• Publisher: PM Press
• Release Date: Mar 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781604860498

Angry Brigade: A History of Britain's First Urban Guerilla Group

Angry Brigade reviewed by Steven Poole (guardian.co.uk)

This fascinating history of "Britain's first urban guerrilla group" (who fought for the people while stealing their chequebooks) begins with the 1971 bombing of the house of the employment minister, Robert Carr, and then works back to the évènements of May 1968, and forwards through the complex police investigation by the newly formed "Bomb Squad", and then the lengthy and sensational 1972 trial of the "Stoke Newington 8", in whose flat had been found explosives, guns and the equipment used to issue the brigade's sub-Debordian public statements. Gordon Carr's narrative is scrupulous and suspenseful.

We also hear from one of the convicted, John Barker, proud of recent demonstrations against arms dealers ("[we] had the nous to do it without the melodrama of dynamite"; exactly what tune dynamite normally plays is left unclear), and one of the acquitted, Stuart Christie ("to engage in remote violence without taking full personal responsibility is reminiscent of the state itself"). A policeman offers a sober opinion about the inspirational power of French theory: "I didn't think Situationism was the driving force behind the Angry Brigade. It was a style that helped Barker write communiqués."