Welcome to the Kate Sharpley Library

The Kate Sharpley Library exists to preserve and promote anarchist history. (More information.)

Everything at the Kate Sharpley Library - acquisitions, cataloguing, preservation work, publishing, answering enquiries is done by volunteers: we get no money from governments or the business community. All our running costs are met by donations from members of the collective, subscribers and supporters, or by the small income we make through publishing. Please consider donating and subscribing.

We also try to promote the history of anarchism by publishing studies based on those materials - or reprints of original documents taken from our collection. Check out our books and pamphlets available for sale or explore our online documents or browse back issues of our Bulletin.

Our physical library (in California) includes books, newspapers, pamphlets, manuscripts and ephemera documenting the history of anarchist movements. Contact us to arrange a visit.

Recent news

Clifford Harper call for solidarity

Clifford Harper is raising funds for physiotherapy following serious health issues and in order to start working again. He is being helped with this by members of Dog Section Press.
"Physio therapists are expensive, and I have no money. Some comrades have organised the printing of two of my illustrations as very high quality limited prints for sale, the proceeds to pay for my physio-therapy, which will hopefully enable me to begin working again.
"The first of these prints, ‘Solidarity’, is available now. The second, ‘Woman Thinking’, one of my very best illustrations, will be available soon."
Get it and read more at https://cliffordharper.com/product/solidarity/

London Anarchist Bookfair 2024

The London Anarchist Bookfair 2024 is on Saturday 12 Ocotber at Rich Mix 35-47 Bethnal Green Road E1 6LA (and stuff at other locations) See https://anarchistbookfair.london/

August 2024 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online

KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 114-115, August 2024 [Double issue] has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/m0cj0z The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/c868p3

Contents:
Invisible or just underrated? "I think the anarchist disinterest in recruiting and self-promotion (certainly compared to the ‘revolutionary parties’ of the left), coupled with their involvement with the grassroots action partly explains why their actions are now less visible." Thoughts on anarchist solidarity with the Miners’ Strike of 1984-85 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/6q58vk

Kate Sharpley: what do we know? "Is ‘Kate Sharpley’s story’ just that, a story? It’s possible, but what would it change?" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/612m75

Louise Bolotin 1961-2022 "At her funeral, it was said “she never put up with anything just because convention dictated that she should”." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qnkcdc

Giuseppe Pinelli, Anarchist by Sergio Falcone "The figure of Pinelli has come to symbolize opposition to the established order in general and police powers in particular." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/kkwk6t

Political Violence and Liberty : Stuart Christie on The German Guerilla "We already know that, however lofty the motive, power corrupts. Secrecy and violence are its two most important ingredients." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/k0p4pn

1926: The Watershed of Class History by Albert Meltzer "We neglect at our peril the old syndicalist traditions which existed within the British working class movement before 1926." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/1zct58

Elena Melli Tribute [1946] "Young, sturdy and daring, she could be seen in the years after the first war in the front ranks in street demonstrations, imbued with an ardent belief that made her heedless of danger." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/d7wp0b

Anarchist History roundup July 2024 https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rjdhvg

Calverton Colliery [Picketing report, 1984] "women on picket lines have been virtually ignored, although many have been on the ‘Front Line’ since day one of the strike." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/76hggj

Miners - the latest [Report on on visit to Nottinghamshire, 1984] "Also, on the picket line we were not allowed to shout ‘scab’ or swear, unless we wanted to get arrested. The scabs were instead called ‘little monkeys’ and ‘bounders’ (!)." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/wwq0v5

Whose Strike? "This isn’t Arthur Scargill’s war. This is a fight by the miners and their families to protect their livelihoods and communities. And its also a fight for all the working class." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/dncmps

Kinnochio speaks and his nose starts to grow "At long last there are signs that a large number of miners are thoroughly sickened with the behaviour of the TUC and Labour Party scabs – and may be able to make the first real break of a significant section of the British working class from its ‘own’ supposed party." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mw6pbh

More Hell Raisers Needed "Police sealed off Hatfield Main Colliery entrance and fought off attempts to stop scabs by a mass picket organised locally. Local NUM organiser, Dave Douglass was snatched by the police, but the pickets retaliated. Media coverage was nil." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4tmr4c

London, England [Letter about anarchist actions in support of the miners strike; bulletin contents] "We in the Direct Action Movement were pretty active with the miners’ strike, collecting funds, helping on picket lines, etc. Consequently anarcho-syndicalism (anarchism) got a good name with the miners who were sick of the so-called “Left” who only pushed their particular brand of “bossism.”" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sn050s

Was the Miners Strike winnable? "Even in their hour of defeat the miners showed more courage and solidarity than the whole trade union and organised labour movement in Britain has been able to muster since its inception." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/rr50mw

Out of the shadows: two comrades of Ponzán Vidal [Book Review] "Spanish anarchists played a key role in the WW2 escape lines, getting escaped servicemen (and others) out of Nazi-occupied Europe. Two new biographies shed extra light on this." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8pk2fx

For Stuart

This August will be the fourth anniversary of the death of our friend and comrade Stuart Christie. We have just posted the Introduction to 'A Life For Anarchy: A Stuart Christie Reader' https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/5tb4dg

New book – Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France by Imanol

Manuel ‘Manolo’ Huet Piera was part of the anarcho-syndicalist action groups in the years before the Spanish Revolution, fought in the Spanish Civil War and worked in the Ponzán network smuggling escapers and refugees out of Vichy France during the Second World War. After the war, Huet continued to aid the resistance to Francoism where, until now, his contribution was necessarily unacknowledged.
Blind Spot : Manuel Huet and the libertarian underground in France by Imanol (translated by Paul Sharkey) is available at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/q575q3