# great anarchist characters of our age



## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

i'll start you off with attica/the black hand/gangster - the man of a thousand names, and few of them printable - and e19896

*this is a thread for naming and not for shaming*


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## Sootysoots (Jul 2, 2009)

Is Polypp an anarchist? He's pretty cool.


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## Sootysoots (Jul 2, 2009)

Also, not strictly speaking an 'anarchist' but more a libertarian socialist - Howard Zinn is an epic win of a character.


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 2, 2009)

Icepick.


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

Sootysoots said:


> Also, not strictly speaking an 'anarchist' but more a libertarian socialist - Howard Zinn is an epic win of a character.


save him for my forthcoming thread, 'great libertarian socialist characters of my time'


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## DotCommunist (Jul 2, 2009)

Uncle Joe


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

DotCommunist said:


> Uncle Joe


save him for my forthcoming thread 'great socialist helmsmen of the mid-twentieth century'


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## HobgoblinMan (Jul 2, 2009)

Rik from the "Young Ones".


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

HobgoblinMan said:


> Rik from the "Young Ones".




this is a thread about REAL people  save rik for my forthcoming thread 'great humorous depictions of anarchists in late twentieth century british comedy'


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## Kid_Eternity (Jul 2, 2009)

Pickman's model!


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## machine cat (Jul 2, 2009)

dave


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## newme (Jul 2, 2009)

Tobyjug!


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

newme said:


> Tobyjug!




tobyjug was a maladjusted biker  save him for my 'great urban characters of the years 2000-05' thread, forthcoming.


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## bluestreak (Jul 2, 2009)

Swampy?


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

'great amateur tunnellers of the 1990s', forthcoming


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## Bakunin (Jul 2, 2009)

Time for a more serious and weighty post, methinks.

I therefore nominate two (among many) Anarchist who were murdered by the State not for their alleged criminal acts, but simply for the politics they chose to espouse:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti


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## newme (Jul 2, 2009)

pbman


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

Bakunin said:


> Time for a more serious and weighty post, methinks.
> 
> I therefore nominate two (among many) Anarchist who were murdered by the State not for their alleged criminal acts, but simply for the politics they chose to espouse:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti


anarchists: but 1920s - hence not 'of our age'.


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

newme said:


> pbman


'great urban characters of the years 2000-05' thread, forthcoming.


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## Sootysoots (Jul 2, 2009)

Pickman's model said:


> save him for my forthcoming thread, 'great libertarian socialist characters of my time'



I look forward to it.

Principally speaking though, Libertarian Socialists and 'Good' (as in not the Nationalist or Capitalist ones) Anarchists are roughly 95% the same. Save for the free-the-paedos-and-let-teh-strong-communities-deal-with-them-in-time aspect. 

That's just MY opinion though.

*ducks beneath the barrage of oncoming molotovs*


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## Pickman's model (Jul 2, 2009)

Sootysoots said:


> I look forward to it.
> 
> Principally speaking though, Libertarian Socialists and 'Good' (as in not the Nationalist or Capitalist ones) Anarchists are roughly 95% the same. Save for the free-the-paedos-and-let-teh-strong-communities-deal-with-them-in-time aspect.
> 
> ...


i'm also uncertain how much of a character he is. there's little in his cv to suggest he's one for a late night beer in an illegal drinking den or up for a ruck with the constabulary. and his publication of loonwankery magazines is also absent.


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## moon23 (Jul 3, 2009)

bluestreak said:


> Swampy?


 No Dan just fitted peoples pre-conceptions and was therefore popular with the media. I dont think that makes him a better character than the unknown person who worked quietly in the background making sure knots were tied properley.


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## moon23 (Jul 3, 2009)

What about Thatcher for rolling back the frontiers of the state


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## Paul Marsh (Jul 3, 2009)

Derek - who I spotted selling the Big issue in Holborn recently.


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## TopCat (Jul 3, 2009)

moon23 said:


> What about Thatcher for rolling back the frontiers of the state



Yeah thank for all that de-regulation, worked well eh?


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## Random (Jul 3, 2009)

LLETSA


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## TopCat (Jul 3, 2009)

Oh the thigh slapping wit random,you should be on the telly.


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## sam/phallocrat (Jul 3, 2009)

swarthy


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## Random (Jul 3, 2009)




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## Rod Sleeves (Jul 3, 2009)

Ian Bone.

Martin from LARC/WAG.

The cute No Pretence in their sexy black hoodies.

Darren from Reading; mad as a box of hat repairmen, a nice bloke as well, and mostly right.

Iain MacKay. A right laugh, go drinking with him and you never know where you might end up. (Probably leaving the Calthorpe Arms in plenty of time to get the last bus home and have a cup of tea with your partner before bed at about 12.30).


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## Bernie Gunther (Jul 3, 2009)

The Bonnot Gang?

Netchaev? He might have died before 20th C though, don't know. 

Kropotkin is my pick though, he made it through to the 20th C. and lasted long enough to annoy Lenin. (and definitely had the best beard)


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## Random (Jul 3, 2009)

nechaev wasn't really an anarchist, he just wanked off bakunin a few times


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## Bakunin (Jul 3, 2009)

Random said:


> nechaev wasn't really an anarchist, he just wanked off bakunin a few times



He most certainly did not, thank you.

I'm strictly a butter-side-up man, I'll have you know.


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## Random (Jul 3, 2009)

Bakunin said:


> He most certainly did not, thank you.
> 
> I'm strictly a butter-side-up man, I'll have you know.



that wasn't butter!


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## Bakunin (Jul 3, 2009)

Random said:


> that wasn't butter!



Well, it was creamy, and it tasted salty anyway.


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## JimW (Jul 3, 2009)

Antonio Garcia Baron


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## dennisr (Jul 3, 2009)

JimW said:


> Antonio Garcia Baron



Now that was some story - humbling - what a fine fella - if i had a hat i would take it off to him

thanks for the link


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## dennisr (Jul 3, 2009)

he wins by a mile


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## TopCat (Jul 3, 2009)

Indeed.


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## DotCommunist (Jul 3, 2009)

thread won by a country mile.


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## butchersapron (Jul 3, 2009)

Wouldn't be so sure - how about Lucio Urtubia



> Lucio’s life is the stuff of legend. As an activist in 1950s Paris he counted André Breton and Albert Camus amongst his friends, worked with anarchist guerrilla Francisco Sabate in attempting to bring down Franco’s fascist regime and carried out numerous bank robberies to fund the struggle to free Spain. In 1977, after having his earlier scheme to destabilise the US economy by forgery rejected by Che Guevara, he put his plan into action. Lucio successfully forged 20 million dollars of Citibank travellers cheques to fund guerrilla groups in Latin America, bringing the bank to its knees in the process. In between he helped organise the kidnapping of Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie from his hideout in Bolivia, aided the escape of Black Panthers from the US and not surprisingly was targeted by the CIA. Lucio has defended his life’s work saying… ‘we are bricklayers, painters, electricians - we do not need the state for anything’.


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## dennisr (Jul 3, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> Wouldn't be so sure - how about Lucio Urtubia



 superb - and - as a skilled forger - my hat is doubly-tipped to him


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## JimW (Jul 3, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> Wouldn't be so sure - how about Lucio Urtubia


Good shout. Also still alive I think: Antonia Fontanillas and also http://www.unive.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=41783
Also like Costantini's illustrations: http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/zkh260


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## barney_pig (Jul 3, 2009)

Rod Sleeves said:


> Ian Bone.
> 
> Martin from LARC/WAG.
> 
> ...


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## e19896 (Jul 3, 2009)

e19896 joke


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## JHE (Jul 3, 2009)

I don't think there can be a great anarchist without a great anarchist movement, so I don't suppose there are any great anarchists of our age.  There are just strange men and their cider.


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## JHE (Jul 3, 2009)

There is, however, a *character* that some think is anarchist (though it's definitely not anarchist in origin) and which has come into greatness in our time:  the arroba, a little character that has had greatness thrust upon it in the age of email:

*@​*


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## Pickman's model (Jul 3, 2009)

e19896 said:


> e19896 is a joke


*corrected*


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## audiotech (Jul 3, 2009)

Lofty.


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## imposs1904 (Jul 3, 2009)

Half Wit from this year's Big Brother.


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## DotCommunist (Jul 3, 2009)

imposs1904 said:


> Half Wit from Big Brother.



you'll have to narrow it down mate.


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## albionism (Jul 4, 2009)

Donald Rooum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rooum


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## Steve Booth (Jul 4, 2009)

*Colin Ward?*



albionism said:


> Donald Rooum
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rooum


If we're on the Freedom people, why not Colin Ward?




			
				Stuart White said:
			
		

> Anarchism suffers from a respectability deficit, a problem of achieving a threshold level of credibility in the eyes of non-anarchists. One anarchist thinker who has grappled persistently with this problem over 60 years of activism is the influential post-war British anarchist, Colin Ward. Responding directly to the respectability deficit, Ward helped to develop a 'pragmatist' anarchism characterized by direct engagement with urgent social problems. The paper explains the nature of this pragmatist anarchism, and places it in its historical intellectual context. It discusses how far Ward has indeed succeeded in producing a social philosophy that is at once genuinely anarchist and 'intellectually respectable'.



Stuart White, Journal of Political Ideologies, 1st February 2007


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## chico enrico (Jul 4, 2009)

Boner and Wrighty. 

tho Aussie Darren probably deserves an honourable mention after the caper he got up to a few years back


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## scumbalina (Jul 4, 2009)

imposs1904 said:


> Half Wit from this year's Big Brother.



Surely there can only be one BB contestant that springs to mind...


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## imposs1904 (Jul 5, 2009)

scumbalina said:


> Surely there can only be one BB contestant that springs to mind...



she was a trot. (AWL, I believe).

No, 'half wit' was/is a self-described Tory Anarchist on this year's BB. He had to change his name by deed poll to 'half wit' to stay on the show. His real name is 'posh tory wanker'.


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## rich! (Jul 5, 2009)

moon23 said:


> making sure knots were tied properley.



I thought he was a tunneller not a climber?


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## PeterTCA (Jul 5, 2009)

Jonathan Simcock. editor of Total Liberty. Not a tub-thumper but quitely working away plate spinning in the background. And Colin Ward, now firmly into old age.


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## Random (Jul 5, 2009)

PeterTCA said:


> Jonathan Simcock. editor of Total Liberty. Not a tub-thumper but quitely working away plate spinning in the background.


Shame that he supports anarcho-capitalist 'libertarians'.


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## butchersapron (Jul 5, 2009)

Quitely spinning plates in his own privately guarded asylum.


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## JHE (Jul 5, 2009)

imposs1904 said:


> No, 'half wit' was/is a self-described Tory Anarchist on this year's BB.



I know the one.  He supports the Tory Party, but says he's an anarchist really.


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## albionism (Jul 6, 2009)

I quite liked Peter Neville when he was 
around, chairing the discussions at Conway Hall.


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## PeterTCA (Jul 6, 2009)

Colin Ward again. For taking pride in his anarchism. David Goodway has a salutory quote from him in his "Talking Anarchy" (2003, Five Leaves Press).

"I mistrust those anarchists who spend their time demolishing the contentions of another anarchist faction."


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## butchersapron (Jul 6, 2009)

JHE said:


> I know the one.  He supports the Tory Party, but says he's an anarchist really.



Jean-Pierre Melville describesd himself as a right wing anarchist. Now, i knew Jean-Pierre Melville - is this half-wit a Jean-Pierre Melville?


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## The39thStep (Jul 6, 2009)

Montevideo


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## trevhagl (Jul 6, 2009)

Deek Allan!

He gets a lot of flak but he sticks his neck out and winds up the fash


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## In Bloom (Jul 6, 2009)

butchersapron said:


> Jean-Pierre Melville describesd himself as a right wing anarchist. Now, i knew Jean-Pierre Melville - is this half-wit a Jean-Pierre Melville?


, don't know about Jean-Pierre Mellville, but he is fascinatingly stupid.


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## smokedout (Jul 6, 2009)

johnny rotten


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## well red (Jul 7, 2009)

Emmett Borcik RIP


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## Rod Sleeves (Jul 8, 2009)

PeterTCA said:


> Jonathan Simcock. editor of Total Liberty. Not a tub-thumper but quitely working away plate spinning in the background. And Colin Ward, now firmly into old age.



Fuck off, quietly working away at what exactly?

Who's next Chris Tame?


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## el-ahrairah (Jul 8, 2009)

rich! said:


> I thought he was a tunneller not a climber?



Definitely a climber.


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## AnnO'Neemus (Jul 8, 2009)

José Bové is really rather


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## PeterTCA (Jul 10, 2009)

Rod Sleeves said:


> Fuck off, quietly working away at what exactly?
> 
> Who's next Chris Tame?



Dear Rod,

I don't engage with personal abuse on the threads but as your comment refers to someone I've nominated I'd better justify myself.

Jonathan epitomises for me those Anarchists who are quietly working away in the background: keeping shop, licking stamps, donating part of their earnings.... He's a modest guy, certainly no barricade tub-thumper or a keyboard activist transmitting poison from the safety of a psuedonym.

He's an immensely practical person whose ideas translate into action.

1. Re ran "Red Rambles" for some years. A weekly invitation for "Anarchists, Socialists and Radicals" to go rambling in the Peak District.

2. He has organised book fairs, talks and events across the East Midlands.

3. In the mid 90's he booked a room in Manchester's Town Hall and announced a meeting that kick-started the Northern Anarchist network.

4. During the last two General Elections he raised funding to place two advertisements in The Guardian.

5. As he travels around the country he films and interviews Anarchists and puts them on his web site. His tiny bundles of phamphlets "What is Anarchism?" has been distributed in their 1000's.

6. He edits "Total Liberty" - a journal of "non-aligned" Anarchism. Over the years TL has published aricles on pacifism, individualism, right-wing libertarianism, anarcho-marxism, christian anarchism, psychiatry and anarchism... TL doesn't always work and it certainly doesn't chime with those factions whose papers restrict themselves to industrial disputes and historical analysis but in attempting to reach out across sectarian boundaries it takes risks. And maybe that should be a feature of all Anarchist publications.

Hope this helps


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## butchersapron (Jul 10, 2009)

AnnO'Neemus said:


> José Bové is really rather



He's not an anarchist though.


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## Meltingpot (Jul 10, 2009)

Edgar (and maybe Steve) Broughton.

Stuart Christie.

Jello Biafra.

Kirke W. Comstock (former mayor of Palo Alto, California). Even his name makes me smile.


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## Rod Sleeves (Jul 10, 2009)

PeterTCA said:


> Jonathan epitomises for me those Anarchists who are quietly working away in the background: keeping shop, licking stamps, donating part of their earnings.... He's a modest guy, certainly no barricade tub-thumper or a keyboard activist transmitting poison from the safety of a psuedonym.



Hundreds of anarchists worth their salt do that sort of thing, and on a far more practical and grounded level than what you describe.

Total Liberty is a dire magazine, that I have actually seen put people off anarchism, until I could show them alternative publications.


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## Meltingpot (Jul 11, 2009)

Norman Jope, a Plymouth anarchist who ran "Splash" magazine (which I and probably others remember fondly) in the mid-80's. I don't know if he's still an anarchist though, he's an administrator for the College of St Mark and St John now.


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## CUMBRIANDRAGON (Jul 11, 2009)

None its more like monty python these days


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## Steve Booth (Jul 12, 2009)

albionism said:


> I quite liked Peter Neville when he was
> around, chairing the discussions at Conway Hall.


This is a good choice, Peter Neville was a nice old man. I think he helped organise the London Anarchist discussion group for years, and used to write in Freedom magazine.


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## Steve Booth (Jul 12, 2009)

Here is a brief biography: ---

http://wapedia.mobi/en/Peter_Neville


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## Nigel (Jul 13, 2009)

chico enrico said:


> Boner and Wrighty.
> 
> tho Aussie Darren probably deserves an honourable mention after the caper he got up to a few years back


If we are going down that root how about Tim Scargill or Jim (Bristol)


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## butchersapron (Jul 13, 2009)

Why are you rolling your eyes at Jim?


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## Nigel (Jul 13, 2009)

Well I never!


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## butchersapron (Jul 13, 2009)

Nope, not me.


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## Zhelezniakov (Jul 13, 2009)

Irish Mike, Brixton early eighties onwards, for the squatting scene, Crowbar, 121books Railton road, and lots more. A great anarchist.


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## Nigel (Jul 14, 2009)

Zhelezniakov said:


> Irish Mike, Brixton early eighties onwards, for the squatting scene, Crowbar, 121books Railton road, and lots more. A great anarchist.


crowbar was good!
Especially on incendry devices


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## Nigel (Jul 14, 2009)

One of the best was XTRA: the paper for armchair terrorists,
later became LOGO.
Excellent cartoons and graphics on the back.
Depiction of the State was classic

Sorry, wrong thread!!


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## BBORCIK (Jul 17, 2009)

*Emmett*



well red said:


> Emmett Borcik RIP



I concur but I am biased because he's my brother!


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## Uncle Joe (Jul 18, 2009)

*Anarcho Stalinists*



DotCommunist said:


> Uncle Joe



We in the Anarcho-Stalinists are still badgering away for world domination!!!!!!!!


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## In Bloom (Jul 18, 2009)

PeterTCA said:


> He's an immensely practical person whose ideas translate into action.


What, because he's organised a few walks in the countryside for his mates and runs a shit magazine?


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## Geri (Jul 18, 2009)

Nigel said:


> If we are going down that root how about Tim Scargill or Jim (Bristol)



Jim is definitely a character. It's debateable as to whether he is an anarchist though, even though he refers to himself as one.


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## ajdown (Jul 18, 2009)

Has anyone mentioned Wolfie Smith yet?


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## JHE (Jul 18, 2009)

ajdown said:


> Has anyone mentioned Wolfie Smith yet?



I think he was a Marxist-Leninist.

There may be anarchists in Tooting, but they oppose the Popular Front.


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## ajdown (Jul 18, 2009)

I'm more of a McCartney-Lennonist meself.


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## PeterTCA (Jul 18, 2009)

In Bloom said:


> What, because he's organised a few walks in the countryside for his mates and runs a shit magazine?



In Bloom,

I recognise you have highlighted one aspect of my post and I'm worried that it suggests something that I don't know.

Jonathan advertised his Red Ranblers all across the East Midlands and the walks attracted a variety of Anarchists, Socialists, Trade Unionists and Radicals.  He also suffered the attentions of the local press and on one particular unpleasant occasion the BNP.

What is it that I don't know?


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## blamblam (Oct 6, 2009)

Kid_Eternity said:


> Icepick.


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## rekil (Oct 6, 2009)

Salvador Puig Antich. I heard the film about him was fairly poor. Is it?


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## charlie mowbray (Sep 3, 2019)

albionism said:


> Donald Rooum
> Donald Rooum - Wikipedia


Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91


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## danny la rouge (Sep 3, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91


I’m sorry to hear that. He was around for so long, he was a fixture in anarchist publications through so many periods and phases, his cartoons seeming to fit in whatever that zeitgeist. Hope his passing was peaceful. Thanks for the art, comrade.


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## Pickman's model (Sep 3, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91


RIP - definitely a great anarchist character of our day, and so full of energy


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## Mordi (Sep 3, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91



A solid comrade, always ready with a smile. I've nothing but respect for those like him who can keep on plugging away.


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## imposs1904 (Sep 3, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91



Good old age to live to.

Was he the last of that generation?


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## Pickman's model (Sep 3, 2019)

imposs1904 said:


> Good old age to live to.
> 
> Was he last of that generation?


he outlived auld 'tanky' challenor  by many years

e2a: challenor got an obit in the torygraph Harold 'Tanky' Challenor it would be nice if they did the same for donald.


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## 8ball (Sep 3, 2019)

Here's wishing Alan Moore many years of the best health possible.


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## danny la rouge (Sep 3, 2019)

Pickman's model said:


> he outlived auld 'tanky' challenor  by many years
> 
> e2a: challenor got an obit in the torygraph Harold 'Tanky' Challenor it would be nice if they did the same for donald.


If you know enough about him, send one in.


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## Pickman's model (Sep 3, 2019)

danny la rouge said:


> If you know enough about him, send one in.


there's a lot on donald's wiki page


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## Mordi (Sep 3, 2019)

Pickman's model said:


> there's a lot on donald's wiki page



I was sure there was a good interview with Donald in the Camden New Journal a few years back (I think by Dan Carrier) which had a lot from Donald in his own words. A quick google/duckduckgo didn't turn anything up  unfortunately.


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## Serge Forward (Sep 3, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91


Sad to hear that.


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## Rob Ray (Sep 3, 2019)

Freedom's putting together an obit for Donald which people are welcome to add memories or notes for, email editor@freedompress.org.uk or PM if you want to contribute.


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## Pickman's model (Sep 3, 2019)

Mordi said:


> I was sure there was a good interview with Donald in the Camden New Journal a few years back (I think by Dan Carrier) which had a lot from Donald in his own words. A quick google/duckduckgo didn't turn anything up  unfortunately.


Nice article here Donald Rooum, Anarchist Cartoonist | Spitalfields Life


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## albionism (Sep 4, 2019)

charlie mowbray said:


> Donald Rooum has died at the age of 91


 Had many a cuppa with him at the Freedom Bookshop in the 90s.


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## Rob Ray (Oct 24, 2019)

Wildcat and the Egghead: The life of Donald Rooum


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