Freedom Press Defence Committee
The Freedom Press Defence Committee was formed in London as a result of the offices of Freedom Press and five private houses being raided by police on 12 December 1944, and the arrest in the following February of four editors of War Commentary: Marie Louise Berneri, Vernon Richards (the husband of Berneri), John Hewetson and Philip Sansom under Defence Regulation 39a for conspiring "to undermine the affections of members of His Majesty's Forces".[1]
The Committee was formed to raise funds for the defence of the editors, which were collected by the surrealist Simon Watson Taylor.[2] It was formed independently of the National Council for Civil Liberties which at the time was regarded as being a Communist front[3] or 'Communist-dominated and only inclined to aid the politically correct’[4].
The trial took place at the Old Bailey, the Central Criminal Court, on 27 April 1945. Marie Louise Berneri, was acquitted on the legal technicality that a wife could not be guilty of conspiracy with her husband.[5] The other three defendants were convicted and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.[6] Herbert Read made a speech before the trial, which he followed with one after it[7], which the Committee published in the following June.[8]
On 3 March 1945[9], after the defendants had served their imprisonments[10], the Committee changed its name to the Freedom Defence Committee and enlarged its remit "to uphold the essential liberty of individuals and organisations, and to defend those who are persecuted for exercising their rights to freedom of speech, writing and action" [11]. Herbert Read was the chair. Richard Acland, Fenner Brockway, Patrick Figgis and George Orwell served as its vice-chairmen. It had two secretaries, Ethel Mannin and George Woodcock, who took over from her[12].
The committee wrote an open letter requesting urgent funds which was published in the 18 September 1948 issue of the Socialist Leader and signed by Benjamin Britten, E. M. Forster, Augustus John, Orwell, Read and Osbert Sitwell.[13]
The Committee was dissolved in 1949.[14]
Notes
[edit]- ^ Honeywell 2015.
- ^ 'Witness for the prosecution' by Colin Ward
- ^ Richards 1998, pp. 71-72.
- ^ Goodway, 2012, p. 143.
- ^ Honeywell 2015
- ^ Peace News, 4 May 1945.
- ^ Burgess 2023, p. 186, retrieved 13 May 2025.
- ^ His speeches were published with a foreword by 'E. Silverman', as Read 1945.
- ^ Peace News, 9 March 1945.
- ^ Sansom 1986
- ^ Orwell 1968, p. 447, retrieved 13 May 2025.
- ^ Burgess 2023, p. 182, retrieved 13 May 2025.
- ^ The letter is reprinted in Orwell 1968, pp. 446-447.
- ^ Goodway 2012, p. 143.
References
[edit]- Burgess, Glenn (2023). George Orwell’s perverse humanity Socialism and free speech. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-5013-9466-9.
- Goodway, David (2012) [originally 2006]. Anarchist seeds beneath the snow. Oakland, California: PM Press. ISBN 978-1-60486-221-8.
- Honeywell, Carissa (2015). "Anarchism and the British warfare state: The prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945" (PDF). International Review of Social History. 60 (2): 257-284. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
- Orwell, George (1968). Orwell, Sonia; Angus, Ian (eds.). The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell In Front Of Your Nose IV. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. ISBN 0-15-618623-3.
- Read, Herbert (1945). Freedom Is It a Crime? The Strange Case of the Three Anarchists Jailed at the Old Bailey, April 1945. Two speeches (PDF). London: Freedom Press Defence Committe. Retrieved 13 May 2025.
- Richards, Vernon (1998). George Orwell at Home. London: Freedom Press. ISBN 0900384948.
- Sansom, Philip (1986). "Freedom Press and the anarchist movement in the '50s and '60s". Freedom. 47 (9): 32–35. ISSN 0016-0504.
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