives in a free society, planned scarcity as social control, critique of Freedom Group article, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 7, 2025

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DA-v3-5.pdf (11.22 MB)

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da-v3-6.png

Including: USA strikewave, fascists in the UK, Palestine, "on direct action", the free commune, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 11, 2025

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DA-v3-6.pdf (11.37 MB)

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westartfromhere

3 weeks 2 days ago

Submitted by westartfromhere on February 11, 2025

We hold no brief for Zionism or for the Jewish State. We see no solution to the problem of the Jewish people in the creation of a new and virulent nationalism; we are just as much opposed to a Jewish politician as we are to any other politician.

...

But we recognise the right of the Jewish people to live in peace. We have nothing but admiration for the achievements of the collectivist pioneers in Palestine. Those of us who have had the chance of seeing the collective settlements at first hand know that we have seen social living of an advanced kind.

For "collective settlement" read capitalist accumulation; "social living", social-democracy. There is no capitalist accumulation without the capitalist—in this case "Jewish"—state.

In this situation we should be hypocrites if, as Anarchists, we did not affirm our sympathy with the workers on the Jewish collective settlements, refugees from pogrom and massacre, who are now involved in a war that was not of their seeking.

Better to be hypocrites, then, than a party to murder and theft.

Direct Action v4 issue 1 Jan 1949 cover

Including: warmongering, workers control and trade unions, new Nazi paper supported by Russia, difficulties producing "Direct Action", strike news, education, film industry, international anarchist news, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on January 15, 2025

NB: page 10 is blank.

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da-v4-7cov.png

Including: Workers' apathy, unemployment, nationalised transport industries, Australia elections, economics and imperialism, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 17, 2025

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DA-v4-7.pdf (9.07 MB)

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westartfromhere

2 weeks 3 days ago

Submitted by westartfromhere on February 17, 2025

Revolutionary workers in Britain are appalled by the seeming apathy of the workers.

In the immediate aftermath of the greatest slaughter of the working class in human history, and faced by a horrific new tool of destruction unleashed on workers' centres by the bourgeoisie, it would be surprising, astounding, if the working class had been anything but apathetic about its historic revolutionary role. The apathy was long lived; not until the late Fifties did we summon our strength to again challenge the capitalist order.

In 1948, as in 1949, Not the AFB's finest hour, for sure.

Fozzie

2 weeks 3 days ago

Submitted by Fozzie on February 17, 2025

Nagging people about apathy on your front page isn't exactly a productive tactic either... here come the moany anarchists wagging their fingers at us...

westartfromhere

2 weeks 3 days ago

Submitted by westartfromhere on February 17, 2025

:-)

DA-v5-5cov.png

Including: anarchists in Korea, health service cuts, London ship painters strike, 'Daily Worker' strike, bosses force weekend work, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, international news, etc.

Submitted by Fozzie on February 24, 2025

The final edition of Direct Action published by the Anarchist Federation of Britain.

At a Special Conference of the AFB on August 6th 1950 it is agreed that the Federation should be dissolved and the Syndicalist Workers Federation should be created, with "Direct Action" as its newspaper.

The next issue - Vol 5 #06 September 1950 - was published by the newly formed SWF. Our archive of that publication can be found here.

Attachments

DA-v5-5.pdf (10.17 MB)

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