Saturday 1 August 2015

Freedom: A Managerial Mystery Story


ANDY Meinke merely adds to the mystery behind the 'election' of Richard Parry as a director to the Friends of Freedom Press Board (FFP).  The Articles of Association of FFP clearly state that a new Director must be elected after an existing director has given notice 'of his intention to propose such a person for election, and also notice in writing signed by that person (in this case Richard Parry) of his willingness to be elected'.  Now Richard by his own admission didn't know he had been elected, and until now only FFP Company Secretary, Steven Sorba, seemed to have been aware that Richard had been registered with Companies House on the 20th, February 2012 as a director of Friends of Freedom Press. 

 

That was the position as it was understood until this week, but now Andy Meinke has intervened to write that it was he and the Freedom Collective that 'recommended' Richard Parry to the 'then directors' when the 'Freedom Collective had a meeting in 2011 and suggested some people and Richard responded'.  Andy doesn't say to whom on the FFP Board he and / or the Collective 'recommended' the name of Mr.Parry, but I suppose it would be reasonable to assume that it was to Company Secretary Sorba.  Neither of the other two directors, Donald Rooum or Sonia Markham, seem to have had any knowledge of the existence of Richard as a director when asked in 2014.

 

The problem here is that the FFP Company Secretary, Mr. Stephen Charles Sorba (appointed to FFP Board on 22nd, April 2002), is not just the only director to be aware that Richard Parry was registered as a director with Companies House, it is Mr. Sorba, who as manager of Algate Press, had the expense of printing Freedom newspaper for free and therefore benefited when it closed down.  I suppose this is what is called a conflict of interest.

 

Meanwhile, people are asking what does Andy Meinke, and the Freedom Collective do in Angel Alley, now that Freedom newspaper no longer exists.  Andy himself has described the premises as an 'anarcho-hangout' - a kind of gang-hut for a Whitechapple elite who claim to represent the 'anarchist movement'.  I can't think that this is something that either Peter Kropotkin or Vernon Richards would have welcomed.

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