The anarchists in London, 1935-1955

Meltzer, Albert

Cienfuegos Press

Anarchism, arguments for and against (New anarchist library)

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Back in print and featuring a new foreword by the authors, this polemic approaches the subject of anarchism in relation to class struggle. It presents an argument against class-based society and hierarchy and advocates for a free and equal society based on individual dignity and merit. Drawing from the authors’ experiences as activists and documenting the activities of other 20th-century anarchists—including clandestine activities and social change by any means—this fundamental text asserts that government is the true enemy of the people and that only through the dissolution of government can the people put an end to exploitation and war, leading to a fully free society.

The Floodgates of Anarchy

Christie, Stuart

PM Press

A collection of essays, remembrances, writings, and obituaries by and for a beloved British anarchist.

The Albert Memorial: The Anarchist Life and Times of Albert Meltzer (7 January 1920 - 7 May 1996)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

AK Press

This is the second revised edition of Anarchism: Arguments For and Against and was the edition that Albert Meltzer was working on at the time of his death on May 7th, 1996. This book was an important one to Albert and it was one whose arguments he came back to often in his other writings.
Albert had become increasingly concerned about what he saw as the ghettoisation of anarchism. Separated from the working class base so necessary to achieve social revolution, anarchism could easily fall into the twin traps of philosophical radicalism or revolutionary arrogance, the "we're more militant than anyone else" approach. Both stands have appeared in British anarchism alongside a sometimes demoralising and destructive incestuous approach to revolutionary change. Anarchists talk only to other anarchists and are unable to relate to the vast majority of people who are not of their belief and see anarchism as a rather exotic or illogical idea.
This then was Albert's attempt to examine arguments people may have about why anarchism can never work and to counter them. He also examines the basic tenets of anarchist thought and practice and in doing so destroys some of the myths that have been created about anarchist theory and action. It's a book fro those of us who try to win people over to our ideas in everyday life and such it is a book that tries to break down the walls of the ghetto that anarchism has become trapped in.

Anarchism: Arguments For and Against

History

Americas

Albert Meltzer (1920–1996) was involved actively in class struggles since the age of 15; exceptional for his generation in having been a convinced anarchist from the start, without any family background in such activity. A lively, witty account of sixty years in anarchist activism, and a unique recounting of many struggles otherwise distorted or unrecorded, including the history of the contemporary development of anarchism in Britain and other countries where he was involved, notably Spain. His story tells of many struggles, including for the first time, the Anglo-Spanish cooperation in the postwar anti-Franco resistance and provides interesting sidelights on, amongst others, the printers' and miners' strikes, fighting Blackshirts and the battle of Cable Street, the so-called Angry Brigade activities, the Anarchist Black Cross, the Cairo Mutiny and wartime German anti-Nazi resistance, the New Left of the 60s, the rise of squatting—and through individuals as varied as Kenyata, Emma Goldman, George Orwell, Guy Aldred, and Frank Ridley—all of which have crowded out not only his story, but his life too.

I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels

The Anarchists in London, 1935-55

Freedom Press

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Books by Meltzer, Albert