The British anarchist movement had been revitalized during the time of the
miners' strike of 1984–1985, which had drawn many new people to anarchism and caused a number of anarchist organizations to spring up in the wake of
Class War. In 1984, a number of former members of the
Libertarian Communist Group established the
Libertarian Communist Discussion Group (LCDG), drawing inspiration from texts such as the
Platform by
Nestor Makhno and the
Manifesto of Libertarian Communism by
Georges Fontenis. The LCDG then began to collaborate with the editor of
Virus magazine and started publishing their own texts about
anarcho-communism, changing their name again to the
Anarchist Communist Discussion Group (ACDG). After the split of Syndicalist Fight (SyF) from the
Direct Action Movement (DAM) in 1986, the ACDG merged together with SyF and established the
Anarchist Communist Federation (ACF). Throughout the late-1980s, the ACF drew together many people that were new to anarchism, which effectively made it into an entirely new organization, almost completely disconnected from its roots. At the beginning of the 1990s, they participated in the
poll tax riots, calling for "the abolition of all hierarchy" and "the creation of a worldwide classless society". According to a 1991 report by the
Economic League an
anti-socialist blacklisting group, the ACF had quickly become "second only to Class War" in terms of its "militancy and commitment to violence". Although a small organization, much of the ACF's influence came from its "cordial relationships" with other
libertarian socialist groups, cooperating particularly closely with the
autonomous Marxists of
Subversion. In 1999, the ACF changed its name one final time, becoming the
Anarchist Federation (AF). According to an interview with founding members of the AF, this was in order to shorten the name and to clarify that it was not an alliance of anarchists with other forms of communists. In 2014, following a series of acts of
vandalism and
arson by
green anarchists, a large police investigation was launched into
Bristol's anarchist community, to which the Bristol Anarchist Federation responded with a statement denouncing the
police's "concerted effort to intimidate and divide" local anarchists. In 2018, a "class struggle" anarchist faction within the AF split to form the Anarchist Communist Group (ACG) due to alleged support of "
identity politics" within the AF. In February 2020,
eco-socialist activists connected to the Anarchist Federation took part in the
occupation of
Paddington Green Police Station, but they were swiftly evicted. ==Publications==