CLASS WAR Benjamin Franks University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus b.franks@crichton.gla.ac.uk Paul Stott University of East London pvastott@yahoo.co.uk Word count: 1,615 Class War was a radical newspaper that developed into a formal anarchic grouping of the same name. According to Ian Bone, the principal originator of the paper, its first contributors were drawn from the London Autonomists, members of Red Action (a militantly anti-fascist Marxist faction), pre-existing London anarchist groups and sex workers based in West London (Bone, 2006: 130 and 143). Its first edition, which came out for May Day 1983, was marked by its combination of acerbic wit and aggressive working class politics; its humour distinguished the paper from the overly sombre papers of the orthodox Left, whilst its assertive class consciousness demarcated it from the then largely pacifist anarchist periodicals. The paper’s belligerent style was adapted from Bone’s earlier alternative newssheet Alarm. It was also a feature of Xtra, a London-based publication edited by Martin Wright, who joined Bone in producing Class War. Class War ’s satirical tone also harked back to nineteenth century political newssheets like Johann Most’s Freiheit. Class War was distinguished from many rival anarchist publications of the period who found their audience, and thus their style, from within the once large anti-nuclear movement led by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, a pacifist and cross-class grouping, a movement Class War disparaged and disrupted (Class War, 1983: 4). The paper built up its reputation in the popular imagination by playing on the worst fears and prejudices of the 1980s’ the Thatcherite governing elite. It used the ignorance and naivety of mainstream journalists to full effect, with its writers, particularly Bone, being more than willing to engage with the mainstream press. Class War glorified everything that the dominant 1980s political culture – Thatcherism – condemned: working class solidarity, anti-market-communism, and violent hatred for the rich. Class War was not the only British anarchist group that recognised the importance of class struggle; there was also the long-standing anarcho-syndicalist group the Direct Action Movement (now known as the Solidarity Federation) and Black Flag magazine.