Albert Meltzer | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Albert Isidore Meltzer (1920-01-07)7 January 1920 Hackney, London, England |
| Died | 7 May 1996(1996-05-07) (aged 76) Weston-super-Mare,Somerset, England |
| Movement | Anarchist |
Albert Isidore Meltzer (7 January 1920 – 7 May 1996) was an Englishanarcho-communist activist and writer.
Meltzer was born inHackney, London, ofJewish ancestry, and educated atThe Latymer School,Edmonton. He was attracted toanarchism at the age of fifteen as a direct result of takingboxing lessons where he met Billy Campbell, a seaman, boxer and anarchist.[1][2]
As theSpanish Revolution turned into theSpanish Civil War, Meltzer became active organising solidarity appeals. He involved himself with smuggling arms fromHamburg to theCNT in Spain and acted as a contact for the Spanish anarchist intelligence services in Britain. At this time he had a part as an extra inLeslie Howard's filmPimpernel Smith,[3] as Howard wanted more authentic actors playing the anarchists. In theSecond World War he registered as aconscientious objector on 9 March 1940, but later renounced his objection, enlisting in thePioneer Corps in 1945. He took part in amutiny inCairo in late 1946.[4]
Meltzer believed that the only true type of anarchism wascommunistic. He opposed theindividualist anarchism of people such asBenjamin Tucker, believing that the private police that some individualists support would constitute a government.[5][a]
Albert Meltzer was a contributor in the 1950s to the long-running anarchist paperFreedom before leaving in 1965 to start his own venture Wooden Shoe Press. Soon Meltzer was to be involved in a long and bitter dispute with fellow anarchist and former comrade at Freedom PressVernon Richards which entangled many of their associates and the organisations with which they were involved and continued after both their deaths. Although the feud started in a dispute arising from the possibility of Wooden Shoe moving into Freedom premises, there were also political differences. Meltzer advocated a more firebrand and proletarian variety of anarchism than Richards and often denounced him and the Freedom collective as "liberals".
Meltzer was a co-founder of the anarchist newspaperBlack Flag and was a prolific writer on anarchist topics. Amongst his books wereAnarchism, Arguments For and Against (originally published byCienfuegos Press),[9]The Floodgates of Anarchy (co-written withStuart Christie) and his autobiography,I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, published byAK Press shortly before his death.[1]
Meltzer also was involved in the founding of theAnarchist Black Cross. The imprisonment ofStuart Christie, jailed in 1964 for his part in a plot to assassinateFrancisco Franco, led to the spotlight being placed onanarchist resistance and the fate of other anarchist prisoners. Meltzer campaigned for Christie's release and when he was freed in 1967 Christie joined with Albert to launch theAnarchist Black Cross, to call forsolidarity with those anarchists left behind in prison. This solidarity gave practical help, such as food and medicine, to the prisoners, and helped force the Spanish state to apply its own parole rules. One of the first prisoners the Anarchist Black Cross helped free wasMiguel Garcia, a veteran of the Spanish anarchist resistance, as well aswartime resistance in France. After serving 20 years in Spanish jails he moved to London to work with the Anarchist Black Cross. At the time, Albert was a printworker—acopytaker with theconservativeThe Daily Telegraph[10]—and managed to get Garcia work in the trade.
Meltzer also helped to found theKate Sharpley Library.[11] He was involved in producing the library's publications, and helped shape its philosophy.[12]
He joined theanarcho-syndicalistDirect Action Movement in the early 80s and was a member of it, and its successor organisation theSolidarity Federation until his death. He was originally a member of the Central London Direct Action Movement branch, but when that wound up he joined theDeptford branch, as he lived inLewisham. He died after a stroke at the 1996 Solidarity Federation Conference inWeston-super-Mare. His biographyI Couldn't Paint Golden Angels: Sixty Years of Commonplace Life and Anarchist Agitation was published in 1996, with illustrations byChris Pig.[1]
Acting on behalf of – and with – the boy's natural father, in 1983 he was charged with harbouring an 8-year-old boy who had beenkidnapped by his birth mother from hisadoptive mother on the way to school.[13] He was acquitted.[14] The birth mother was under the mistaken belief that she could not be convicted of kidnapping her natural child, the law having changed weeks earlier. She was later acquitted because she was under the mistaken belief that her son was being abused. Reporting of the case in City Limits described Meltzer as a 'gentle and generous soul who is one of the leading figures in British anarchism'. Police examination of seized diaries and address books led them to interview a doctor specialising in diseases of the gums, something Meltzer himself attributed to his poor handwriting and the similarity of the words gun and gum.[14]
[...]; the school of Benjamin Tucker -- by virtue of their individualism -- accepted the need for police to break strikes so as to guarantee the employer's 'freedom'. All this school of so-called Individualists accept, at one time or another, the necessity of the police force, hence for Government, and the definition of anarchism is no Government.
The political or philosophical trajectory of his life saw him begin as a fervent young communist, moving through many schools of Anarchism, and then into individualism and Egoism. Parker explicitly turned away from the anarchist views of his earlier years, and remained an egoist thereafter.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Let Carnegie, Dana & Co. first see to it that every law in violation of equal liberty is removed from the statute-books. if, after that, any laborers shall interfere with the rights of their employers, or shall use force upon inoffensive "scabs," or shall attack their employers' watchmen, whether these be Pinkerton detectives, sheriff's deputies, or the State militia, I pledge myself that, as an Anarchist and in consequence of my Anarchistic faith, I will be among the first to volunteer as a member of a force to repress these disturbers of order and, if necessary, sweep them from the earth. But while these invasive laws remain, I must view every forcible conflict that arises as the consequence of an original violation of liberty on the part of the employing classes, and, if any sweeping is done, may the laborers hold the broom!
