23 December 2023 by thefreeonline
It’s a bit late to write a review of The Free, first published in 1986, but we can now reveal a few secrets.
First off, the author does now, reluctantly, identify as a man… ” If I was a youth in 2024 I’d probably declare as a trans woman. Where I was young coming out as trans was unthought of,.. gay sex was still banned, plus divorce, abortion and even contraception.” The gender of the writer was withheld to avoid readers preconceptions about a ‘man’ writing parts of the story with a woman’s stream of consciousness.
What about Hooligan Press?.. How did it suddenly spring from the derelict squats of Brixton to publishing The Free, and with its success 8 more brilliant books?
–“Hooligan Press was initially financed by an elegant anarchist scam, involving travel, which also allowed thousands of penniless dropouts to travel freely. The books cost us nothing to type up and edit, printed cost price by ourselves and often just gifted to anarchist groups worldwide..” https://libcom.org/tags/hooligan-press
“As a ‘dangerous’ indie book detailing a modern day anarchist revolution The Free is shunned by all official publishers, only republished by Attack International, and in German by Killroy Press…
In 2012 it was updated, self published and offered as a free download online, in pdf and e-reader formats. Its Facebook, Instagram and X/Twitter accounts have been repeatedly banned”.…etc..
Why was the ending changed in the updated editions?
Some readers prefer the original. You can still read the short 1986 edition online here:
“The original ending was more realistic, History illustrates that State Terrorists don’t hesitate to genocide revolutionary movements that threaten their power and privileges. Still, other worlds are possible, we are creatures of the one we’re trapped in, and the updated The Free prefers to illustrate that possibility rather than dwell on the gruesome probabilities”.
Okay, and what about the origin of the book, some reviewers claim it’s Irish?……..
” Well, the writer was a student there in the early 70’s, part of a group called Open House, with sections Open Players, Open Workers, Open Gardens, Open Press..etc. We were active in revolutionary street theater and sharing and occupying common resources, freeing our minds and resisting institutionalization in education, work, marriage, etc ( Illich. Freire..)”….
” In Ireland I played for several years setting up and running city adventure playgrounds, lived for a while with the Just Books Collective in Belfast under British Army occupation, and joined a Dublin Anarchist Group made up of dropouts from various Republican movements, and refugees from the crackdown on the successful Angry Brigade campaign in the UK, before emigrating to Amsterdam and joining in the amazing Squat Revolution happening there….”
” The vibrant communal way the Dutch and German squat movements worked in the early 80’s is an inspiration to the belief that OTHER WORLDS ARE POSSIBLE. Finally the writer got jailed and effectively deported after an eviction resistance incident.. Back in Brixton things had already kicked off in 1981 and the cops were still cagey about evicting the 121 Anarchist Bookshop, situated right on the Railton Road ‘Frontline’, which survived the mega riots unscathed to become a beehive of revolutionary activity for 19 years, and it was here that The Free was finally written down”.
121 Railton Rd was occupied in 1973 by Olive Morris of the Black Panthers and was strongly defended. When the various black movements eventually got legalised spaces 121 was abandoned and next squatted for the 121 Anarchist Bookshop and many collectives; Brixton Squatters Aid, 121 Cafe, 121 Nightclub, Black Flag, Direct Action Movement, Anarchist Feminists, The Crowbar…etc..
The Free was typed up and proofread by a woman in the Black Flag and Direct Action anarcho syndicalists. The writer of The Free was active in the Squatters Aid, the Bookshop, Crowbar, and also in Our Radio pirates, till they were wiped out.
radio-is-my-bomb-part-1.pdf(15.91 MB radio-is-my-bomb-part-2.pdf(12.19 MB) Radio is my bomb: a DIY manual for pirates A pirate radio how-to guide published by Hooligan Press in London in April, 1987. The technical part of the text is now dated but the history of the shows is great
The book was updated and republished in 2012 after living for 15 years in an ongoing rural anarchist squatted centre (CSOA) in Catalonia, which adds some reality to the depicted social system.
Partial List..THE CROWBAR.. free PDFs please share if you have more!
- The Crowbar #8 Nov 6th 1982
- The Crowbar #9 Nov 20th 1982
- The Crowbar #11 Dec 18th 1982
- The Crowbar #21 May 24th 1983
- Crowbar #32 1984
- Crowbar #38 Nov 1984
- Crowbar #40 Feb 1985
- Crowbar #44 1985
- Crowbar #45 1985
- Crowbar #46 1986
- Crowbar #47 1986
- Crowbar #48 1987
Hooligan Press books.. ALL FREE PDFs
- factionfile_compressed.pdf(14.19 MB)
- IdealHome.pdf(22.84 MB)
- radio-is-my-bomb-part-1.pdf(15.91 MB radio-is-my-bomb-part-2.pdf(12.19 MB)
- Squatting_In_West_Berlin.pdf(5.83 MB)
- BeneathTheKeyboardFinal_compressed.pdf(11.3 MB)
- Miners strike 1984-85 Hooligan Press PDF
- written-in-flames.pdf(2.69 MB) United Kingdom Hooligan Press I-Spy Productions PDF
The Free 