''Counter Information'' was a

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

news sheet produced by groups in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

and

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

from 1984 to 2004.

Establishment

''Counter Information'' was

news sheet established in 1984, in the

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

capital of

, with the intention of covering the

1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike The 1984–1985 United Kingdom miners' strike was a major industrial action within the Coal mining in the United Kingdom, British coal industry in an attempt to prevent closures of pits that were uneconomic in the coal industry, which had been ...

. By the following year, its scope had broadened to coverage of

industrial dispute Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike in British English, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Working class, work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Str ...

s in various different economic sectors, with labour activists providing primary accounts of

class conflict In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

in their workplaces. The news sheet was produced by a network of three publishing collectives, located in

and

. The Edinburgh collective was hosted by the

Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh The Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, also known as ACE, is an infoshop and autonomous social centre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1997, although it follows on from previous groups. Antecedents ACE formed out of the Edinburgh Unemplo ...

(ACE). Each quarterly issue of the news sheet carried 2-4 pages, printed on

A4 paper ISO 216 is an International Organization for Standardization, international standard for paper sizes, used around the world except in North America and parts of Latin America. The standard defines the "A", "B" and "C" series of paper sizes, wh ...

, and circulated up to 12,000 copies. ''Counter Information'' often invited its readers to participate in the magazine's writing and editing.

Publication process

The quarterly issue of ''Counter Information'' was put together over 6 weeks, during which 3 editorial meetings and 1 layout meeting would oversee its writing, editing and publishing. Meetings were open to all members of the publishing collective and a process of

consensus decision-making Consensus decision-making is a group decision-making process in which participants work together to develop proposals for actions that achieve a broad acceptance. #Origin and meaning of term, Consensus is reached when everyone in the group '' ...

was used to provide a collective response to issues. In the first meeting, the collective would collect

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

and

secondary source In Scholarly method, scholarship, a secondary sourcePrimary, secondary and tertiar ...

s, selecting specific items from the collected accounts based on what the collective thought would be most significant for the widest range of people to know about. This required accounts of localised actions to be framed in the context of a larger movement with broader consequences, rather than providing coverage to any protest action. The main struggles the collective sought to cover received longer articles, each between 350 and 500 words, and were written by a collective member with a direct connection to the subject. In the second editorial meeting, the collective decided on the number of smaller articles to include, prepared its feature articles if they were ready by this time, and reviewed any updates they had received since the previous meeting. In the third editorial meeting, agreed-upon articles for the issue were written, typed up and copy-edited. Any structural and content changes made were agreed upon collectively and the feature articles were given the most in-depth discussion, while smaller articles were only discussed if the issue of their inclusion was specifically raised by a collective member. At the end of the 6 week cycle, collective members met for the layout meeting, which often included last-minute editorial adjustments. Over the course of most of the day, the issue was laid out and put together by three editors, while any articles yet to be provided were hastily written.

Specific stories covered

In 1994, ''Counter Information'' covered the attempted eviction of ACE and its subsequent occupation by anti-eviction activists. In December 1994, ''Counter Information'' reported that 80 activists had occupied ACE and attempted to resist the eviction for over 8 hours, but that police were ultimately successful in ending the occupation and arrested 21 activists. ''Counter Information'' criticised

Edinburgh City Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...

for attempting to destroy the ACE, which had become a centre for

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

activism and

direct action Direct action is a term for economic and political behavior in which participants use agency—for example economic or physical power—to achieve their goals. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct a certain practice (such as a governm ...

in the Scottish capital. Despite the eviction, the core group that organised the ACE continued their work publishing ''Counter Information'' in Edinburgh. After ACE was re-opened in 1997, it once again provided a headquarters for the Edinburgh publishing collective of ''Counter Information''.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{refend 1984 establishments in the United Kingdom 2004 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Anarchism in England Anarchism in Scotland Anarchist periodicals published in the United Kingdom Political magazines published in the United Kingdom Far-left politics in the United Kingdom Far-left politics in Scotland Politics of Edinburgh Politics of Glasgow Politics of Leeds Magazines established in 1984 Magazines disestablished in 2004