Editing Freedom Press (section)

===1918–1945===
As with many other anarchist enterprises, ''Freedom'' had trouble maintaining itself after the war ended as many activists had died and the seeming success of [[Marxist-Leninism]] in Russia drew British radicals into the orbit of an ascendant [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]. While donations allowed it to remain solvent for over a decade and several of its core group remained, notably John Turner who became its publisher from 1930 until his death in 1934,<ref>McKercher, William Russell. ''Freedom and Authority'', Black Rose Books, Ltd, 1989, p.214.</ref> a crushing blow came in 1928 when the Ossulston Street building was demolished as part of a [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|slum clearance]] scheme. Keell retired shortly afterward and while the collective continued to publish, it produced only an irregular newsletter over the course of the next eight years<ref name="Freedom History">{{cite web|title=A History of Freedom Press|url=https://freedompress.org.uk/news/about/history/|publisher=Freedom Press|access-date=8 July 2014|archive-date=9 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140709143145/http://freedompress.org.uk/news/about/history/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Information for Social Change"/>

The paper was relaunched 10 years later as energy and interest in the anarchists swelled around the [[Spanish Civil War]], beginning with the publication of a fortnightly publication, ''Spain And The World'' (1936–38), which was renamed to ''Revolt!'', and then ''[[War Commentary]]'' (1939–45), before being renamed back to ''Freedom'' in August 1945. It was edited by Vero Recchioni (who later changed his name to [[Vernon Richards]]), the son of an Italian anarchist, and [[Marie Louise Berneri]], the daughter of [[Camillo Berneri]], an Italian anarchist who was assassinated in Spain. The Italian anarchist movement had been well-established in London since the 1920s.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Honeywell|first1=Carissa|title=Anarchism and the British Warfare State: The Prosecution of the War Commentary Anarchists, 1945|journal=International Review of Social History|volume=60|issue=2|year=2015|pages=257–284|issn=0020-8590|doi=10.1017/S0020859015000188|url=http://shura.shu.ac.uk/12980/10/Honeywell-AnarchismBritishWarfare%28AM%29.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://shura.shu.ac.uk/12980/10/Honeywell-AnarchismBritishWarfare%28AM%29.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|doi-access=free}}{{rp|265}}</ref>

Much of the bookshop's history through this time was tied up with Richards, who was the driving force behind both the press and the newspaper from the 1930s until late in the '90s. Richards teamed up with Keel and Wolff as publisher and administrator respectively - the latter would remain so until the age of 95. In 1942 the press was able to buy a printing firm, Express Printers, at 84a Whitechapel High Street, which it did with the help of a rival printing firm and a supporters' group, the Anarchist Federation, which would become the nominal owner of the title until it declared itself autonomous in the 1950s. With an avowedly anti-war stance, the paper would continue to publish throughout the war, and would face prosecution for its stance only in peacetime Britain.<ref name="Information for Social Change"/>