The Sparrows’ Nest presents:

 

 

As part of the Gladstonebury Festival, a three-day event celebrating Sumac’s 25th Anniversary, join us on Sunday 27th Sept from 12.00-2.00pm and hear about our project curating the incredible archive collected by volunteers at the Rainbow and Sumac Centres.

 

There will be: Zine making, Displays, Books for Sale, Talks, Quiz and prizes!

 

Hope to see you there!

 

We are sad to announce the death of long-time Nest supporter and collaborator, Ron Marsden. Ron was born in 1937 in Lancashire and passed away peacefully on the 21st August 2026. He had been an anarcho-syndicalist for sixty years, as a member of the Syndicalist Workers Federation, the Direct Action Movement and the Solidarity Federation. Widely travelled (e.g. crossing the Spanish border on a quest to support Stuart Christie just after his arrest in 1964) and well-known, he was a huge influence on the organisations’ political direction and on younger anarchists, as well as those of his own generation.

 

Our thoughts are with his wife Clare Debenham, as well as the Solidarity Federation (itself a valued and long-time donor to the Nest).

 

We will miss our phone chats with Ron, and our annual cups of tea, enjoyed whenever we drove up to Manchester to collect yet another load of bags, baskets, of tea chests, all filled to the brim with amazing materials from his house. We will fondly remember him humming to himself as he helped dragging bag after bag towards the van, which always turned out to be filled with incredible treasures from all over the world (and lots of drawings of Blasphemouse, Ron’s cartoon creation!).

 

Ron was at all times kind, generous and supportive to us, and it was a true pleasure to have known him. His legacy will not only be the memories many of us have of him, but also his collection of materials, many of which we have the great pleasure of looking after.

 

He was also a catalyst of putting us in touch with others of his generation and getting the SolFed’s extensive archive to us, not least featuring the SWF’s archive from the 1940s to the 1960s, comprising some 1,100 documents, including extensive correspondence with comrades in 25 different countries.

 

Ron’s trust in us, especially in the early days of the Nest, was absolutely crucial for us to be able to develop into a serious archive, and working and hanging out with him was a true privilege.

 

August’s Document of the Month exemplifies the anarcho-syndicalist tradition in Britain. Education Worker was produced by the Solidarity Federation by workers in ALL areas of education. One of the key features of anarcho-syndicalist unions is ignoring the elitist stratification of workers within one industry, a characteristic of the traditional trade union union set-up. As such, this issue focusses on higher education and features articles by cleaners, lecturers and students. It would be too obvious to say that they were facing remarkably similar challenges in the early 2000s as they do now, e.g. cuts, privatisation, fees and casualisation. In reality, anyone working or studying in the sector will recognise this period as just the beginning of the decimation of the HE sector, which seems to have completely lost any ethical compass.

 

A cause dear to the hearts of class-struggle anarchists such as Ron, was of course the 1984-85 Miners’ Strike. A new project run by Lewis Mates, a friend of the Nest, addresses the role of anarchists within it as miners and as part of the networks of supporters. Part of the evidence is being drawn from oral history interviews and questionnaires. If you would like to take part in Anarchism and the British Miners’ Strike, 1984-1985, please contact: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Coming up you can also see us at the Nottingham Green Festival in the Arboretum on Sunday 13th September. We’ll be filling the traditional Ex Libris slot and selling quality second-hand books on Green, History, Arts and Social Justice related themes to raise money for our work.

And finally, don’t miss this brilliant-sounding exhibition of photographs by another frequent Nest collaborator Alan Lodge, aka Tash. Tash was a member of a travelling community and witness to the development and persecution of associated subcultures. Common Grounds: Counter Culture and Confrontation since 1976 documents travelling communities, free festivals, rave culture, environmental campaigns, and anti-war protests.  The exhibition is on at Bonington Gallery from 25th September to 12th December.

 

See you at the launch on Thursday 24th Sept., 6.00-8.00pm!

 

We are completely self-funded, so please donate if you can.

 

 

Bank name: Unity Trust Bank
Recipient: The Sparrows Nest Library and Archive
Sort code: 60-83-01
Account: 20379287

 

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https://thesparrowsnest.org.uk

 

Don’t forget to consider us if you have radical materials you would like to donate to an archive. Because…