The Kate Sharpley Library (KSL) is a library dedicated to

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 ...

texts and history. Started in 1979 and reorganized in 1991, it currently holds around ten thousand English language volumes, pamphlets and periodicals in its archive. __NOTOC__

Namesake

The Kate Sharpley Library was named after a Deptford-born

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

anarchist and anti-war activist. She worked in a munitions factory and was active in the

shop stewards movement The Shop Stewards Movement was a movement which brought together shop stewards from across the United Kingdom during the First World War. It originated with the Clyde Workers Committee, the first shop stewards committee in Britain, which organised ...

. Her brother William Sharpley and her father were

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

and her boyfriend was listed as missing believed killed (though she suspected he had been shot for

mutiny Mutiny is a revolt among a group of people (typically of a military or a crew) to oppose, change, or remove superiors or their orders. The term is commonly used for insubordination by members of the military against an officer or superior, ...

). At the age of 22, when called to receive her family's medals from Queen Mary she threw the medals back at the Queen, saying "If you like them so much you can have them". The Queen's face was scratched, Kate Sharpley was beaten by police, and imprisoned for a few days, though no charges were brought against her. She did however lose her job. After marrying in 1922, she dropped out of anarchist activities until a chance encounter with Albert Meltzer at a train station during an

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

action. This led to her meeting many younger activists and so, when

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

anarchists came to name the archives they had collected from the movement, her name was chosen in preference to a more famous one.

Holdings

The library has texts in English and other languages, near complete collections of several

anarchist newspapers 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 ...

, and collections of reports and literature from various anarchist organisations. The library is maintained by donations and money made from sales of pamphlets and other publications. As of 2014 it was receiving one or two in-person visits per month and the bulk of the research requests arrived by email.

Locations

The library was begun in the

squatted Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building (usually residential) that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there wer ...

121 Centre in Brixton, London in 1979 by a collective which included Albert Meltzer. It had both

lending In finance, a loan is the tender of money by one party to another with an agreement to pay it back. The recipient, or borrower, incurs a debt and is usually required to pay interest for the use of the money. The document evidencing the debt ( ...

and reference sections. When the centre was raided in 1984, the archive was moved to a different squat for safety. When the library was moved to the safety of Barry Pateman's home in 1991, the focus shifted towards being a special collection and

archive An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials, in any medium, or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organ ...

. After being located in

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

between 1991 and 1999, the library was moved again, this time to a renovated barn at the home of Barry Pateman and Jessica Moran in California.

Publications

As well as preserving the physical artifacts of anarchist history, the library also publishes books and

pamphlets A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a Hardcover, hard cover or Bookbinding, binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' ...

on anarchism and anarchist history, covering many subjects that would otherwise be forgotten. Its activities are recounted in its regular

bulletin Bulletin or The Bulletin may refer to: Periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals) * ''Bulletin'' (online newspaper), a Swedish online newspaper * ''The Bulletin'' (Australian periodical), an Australian magazine (1880–2008) ** Bulletin De ...

, available online and by mail to its financial supporters. Authors it has published or re-published include Miguel Garcia, Albert Meltzer, David Nicoll, Abel Paz, Antonio Téllez, and Bartolomeo Vanzetti.

References

External links