The Angry Brigade, or the First Urban Guerrilla Group
The Angry Brigade was Britain’s answer to Baader-Meinhof, and with its foot-stamping name and rather hapless operational record, it is remembered more as an episode of Monty Python than a chapter in the book of 1970s terror organizations. None of their bombings ever hurt anyone, and they were careful at all times to use explosive devices small enough to create a bang, and maybe cause a little bit of damage, but not kill anyone if at all possible. The power was in the claim of responsibility, and these were sent to all any who would pay any attention.
The group never exceeded nine members, and most of the time it was the four original founders John Barker, Hilary Creek, Anna Mendelson and Jim Greenfield who held the fort. The Angry Brigade was responsible for a series of bomb attacks in the early 1970s, mostly aimed at embassies of far-right regimes and the homes of cabinet ministers. Also included in the long list of things and people that made the group angry were the British Army, the various British police forces, property speculators, sundry capitalists and even the Miss World Contest.
Each attack was followed by a lengthy communiqué detailing the individual motivation, written with a children’s letterpress system that became the group’s signature, and also what brought it down. Leaving behind a paper-trail of forensic clues, coupled with the distinctive writing style of the author, John Barker, the group was eventually tracked down and all of its members arrested.
What followed was one of the longest criminal trials in British history. The first to be tried was Jake Prescott, whose memorable testimony in court revealed that he was the only really ‘angry’ one and that the others belonged to the ‘Slightly Cross Brigade’. Nonetheless, John Barker, Jim Greenfield, Hilary Creek and Anna Mendleson all received prison sentences of ten years. While some of the evidence presented by the state was considered dubious, Barker, with disarming candor, admitted that the ‘guilty man has been framed’.
Probably the most important upshot of the whole Angry Brigade saga was the formation in Britain of a dedicated bomb squad, later the Anti-Terrorist Unit, and the arrest and imprisonment of dozens of other less high profile left-wing militant groups.