The Freedom Collective is the editorial team that runs the Freedom Press, the UK’s oldest anarchist newspaper and printing press, and its associated bookshop. Additionally, Friends of Freedom Press Ltd manages the Whitechapel building that houses the bookshop in trust.
The Freedom Collective was infiltrated between 1974 and 1983 by HN300 ‘Jim Pickford’ and HN85 Roger Pearce 'Roger Thorley’ , and was also reported on by HN304 ‘Graham Coates’. The Freedom Collective is a core participant in the Inquiry.
After the Undercover Policing Inquiry revealed that 'Roger Thorley' had infiltrated the collective, Freedom Press, as Friends of Freedom, was designated as a core participant in the Inquiry by chairman Sir John Mitting, owing to its ‘direct and significant role in the subject matter of the Inquiry’.
Freedom, first subtitled ‘a Journal of Anarchist Socialism’ later becoming a ‘Journal of Anarchist Communism’, began publication in the premises of the Freethought Publishing Company in 1886. Besides the journal, Freedom Press published other titles such as the writings of founders Peter Kropotkin and Charlotte Wilson, and of other famous anarchists such as Emma Goldman and Mikhail Bakunin.
Throughout its history Freedom Press has published the works of anarchists outside Britain, including translations of Pierre-Joseph Proudhon and Errico Malatesta and corresponded with leftist activists abroad. Freedom cartoonist John Oldham, for instance, exchanged letters with French and German communists in the 1940s.
The 1960s resurgence in anti-war activism and IRA activity saw Freedom being suspected of IRA activity by the police. This culminated in a bomb-squad raid of Freedom’s premises, and may have contributed to the beginning of the collective's infiltration by undercover officers, although that is not mentioned in the reports.
The 1970s marked a difficult time for Freedom; the mid-1970s was particularly tough, with a skeleton crew of as few as three people running the journal. By the late 1970s, however, the group had grown to over a dozen people and was largely preoccupied by the Persons Unknown court case of 1978, in which five anarchists were arrested and charged on spurious grounds for ‘conspiracy to cause explosions’.
A few members of Freedom worked with the support group for those on trial; this group was infiltrated by 'Graham Coates'. Contributors to the journal, including undercover SDS officer 'Roger Thorley' (deployed 1979-1984), wrote about the case.
Freedom Press continues its work to this day, having survived wartime bombings, assaults by far-right opponents, and numerous police raids, Freedom the journal is still published and book titles are still being released.
In 1968, the Press moved to Angel Alley on Whitechapel High Street, where the bookshop is located. Over the years, the premises has served as a venue for meetings of member groups of the Federation of London Anarchist Groups (FLAG) , which was also spied on in 1976 and 1977.
Sources
Freedom Press Website