Launched in 1968 Black Dwarf set out to fill a space on the rejuvenated radical left for a popular publication. A broadsheet pre-issue distributed free on May Day demonstrations announced the ‘birth of a small dark stranger’, a fortnightly alternative to the ‘Un-Free Press’ which would ‘write about real politics: the things done to this country by oil magnates, bankers, sterling and property speculators, insurance companies, strike breakers and press lords’. Conceived by the literary agent Clive Goodwin, and named by the poet Christopher Logue, and drew on the further talents of Tariq Ali, designer Robin Fior and poet Adrian Mitchell among others. In contrast to the more theoretical journals, such as New Left Review, Black Dwarf was conceived as ‘a political action, not just a means of communication, not just a way of striking attitudes’ and adopted a striking and confrontational style more characteristic of the alternative and countercultural press.
