War Commentary
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Short description|British anarchist newspaper (1939–1945)}}
{{Infobox newspaper
| name = War Commentary
| image = War Commentary front page 5 May 1945.png
| caption = The cover from the 5th May 1945
| type = Fortnightly
| publisher = Freedom Press
| foundation = November 1939
| political = {{Plainlist|
}}
| ceased publication = August 1945 (relaunched as Freedom)
| headquarters = Newbury Street, London
| custom_label = Editorial group
| custom = {{Plainlist|
}}
}}
War Commentary was a British World War II era anti-militarist anti-war anarchist newspaper published fortnightly in London by Freedom Press from 1939 to 1945.{{Cite journal |last=Honeywell |first=Carissa |date=August 2015 |title=Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945 |journal=International Review of Social History |language=en |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=257–284 |doi=10.1017/S0020859015000188 |s2cid=151669269 |issn=0020-8590 |doi-access=free }} The paper was launched following the closure of Revolt!, which was launched following the closure of the journal Spain and the World{{cite book |last=Anonymous |title=World War - Cold War Selections from War Commentary and Freedom 1939-1950 |date=1989 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |isbn=0-900384 48 4 |page=8 |chapter=Editor's Note |url=https://archive.org/details/worldwarcoldwars0000unse |access-date=2025-05-30}}, and was opposed to World War II along anti-capitalist and anti-state lines{{Cite web |title=War Commentary: Background |url=http://www.iisg.nl/collections/war-commentary/war-commentary-background.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211209113720/http://www.iisg.nl/collections/war-commentary/war-commentary-background.php |archive-date=2021-12-09 |access-date=2022-05-04 |website=International Institute of Social History}}. The first issue comprised 16 duplicated pages and had four editors. The second issue was printed and thereafter War Commentary appeared monthly until 1941, when six supplements were produced. From 1942 it appeared twice a month. It increased its format in 1944. In the following year it changed its name to Freedom.
Regular contributors to War Commentary included Vernon Richards, Marie Louise Berneri, John Hewetson, Philip Sansom, and Ethel Mannin, with John Olday contributing cartoons. Occasional contributors included Tom Brown, Reginald Reynolds, George Woodcock, and Colin Ward.{{Cite journal |last=Di Paola |first=Pietro |date=2011 |title='The man who knows his village' Colin Ward and Freedom Press |url=https://www.academia.edu/47609863 |journal=Anarchist Studies |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=22–41 |issn=0967-3393 |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-date=2022-07-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220710173919/https://www.academia.edu/47609863 |url-status=live }}
1945 Freedom Defence Trial
The British state had been reluctant to take action against Freedom Press and War Commentary, though the government were monitoring the paper while Special Branch and MI5 spied on those involved in the paper.{{Cite report |url=https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mi5-report-on-Freedom-1945.pdf |title=The Freedom Press Anarchists and H. M. Forces |date=February 1945 |publisher=MI5 |id=HO 45/25554 |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220504232444/https://freedomnews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mi5-report-on-Freedom-1945.pdf |archive-date=2022-05-04 |url-status=live}}
However, as the war coming to a close, police action against the paper increased. Events came to a head in late 1945. The four editors of the paper – Berneri, Hewetson, Richards and Sansom – were arrested and charged with conspiring to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces under Defence Regulation 39a. And Inspector Whitehead of Scotland Yard, accompanied by four officers, raided the offices of Freedom Press and searched them and the three people who were working there with recourse to Defence Regulation 88A{{cite book |last=Anonymous |title=World War - Cold War Selections from War Commentary and Freedom 1939-1950 |date=1989 |publisher=Freedom Press |location=London |isbn=0-900384 48 4 |page=110 |chapter=CID Raid Freedom Press Offices |url=https://archive.org/details/worldwarcoldwars0000unse |access-date=2025-05-30}}.
The four day trial at the Old Bailey saw significant press coverage and public controversy.{{Cite news |last=Sansom |first=Philip |author-link=Philip Sansom |others=Internet Archive |date=6 June 1985 |title=1945 - The Victory Against Fascism and Freedom Goes To Jail |pages=8 |work=Freedom |url=https://archive.org/details/freedom_1985.06_46.06_202010/page/n3 |access-date=2022-05-02}}{{Cite book |last=Senta |first=Antonio |url=https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en |title=Intellectuals Displaced from Fascist Italy: Migrants, Exiles and Refugees Fleeing for Political and Racial Reasons |publisher=Firenze University Press |year=2019 |isbn=978-88-6453-872-3 |editor-last=Guarnieri |editor-first=Patrizia |series=Biblioteca di storia |volume=34 |location= |translator-last=Dawkes |translator-first=Tom |chapter=Maria Luisa Berneri Richards |doi=10.36253/978-88-6453-872-3 |oclc=1125084797 |chapter-url=https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en//scheda/maria-luisaberneri-richards/2748 |s2cid=226874803 |access-date=2022-05-04 |archive-date=2022-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503022933/https://intellettualinfuga.fupress.com/en |url-status=live }}{{Cite book |last=Goodway |first=David |url=http://archive.org/details/Seeds_Beneath_the_Snow_9781604866674 |title=Anarchist Seeds Beneath the Snow: Left-Libertarian Thought and British Writers from William Morris to Colin Ward |publisher=PM Press |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-60486-669-8 |location=Oakland, CA |pages=168–169 |language=En |author-link=David Goodway}} The Freedom Press Defence Committee was launched, which included notable figures such as George Orwell, Simon Watson Taylor, Herbert Read, Harold Laski, Kingsley Martin, Benjamin Britten, Augustus John, and Bertrand Russell. The committee had been formed in part because at the time the National Council for Civil Liberties had been considered a communist front. Richards, Sansom and Hewetson were sentenced to nine months imprisonment, while the charges against Berneri – who was married to Richards – were dropped as legally a wife could not be prosecuted for conspiring with her husband – about which she was reportedly furious.
With Richards, Hewetson and Sansom in prison, Berneri was joined by George Woodcock who together took on editorship of the paper.{{Cite journal |last1=Antliff |first1=Allan |last2=Adams |first2=Matthew S. |year=2015 |title=George Woodcock's Transatlantic Anarchism |journal=Anarchist Studies |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=6–14 |issn=0967-3393}} The court case greatly raised the profile of War Commentary and Freedom Press. The Freedom Press Defence Committee was subsequently renamed as the Freedom Defence Committee to expand its scope. And it continued to organise until it disbanded in 1949.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
External links
- [https://freedomnews.org.uk/archive/ Freedom Press Newspaper Archive]