Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020) was a Scottish

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish

caudillo A ''caudillo'' ( , ; osp, cabdillo, from Latin , diminutive of ''caput'' "head") is a type of personalist leader wielding military and political power. There is no precise definition of ''caudillo'', which is often used interchangeably with " ...

, General

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

. He was later alleged to be a member of the

Angry Brigade The Angry Brigade was a far-left British terrorist group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservati ...

, but was acquitted of related charges. He went on to found the Cienfuegos Press publishing house, as well as radical publications ''The Free-Winged Eagle'' and ''The Hastings Trawler'', and in 2006 the online Anarchist Film Channel, which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and

libertarian socialist Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (201 ...

themes. His memoir ''Granny Made Me an Anarchist'' was published in 2004.

Biography

Early life

Christie was born in the

Partick Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...

area of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

and raised in

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

by his mother and grandparents, becoming an anarchist at a young age. He ascribed this to his grandmother's influence, "Basically, what she did was provide a moral barometer which married almost exactly with that of

libertarian socialism Libertarian socialism, also known by various other names, is a left-wing,Diemer, Ulli (1997)"What Is Libertarian Socialism?" The Anarchist Library. Retrieved 4 August 2019. anti-authoritarian, anti-statist and libertarianLong, Roderick T. (201 ...

and anarchism, and she provided the star which I followed." He joined the Anarchist Federation in Glasgow in 1962, at the age of 16. He became active in the

Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...

, attracted to the more militant approach of the

Direct Action Committee The Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War or the Direct Action Committee (DAC) was a pacifist organisation formed "to assist the conducting of non-violent direct action to obtain the total renunciation of nuclear war and its weapons by ...

and Committee of 100, and took part in the confrontational

Faslane Naval Base His Majesty's Naval Base, Clyde (HMNB Clyde; also HMS ''Neptune''), primarily sited at Faslane on the Gare Loch, is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Devonport and HMNB Portsmouth). It ...

CND demonstration on 14 February 1963, among others.

Attempt to assassinate Franco

On the last day of July 1964, an 18-year-old Christie departed London for

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, where he picked up

plastic explosives Plastic explosive is a soft and hand-moldable solid form of explosive material. Within the field of explosives engineering, plastic explosives are also known as putty explosives or blastics. Plastic explosives are especially suited for explos ...

from the anarchist organisation Defensa Interior. Before he left

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, he was interviewed for a television programme with

Malcolm Muggeridge Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (24 March 1903 – 14 November 1990) was an English journalist and satirist. His father, H. T. Muggeridge, was a socialist politician and one of the early Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Members of Parliament (for Romfo ...

, a known

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

contact, and asked whether he felt the assassination of Franco would be right. He answered that it would; when the programme was broadcast after his arrest in Spain, these comments were edited out. Christie hitchhiked into Spain and was arrested in Madrid on 11 August 1964 in possession of explosives. He faced a military trial and a possible execution sentence by

garrote A garrote or garrote vil (a Spanish word; alternative spellings include garotte and similar variants''Oxford English Dictionary'', 11th Ed: garrotte is normal British English spelling, with single r alternate. Article title is US English spellin ...

, but was instead sentenced to twenty years in prison. An accomplice, Fernando Carballo Blanco, was sentenced to thirty years' imprisonment. He served three years in

Carabanchel Prison Carabanchel Prison was constructed by political prisoners after the Spanish Civil War between 1940 and 1944 in the Madrid neighbourhood of Carabanchel. It was one of the biggest prisons in Europe until its closure in 1998. The structure followe ...

, where he studied for

A-Level The A-Level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational aut ...

s and was brought into contact with anarchist prisoners, including

Miguel García García Miguel García García (1908–1981) was a Spanish anarchist and writer. He was a political prisoner during the Franco era. In his youth, García became affiliated with anarchism and his family belonged to the Confederación Nacional del Trab ...

, Luis Andres Edo and Juan Busquets. Christie was later freed. The official reason given by

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain ( es, España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death in 1975, Spai ...

was that it was due to a plea from Christie's mother.

Back in Britain

After his release he continued his activism in the British anarchist movement, re-formed the

Anarchist Black Cross The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for c ...

and '' Black Flag'' with

Albert Meltzer Albert Isidore Meltzer (7 January 1920 – 7 May 1996) was an English anarcho-communist activist and writer. Early life Meltzer was born in Hackney, London, of Jewish ancestry, and educated at The Latymer School, Edmonton. He was attracted to ...

, was acquitted of involvement with the Angry Brigade, and started the publishing house Cienfuegos Press, which for a number of years he operated from

Sanday, Orkney Sanday (, sco, Sandee) is one of the inhabited islands of Orkney that lies off the north coast of mainland Scotland. With an area of , it is the third largest of the Orkney Islands.Haswell-Smith (2004) p. 334. The main centres of population ar ...

, where he also edited and published a local Orcadian newspaper, ''The Free-Winged Eagle''. Christie had various writing and journalistic jobs including as editor of an unauthorised British edition of ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, "Truth") is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most influential papers in the co ...

'' and ''Argumenty i Fakty'' (''Arguments and Facts International'') in the late years of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and the early years of the Russian Federation.

Published work

An updated and single-volume version of his autobiography ''Granny Made Me an Anarchist'' was published in 2004 by Scribner. It had previously been published in three parts, the other titles being ''General Franco Made Me a Terrorist'', and ''Edward Heath Made Me Angry''. Christie attracted criticism from some fellow anarchists for making a gestural protest vote against

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and its war in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

by voting for

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...

's Respect - The Unity Coalition in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

elections that year, because of the general anarchist stance against participating in capitalist democracy. Christie also wrote articles attacking

freemasonry Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

. He also wrote, with Meltzer, ''The Floodgates of Anarchy''. His other books include ''Stefano Delle Chiaie: Portrait of a Black Terrorist'', (on Italian neo-fascist terrorist

Stefano Delle Chiaie Stefano Delle Chiaie (13 September 1936, Caserta – 10 September 2019, Rome) was an Italian neo-fascist terrorist. He was the founder of ''Avanguardia Nazionale'', a member of '' Ordine Nuovo'', and founder of Lega nazionalpopolare. He went on ...

, founder of ''

Avanguardia Nazionale The National Vanguard ( it, Avanguardia Nazionale) is a name that has been used for at least two neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups in Italy. Original group The original National Vanguard was an extra-parliamentary movement formed as a breakaway gro ...

'' and member of P2 masonic lodge) and ''We, the Anarchists! A study of the

Iberian Anarchist Federation Iberian refers to Iberia. Most commonly Iberian refers to: *Someone or something originating in the Iberian Peninsula, namely from Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. The term ''Iberian'' is also used to refer to anything pertaining to the fo ...

(FAI) 1927–1937'' (2000). As a publisher Christie founded

Cienfuegos Press Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020) was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo, General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged ...

in 1972 and edited the ''Cienfuegos Anarchist Review'' (c. 1977–1982), Refract Publications (1982), The Meltzer Press (1996) and Christiebooks/Christiebooks.com/Read 'N' Noir. His ''The Christie File'' was published by the Cienfuegos Press in 1980. He also edited ''The Hastings Trawler'', a monthly magazine that ran from 2005 to 2006. Christie also translated into English the biography of Francisco Sabate Llopart, ''Sabate: An Extraordinary Guerrilla'', by Antonio Téllez Solá.

Reviews

Ross, Raymond J. (1981), "Review of ''The Christie File''", in Murray, Glen (ed.), ''

Cencrastus ''Cencrastus'' was a magazine devoted to Scottish and international literature, arts and affairs, founded after the Referendum of 1979 by students, mainly of Scottish literature at Edinburgh University, and with support from Cairns Craig, then a ...

'' No. 6, Autumn 1982, p. 35

Personal life

Christie's wife of more than 50 years, Brenda Christie, died of cancer at the age of 70 in June 2019. Stuart Christie died aged 74, also from cancer, on 15 August 2020.Wade, Mike (16 Aug. 2020)
"Scottish anarchist who attempted to assassinate General Franco dies from cancer."
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

''.

References

External links

ChristieBooks and Anarchist Film Channel, Radio etc.

'My stomach churned. Something had gone badly wrong … '
, an edited extract from ''

Granny Made Me an Anarchist Stuart Christie (10 July 1946 – 15 August 2020) was a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. When aged 18, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish caudillo, General Francisco Franco. He was later alleged ...

'', by Stuart Christie. ''Guardian.co.uk'' Guardian News and Media Limited. 23 August 2004. ;Interviews
Looking Back at Anger
, Stuart Christie interview with Andrew Stevens. ''3:AM Magazine''. 2004.
BBC Witness History: ''The Plot to Kill Franco''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Christie, Stuart 1946 births 2020 deaths People from Partick Historians of anarchism Anarchist writers Scottish anarchists Scottish autobiographers Scottish publishers (people) Scottish translators Scottish people imprisoned abroad Far-left politics in Scotland Anarchism in Scotland Catalan–English translators