Direct Action: Paper of the Direct Action Movement (1980s)

Online archive of over 75 issues of Direct Action, an anarcho-syndicalist paper produced by the Direct Action Movement. Sources include the excellent collection at the Sparrow's Nest, Kate Sharpley Library and others.

Submitted by R Totale on May 6, 2020

Roughly 80 issues were published between 1981 and 1992.

Direct Action was also the paper of the DAM's predecessor organisation the Syndicalist Workers Federation. An archive of the SWF Direct Action can be found here.

In 1994 the Direct Action Movement became the Solidarity Federation which published its own version of Direct Action from 1994-2009.

Missing issues: 16, 53.

Comments

syndicalist

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on May 7, 2020

Excellent

freemind

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by freemind on May 7, 2020

From 86-90 DA was excellent and a great advert for AnarchoSyndicalism.I hadn't seen thearlest issues until now-Great stuff

freemind

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by freemind on May 7, 2020

From 86-90 DA was excellent and a great advert for AnarchoSyndicalism.I hadn't seen thearlest issues until now-Great stuff

tyneside anarchist

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by tyneside anarchist on May 7, 2020

As a matter of interest (there is a full story behind it which i wont delve into as i only know bits and iam sure some on here will know more) there is 2 different issues of number 32 one in July 1986 (the bogus issue produced by breakaway group) and one in Sept 1986.

R Totale

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by R Totale on May 7, 2020

Huh, looks like the Sparrow's Nest has scanned both, one as "32A" and one as "32B". Got a while to go before I reach that, though.

syndicalist

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by syndicalist on May 7, 2020

tyneside anarchist

As a matter of interest (there is a full story behind it which i wont delve into as i only know bits and iam sure some on here will know more) there is 2 different issues of number 32 one in July 1986 (the bogus issue produced by breakaway group) and one in Sept 1986.

Detailed story, for sure. having close relations with the DAM, having read the internal documents, I'm familiar with the situation. The issue at hand was the then Hull DAM published an unauthorized "DA" issue favorable to CNT-Victoria split from CNT-AIT. These folks later went on to form the current Spanish CGT. DAM withdrew that issue of "DA and published another issue, same number only "A" after number.

Edit: See "50 Years on" for outright support for the "CNT-U" split.: http://www.thesparrowsnest.org.uk/collections/public_archive/10237.pdf

Fozzie

3 years 10 months ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Fozzie on May 19, 2020

46 is here https://bibdig.biblioteca.unesp.br/handle/10/8905 but I think will need cropping?

Fozzie

1 year 6 months ago

Submitted by Fozzie on September 1, 2022

Sparrows Nest have now scanned some of the later issues...

R Totale

1 year 6 months ago

Submitted by R Totale on September 1, 2022

Have a huge amount of respect for Sparrow's Nest but I do wish they'd adopt some kind of tagging system or something to make sorting through their material easier, just searching for every anarchist paper that mentions "Direct Action" is a bit of a headache.

Fozzie

1 year 6 months ago

Submitted by Fozzie on September 2, 2022

Yeah I agree.

It is a bit better if you use the advanced search on the site (Direct Action “AND” DAM). Or their uploads at archive.org

Fozzie

1 month 2 weeks ago

Submitted by Fozzie on February 13, 2024

So this is almost a complete archive now - does anyone have issues 16 or 53?