15th February 2021- a little update. We have added a number of items to the Subversive Graffiti, Careless Talk and Counter Information collections. Within Subversive Graffiti we have divided the folders into the numbered issues of the newsletter and additional leaflets published by the collective…
We previously looked at the New Ultra-Left Review / Intercom project from the early 1980s. Thanks to Mark for sending us this 12 page supplement to NU-LR which takes the form of correspondence between the Wildcat group and various respondents to the pilot issue.
As previously noted, the idea behind Intercom was that editorial and publication duties would rotate between various groups. The initial plan was for the first couple of issues to be produced by the Careless Talk Collective, then Wildcat, then Subversive Graffiti but, as we will see, this did not quite pan out…
The Careless Talk Collective was a group based around Newcastle Under Lyme in Staffordshire which produced a series of leaflets, newsletters and occasionally a magazine of the same name. It variously described itself as a libertarian or revolutionary anarchist grouping.
Some leaflets put out under the name of “Libertarians Living in the Potteries” would appear to be part of the same stable, or an earlier name used by the individuals involved.
In time key members of the collective were to move away from Staffs and to merge into the Wildcat group.
We have seven or so issues of Careless Talk from 1983 to 1985 and three leaflets issued by Libertarians Living in the Potteries.
CARELESS TALK COLLECTIVE Archive
Subversive Graffiti was another libertarian group based in Aberdeen which again produced a number of newsletters, magazines and leaflets.
We have eight leaflets or issues of Subversive Graffiti- only one of which appears to be numbered: Subversive Graffiti no4 February March 1982
A copy of issue 8 exists at the Sparrows Nest which we hope to obtain soon.
A note in Intercom no3 mentions the winding up of the Subversive Graffiti collective as key members moved away from Aberdeen. At least one of these was subsequently involved in the Edinburgh / Glasgow based news-sheet Counter-Information which ran for around sixty issues from 1984 and focussed initially on actions in support of striking miners.
A useful history of CI- cribbed from Lib Com- can be found here.
Usually a four page (A3 folded to A4) sheet, CI was occasionally issued as a tabloid.
Some of our copies have written on “distributed by Wildcat”.
We have most issues of Counter Information- a combination of our scans and those of the Sparrows Nest. The numbering / dating of early issues is a little confused. We do not think we have the first issue and there appear to be two which may chronologically be considered number three…
Splits and Fusions 
Thanks for publishing this.
The “libertarians in North Staffs” was indeed the earlier name of the Careless Talk Collective. I was a member of it from 1981 to 1983 and it was a mix of council communists and anarchists, based mainly in Newcastle under Lyme but with others from the wider Potteries area.
One prominant member was the late Bob Miller https://libcom.org/history/miller-bob-1953-2011
It saw itself as a sister organisation to the pre-Subversion Wildcat group and, as well as Intercom, was heavily involved in the North West Anarchist Federation.
One offshoot of Careless Talk was Stafford Anarchists, which published two issues of the boringly named Stafford Libertarian Newsletter and a couple of local flyers, before merging with the early Anarchist Communist Federation.
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Thanks, that is very useful.
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