Spur, The.
ALDRED, Guy A. & . WITKOP, Rose Lillian. THE SPUR. Because the Workers Need a Spur. Edited and Published by Guy A. Aldred, 17 Richmond Gardens, Shepherds Bush, London, W. Annual Subscription 1s. 6d. All unsigned matter is written by the Editor. Vol. 1.-No. 1 [Vol. III.-No. 13., ie. 14]. London, Printed and Published by The Bakunin Press, June 1914 [-May, 1918].
FIRST EDITION. 43 issues bound in one volume, folio, pp. 184; original red cloth, upper cover lettered in gilt, some rubbing and chipping to extremities, and dust-soiling to cloth.
An important run of this rare Anarchist periodical edited by Guy Aldred, and then after his imprisonment by his partner Rose Lillian Witcop.
The periodical began a few months before the First World War, originally conceived as an Anarchist propaganda work but on the outbreak of war in August 1914 the emphasis moved to being an antiwar journal. Issue No. 4 for September 1914 shows the direction Aldred was now headed. His editorial; under the title ‘The Remedy for War?’ was unlikely to make him any friends in government circles: ‘The Socialists of Europe have betrayed the workers of the world in the present capitalist death conflict.’
Aldred’s partner Rose Widkop wrote the leader to the November issue under the banner ‘Believers in Bloodshed.’ She writes justifiably ‘we, who call for peace and sanity, who would not stint a single child, are the Anarchists! The world has gone mad is an accurate description, and it rests with us to keep our heads and determine that our tongues shall not be silenced.’
If he had not already been under the eye of the government, Aldred’s activities began to make him a marked man. In April 1916 he was arrested for not reporting for military service despite never receiving any call up papers, he was also ‘married’ which would have precluded him, but because he and Rose were Anarchists as a matter of principle they had no certificate to offer. This lead to Guy’s imprisonment until after the war. The responsibility for The Spur was thus thrown on Rose for the remainder of the War.
These years were a struggle for the journal as having no advertising revenue the whole project was run from donations. Each is an amalgam of an article by Rose and some sneaked out of Aldred’s prison cell, various contributions from anarchist’s both in Britain and abroad and a certain amount of reprinted anarchist articles as filler.
These other articles include: Margaret Sanger, ‘Should women know?’ (Feb 1915, pp.58-59); Rose Witcop, ‘Motherhood in war time’ (May 1915, p.90); Freda Cohen, of the Glasgow Anarchist Group, on ‘Love and marriage’ (Jul 1915, pp.12-14), with responses (Sep 1915, pp.28-30 and Oct. 1915 p. 35) from Émile Armand commenting on the need ‘Sexual education, to deserve its qualification must not debar women from sexual pleasure, but teach her how to use means to prevent or check undisired conception. otherwise it is no education at all.’ Rose Witkop ‘The Pankhurst Passion’ (Aug, 1915 p. 19) describing Mrs Pankhurst and her Suffragette colleagues are busy, just now, urging the government to institute compulsory war service for men and women.’ ‘Letters from C.O.’s [conscientious objectors] in the hands of the military’, from Guy A. Aldred, Henry Sara and Alan McDougall (Jun 1916, pp. 95-96), other reports on Aldred, Sara, etc. are included in subsequent issues; ‘C.O.’s death: Men’s Committee’s statement, Dyce Quarry Camp’, on the case of W.L. Roberts (Oct 1916, p.111); Emma Goldman, ‘Anarchism: What is really stands for’ (Oct-Dec 1917); and Narodnik, ‘The social significance of the Russian revolution’ (Jan/Feb 1918, pp.165-166)
The Spur continued after the war until 1920 although its toughest period had arguable now past. Aldred was eventually freed from Prison and separated from Witcop, he to Glasgow and she to continue her work as a pioneer of birth control and sex education.
OCLC records three copies of the complete run, at the BL, Sydney and the State Library of New South Wales, two copies in North America with the same run as ours, at Michigan and New York, and one further copy in the National Library of Scotland (June 1914 - August 1919).
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