NOT the bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library, No.8 March 2022
Chummy Fleming
We have just posted a new library acquisition, a letter from Chummy Fleming on Melbourne’s Mayday parade of 1927: ‘I am keeping Anarchy before the Public’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/hhmjg1 We’ve also found one of his banners is in the State Library of Victoria Full details at: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/401151
Other treasures
We’ve also uploaded the following new acquisitions (in approximate chronological order): thanks go to the friends who provided the funds
Quotations from Benjamin R. Tucker One of Americas foremost Anarchists
Excerpts from John Beverly Robinson
Japanese High Treason Case protest meeting New York December 12 1910 leaflet
Anti-Militarist League of New York leaflet for protest meeting Union Square April 25 1914
Anti-Militarist League of New York leaflet for protest meeting Mulberry Park May 1 1914
Monster anti-military mass meeting 3 May 1914 Denver leaflet
Bakunin anniversary meeting (New York, May 15th 1914) leaflet
Becky Edelsohn protest leaflet, August 1914
Becky Edelsohn protest meeting 10 August 1914 leaflet
Read them at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9320sp
If you don’t know who Becky Edelsohn is, the full text of the pamphlet The anarchist response to war and labor violence in 1914: Rebecca Edelsohn, Alexander Berkman, anti-militarism, free speech and Hunger Strikes is now online at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mw6n4b
Anarchist lives
Further Data on Riojan Involvement in Guerrilla Groups in France and Spain
by Imanol focussing down on the unknown militants who confronted fascism (and not only in Spain). ‘Jacobo Macharowski managed to survive and later crossed into exile in France. There he ran up against the German invasion and, inevitably, he joined the maquis, serving with the “Robert Salvagnac” group in the Tarn department.’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/w0vw5x
Letter about the Fate of Vladimir Barmash
‘Vladimir Barmash was one of the most prominent Russian anarchists, but his fate has remained murky […] Sergei Ovsiannikov made a formal request for information about Barmash’s fate in his NKVD file and received the attached response. So we now know that Barmash was shot on September 29, 1937.’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/5dv5gp
The Anti-Worker Repression in Republican Spain
by Ethel MacDonald ‘We must incessantly protest at every Spanish embassy to secure the release of all the revolutionaries. We must urgently set up Committees to come to the aid of released comrades and secure them livelihoods. Respect for the right of asylum must be imposed on a number of countries. Our German and Italian comrades have neither rights nor protections nor homeland. It falls to us to see to it that they need not suffer for their loyalty to the cause of the proletariat.’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wdbtt6
The Murder of Lev Cherny and the Bolsheviks (for the second anniversary of his execution by the Cheka)
‘Can one imagine that the head of the All-Russian Cheka Mr Dzerzhinsky ever repented about innocently spilt blood of his victims and, like his Roman colleague Pilate, tried to at least calm down the pangs of conscience, at least by Pilate’s hand-washing?’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/t4bbh3
Francisco Ponzán Vidal [a tribute]
by Juan Manuel Molina Mateo ‘Francisco Ponzán was one of the admirable young people who blossomed in Huesca, driven by kindness, wisdom and the exemplary life led by their teacher Ramón Acín who was executed during the early day of the civil war.’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/05qh48
Carmelo Romero Ortega AKA Pepe AKA Pinche
by José Antonio Jiménez Cubero ‘In late 1932, shortly after he returned following completion of his military service in Africa, he joined the CNT’s Amalgamated Trades Union in Cazalla. He stayed there, working at whatever he could until the July 1936 army coup, at which point he placed himself at the disposal of the local Defence Committee’ https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/j3v01h
Friends and neighbours
Support the Fundación Anselmo Lorenzo one of the largest anarchist archives in the world
‘Up to now, our efforts have focussed in the period leading up to 1939 and our archivists and curators have done a great job preserving this legacy. However, there’s still a huge collection of documents and materials up to the present day that require an additional effort! These correspond to the years of exile, after the defeat in the Spanish Civil War, or the troubled period after the end of the Franco dictatorship.’ See https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/3n5vq0 The fundraiser itself is at https://www.gofundme.com/f/aydanos-a-preservar-la-memoria-libertaria
Publishing appeal: The Idea: Anarchist Communism, Past, Present, and Future
Just Books are to publish a timely new work in English on Anarchist Communism from long-term activist and historian Nick Heath. See https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/fxpqk6 [They have met their target, keep an eye on https://organiseanarchistsireland.com/just-books-publishing/]
The creativity of the Sparrows
Our comrades at the Sparrows’ Nest in Nottingham have have built a contraption to digitise oversized documents. Details of how are at https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/index.php/14-news-and-events/244-digitising-oversized-documents and some of the results can be seen at https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk/index.php/14-news-and-events/245-new-additions-to-the-digital-library-march-2022
Centro Studi Libertari – Archivio Giuseppe Pinelli
An archive of Crocenera Anarchica (from the Anarchist Black Cross of Milan) is now online at https://centrostudilibertari.it/crocenera-anarchica-collezione
They also are producing a digital archive of the 1984 Anarchist festival held in Venice (voluminous, multilingual and includes English texts): https://centrostudilibertari.it/ven84-homepage
Sticking with it: razorblades and anti-fascist folklore
Fozzie Bear on razorblades under fascist stickers: ‘Some people have encountered sharp objects when removing dodgy stickers, but this seems to be incredibly rare.’
https://libcom.org/blog/sticking-it-razorblades-anti-fascist-folklore-f-bear-30012022
Sending you all our best wishes
Kate Sharpley Library collective (March 2022)