War Commentary

War Commentary was an England-based anti-militarist anti-war anarchist serial publication that was published from 1939 to 1945, initially as a journal and then as a newspaper, as part of the movement which was opposed to World War II (see Opposition to World War II), along anti-capitalist and anti-state lines.

The first issue of War Commentary was launched in November 1939 after the closure of the journal Spain and the World and was published by Freedom Press Distributors, the temporary address of which was Whiteway Colony Nr. Stroud Glos England, where Lilian Wolfe was still living after the death of her partner Thomas Keell. The journal was produced on a duplicator and comprised seventeen pages. All the subsequent issues were published and printed in London. Until 1941 it appeared monthly until 1941, when six supplements were produced. From 1942 it appeared twice a month. In the following month, and for its 100th issue, its format was changed from a journal to a four-page newspaper.

Regular contributors to War Commentary included Vernon Richards, Marie Louise Berneri (who was married to Richards), John Hewetson, Philip Sansom, and Ethel Mannin, with John Olday contributing cartoons. Occasional contributors included Tom Brown, Reginald Reynolds, George Woodcock and Colin Ward.