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Albert Meltzer
Anarchist, born January 7, 1920; died May 7, 1996
An Obituary by Alice Nutter
"The least, or (if you wish) most you can say for me is I never give up."
Albert Meltzer, '95
Albert Meltzer never did give up. A teenager boxer and the "oldest hooligan
in town", Albert was a class struggle anarchist from 1935 onwards. When we
met him in October 1994 he was still defending anarchism from anything
which would dilute the politics and the sting. As far as Albert was
concerned you couldn't be an anarchist christian, an anarchist capitalist
or an anarchist spiritualist. Albert believed that anarchism was about
fighting privilege. Anybody who didn't want to overturn the class structure
couldn't call themselves an anarchist in Albert's hearing.
A working class boy, brought up in the East End of London, Albert loved
books and boxing. By 15 he was already calling himself an anarchist. His
first claim to fame was when he stood up at a public meeting and defended
boxing against Emma Goldman, prompting her to say of him: "A young
Hooligan. A rascal who knows nothing of anarchism or syndicalism." Even
when he was three quarters of a century old, Albert was still calling
himself a hooligan, and still arguing his case.
Albert lived through some extraordinary times. He helped to smuggle arms to
the anarcho-syndicalists in the Spanish Civil War - and he acted as a
contact for the Spanish anarchist intelligence service. Albert and a group
of other anarchists decided to register as a conscientious objector during
the Second World War, but because they were not pacifists, the plan was to
cause a fuss and then when the draft papers came, enlist. The British
government didn't want anarchist troublemakers disturbing army moral; it
was 1944 before Albert was drafted. Even then he was kept in Britain until
after Europe was 'liberated'. When he was finally shipped out to Eygpt in
'46, he took part in Soldiers' Councils, and then a minor mutiny. By the
time Albert was finally demobbed he'd thumped an officer, mutineered, been
court marshalled twice, and ended up as a 'barrack room lawyer' -
representing soldiers in cases against the army.
Albert had a story to mark almost every occassion, and the majority of them
were true. When the British Communists handed in their army issued weapons
at the end of the war, Albert derided them as sheep. Along with other
anarchists, Albert buried his weapons on a bombsite, planning to retrieve
them when they were needed. When they finally went back to dig up the arms
stash, they found the town planners had buggered up the struggle by
building a tower block.
The variety of jobs Albert had, matched his appetite for life. Early on he
was a boxer, actor - he appeared as an anarchist extra in Leslie Howard's
Pimpernel Smith, after Howard insisted on using 'real' anarchists -
fairground worker, theatre manager, warehouseman, bookseller, printer, type
setter, and finally a Fleet Street copytaker - fot the Daily Telegraph.
Albert was never confused about class, and he never let himself be 'bought
off'. He knew that there was no glamour in poverty, and that taking the
bosses' money while refusing to kiss his arse was a stronger statement than
staying poor. When we interviewed Albert for "i: Portraits of Anarchists"
Albert was clear about which side he was on:
"When I worked in print we earned more than the management, but we were
still working class. It's what you know, who you identify with. People
mistake affluence for class."
In the '50s the British anarchist movement was torn apart by conflict and
feuding. According to Albert, liberials were trying to make anarchism serve
their own ends, while he maintained that anarchism had to remain a
revolutionary working class movement. There's a lot of truth in that, but
anarchists who were in London at that time claim that the story is
complicated by Albert and Vernon Richards (Freedom) falling in love with
the same woman. In the '60s Albert finally broke with the moderates
associated with Freedom Press, whom he called academics, mandarins,
liberials and 'non-violent' fascists. In 1967 he got together with Stuart
Christie, who'd just got out of Spanish prison for running arms to Spain.
Together they started the Anarchist Black Cross - since then the Black
Cross has supported jailed anarchists and political prisoners all over the
world. In '68, Albert and Stuart Christie started Bulletin which became
Black Flag in 1970. Along with others Albert has been involved in editing
Black Flag (unpaid) on and off for the last 26 years. In January this year,
Albert came up to Bradford's 1 in12 Club for a Black Flag Readers' meeting.
Nobody could accuse Albert of being a fair weather friend.
In the '70s Albert had links with the Angry Brigade, using Black Flag to
rally public support for them when they came to trial. Albert's last big
venture was helping to set up the Kate Sharpley Library - named after a
First World War Anarchist and anti militarist. The Kate Sharpley Library is
probably the largest collection of anarchist material in England, and in
addition to storing anarchist books and pamphlets, regularly publishes lost
areas of anarchist history. Albert was well aware that history is a weapon
and amnesia serves the interests of the rich. The Kate Sharpley Library
preserves working class experiences, at a time when the state is trying to
deny the very existence of the working class.
When Albert slipped into a coma at the beginning of May he was at a
conference in Weston Super Mare. He was hospitalised there and died a few
days later. Albert Meltzer enjoyed a good scrap, he didn't concede much but
he respected anybody who put up a good fight. In the limited time that we
knew him we found that he was also good hearted, generous and considerate.
You could argue with him one week and the next he'd invite you to his
birthday party.
The week he died there were 53 of us (from Bradford's 1 in 12 and
Nottingham anarchists) visited Barcelona for May Day. The trip had been set
up with contacts that Albert had supplied. In January, Albert wasn't well
and said that he might take a backseat in politics for a while; it never
happened. Albert Meltzer was a fighter till the day he died.
"Personally, I want to die in dignity but my passing celebrated with
jollity. I've told my executors that I want a stand-up comedian in the
pulpit telling amusing anecdotes, and the coffin is to slide into the
incinerator to the sound of Marlene Dietrich. If the booze-up can begin
right away, so much the better, and with a bit of luck the crematorium will
never be gloomy again. Anyone mourning should be denounced as the
representative of a credit card company and thrown out on their ear.
Snowballs, if in season, tomatoes if not, can be thrown at anyone uttering
even worthy cliches like 'the struggle goes on' and should anyone of a
religious mind offer pieces of abstract consolation they should be prepared
to dodge pieces of concrete confrontation."
Albert Meltzer, 1995
Writings include:
The Floodgates of Anarchy (with Stuart Christie)
The Anarchists in London
Anarchism - Arguments for and Against
The Origins of the Anarchist Movement in China
First Flight: the Origins of Anarch Syndicalism in Britain
(ed) Miguel Garcia's Story
Autobiography - I couldn't Paint Golden Angels (published by AK Press)
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