“I'm Doing it for the Sake of Spreading Ideas:” An Interview with Jon Active

From Rupture Press

Editorial Note: Continuing in the trajectory of interviewing legends from last week, we turn to “Jon Active.” Jon started Active Distribution, as discussed below, in the late 1980s and with collaborators continues into the present. Based in the UK, Active Distribution has remained a staple in distributing anarchist zines, pamphlets and books and has done well to make English language material available in Europe.

A Roving Band of Anarcho-Punks

From Empty Hands History by Spencer Beswick

The Vermont Family’s Revitalization of American Anarchism

The Vermont Family was a roving band of anarcho-punks that helped build the American anarchist movement in the 1980s. They were a key element of the connective tissue that linked the dispersed anarchist milieu. The Family originally came together within the “Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament,” in which hundreds of people walked from Los Angeles to Washington, DC over the course of nine months in 1986. As many of the liberals dropped out or retreated to cars, a core group of anarchists coalesced to form a traveling “anarchy village” which grew from 15 to around 70 or 80 people. They ran the village through consensus and promoted anarchist politics within the march. After the march reached DC, the Family stayed together as a loose network of travelers, comrades, and friends.

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