Episode 1: Eric Laursen's 'The Duty to Stand Aside': Alex Comfort, Anarchism and the Shifting Politics of George Orwell

ABC With Danny and Jim

In this first episode of Anarchist Book Club with Danny and Jim, we discuss Eric Laursen's 'The Duty to Stand Aside' (AK Press 2020), which explores the relationship between George Orwell and the pacifist, anarchist and doctor Alex Comfort, who became famous in the 1970s as the author of 'The Joy of Sex'. We use this as a starting point to discuss the shifting politics of George Orwell, from his time fighting in the Spanish Civil War, to his wartime work with the BBC and his post-war denunciation of key figures in the British Left, including Comfort.

A summary of Laursen's book can be found here

A discussion by Barry Pateman on the splits within British anarchism during WW2 can be found here

------------------------------------------------------------

The podcast music is Stealing Orchestra & Rafael Dionísio, 'Gente da minha terra (que me mete um nojo do caralho).' Reproduced from the Free Music Archive under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.

The podcast logo is an adapted version of the Left Book Club logo (1936-48), reproduced, edited and shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International licence. Original available here

The image in this episode is Alexander Comfort by Howard Coster, 1943, held at the National Portrait Gallery and reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence.