Direct-Action and Autonomous Organizing across the United Kingdom

No history of post-war British left-wing activism would be complete without mention of the iconoclastic London Solidarity group. Direct-Action and Autonomous Organizing across the United Kingdom: London Solidarity is the first book dedicated to examining this group’s surreptitious origins, influences and legacy. Part of an international and mostly informal movement breaking away from traditional left-wing politics at the height of Cold War tensions, the London Solidarity group contributed to the re-emergence of direct-action and autonomous working-class struggle in the UK. The group rigorously critiqued authoritarian exploitation in the East and West, championed sexual liberation, wildcat strikes, housing struggles and played a historic role in the 1963 “Spies for Peace” scandal which rocked the British government by revealing its secret preparations for elite rule after nuclear war. Direct-Action and Autonomous Organizing across the United Kingdom uses both first-hand participant accounts, personal correspondence, previously unpublished archival material and the latest historical research on left-wing radical politics to tell the story of this radical left group and its activities while locating it in various activist networks in Britain and abroad.