Stuart Christie

Stuart Christie (born 10 July 1946) is a Scottish anarchist writer and publisher. As an 18-year-old Christie was arrested while carrying explosives to assassinate the Spanish dictator General Franco. He was later alleged to be a member of the Angry Brigade, but was acquitted of related charges. He went on to found the Cienfuegos Press publishing house and in 2008 the online Anarchist Film Channel which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and libertarian themes.

Christie was born in the Partick area of Glasgow and raised in Blantyre by his mother and grandparents, becoming an anarchist at a young age. He ascribes this to his grandmother's influence, "Basically, what she did was provide a moral barometer which married almost exactly with that of libertarian socialism and anarchism, and she provided the star which I followed." He joined the Anarchist Federation in Glasgow in 1962, at the age of 16. He became active in CND campaigns, attracted to the more militant approach of the Direct Action Committee and Committee of 100 and took part in the confrontational Faslane Naval Base CND demonstration on 14 February 1963, among others.

On the last day of July 1964, an 18-year-old Christie departed London for Paris, where he picked up plastic explosives from the anarchist organisation Defensa Interior, and then Madrid on a mission to kill General Francisco Franco. This was to be one of at least thirty attempts on the dictator's life.

Before he left England, he was interviewed for a television programme with Malcolm Muggeridge, a known MI6 contact, and asked whether he felt the assassination of Franco would be right. He answered that it would; when the programme was broadcast after his arrest in Spain, these comments were edited out.

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