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
December 2024 Kate Sharpley Library Bulletin online
KSL: Bulletin of the Kate Sharpley Library No. 116, December 2024 has just been posted on our site: https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/4qrh89. The pdf is up at https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/79cqdzContents:
Salvador Puig Antich: verdict overturned."After years of campaigning by his sisters, the Spanish government overturned the verdict on the 16th October 2024." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7wm50k
Some recent additions by Barry Pateman "What it really should say is something like “some items that have just about made it to the catalogue – well nearly anyway!”" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/7h46cd
Licia Pinelli (1928-2024) by the Centro Studi Libertari / Archivio G. Pinelli "We will surely remember her great determination and extraordinary commitment throughout her life in the struggle for truth and justice – not only regarding the fate of her husband Pino Pinelli – that made her an outstanding figure in the history of twentieth-century Italy." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/xgxgch
Anarchist Communist Memories of the Miners Strike [Pamphlet Review] "It’s good to have an anarchist communist view, and one from the potteries. Most importantly, this is history that means something: ‘What remains an enduring impact for me is the experience that class struggle changes people.'" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qftwkm
[The Freedom Press Library in 1979: Plans and problems] "That we do want to have a working anarchist library no one can surely doubt seeing that we have never stopped adding contemporary material to it. But what form should an anarchist library take? What purpose should it serve? Who are the kind of people we should seek to attract? Indeed what kind of material should it house? And how should the material be classified?" https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/z08p0j
Racism : knowing our enemies [1985] by Liverpool DAM "We must combat racism at all times. We know that NO-ONE is racially superior or more important. The real enemy are the bosses and their police." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/f1vkgv
Valerie Powels (1950-2011) "a Birmingham anarchist who wound up in Barcelona." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/sf7p51
Remembering Kate Austin, Missouri anarchist & feminist "From the farm she shared with husband Sam in Missouri, Austin was an integral part of the anarchist movement and its press and took part in debates about anarchism, tactics, feminism and reproductive rights." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/s7h6bc
A Woman’s View of It by Kate Austin "If love is put in a cage, or fettered in any way, it is no longer love, but a ghastly nameless thing, that blasts the living and curses the unborn." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/gb5pgv
The Workers and the Strike by Kate Austin "No one need be discouraged over the war of contrary ideas, Agitation forces men to think; and human thought will in time kill government. But it is well to recognize all that the people must unlearn before they can question the all-powerful State. They, in common with their masters, consider property rights more sacred than life. As long as they do, they disarm themselves and arm their foes." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/8933sk
Library Notes Dec. 2024 (only a fraction of what won't fit) https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/mkkzmh
A workman is sitting on a tram... by Bernabé García Polanco "A workman is sitting on a tram in the 1930s reading a copy of Solidaridad Obrera when a priest takes a seat opposite him." https://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/qz637w
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/c868p3Contents:
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