- Guy Aldred
Guy Alfred Aldred (
5 November 1886 -16 October 1963 ) - often Guy A. Aldred - was a British anarchist communist and a prominent member of theAnti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF). He founded The Bakunin Press publishing house and edited fiveGlasgow -based anarchist periodicals: "The Herald of Revolt", "The Spur", "The Commune", "The Council", and "The Word", where he was closely working withEthel MacDonald .Early life
Aldred was born in
Clerkenwell ,London . His father was a 22-year-old lieutenant in theRoyal Navy , and his mother was Ada Caroline Holdsworth, a 19-year-oldparasol maker. Although Ada was socially unacceptable to the young naval officer, he married her shortly before Guy's birth. After the wedding, he left her at the church to return to his mother.Guy Fawkes night,5 November , gave Guy his forename. Guy was brought up in the home of Ada’s father, Charles Holdsworth, a Victorian radical. He attended the Iron Infant's School inFarringdon Road , later moving to the Hugh Middleton Higher Grade School, where he was presented to the Prince of Wales because he was the youngest pupil. One of his fellow pupils was the son ofHermann Jung , the Swiss watchmaker and one-time activist in theFirst International . His first adventures inpropaganda were with theAnti-Nicotine League , theBand of Hope , and thetotal abstinence movement, and he remained an abstainer in these respects all his life.His grandfather, an
Anglican , encouraged him to attend the church of St Anne and St Agnes, where he took communion in 1894. However, he soon developed a critical attitude to the church, even though he was close to his cousin, a curate atHolloway .At the age of 15 (1902), he was made aware of his London
provincialism when Sir Madlio Singh, theMaharaja ofJeypore , visited the city. He became fascinated by the newspaper accounts of the Maharaja moving around with his "travelling god".::"The Rajah's god was a substantial fact. It had invaded my petty little world. It had brought home to me the realities of other cities and of other religions. It had made known to me,as no mere study could have done, the fact that Christianity was "not" the religion of the world. It had brought home to my understanding the fact that tehse was an Oriental theology beyond the pale of Christian orthodoxy." ["Dogmas Discarded: An Autobiography of Thought 1886 - 1908", by Guy Aldred, Part 1, page 16, Strickland Press, Glasgow 1904]Later that year he gained a reputation as a “Boy Preacher”, printing and handing out his own leaflets, which were often received with ridicule and disdain. He found employment as an office boy with the
National Press Agency in Whitefriars House, where he was promoted to sub-editor. Working with an evangelist named McMasters, he co-founded the “Christian Social Mission”, opening shortly after his 16th birthday as the "Holloway Boy Preacher". Hisnon-conformist approach aroused concern following his first sermon.After contacting Charles Voysey, Guy was eventually granted an audience on
20 December 1902. The 74-year-old well-to-do Voysey was surprised to be confronted with a coarse-dressed 16-year-old working class boy. After careful preliminaries on the part of Voysey, the meeting lasted three hours. Their friendship was to continue until Voysey’s death in 1912.In January 1903 the Reverend
George Martin , an Anglican priest, visited Guy with one of his leaflets, asking to meet the "Holloway Boy Preacher". Martin worked in London’s worst slums, and Guy joined him in his work with London’s poorest. His friendship with Martin lasted six years and influenced Guy strongly. He soon gave his last sermon from the pulpit and left the “Christian Social Mission”.Agnosticism
Guy became a speaker at the "Institute of
Theism ", but soon felt it was time to set up his own organisation. In 1904 he founded the "Theistic Mission", which met every Sunday. With a considerable, though sometimes boisterous, crowd, Guy was gaining a reputation as a forceful young orator. He was also shifting towardsatheism . By August, the meeting banner was changed to read "The ClerkenwellFreethought Mission". Meetings often generated extreme hostility. On one occasion the crowd charged the platform, knocking Guy to the ground and beating him. Police intervention put an end to the meeting. Around this time he became interested in "TheAgnostic Journal" and became friendly with its editor, "Saladin", a Scotsman. It was at the Journal’s office that he met another Scotsman, John Morrison Davidson, and Guy became more interested in Scottish affairs.Indian Sedition Trial, 1907
"
The Indian Sociologist " was anIndia n nationalist newspaper edited byShyamji Krishnavarma . When Krishnavarma left London for Paris, fearing repression by the authorities, the printing of the newspaper was first taken over by Arthur Fletcher Horsley. However, he was arrested and tried for printing the May, June and July issues. (He was tried and sentenced on the same day asMadan Lal Dhingra , who was convicted of the assassination ofSir William Hutt Curzon Wyllie ). At Horseley's prominent trial theLord Chief Justice ,Lord Alverstone , indicated that anyone printing that sort of material would be liable for prosecution. Nevertheless, Aldred, as an advocate of thefree press , published it, bearing his own name. The police obtained a warrant and seized 396 copies of the issue. At the trial the prosecution was led by the Attorney General, SirWilliam Robson , at theCentral Criminal Court . Robson highlighted parts of "TIS" which Aldred had himself written, particularly focussing on a passage which touched on the execution of Dhingra::"In the execution of Dhingra that cloak will be publicly worn, that secret language spoken, that solemn veil employed to conceal the sword of Imperialism by which we are sacrificed to the insatiable idol of modern despotism, whose ministers are Cromer, Curzon and Morley & Co. Murder - which they would represent to us as a horrible crime, when the murdered is a government flunkey - we see practised by them without repugnance or remorse when the murdered is a working man, a Nationalist patriot, anEgypt ian fellaheen or half-starved victim of despotic society's bloodlust. It was so atFeatherstone andDenshawai ; it has often been so atNewgate : and it was so withRobert Emmett , the Paris communards, and the Chicago martyrs. Who is more reprehensible than the murderers of these martyrs? The police spies who threw the bomb atChicago ; the ad-hoc tribunal which murdered innocent Egyptians at Denshawai; the Asquith who assumed full responsibility for the murder of the workers at Feathersone; the assassins of Robert Emmett? Yet these murderers have not been executed! Why then should Dhingra be executed? Because he is not a time-serving executioner, but a Nationalist patriot, who, though his ideals are not their ideals, is worthy of the admiration of those workers at home, who have as little to gain from the lick-spittle crew of Imperialistic blood-sucking, capitalist parasites at as what the Nationalists have in India."Aldred also remarked that the Sepoy Mutiny, or Indian Mutiny, would be described as The Indian War of Independence. Aldred received a sentence of twelve months hard labour. ["Rex v. Aldred" by Guy Aldred, Strickland Press,
Glasgow , 1948] His involvement with "The Indian Sociologist" brought him into contact withHar Dayal , who combined anarchism with hisIndian Nationalism , based on his view of ancientAryan culture andBuddhism .ocialism and anarchism
Aldred joined the
Social Democratic Federation , but left in 1906. He was a politicalconscientious objector during theFirst World War and also a founder of the GlasgowAnarchist Group. He initiated the Communist Propaganda Groups, in support of theOctober Revolution , which subsequently became a component of the Communist League in 1919. Following its collapse, he founded theAnti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF) in 1921, and gradually moved towards opposing theSoviet Union . His links withleft communist s across Europe brought him close tocouncil communism .In 1932 he split with the APCF and later founded the
Workers Open Forum , which eventually became theUnited Socialist Movement . DuringWorld War II the USM worked with people from across the political spectrum to oppose military action, in a form ofPopular Front , and came to advocateWorld Government . AfterStalin 's death, Aldred became increasingly supportive of the Soviet Union.Free love
Aldred worked closely with his partner
Rose Witcop (9 April 1890 - 4 July 1932), a pioneer ofbirth control and sister ofMilly Witkop (who was, in turn, partner of anarchistRudolf Rocker ).Nicolas Walter, ‘Witcop, Rose Lillian (1890–1932)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58610 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/58610] , accessed 4 Sept 2007]Together they published an edition of
Margaret Sanger 's "Family Limitation", an action which saw them denounced by a London magistrate for "indiscriminate" publication"The Times", January 11, 1923, p.7] and, despite expert testimony from a consultant toGuy's Hospital and evidence at the appeal that the book had only been sold to those aged over twenty-one, the stock was ordered to be destroyed."The Times", 12 February 1923, p.5] Their case had been strongly supported byDora Russell who, with her husbandBertrand Russell andJohn Maynard Keynes , paid the legal costs of the appeal.Russell, Dora, (1975) "The Tamarisk Tree"]
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