Introduction to Spirit of Revolt.

 

Who we are

The Spirit of Revolt Archive, based in Glasgow, is dedicated to collecting, managing and preserving multi-media records from Glasgow’s and Clydeside’s anarchist and libertarian-socialist past and present. It was constituted in August 2011 and today its records form part of Glasgow City Archive’s collections whilst the Archive maintains its independence. Our material will remain in the ownership of the Spirit of Revolt group. The Archive is located at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library and its material is accessible in the Reading Room.

The Spirit of Revolt group took its name from the title of Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin’s 1880 pamphlet.

For its start-up phase, Spirit of Revolt Archive was funded by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust. Since then, the Archive have received support from various funding organisations and individuals.

The Archive selects records if they provides one or more of the following:

  • evidence of a non-political party campaign, movement, organisation, or individual’s activities

  • information relating to grassroots and libertarian movements

  • an insight into the functioning of grassroots and libertarian organisations

  • evidence of the impact of anarchism and culturally and politically.

Our cataloge shows the broad variety of material that the Archive collects, manages and makes publicly accessible.

The people in the Spirit of Revolt group are committing time and energy to the Archive because they think it is important to ensure that the history of grassroots movements and libertarian activism in Glasgow and Clydeside is recorded. Not many memory organisations – libraries, museums and archives – show an interest in this particular history and the Spirit of Revolt group is very happy to have found great partners in Glasgow Libraries and Glasgow City Archive. The records – letters, flyers, leaflets, banners, songs, comics, video and sound recordings and oral testimonies – which make up the archive are important because they are evidence for a particular part of Glasgow’s and Clydeside’s history and culture. The material is not only valuable for the historian but also for everybody who is interested in politics today and who is involved in political activism. If we fail to remember we cannot learn from the past.