The Sparrows' Nest was established in 2008 by members of the Anarchist Federation’s Nottingham group with the involvement of other class struggle anarchists. It is a ‘Centre for Anarchist Culture and Education’, in a house, in St. Ann’s. The Library and Archive is our major project. We set it up to inform people about the ideology and history of Anarchism in its many forms, and about working class struggles in our region.Sparrows Nest Library & Archive.
Subject Index: Anarchism
The content on this site is put into subject categories. These pages list content filed under each subject. You can also use the Tag Index to see a full list of keywords used on the site.
The Anarchist Manifeto
The original Anarchist Manifesto by Anselme Bellegarrigue from 1850. Originally published in French. A 280 kb PDF file. Download the file here.
The Friends of Durruti and the Maydays in Barcelona (1937)
This week marks the 75th anniversary of the 'Barcelona Maydays' an uprising in response to the Republican Government's attempt to seize power in revolutionary Catalonia during the Spanish Civil War. Tensions had been building over several months between the anarcho-syndicalist CNT membership and the Soviet controlled Republican army which centred on the questions of militarisation and 'War or Revolution'? When armed 'Communist Party' units attacked the Telephone exchange in Barcelona, thousands […]
Hydra Bookshop Opening
A talk by Ian Bone - '1919 – year of revolution' - Maria Spiridonova, Jaroslav Hasek, Gabriel D’Annunzio, Percy Fisher, Simon Radowitzgy, Gustav Landauer, Max Holz. Listen to this talk: Download this talk (29 Mb mp3 file) Watch this talk:
Sober Living For The Revolution: Hardcore Punk, Straight Edge And Radical Politics
'Straight edge' has persisted as a drug-free, hardcore punk subculture for 25 years. Its political legacy remains ambiguous and it is often associated with self-righteous macho posturing and conservative Puritanism. While certain elements of straight edge culture feed into such perception, the cultureʼs political history is far more complex. Since straight edgeʼs origins in Washington, D.C. in the early 1980s, it has been linked to radical thought and action by countless individuals, bands, and […]
Gustav Landauer and the German Revolution of 1918-19
Gustav Landauer (1870-1919) remains Germany's most influential anarchist. Gabriel Kuhn, editor and translator of the first comprehensive volume of Landauer texts in English, Revolution and Other Writings, will recall the philosophy and activism of a unique revolutionary who died at the hands of reactionary soldiers in May 1919. Watch this talk: If you see this text the video has failed to play. Please let us know by emailing brh@brh.org.uk.
Street Farming
Peter Crump was a member of Street Farm, a London-based collective of anarchist architects and designers working in the early 1970s. They published Street Farmer, an underground paper that, alongside mutating tower blocks, cosmic tractors and sprouting one-way signs, put forward manifestos for the radical transformation of urban living. They offered a powerful vision of green cities in the control of ordinary people (and ordinary sheep), not capitalist, statist, socialist or any other kind of […]
Italy In The 1970s: Bodies In The Street, A Tale Of A Country Like Ours
In the 1970s, Italy came to the brink of revolution, the most widespread assault on state power Western Europe had seen since the Spanish revolution. Every aspect of the state’s functioning was aggressively challenged. Millions of people were actively imposing their demands - workers, students, women. New ways of doing politics were developed including strikes, wildcats, student revolts, armed struggle and people having fun. These are all part of the story. The history of Italian radicalism in […]
Drowning on Dry Land: Swansea’s Jack Kerouac
From working-class Wales through drugs, gambling and prison to punk, Paris fashion houses and San Francisco’s underground, Ray Jones editor of the notorious ‘Roughler’ magazine recounts his surreal life. So if chatting up Marianne Faithfull and rat arsing it with Keith Moon and Joe Strummer takes your fancy then Ray’s yer man. Watch this talk: If you see this text the video has failed to play. Please let us know by emailing brh@brh.org.uk.
Anarchism in Bristol and the West Country to 1950
Steve Hunt looks at home-grown anarchism, with its roots in a tradition of West Country radicalism. Many colourful and inspiring characters believing in ‘The Cause’ were here. So let’s put on our black cloaks and wide-brimmed flowerpot hats and wander down to the coffeehouses of 1880s Bristol to see who was around. Talk will launch Steve's pamphlet of the same title. If you see this text the video has failed to play. Please let us know by emailing brh@brh.org.uk.