Black Flag (newspaper)

Black Flag (newspaper)

Black Flag is the name of a number of anarchist periodicals, most notably the British anarchist bi-annual magazine Black Flag, mainly known for its coverage of international anarchist politics as well as supporting "class war" prisoners.

Black Flag was founded by Albert Meltzer and Stuart Christie in 1970, with the name of the periodical being drawn from the traditional anarchist symbol dating back to the 1880s.

It has gone through several format changes between magazine and newspaper, including a period in which it concentrated on investigative journalism. In more recent times, it has evolved into an analytical periodical for the anarchist movement in the UK. The magazine was temporarily suspended as a going operation in 2006 while its future, then in an annual format, was discussed. A new edition came out in time for the London Anarchist Bookfair for 2007, featuring a new look, and a range of new and classic articles.

Since 2008, Black Flag has remained a bi-annual 40 page magazine, publishing a May Day edition and one timed for the London Anarchist Bookfair. Alongside regular features from Anarchist FAQ author Iain McKay, Freedom international editor Rob Ray and reviewer Ade Dimmick. The magazine collective has good relations with the majority of Britain's largest anarchist groups, having featured articles from members of the Solidarity Federation, No Border network and others. Black Flag maintains a loose editorial line of class-struggle anarchism and follows a right-to-reply policy in which disagreeing parties are allowed to make short counterpoints within contentious items.