Jim Campbell (Julie Thiers) Fonds/Collection
Biographical History
Jim Campbell (1949-2007) was an anarchist and publisher, primarily devoted to prison activism. Campbell was born on November 20, 1949 in Shelburn, Ontario, and grew up on the family farm near Orangeville. In the 1960s Campbell studied mathematics at the University of Waterloo and became active in the anarchist movement. In the late 1970s Campbell helped establish the anarchist “Dragonfly” commune in Bancroft, Ontario, which still operates; he left the commune in 1981. Campbell supported his activist activities as a City of Toronto municipal worker.
Campbell was a significant figure through his involvement in the formation of the Bulldozer collective in Toronto and the launch of the Bulldozer journal in 1980. Bulldozer was modeled on the Vancouver anarchist journal Open Road, where Campbell volunteered in 1977. Regarding Bulldozer Campbell stated: “We never wrote long essays telling prisoners what they should think. Rather we tried to provide a forum in which prisoners, individually and collectively, could articulate and develop their politics.”
Campbell dialogued with Indigenous activists, the anarchist Black Panthers, anarchist feminists, and others. He was also associated with the anarchist urban guerilla group Direct Action (see Ann Hansen Fonds), which bombed a BC Hydro substation on Vancouver Island in May 1982, and a Litton Industries Cruise Missile Guidance Systems factory in Toronto in October 1982. Campbell produced Bulldozer in a collective house which was raided by police in 1983. After a hiatus, Campbell assisted with the publication of the prison newsletter the Marionette and helped launch a successor to Bulldozer, Prison News Service.
Campbell continued to be engaged in furthering the anarchist movement in Canada until his death September 17, 2007 in Maynooth Ontario, at age 57. Campbell is survived by his partner, Julie Thiers.
Scope and Content
The fonds consists of correspondence from Jim Campbell to Malcolm Archibald (1976-1981). Also includes an Easter 1976 b&w photograph of Malcolm Archibald, Patricia Hughes and Jim Campbell; a copy of Bulldozer newsletter; and an unpublished article by Stu Vickars for Kick It Over (2007). Also includes a CD-R copy of an interview with Jim Campbell from the 1990s re the Ontario “Dragonfly Commune” from the 1970s-1980s. The fonds reflects Babarash’s activities primarily relating to prisons and prisoners’ rights, and also consists of audio cassettes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, posters, publications, sketches, video cassettes, and an extensive collection of newsletters. Newsletter titles include Akwesasne Notes – Mohawk Nation, Black Panther: Black Community News Service, Crossroad, The Insurgent: Newsletter of the Committee to Fight Repression, No more gages: Women’s Prison Newsletter.