What can M. Gilliland’s The Free contribute to an understanding of the conceptual structure of modern British class struggle anarchism?

The quote above - from Barney one of the central characters – outlines some of the assumptions of both the book and of modern British class struggle anarchism. The belief in working class self organisation (in the workplace and community) and the necessity of violent revolution to engender a new dawn of non-hierarchical libertarian communism are explicitly expressed in both The Free and in the aims and principles of class struggle anarchist groups such as Class War (CW) [which split into two factions in 1997s] and the Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF).

The Free is what Susan Suleiman calls an ideological novel, that is "novels that seek through the vehicle of fiction, to persuade their readers of the ‘correctness’ of a particular way of interpreting the world." She defines ideology for this purpose as "a recognised body of doctrine or system of ideas". It could equally be defined as a propagandist device or as Ellul says an "enterprise for perverting the significance of events". The events that are being examined in the novel are of the building up of a parallel illegal money-less economy based on co-operatives and syndicalist unions. This is all set within the failing economy of what appears to be, (although it is never named as such), a future Northern Ireland. The resulting bloody revolution and NATO backed counter-revolution are portrayed as forced upon the revolutionary organisations, (The Free), by the forces of capitalism and state power. A liberal capitalist interpretation (as given in the book as an example of state propaganda) would be of terrorists overthrowing a democratically elected government by force.

There have been many attempts by anarchists and libertarian communists to produce ideological novels. Examples include: William Morris’ News From Nowhere, (which was originally serialised in the late Nineteenth Century, Socialist League publication Commonweal); Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed; J. Daniels’ Breaking Free; and G. A. Matiasz’s End Time. These novels are all very different, the thing that unites them (and The Free) is the positive way in which they portray anarchist aspirations. They could be seen as an anarchist sub-genre of Suleiman’s ideological novel genre: "a novelistic genre that proclaims its own status as both overtly ideological and as fictional". The books themselves are not explicitly propounding an ideology with little mention of anarchism or anarchist organisations in the text. Le Guin’s is the least obvious example (as can be seen in the illustration below) the cover gives nothing away.

She is an established science fiction writer, published by a mainstream publisher. The other modern examples are all ‘given away’ by their anarchist publishing houses such as that of The Free below.

Despite the circled A on the cover there is only one direct reference to anarchist principles in the text: when central character Max says

With the link between The Free and anarchist aspirations suggested it is necessary to briefly look at what these groups are and what they say their conceptual structure is.

The existence of anarchist groups and their class struggle anarchist ideology in late Twentieth Century Britain can be explained by a number of factors. Historically they have existed in various forms since Morris’ and Peter Kropotkin’s time. They have always been marginal ineffective organisations, in terms of achieving their objective of world wide revolution. This is a description which CW would agree with. They go further and admit that there has in fact been a decline in numbers in the last issue of the pre-split CW:

Most of the existing groups were formed in the mid-Eighties or later, CW in 1983, ACF 1986 and Solidarity Federation (an anarcho-syndicalist group) in 1994. Despite their short lifespans they claim ancestry stretching back to the Fourteenth Century as CW say:

This desire for an honourable past and the craving for a successful future indicated by the ideological fiction mentioned above comes from an unsuccessful present. As Attack International (a late 1980s anarchist publishing group) say about Breaking Free:

Breaking Free ends with a successful revolution and as can be seen below a united working class determined to maintain their hard won autonomy.

The direct action, which the anarchist groups aspire to is not merely labour history and science fiction, they are genuinely involved in community and workplace activity in the present. The Battle of Trafalgar, Poll Tax conflict between demonstrators and armoured riot police (Trafalgar Square, 31 March 1990) was blamed at the time on anarchist organisations, a laughable accusation considering the size of the battle and the total membership of CW at the time of less than 300. However, CW and other anarchist groups were involved in anti-Poll Tax activity as can be seen from the front page below:

On the day of the battle only CW were prepared to publicly support the demonstrators with Andy Murphy (CW spokesperson) saying:

It is however the converting of these ‘working class heroes’ into revolutionaries which the anarchist groups long for.

The Free illustrates anarchists’ anticipation of the working class self-organising as a revolutionary class engendering our own emancipation. More importantly it also illustrates the belief that capitalism holds the seeds of its own destruction and that the working class need to be organised and ready to organise after the inevitable collapse of the present order. CW made this point in 1991:

However anarchist groups do not see themselves as being the basis of this organisation but as propagandist organisations encouraging the working class to take this step. For example in the Anti-Poll Tax campaign anarchist groups sought to encourage the formation of anti poll tax unions and joined them as individual members unlike other leftist groups such as Militant who saw the campaign as an excuse to form a vanguardist front organisation. Barney one of The Free’s central characters makes this point at the beginning of the book prior to the setting up of the Free CoOps and Unions when he says:

The concern with state and other forms of institutional power indicates two of the central "political concepts" of modern British class struggle anarchism: equality and freedom. Equality because the removal of hierarchy is designed to end oppression and exploitation. Freedom because the end of oppression allows total liberty. Of the two however the concept of equality is ‘ineliminable’ as M. Freedon defines a core concept without which the ideology would collapse. This is perhaps a surprising statement for an anarchist ideology as freedom is customarily seen as the central component, it fits well with David Miller's contention that "comunist anarchism is just a version of communitarian socialism". Both the book and the aims and objectives of class struggle anarchist organisations make this point clear. In the end stage of Gilliland’s novel, the Free reluctantly adopt a centralised "temporary War Council to coordinate all defence forces". It is made clear that it is more important to have an efficient military defence of their hard won equality than to maintain the direct democracy of decision making practised throughout the revolution. Illustrative of anarchist groups parallel views is the final paragraph of CWs latest aims and principles:

However, the two concepts are difficult to separate when viewed through the lens of class struggle anarchism. What is important to the ideology is the oppression of the international working class. The novel and the organisations spell this out.

The Free begins by identifying its central characters as culturally working class. Gilliland does this in the opening paragraph by writing the characters description in identifiable dialect:

The Free does not present the entire revolutionary movement as working class but does insist they pursue working class aspirations. CW indicate their position by their name and devote a chapter of their book length political platform, Unfinished Business to the subject of identifying class and for the necessary victory of the working class. The ACF equally identify that:

Anarchist conceptual structure does not see economic class as the only form of hierarchy and exploitation to be opposed. Gilliland, gives Max an anarchist-feminist outlook. She criticises the Free Unions for behaving in a macho way which may threaten the gains that they have made:

The ACF say "we believe that fighting racism and sexism is as important as other aspects of the class struggle", and CW have similar sentiments in their aims and principles although strangely they paraphrase Britain’s most sexist computer game advert on their latest front cover: "Get the girl, kill the baddies, save the entire planet". Irony perhaps; inexcusable hypocrisy definitely.

In conclusion the core concepts of The Free contribute much to an understanding of modern British class struggle anarchism. It can be seen as a "feel good" novel for those seeking the overthrow of capitalism. It acts as a propagandist device in the manner approved of in the aims and objectives of the organisations examined in this essay. Most importantly Gilliland’s novel creates a recognisable and believable vision of anarchist principles being put into practical use in the construction of a victorious social revolution.