Stuart Christie

{{Short description|Scottish anarchist writer, publisher and anti-fascist (1946–2020)}}

{{Infobox person

| name =

| image =

| caption =

| other names =

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|07|10|df=y}}

| birth_place = Partick, Glasgow, Scotland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|08|15|1946|07|10|df=y}}

| death_place = Chelmsford, Essex, England

| occupation = Anarchist writer and publisher

| spouse = Brenda Earl Christie

| notable works = Granny Made Me an Anarchist (2004), A Life for Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader (2021)

}}

Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020)[https://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2020/08/16/stuart-christie-1946-2020/ "Stuart Christie 1946-2020"], Bella Caledonia, 16 August 2020. was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo, General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged to be a member of the Angry Brigade, but was acquitted of related charges. He went on to found Cienfuegos Press, an anarchist publishing house, as well as radical publications The Free-Winged Eagle and The Hastings Trawler, and in 2006 the online Anarchist Film Channel,{{cite news |last=Campbell |first=Duncan |date=17 August 2020 |title=Stuart Christie obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/17/stuart-christie-obituary?CMP=share_btn_link |newspaper=The Guardian}} which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and libertarian socialist themes. His memoir Granny Made Me an Anarchist was published in 2004.

Biography

=Early life=

Christie was born in the Partick area of Glasgow, Scotland, and was raised in Blantyre by his mother and grandparents, becoming an anarchist at a young age. He ascribed this to his grandmother's influence: "Basically, what she did was provide a moral barometer which married almost exactly with that of libertarian socialism and anarchism, and she provided the star which I followed."{{cite news |title=The woolly-jumpered anarchist |first=Duncan |last=Campbell |author-link=Duncan Campbell (journalist, born 1944) |url= https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/aug/23/spain.politics |newspaper=The Guardian |date=23 August 2004 |at=G2 p2 }} He joined the Anarchist Federation in Glasgow in 1962, at the age of 16. He became active in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), attracted to the more militant approach of the Direct Action Committee and Committee of 100, and took part in the confrontational Faslane Naval Base CND demonstration on 14 February 1963, among others.Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. [http://www.xmission.com/pub/lists/abolition-usa/archive/v01.n257 "abolition-usa-digest"], Abolition 2000 Grassroots Newsletter, 14 February 2000, Vol. 1, Number 257.

=Attempt to assassinate Franco=

On the last day of July 1964, an 18-year-old Christie departed London for Paris, where he picked up plastic explosives from the anarchist organisation Defensa Interior.{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/best-law-firms/profile-legal/article/anarchist-jailed-over-plot-to-kill-franco-fights-to-clear-name-rmbvhdswc5q|title=Anarchist jailed over plot to kill Franco fights to clear name|last=Keeley|first=Graham|date=21 May 2011|work=The Times|access-date=21 May 2011|location=London}}

Before he left England, he was interviewed for a television programme with Malcolm Muggeridge, a known MI6 contact, and asked whether he felt the assassination of Franco would be right. He answered that it would; when the programme was broadcast after his arrest in Spain, these comments were edited out.

Christie hitchhiked into Spain and was arrested in Madrid on 11 August 1964 in possession of explosives. He faced a military trial and a possible execution sentence by garrote, but was instead sentenced to twenty years in prison. An accomplice, Fernando Carballo Blanco, was sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment. He served three years in Carabanchel Prison, where he studied for A-Levels and was brought into contact with anarchist prisoners, including Miguel García García, Luis Andres Edo and Juan Busquets.{{cite book |last=Meltzer |first=Albert |author-link=Albert Meltzer |url=https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/6djj4k |title=I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels |publisher=AK Press |year=1996 |isbn=1-873176-93-7 |location=Edinburgh |page=164 |chapter=IX: The Iberian Liberation Council; How the Thames was Lost}} Christie was later freed. The official reason given by Francoist Spain was that it was due to a plea from Christie's mother.

=Back in Britain=

File:IWW picket Sydney June1981.jpg picket in Australia in 1981, calling for the release of Christie's wife, Brenda, from prison]]

After his release he continued his activism in the British anarchist movement, re-formed the Anarchist Black Cross and Black Flag with Albert Meltzer, was acquitted of involvement with the Angry Brigade, and started the publishing house Cienfuegos Press, which for a number of years he operated from Sanday, Orkney, where he also edited and published a local Orcadian newspaper, The Free-Winged Eagle.

Christie had various writing and journalistic jobs including as editor of an unauthorised British edition of Pravda and Argumenty i Fakty (Arguments and Facts International) in the late years of the Soviet Union and the early years of the Russian Federation.

= Later Life =

Christie attracted criticism from some fellow anarchists for making a gestural protest vote against Labour and its war in Iraq by voting for George Galloway's Respect - The Unity Coalition in the European Parliament elections that year, because of the general anarchist stance against participating in capitalist democracy.

Christie's wife of more than 50 years, Brenda Christie, herself a committed anti-fascist anarchist and militant who co-founded Cienfuegos Press alongside her husband, died of cancer at the age of 70 in June 2019.Christie, Stuart (18 July 2020), [https://www.theguardian.com/education/2019/jul/18/brenda-christie-obituary "Brenda Christie"] (obituary). The Guardian. Stuart Christie himself died aged 74, also from cancer, on 15 August 2020.Wade, Mike (16 August 2020). [https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/stuart-christie-anarchist-jailed-for-bid-to-assassinate-franco-dies-aged-74-cllwxrhls "Scottish anarchist who attempted to assassinate General Franco dies from cancer"], The Times. {{subscription required}}

Published work

An updated and single-volume version of his autobiography Granny Made Me an Anarchist was published in 2004 by Scribner. It had previously been published in three parts, the other titles being General Franco Made Me a Terrorist,[http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/anarchism/writers/anarcho/reviews/biography/christie2.html Review of General Franco made me a "Terrorist" - The Christie File: Part 2, 1964–1967.] and Edward Heath Made Me Angry.[http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20050726231205920 "Review of Edward Heath Made Me Angry"], Infoshop News, 27 July 2005.Patten, John (16 August 2020), [https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rjdhgk "Stuart Christie 1946-2020 Anarchist activist, writer and publisher"], Kate Sharpley Library. Christie also wrote articles attacking freemasonry.

{{cite news

|url=https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/51c5t6

|title= A wink, a nod, or a shake of the hand: on the Masons

|date= 13 July 1983

|work= Kate Sharpley Library

}}

He also wrote, with Albert Meltzer, The Floodgates of Anarchy. Christie's other books include Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist,Christie, Stuart (1984). [https://files.libcom.org/files/Stefano-Delle-Chiaie.pdf Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist.] London: Anarchy Magazine/Refract Publications. {{ISBN|0946222096}}. (on Italian neo-fascist terrorist Stefano Delle Chiaie, founder of Avanguardia Nazionale and member of P2 masonic lodge) and We, the Anarchists!: A Study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI), 1927–1937 (2000).[http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/review_we_anarchists.html Review of We, the Anarchists! A study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927–1937]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412002305/http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/spain/review_we_anarchists.html |date=12 April 2013 }}

As a publisher Christie founded Cienfuegos Press in 1972 and edited the Cienfuegos Anarchist Review (c. 1977–1982), Refract Publications (1982), The Meltzer Press (1996) and Christiebooks/Christiebooks.com/Read 'N' Noir. His The Christie File was published by the Cienfuegos Press in 1980. He also edited The Hastings Trawler, a monthly magazine that ran from 2005 to 2006.[https://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hastings-life/1067-all-that/hastings-trawler "The Hastings Trawler – a treasure chest for HOT readers"], 1067 & All That, Hastings Online Times, 12 December 2012.

Christie also translated into English the biography of Francisco Sabate Llopart, Sabate: An Extraordinary Guerrilla, by Antonio Téllez Solá.

Reviews

Ross, Raymond J. (1981), "Review of The Christie File", in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 6, Autumn 1982, p. 35.

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20130918050022/http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/ ChristieBooks and Anarchist Film Channel, Radio etc.]
"[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/aug/23/spain.bookextracts 'My stomach churned. Something had gone badly wrong … ']", an edited extract from Granny Made Me an Anarchist, by Stuart Christie, Guardian.co.uk, 23 August 2004.

;Interviews

"[https://www.3ammagazine.com/politica/2004/apr/interview_stuart_christie.html Looking Back at Anger]", Stuart Christie interview with Andrew Stevens. 3:AM Magazine. 2004.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p024bsjc BBC Witness History: The Plot to Kill Franco]

Category:1946 births

Category:2020 deaths

Category:21st-century Scottish autobiographers

Category:Anarchism in Scotland

Category:Anarchist writers

Category:Catalan–English translators

Category:Far-left politics in Scotland

Category:Historians of anarchism

Category:People from Partick

Category:Scottish anarchists

Category:British Anti-Francoists

Category:Scottish people imprisoned abroad