Green Anarchist

The magazine Green Anarchist was for a while the principle voice in the UK advocating an explicit fusion of libertarian socialist and ecological thinking (Green anarchism), although such ideas had arguably been co-sympathetic for decades if not generations beforehand.

Table of contents

1 Early years 2 Into the Nineties 3 The GANDALF trial

Early years

Founded after the 1984 Stop the City protests, the magazine was launched in the summer of that year by an editorial collective consisting of Alan Albon, Richard Hunt and Marcus Christo. Albon had been an editor of Freedom Anarchist fortnightly, whilst Hunt had become frustrated with the more mainstream 'green' magazine Green Line for which he had been writing. The younger Christo had come from a more anarcho-punk background- he was also a member of Green CND, and had been involved in the blockade of Ronald Reagan's car at the 1984 Lancaster House summit meeting.

Above; Cover of the first issue of 'Green Anarchist' magazine (Summer 1984), featuring artwork by then editor Richard Hunt

Early issues featured a range of broadly anarchist and ecological ideas, bringing together groups and individuals as varied as Class War, veteran anarchist writer Colin Ward, anarcho-punk band Crass, as well as the Peace Convoy, anti-nuclear campaigners, animal rights activists and so on. However the diversity that many saw as the publication's greatest strength quickly led to irreconcilable arguements between the essentially pacifist approach of Albon and Christo, and the advocacy of violent confrontation with the State favoured by Hunt.

Albon and Christo left Green Anarchist shortly afterwards, and the magazine saw a succession of editorial collectives, although Hunt remained in overall control. During this period he published articles which were increasingly alienating much of the magazine's readership. Matters came to a head after Hunt wrote an editorial which expressed support for British troops in the Gulf War and extolled the virtues of patriotism. Shortly afterwards he left to start another magazine Alternative Green, which continued to promote his own particular view of 'Nationalistic Anarchism'.

Into the Nineties

During the 1990s Green Anarchist came under the helm of an editorial collective that included Paul Rodgers, Steve Booth and others, during which period the publication became increasingly aligned with primitivism, an anti-technological philosophy advocated by John Zerzan.

During this period the magazine expressed sympathy for the Unabomber actions of Ted Kaczynski and published a notorious article entitled "The Irrationalists" that apparently supported the Sarin gas attacks carried out by the Tokyo based Aum cult. This once again alienated much of the UK anarchist movement, and led to strong criticism of the magazine by Stewart Home, Counter Information [1], the Anarchist Communist Federation [1] and others.

The GANDALF trial

Starting in 1995, the Hampshire Police under 'Operation Washington' began a series of at least 56 raids, which eventually resulted in the August to November 1997 Portsmouth trial of Green Anarchist editors Booth, Saxon Wood, Noel Molland and Paul Rodgers, as well as Animal Liberation Front (ALF) Press Officer Robin Webb and Animal Liberation Front Supporters Group (ALFSG) newsletter editor Simon Russell. The defendants organised the GANDALF Defence campaign. Three of the editors of Green Anarchist, Noel Molland, Saxon Wood and Booth were jailed for 'conspiracy to incite'. Eventually, all three were released on appeal [1]