{{Short description|British urban guerilla group (1970–1972)}} {{for|the play|The Angry Brigade (play)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox war faction | name = The Angry Brigade | native_name = Angry Brigade Resistance Movement | native_name_lang = | war = | image = 200px | caption = Logo associated with the Angry Brigade, used on the cover of ''The Angry Brigade'' by Gordon Carr | active = 1968–1972, 1980s | ideology = Anarcho-communism<br />Anti-imperialism<br />Anti-monarchism | leaders = | clans = | headquarters = | area = England | size = | partof = | predecessor = | successor = | allies = | split = | opponents = United Kingdom<br />United States | battles = | url = | status = Defunct | position = Far-left }} {{Anarchism UK|defunct orgs}} The '''Angry Brigade''' was a British terrorist group responsible for a series of armed actions against the establishment in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs). In total, police attributed 25 bombings to the Angry Brigade. The bombings mostly caused property damage; one person was slightly injured. Of the eight people who stood trial, known as the Stoke Newington Eight, four were acquitted. John Barker, along with Hilary Creek, Anna Mendelssohn and Jim Greenfield, were convicted on majority verdicts, and sentenced to ten years. In a 2014 interview, Barker described the trial as political, but acknowledged that "they framed a guilty man".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/03/angry-brigade-prison-bombings-john-barker|title=The Angry Brigade's John Barker, 40 years on: 'I feel angrier than I ever felt then'|last=Campbell|first=Duncan|date=3 June 2014|work=The Guardian|access-date=14 November 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
==History== In mid-1968 demonstrations took place in London, centred on the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, against US involvement in the Vietnam War. One of the organisers of these demonstrations, Tariq Ali, has said he recalls an approach by someone representing the Angry Brigade who wished to bomb the embassy; he told them it was a terrible idea and no bombing took place.{{sfn|Horspool|2009 |p=385}}
The Angry Brigade decided to launch a bombing campaign with small bombs, in order to maximise media exposure to their demands while keeping collateral damage to a minimum. The campaign started in August 1970 and continued for a year until arrests took place the following summer.{{sfn|Horspool|2009|pp=385, 386}} Targets included banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle earmarked for use in the coverage of the 1970 Miss World event, and the homes of Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs). In total, police attributed 25 bombings to the Angry Brigade. The bombings mostly caused property damage; one person was slightly injured.{{sfn|Horspool|2009|pp=385,386}}
The Angry Brigade also made two assassination attempts. On 12 January 1971, the brigade attempted to kill British Employment Secretary Robert Carr with two bombs at his home. Although the house suffered severe damage, nobody was killed or injured.<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 January 1971 |title=1971: British minister's home bombed |language=en-GB |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/12/newsid_2523000/2523465.stm |access-date=2023-08-09|website=BBC News}}</ref> A little under four months later, on 4 May 1971, a bomb was attached to the bottom of Lady Beaverbrook's car but it was discovered before it could explode, and disarmed.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}
In the 1980s, the Angry Brigade resurfaced as the Angry Brigade Resistance Movement, part of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement (IRSM).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.akpress.org/angrybrigade.html|title=The Angry Brigade 1967–1984|website=AK Press|access-date=26 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/AngryBrigade/Struggle_Continues.html |title=Angry Brigade: The Struggle Continues |access-date=23 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010173456/http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/AngryBrigade/Struggle_Continues.html |archive-date=10 October 2012 }}</ref>
==Trial== Jake Prescott, whose origins were in the mining community of Dunfermline, was arrested and tried in 1971. Melford Stevenson<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19711125&id=NeU9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=dkgMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6362,5042832|title='Trick questions' protest at Carr bomb trial|date=25 November 1971|work=Glasgow Herald|access-date=17 July 2012}}</ref> sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment (later reduced to 10), mostly spent in Category A high security prisons. Later, Prescott said he realised then that he "was the one who was angry and the people [he] met were more like the Slightly Cross Brigade".<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/feb/03/features.magazine27 | location=London | work=The Guardian | title=Look back in anger | first=Martin | last=Bright | date=3 February 2002}}</ref> The other members of the group from north-east London, the "Stoke Newington Eight", were prosecuted for carrying out bombings as the Angry Brigade in one of the longest criminal trials of English history (it lasted from 30 May to 6 December 1972). At the conclusion of the trial, John Barker, Jim Greenfield, Hilary Creek and Anna Mendelssohn received prison sentences of 10 years. A number of other defendants were found not guilty, including Stuart Christie, who had previously been imprisoned in Spain for carrying explosives with the intent to assassinate the Spanish dictator General Franco, and Angela Mason who became a director of the LGBT rights group Stonewall and was awarded an OBE for services to homosexual rights.{{sfn|Horspool|2009 |p=386}}<!--Only for Angela Mason and the OBE-->
In February 2002, Prescott apologised for his role in bombing Robert Carr's house and called on other members of the Angry Brigade to also come forward.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2002/feb/03/martinbright.theobserver|title=Angry Brigade's bomb plot apology|last=Bright|first=Martin|date=3 February 2002|work=The Observer|access-date=15 March 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0029-7712}}</ref>
==Popular culture== On 3 February 2002, ''The Guardian'' reported a history of the Angry Brigade and an update on what its former members were doing then.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/feb/03/features.magazine27|title=Look back in anger|first=Martin|last=Bright|newspaper=The Observer |date=2 February 2002|access-date=26 November 2016|via=The Guardian}}</ref> On 9 August 2002, BBC Radio 4 aired Graham White's historical drama, ''The Trial of the Angry Brigade''. Produced by Peter Kavanagh, this was a reconstruction of the trial combined with other background information. The cast included Kenneth Cranham, Juliet Stevenson, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/2010/06/bbc-r4-graham-whites-the-trial-of-the-angry-brigade/|title=BBC R4 – Graham White's 'The Trial Of The Angry Brigade' – Christie Books|access-date=26 November 2016}}</ref>
In 2009, family care activist and novelist Erin Pizzey won a libel case against Macmillan Publishers after ''Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain'' had falsely linked her to the Angry Brigade.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Jones|first1=Sam|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/mar/09/andrew-marr-book-legal-action|title=Marr book A History of Modern Britain urgently withdrawn|date=9 March 2009|work=The Guardian|access-date=15 March 2020|last2=Kennedy|first2=Maev|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7976546.stm|title=Campaigner accepts libel damages|date=1 April 2009|work=BBC.co.uk|access-date=1 April 2009}}</ref> The publisher also recalled and destroyed the offending version of the book, and republished it with the error removed.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/5089062/Andrew-Marrs-publisher-pays-significant-damages-to-womens-campaigner.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Andrew Marr's publisher pays 'significant' damages to women's campaigner | first=Stephen | last=Adams | date=1 April 2009 | access-date=2 May 2010}}</ref> The link to the Angry Brigade was made in 2001, in an interview with ''The Guardian'', in which the article states that she was "thrown out" of the feminist movement after threatening to inform police about a planned bombing by the Angry Brigade of the clothes shop Biba. "I said that if you go on with this – they were discussing bombing Biba [the legendary department store in Kensington] – I'm going to call the police in, because I really don't believe in this".<ref name="Guardian_261101">{{cite journal|last=Rabinovitch|first=Dina |author-link=Dina Rabinovitch|date=26 November 2001|title=Domestic violence can't be a gender issue|journal=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/26/gender.uk1|access-date=20 March 2009 }}</ref>
The group and trial feature in Jake Arnott's 2006 novel ''Johnny Come Home''.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Ness|first=Patrick|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/apr/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview19|title=Review: Johnny Come Home by Jake Arnott|date=28 April 2006|work=The Guardian|access-date=15 March 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Hari Kunzru's 2007 novel ''My Revolutions'' is inspired by the Angry Brigade.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Brown|first=Mick|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/fictionreviews/3667613/Make-love-then-war.html|title=Make love, then war|date=31 August 2007|work=The Daily Telegraph|access-date=15 March 2020|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235}}</ref> ''The Angry Brigade'' is a 2014 play by James Graham.
==See also== * Terrorist attacks in London * Walsall Anarchists * Urban Guerrilla (Hawkwind) * First of May Group * Anarchism in the United Kingdom * Black Mask * King Mob * Movement 2 June
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book|last=Horspool |first=David |year=2009 |chapter=Grovenor Square and the Angry Brigade|title=The English Rebel: One Thousand Years of Troublemaking from the Normans to the Nineties |pages=384–386 |location=London |publisher=Viking |isbn=978-0-670-91619-1}}
==Further reading== * ''The Angry Brigade: A history of Britain's first urban guerrilla group'', Gordon Carr, 1975 (reissued by Stuart Christie 2005) {{ISBN|0-9549507-3-9}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20140526000246/http://recollectionbooks.com/siml/library/AngryBrigade/ ''The Angry Brigade 1967–1984: Documents and Chronology''], Bratach Dubh Anarchist Pamphlets, 1978 * ''Anarchy in the UK: The Angry Brigade'', Tom Vague, AK Press, 1997, {{ISBN|1-873176-98-8}} * ''Bending the Bars'', John Barker, Christie Books, 2002 (reissued 2006). {{ISBN|1-873976-31-3}}. * Alan Burns, ''The Angry Brigade: A Documentary Novel'' (Allison & Busby, 1973). * Gordon Carr, John Barker, Stuart Christie, ''The Angry Brigade: A History of Britain's First Urban Guerilla Group'', 1975 (reissued 2005). {{ISBN|0-9549507-3-9}}. * Gordon Carr, ''The Angry Brigade: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Britain's First Urban Guerilla Group'' (DVD), BBC, January 1973. Released on DVD in 2008 by PM Press. * Gordon Carr, ''The Persons Unknown'' (DVD) 1980. Features as a DVD extra on the January 1973 BBC documentary ''The Angry Brigade: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Britain's First Urban Guerilla Group''. * ''Edward Heath Made Me Angry'', Stuart Christie, Christie Books, 2004. 978-1873976234. * ''Granny Made me an Anarchist: General Franco, The Angry Brigade and Me'', Stuart Christie, Scribner, 2004. 978-0743263566. * Tom Vague, ''Anarchy in the UK: The Angry Brigade'', AK Press, 1997, {{ISBN|1-873176-98-8}}. (Issue 27 of punk rock fanzine ''Vague''. An earlier shorter version appeared as an article in issue 16 ''Psychic Terrorism Annual'' in 1985, reprinted in issue 25 ''The Great British Mistake'' in 1994.)<ref>{{Cite web|last=Harris|first=Tom Vague, Mucous Membrane, Perry|title=Vague Rants – Vaguely Definitive|url=http://vague.mjretro.co.uk/scrolling-navigation/|access-date=15 March 2020|language=en-US}}</ref> * Graham White, ''The Trial of the Angry Brigade'', BBC Radio 4. Produced by Peter Kavanagh and broadcast 9 August 2002.
==External links== {{Wikiquote}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20121008224541/http://www.gardenvisit.com/blog/2011/03/22/the-passing-of-a-friend-anna-mendelson-of-the-angry-brigade:/ A personal memory of Anna in 1968] * [http://libcom.org/ Libertarian community and organising resource]. Libertarian communism and anarchism in the UK * [http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/various-authors-the-angry-brigade-documents-and-chronology-1967-1984 Angry Brigade: Documents and Chronology, 1967–1984] * [http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/anarchyuk.htm John Barker's review of Tom Vague's ''Anarchy in the UK: the Angry Brigade''] * [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2002/feb/03/features.magazine27 Look back in anger] (An article by The Observer on the 30th Anniversary of their trial) * [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/looking-back-at-anger/ Interview with Stuart Christie] (3:AM Magazine) * [http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/resistance-as-its-own-reward/ Interview with John Barker] (3:AM Magazine) * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/12/newsid_2523000/2523465.stm British minister's home bombed] (BBC 'On This Day' article) * [http://www.spunk.org/texts/groups/agb/sp000540.txt Timeline of actions] (spunk.org) * [http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9w0wq9 Obituary of Anna Mendleson] * [http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/9ghz1v 1973 article on the Stoke Newington Eight trial] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110720173028/http://th-rough.eu/writers/john-barker John Barker's personal page on Through Europe] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20130918050022/http://www.christiebooks.com/ChristieBooksWP/ Christie Books]
{{UK far left}} {{Anarchism}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Angry Brigade}} Category:Defunct anarchist militant groups Category:Anti-consumerist groups Category:Anarchist organisations in the United Kingdom Category:1970 establishments in the United Kingdom Category:1972 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Category:Organizations established in 1970 Category:Organizations disestablished in 1972 Category:Left-wing militant groups in the United Kingdom Category:Defunct anarchist organizations in Europe Category:Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1970 Category:Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1971 Category:Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1972 <references /> Category:Propagandists of the deed