Jack Robinson (anarchist) explained

Jack Robinson
Birth Place:Birmingham, England
Movement:Anarchist
Partner:Mary Canipa

Jack Robinson (1913 – 20 March 1983) was an English anarchist activist and editor of the paper Freedom.

Biography

Robinson was born in 1913 in Birmingham.[1] [2] [3]

A conscientious objector, during the World War II he worked in an epileptic colony because he was a nurse by training. He also took part in a medical experiment living on a diet which caused scurvy, but in fact he earned a good part of his living as a book trader. And his purchase of the tenancy linked to Albert Meltzer’s Wooden Shoe Press was the premise of the long dispute between Meltzer and Vernon Richards.[4]

He worked alongside Lilian Wolfe and Mary Canipa in the Freedom Bookshop. Robinson contributed articles to Freedom and Anarchy, sometimes anonymously, during the 1970s. He also contributed under the name Jon Quixote.[5] Though he is thought to have had a hand in editorial group through the 60's.[6] At the request of Canipa his work was reproduced in Freedom: A Hundred Years put together by Donald Rooum, because by its publication date he had already died.

Robinson enjoyed active stints, alongside Rooum in the Colne and Nelson Anarchist Group and was a noted non-smoker, a teetotaler and a vegetarian.[7] Robinson died 20 March 1983, following a stroke two months earlier.

Publications

References

  1. Robinson . Jack . January 1963 . A Man's Ambition Must Be Small... . . London . 25 . 23.
  2. News: Sansom . Philip . Philip Sansom . 1983-03-26 . Jack Robinson . . London . 5 . 44 . 6.
  3. Rob Ray (2018) states that Robinson was born in 1921.
  4. Web site: Rooum . Donald . Donald Rooum . 2008 . Freedom, Freedom Press and Freedom Bookshop A short history of Freedom Press . https://web.archive.org/web/20190714163735/http://libr.org/isc/issues/ISC27/articles/5%20Freedom,%20Freedom%20Press%20and%20Freedom%20Bookshop.pdf . 14 July 2019 . 27 May 2013 . Website.
  5. Book: Ray, Rob . A Beautiful Idea: History of the Freedom Press Anarchists . . 2018 . 978-1-904491-30-9 . London . 235 . en . 1052463857.
  6. Web site: Rai . Milan . 2010-02-26 . John Rety: "The Point Is This" . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100317162415/https://freedompress.org.uk/news/2010/02/26/john-rety-%E2%80%9Cthe-point-is-this%E2%80%9D/ . 2010-03-17 . 2013-05-27 . .
  7. Web site: "The Noble Experiment": A socialist-anarchist fable about the prohibition of smoking. Website / Text. Spunk.org. 27 May 2013.