Summary

Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal was first published in 1965 by Jack Grancharoff. It was widely read by libertarians and other people associated with the Sydney Push; and provided a canon for future generations of anarchists in Australia. Publication of Red and Black continued until at least 2001.

The digital files that are listed below were scanned by Reason in Revolt at the University of Melbourne Digitisation Centre using the latest technology, to Australian archival standards, and then upload to the website in 2025.

Eko's blog post (see details below) provides an extensive list of Red and Black journal issues, together with lists of contents and links to full text versions, many of which are not available on Reason in Revolt.

Details

Anne Coombs (1996: 151-152) described the origins of Red and Black as follows:

"Back in January 1960 the Libertarian had announced that a new anarchist journal was about to be launched. The first issue was planned for April/May of that year and was to be put out by 'Sydney anarchists, members of the Libertarian Society, and others'. It would be called Red and Black. The name was appropriate for a number of reasons, not least because Stendahl's novel The Red and the Black was being passed around Libertarian circles at the time. This would have been of some significance to the nascent novelist Ian Bedford, who was one of those involved in the new project.

"But Red and Black took longer to get off the ground than planned. Nothing happened in 1960 and the idea was shelved. It was talked about in 1963 but still nothing happened. Then, in 1965, Jack the anarchist took it on. The first issue was printed by Nestor Grivas, as was the second issue the following year.

...

"None of that has changed. Thirty years later, Red and Black is still published, intermittently. As it always has, it continues to publish articles by academics, 'street' anarchists and European and American radicals. Sometimes it publishes pieces by foreign writers who have not been able to get their views accepted elsewhere. Jack, who is fluent in several languages, digs out articles from obscure foreign journals that few people in Australia are likely to have heard of. When he has sufficient material and sufficient funds he brings out an edition of Red and Black. Each issue has a circulation of around 400. Its contents reflect changing times, while maintaining a commitment to anarchism.

"The early issues were not so different from the Libertarian-inspired journals. With the exception of Jack, most of the contributors were academics. But it was Jack's pieces that gave the magazine relevance and currency. In 1966, for example, he wrote on 'Vietnam', while the academics were still talking about 'The IWW in America' and 'Lenin and Workers' Control'."

Source:
Anne Coombs. 1996. See details below.

Acknowledgment. Thanks to Eko (2022, see details below) who also quoted Coombs.

Resources

Journals

• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 9], no. 9, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Spring, 1979, 24 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 8], no. 8, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Summer, 1978/79, 20 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 10], no. 10, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Winter, 1981, 52 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 12], no. 12, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Summer, 1984, 48 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 14], no. 14, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, August-November, 1985, 48 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 15], no. 15, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, March-June, 1986, 48 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 16], no. 16, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Winter, 1987, 44 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 17], no. 17, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Summer, 1988, 48 pp. Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 19], no. 19, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Winter, 1989, 44 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 18], no. 18, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Summer, 1989. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 20], no. 20, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Summer, 1990, 36 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 21], no. 21, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Winter, 1991, 40 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 22], no. 22, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Spring, 1992, 40 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 26], no. 26, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Autumn, 1996, 40 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 27], no. 27, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Autumn, 1997, 40 pp. PDF Details
• Grancharoff, Jack (ed.), Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, [No. 28], no. 28, Grancharoff, Jack [This scan courtesy Viola Wilkins], Sydney, Spring, 1998, 24 pp. PDF Details

Online Resources

• Coombs, Anne, Sex and Anarchy: the Life and Death of the Sydney Push, Catalogue entry only, Viking, Ringwood, 1996, 340 pp, https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/21898126/version/45921997. Details
• Eko (ed.), Red and Black Notes: Red and Black: An Anarchist Journal, 2022, https://www.redblacknotes.com/anarchism-in-australia/red-and-black-an-anarchist-journal/. Details