The Leveller (magazine)

The Leveller was a British political magazine, c.1976 to 1982, collectively produced by a shifting coalition of radicals, socialists, marxists, feminists, and others of the British left and progressive movements. The Leveller was involved in a well-recorded contempt of court case in 1979, which concerned identifying Colonel B, an unnamed witness who had previously testified in a case involving British intelligence and who's name the magazine published in its January and March 1978 issues. [ [http://www.swarb.co.uk/c/hl/1979attgen_leveller.html lawindexpro - Case Law] Attorney General v Leveller Magazine Ltd & Ors, 1 February 1979] A statement frequently appearing in the magazine, which for most of its life appeared monthly, described it as "An independent monthly socialist magazine produced by the Leveller Collective. Owned by its Supporting Subscribers through the Leveller Magazine Ltd, a society whose AGM controls the magazine."

Members, who met for collective meetings in the Kings Cross area of north London, included: Roger Andersen, Nick Anning, Julia Bard, Imogen Bloor, Dave Clark, Andy Curry, Brian Deer, Tim Gopsill, Cheryl Hicks, Terry Ilott, Phil Kelly, Mike Prest, Rose Shapiro, Russell Southwood, Dave Taylor, Adam Thompson, John Verner, Ian Walker. Steve Bell, the cartoonist, was a contributor.

A report on an annual general meeting of 21 July 1979, published in the September issue of that year, stated: "Differences within the collective - for which we had hoped to look to the meeting for answers - remained unresolved. The basic difference is over the impact that writing personally about politics should have on the news, political analysis, and so on, that we print. The collective is still discussing it."Fact|date=May 2008

Editions

Cover stories included:
*No 5 (April/May 1977) "NUSS The classroom revolt"
*No 6 (June 1978) "Ex-SAS torturer speaks out"
*No 8 (October 1977) "The politics of contraception"
*No 12 (Feb 1978) "Killer watts (nuclear power)"
*No 19 (October 1978) "The Music Biz - Rock and Sexuality"
*No 22 (January 1979) "Gays Coming Out"
*No 21 (Dec 1978) "First World War latest"
*No 23 (February 1979) "The Family - A Pack of Lives"
*No 24 (March 1979) "Crifif, Crifif, Whar fuckin' Crifif" (economy)
*No 29 (August 1979) "Spoil Sports... Women in Rock"
*No 30 (September 1979) "Men in Women's Clothes?"
*No 35 (Feb 1980) "Bringing it all back home" (Northern Ireland)

References