Photograph of Walter Morrison, community activist and ex-soldier
Walter Morrison, Glasgow 'Eskimo', community activist and former soldier who rejected war. Born 20 March 1924, died 6 February 6 2004 The milieu in which the anti-nuclear Scottish Committee of 100 flourished no longer exists, its activists having long since adopted other agendas. However, its brief flowering will always be associated with the dynamic figure of Walter Morrison, who seemingly at birth had signed up for life as a private extraordinaire in the Awkward Squad. Morrison, who died in his eightieth year, fought courageously against the wrongs in society, proudly wore the badges of non-violence and libertarian socialism, and spoke his mind fearlessly no matter where he was or in whose company. Angered by the Clydebank blitz in 1940, the 16-year-old Morrison lied about his age and joined the army. He wanted to fight fascism, but in less than a week, he found little difference between this enemy and the bullying attitudes and practices within the British army. From then on Morrison’s war was fought on two fronts. Considered a difficult case, he was shunted from the Royal Scots Guards to the Black Watch, then on to the Parachute Regiment. During a visit by King George VI, the king politely asked him how he was being treated, to which the good soldier Morrison replied: ‘Terrible.’ He was sent to India on the first available troop ship. Morrison’s pacifism grew from his army experiences in India. During the Gandhi demonstrations in 1942, the troops were briefed that they would be facing women and children protestors. The 18-year-old asked what they would be expected to do if they refused to halt. ‘Open fire,’ was the curt answer. Walter promptly stood up and said he would be the first to open fire: he would personally shoot any soldier who turned their gun on a woman or a child, and he would then shoot the officer who gave the order. His feet scarcely touched the ground on the way to the glasshouse. Morrison was placed in solitary confinement and singled out for sadistic treatment. He told his superiors that unless the NCO responsible backed off, he would kill the next man who entered his cell. Morrison won the case but was wracked with guilt over the moral quandary that he would have had to kill the first person — friend or enemy — who entered his cell. It was that incident which started him on his lifelong commitment to non-violence. Although charged on a number of occasions with incitement to mutiny, he never faced a full court-martial; his sentences were always confinement to barracks, 30-days loss of pay or downgradement. He ended his army career and returned to Glasgow in 1946, without a war pension. (Walter’s army experiences are told in Peter Grafton’s book, ‘You, you and you — The people out of step with WWII) Pluto, 1981.) The arrival of the US Polaris submarine fleet in the Holy Loch in 1960 turned Glasgow into ground zero for any Soviet pre-emptive nuclear missile strike. Morrison was involved from the start in the campaign to stop US Polaris missiles being based in the Holy Loch. He became a leading light of the Scottish Committee of 100 and was in the thick of all the demonstrations from the day the submarines arrived. A man of deeds as well as words, Morrison was drawn to the more libertarian and action-oriented Scottish Committee of 100, rather than the passive, celebrity-and-politician-dominated CND. The personal example Morrison set to others, coupled with his fame as a rebel, gave him considerable status among the young militants on the committee. My memories are of him standing single-handedly in Glasgow streets and at demonstrations around Scotland, surrounded by menacing and hostile opponents while arguing his case against the bomb. His tenacity and fortitude in going out in all weathers to demonstrate in the most hostile locations, often alone, was truly inspiring. Protest was a family affair around the Morrison household. Walter's wife, Agnes Lygate, whom he married in 1953, and neighbour in Govan, Eleanor Hinds, wife of writer Archie Hinds, both early feminists, were founders of Women Against the Bomb and Youth against the Bomb. Betty Campbell, his later partner was, his constant support in the Corkerhill Community Council to which Morrison dedicated his life from 1976 to 2002. On one occasion Morrison was setting up his tent on the foreshore of the Holy Loch, near Ardnadam pier which serviced the Polaris submarines and their support ships — it being illegal to camp on the land — when he was called over by someone waving to him from a large American car by the roadside. In the rear of the car were three men who addressed him by name, two from the Ministry of Defence’s ‘Psychological Warfare Group’ in Dundee and the third an American of uncertain military or security provenance. They proceeded to warn Walter and his friends that they were out to get the so-called Scots Against War, a group who at the time were involved in publishing official secrets plus carrying out sabotage and other forms of direct action against military installations throughout Scotland. One of the MoD men pointed to the dark waters of the loch and told Walter that he was involved in a dangerous business and that it would be so easy for people like him to disappear, never to be found. Walter was a hard man, but this personal threat was something quite new and alarming to him. A week after I was arrested in Spain in 1964, having been caught playing a part in a plot to assassinate the country’s dictator, General Franco, Morrison hitched-hiked from Glasgow to London to hold a fast and a picket the Spanish embassy — having first telephoned Scotland Yard to ask permission. No sooner had he settled down on the pavement when a police van drew up and four policemen jumped out, bundled him into the van and drove to an unidentified London police station. Instead of being charged and taken to the police cells, he was escorted to what seemed like a large gym hall where three men sat at a table, one in police uniform and the other two in civvies. Morrison was then aggressively questioned about his relationship with me, about the Committee of 100 and again about the Scots Against War group, who had recently set fire to Ardnadam pier in the Holy Loch. Walter was an old hand at being arrested and locked up, but the sinister and surreal events of that night shook him up so badly that he resigned for a time from the Scottish Committee of 100. After the Committee of 100 petered out a few years later, Morrison and Betty Campbell became pivotal figures in the Corkerhill Community Council, campaigning for improved housing, safer roads, play parks and improved people integration. Walter and his team brought international recognition to Corkerhill, a tiny housing scheme on the south side of Glasgow with just 1,300 tenants. When it received a World Health Organisation award, the only community in the UK to qualify. When the award-winning community centre was closed after a long-running dispute with Glasgow City Council, Walter refused to bow out quietly, defiantly holding a flag-lowering ceremony as a final protest. On the last day, a large crowd turned out to see the flag of the WHO solemnly lowered over the centre. When the M77 carved through the south side of Glasgow, it was Corkerhill, led by Walter Morrison, who led the way organising resistance and winning major concessions. Corkerhill was also the very first community in Glasgow to house the Vietnamese Boat People. In 1998 when Morrison was at Buckingham Palace being awarded an MBE for his services to the Corkerhill community, the Queen’s corgis had been running around the room unchecked and generally intimidating everyone. He said to HM: ‘You know, Ma’am, if those dugs ran around like that in Corkerhill where I come from, I’d shoot the lot of them.’ With a twinkle in his eye, of course. He is survived by his partner Betty Campbell, his daughter Leigh and his son Grant. Walter Morrison MBE, community activist, born March 20, 1924; died February 6, 2004" Stuart Christie, 2011
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George Williamson, 'Scots Against War' (SAW) and Secretary of the Scottish Committee of 100.
"Another of the many 'events' organised by the Scottish Committee of 100 in July 1963 was a two-month march from Glasgow to London via Dunfermline on the Firth of Forth, carrying a 24-foot long cardboard model of a Polaris rocket, which had been made in Josh Macrae’s basement. It was an anti-nuclear re-run of the Jarrow March of the 1930s. As a Glasgow police inspector drily observed to George Williamson, the organiser of the march, ‘Ah canny help but note that this march tae London is heading due north. Is therr somethin’ ahm missin’ here?’ Of the 35 people who started out, I believe only 5 completed the march all the way on foot, in early September. One of those was Bill Beveridge, but I can’t remember who the others were. George Williamson usually went ahead by bus (to organise accommodation and refreshments at the next stop; a feature of the trip, which was celebrated in a commemorative song at the time). ‘On the Glasgow march to London There were 24 of us Twenty-three were marching And George was on the bus.’ Personally, I didn’t make it beyond Falkirk, the first night’s stop, as I had to be back at work on the Monday. Our arrival in the town had been heralded by the press, and among those waiting to meet us were the local female ‘beatniks’, with beehive hairdos, stiletto heels, pencil skirts and black PVC shortie coats. On one occasion, in the autumn of 1963 I think it was, I went out to Hamilton to look for George for some reason to do with the 'Scots Against War'. George wasn’t at home; he had gone off to the Locarno dance hall that night in search of 'executive and cultural relief' from the organisational and emotional demands made on him by the Glasgow Committee of 100. George’s mum, Annie, a rather douce and proper West of Scotland lady who did not entirely approve of George’s activities, invited me in for a cup of tea and a chat. Apparently I made such an impression on her — one so young going on so seriously about Spain and Franco — she said ‘Dae ye no’ think ye’d be better aff at the dancin’, son?’ George told me later that after the news broke of my arrest in Spain she gave a deep sigh and said: ‘Ah wish tae Gawd that wee boy hud taken ma advice and gawn tae the dancin’ an’ fun’ a nice wee girl instead!" Stuart Christie, July 2011
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Glasgow Federation of Anarchists march to Ardnadam Pier
"Alex Howie (left) carrying the GFA banner with Ken Sutherland directly behind him holding something over his shoulder, but not sure who anyone else is in this pic, including the guy with the Beatles haircut carrying the right-hand banner pole." Stuart Christie, September 2013
"Hyde Park Corner. Unfortunately, of the girls I can only remember Barbara's name. L2R: Ricky Cook, Barbara, and Ross Flett (with white mouse on his knee). Directly behind Ross is Ken Sutherland and me (SC) holding the SWF 'Strike Strategy' pamphlet we'd recently published." Stuart Christie, July 2011
"Ross Flett having a wee smoke before going out to work at Bassetts sweetie factory, keeping the 'Soor Ploom' machine up to speed (Photo: Ken Sutherland)" Stuart Christie, July 2011
Robert ‘Bobby’ Lynn, Glasgow anarchist and community activist.
"Born in the Calton, in the heart of Glasgow, in 1924 Robert Lynn (about whom Matt McGinn wrote one of his wonderful songs — 'Bobby Lynn's Shebeen' — in Ross Street) was educated at St. Mungo's Academy. Leaving school at 14 years of age he took up a shipyard engineering apprenticeship in Yarrows and became actively involved in the class struggle to improve wages and conditions there - a battle that had to be fought and refought in ensuing years. During the war years he was swept up in the maelstrom of political activity in the British shipyard and engineering industries. In 1943 the Tyneside strike — which saw Jock Haston and Roy Tearso imprisoned — quickly spread to the Clyde where many shipyards, including Yarrows where 'Bobby' worked, were brought to a halt. During WWII, the influential shop stewards' committees were dominated by the Communist Party, but their policy of subordinating workers' interests to those of the Soviet Union drew a withering fire from anarchists, Trotskyists and other anti-Stalinist socialists alike, an experience that had a profound effect on Robert, and it was then he began to nurture Bakuninist ideas and the industrial strategy of syndicalism. In post-war Glasgow Robert's influence in shipbuilding became increasingly irritating to both employers and CP-led union officials, and he was "blacklisted" with the complicity of both. Unable to work he joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer and spent some years seeing the world and its peoples, devouring libraries and absorbing the ideas of syndicalism and Stirnerism (Max Stirner's Conscious Egoist). Returning to Glasgow in the early fifties he threw himself into politics, marriage and trade union activity and was an active member of the Glasgow Anarchist Group, which at the time consisted of Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside and Eddie Shaw, well-respected names in local and international anarchist circles. As George Woodcock said: The Glasgow Anarchist Group is the only group in the world where the egocentric philosophies of Max Stirner took root and were given popular expression. The anarchists held an open workers forum in Renfrew Street, Glasgow where anarchists, CPGB, nationalists and Trotskyists debated - sometimes physically. In an open air arena ordinary working class men and women discussed, passionately, the ideas of Feurbuch, Clara Zetkin, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many, many others. Robert Lynn revelled in this, what he called the University of Life. In the late fifties, with the death of Raeside and the departure abroad of of Leach and Shaw, the Glasgow Anarchist Group disintegrated and the task of reorganisation was left to Robert. This he did by immersing himself in his local community of the Calton. He and Jean, his constant companion, became well-known, well-respected and to many — myself included — well-loved characters. Robert returned to industry and worked at Howden's engineering plant in Glasgow's South Side where he promoted his ideas of syndicalism and libertarianism. Sadly, thanks to trade union officials who immediately recognised the threat to their power, Robert's views did not meet with any great success. However it was the Glasgow Anarchist Group of the sixties and early seventies which proved the most fruitful for Robert's ideas; a massive blossoming of literature and direct action exploded on the scene. The publication of pamphlets such as Practical Anarchy and Why Vote?, all bearing Robert's signature, appeared and were avidly read by many people who, being disillusioned with political parties of all shades, were becoming increasingly attracted to the ideas of anarchism. Robert initiated a great number of events, especially the Glasgow Anarchist Summer School which attracted libertarian socialists from all over Britain. His death (on August 16 1996) was a shock to his family (Jean and daughters Jean, Joan and Betty), his many friends and comrades, and even to his political opponents. He was generous to a fault and although he did not suffer fools gladly he rarely had a bad word to say about anyone, even the worst of us. Loved deeply, missed sadly. " Stuart Christie, July 2011
Robert 'Bobby' Lynn, Glasgow anarchist and community activist
"(Photo taken at one of 'Bobby's' mystery 'bus-runs'. It was that mysterious I can't remember where it was, not sure even if we knew at the time. Nor can I remember the name of the man on the left.) ROBERT ‘BOBBY’ LYNN from the Calton in Glasgow’s East End was an enigmatic figure whose looks belied his personality. He was a cherubic-faced, rosy-cheeked, curly-haired, small and dapper, generous and non-judgemental man with piercing and slightly hooded blue eyes. Bobby was in his late thirties when I first met him. He had been involved in the Glasgow anarchist group throughout the 1950s and had been its backbone since the departure of older activists who had kept an anarchist presence in Glasgow in the face of massive hostility from the Labour and Communist Parties throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s: resilient activists such as Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside, Eddie Shaw, Willie McDougall, John T Caldwell, and Guy Aldred of the Strickland Press. Robert revelled in the street forums, which he called the University of Life. They certainly had their moments. I remember one exemplary SPGB graduate mounting the platform, drawing a ten-shilling note from his pocket and holding it dangling from his thumb and forefinger for a quarter of an hour or so while delivering a devastatingly witty attack on money. The audience of thirty or so were spellbound. There was not a single heckler, until he set fire to it. From what I remember, my first conversation with Bobby went something like the following; his was a line he used often in debates at the open workers’ forums in Renfrew Street and elsewhere. ‘But what about stealing?’ says I. ‘Nobody would steal’, says Robert, ‘because it would be a society of abundance. What would be the sense in stealing in such a society? Let’s take as an example man’s most precious material things. What would you say these were?’ ‘Air’, says I, ‘and water’. ‘Exactly’, says Robert, ‘and these are in abundance. Now how would you like to steal some air and some water and go around the Gallowgate trying to sell it? Now if we can create a society where everything else is in abundance and we can do that with modern technology, stealing would vanish.’ Who could argue with that? The elegance and trickiness of Robert’s dialectic typified his approach. It was Jesuitical, but his ‘patter’ and his cheery character was the trigger that won me over to anarchism. Robert also explained democracy to me. The anarchist or libertarian view held democracy to be an intrinsically liberating and fulfilling humanitarian ideal. The capitalist, on the other hand, saw democracy as an end in itself. It was a political instrument controlled through the party system of government by a few powerful leaders and a number of accommodating scoundrels and fawning stooges. Through the device of political parties, of both left and right, the ‘popular will’ could be efficiently and legitimately converted into a means of social control over individuals and property — on the assumption it was an expression of the wishes of the majority. My first visit to Ross Street in the Calton (where the group met) gave me an insight into the ‘dark side’ of Glasgow, one which I had previously known nothing about. It was dark and raining when I got off the tramcar at Glasgow Cross and as I hurried up the empty street under the railway bridge towards the Barrows, I suddenly found myself squeezed between two sinister- looking, razor-scarred, Glasgow hard men who appeared from nowhere and pushed me towards a close mouth. ‘Wherr ur you goin’ ’, said one. ‘Tae see a friend’, said I. ‘ ’Zat right’, said he. ‘Whaurr’s zis freen live?’ said the other. ‘Ross Street’, says I, trying not to sound fearful. ‘Whit’s his name, then, pal?’ said the first one. ‘Robert Lynn’, said I, and with the mention of Robert’s name the mood changed as though the sun had come out from behind a dark cloud. The second one said, sternly: ‘A wee boy like you shouldna be walkin’ the streets o’ the Calton on yer own’ and with that they escorted me right to the door of 4 Ross Street, chatting away as if they had known me all their lives. The Glasgow Anarchist Group met in this derelict ground floor single-end at 4 Ross Street, off the Gallowgate, next to the Glasgow Barrows. The room doubled as a ‘shebeen’, an illegal-drinking house where people came to drink or buy cheap South African fortified wines such as Lanliq. The scene, when I entered the room through a dark lobby, was dramatic. The room, lit by a naked lightbulb, was bare except for a long table around which were seated the unlikeliest looking collection of people I had seen in my life. It was Callan meets G.K.Chesterton’s Man Who Was Thursday; it was Alphonse Bertillon’s private photo album. Old ‘Red Clydesiders’, William Clarke Quantrill’s Confederate Army guerrilla raiders and ‘The Hole in the Wall Gang’ had come to life in a single end in Glasgow’s Calton. At the head of the long table sat Robert, who made me feel immediately welcome with a smile, a wave, a brief introduction to those seated at the table, a mug of sweet brown fortified wine and a chair. The ominous hush that had descended on the room when I made my entrance immediately lifted and the lively debate picked up where it had left off. Some of the men in this room were quite awesome, massively built and heavily scarred about their faces and appeared to me unusually aggressive with each other. One in particular, Scout O’Neill, had hands like a Belfast ham. If guns were to be bought in Glasgow, it would be here. In fact, Peter Manuel, the last man to be hanged in Scotland, in July 1958, was convicted because Scout had turned Queen’s Evidence when he discovered Manuel was a suspect in a series of seven murders in and around Glasgow between 1954 and 1958. Scout had sold him a gun, a Webley revolver, supposedly for a robbery he said he was planning. The heated and sometimes bellicose discussions were constantly disrupted by wee wifies coming in with empty jugs to buy wine. After the meetings we would usually go across the road to the Saracen’s Head, Robert’s local, one of the oldest and, at the time, one of the most notorious pubs in Glasgow. Robert had lived in Ross Street all his life. He and his wife Jean had a ‘single end’ (a room and a kitchen) upstairs from the shebeen. Like his French Stirnerite companions of ‘the idea’ — such as Jules Bonnot of the Bande A Bonnot, an anarchist group of bank expropriators in 1910 (who were the first organised robbers to use motor cars), and Marius Jacob whose 40-strong anarchist group burgled their way through the stately homes of France a few years earlier — Robert’s interpretation of anarchism gave meaning and legitimacy to the often questionable activities of some Hogarthian local characters. Many of these were regular participants in the Ross Street meetings and these were the faces around the table on that first night. There was nothing doctrinaire about these meetings; everyone spoke as they found, some of it bordering on what would be described today as ‘non-politically correct’, I thought, but all of them had the heart of the matter in them — socialism, in its truest sense. The younger, newer Glasgow anarchists, in spite of Robert Lynn’s Stirnerite sympathies, were solidly anarcho-syndicalist and we regularly sold Direct Action, the paper of the Syndicalist Workers’ Federation on the street corners of Glasgow. Robert’s favourite leisure pastime was organising ‘bus runs’ and he and Jean would put these on regularly for us and the couthy folk of the Calton. The ‘bus runs’ were a ‘rerr terr’ (Glaswegian for ‘top form’) and we all had a great time with our ‘cairy-oots’ and ‘sannies’. Occasionally we would stop at a café or restaurant for lunch and Scout O’Neill’s party trick, when the plate of steak pie, peas and potatoes arrived at the table, was to put his massive hands over the dinner plate and thus completely cover it. Scout always led the singing; in fact he acquired his sobriquet because he was constantly singing the Dave Willis song with the refrain I’m a scout, scout, scout. On one occasion we went on a bus run to Burntisland on the Firth of Forth, near Rosyth naval dockyard, and we had a visiting French anarchist with us, a lad of about 21 who also happened to be a deserter from the French Navy. The bar, in the British Legion hall, was full of ugly-looking Glasgow anarchists and Royal Navy sailors, plus some from a French naval vessel in port, but the atmosphere was friendly — until after a few ‘bevies’ a French sailor chatting to our French comrade called him a ‘coward’. Our man immediately threw a punch at the sailor and in a moment the place was in an uproar with chairs thrown at the bar, tables upturned and people swinging fists, glasses and bottles at each other. I felt as though I had been transported to the set of a John Wayne movie. The French Navy came off worse that night. I imagine they thought they’d docked in Marseilles by mistake! We made a hasty retreat to where the bus was parked, taking time to set fire to the Union Jack on the flagpole outside the bar, and all the time you could hear Scout singing ‘For I’m a scout, scout, scout….’ " Stuart Christie, July 2011
Robert "Bobby" Lynn, Glasgow anarchist and community activist
"I'm told this might be Bobby Lynn, but not corroborated. It could be the 1958 Arden and All-Scotland Rent-Increase Strike demonstration." Stuart Christie, July 2011
"Trawling through my digital shoebox I found this long forgotten photo of my old friend and comrade Robert 'Bobby' Lynn and, on his right, his wife Jean. It was clearly taken in the 'Barras' somewhere shortly before his death in 1996. Robert was immortalised in song by his close friend Matt McGinn, "Bobby Lynn's Shebeen" (an infamous Ross Street venue close to the Saracen's Head pub). Unfortunately I can't remember the name of the blonde lady on the left. This is my obituary for him in the Glasgow Herald: Robert Lynn, anarchist; born Calton, Glasgow, 1924, died August 16, 1996, Glasgow ROBERT Lynn has snuffed it. In the heart of Glasgow, the Calton - hundreds of people are genuinely mourning the loss of one of its best-loved sons. Born in the Calton in the East End of Glasgow in 1924, Robert went on to be educated at St Mungo's Academy. Leaving school at 14 years of age he took up an engineering apprenticeship in the shipyards. As a class-conscious teenager he was swept up in the maelstrom of political activity of the war years in the British shipyard and engineering industries. In 1943 the strike on Tyneside, which saw Jock Hasten and Roy Tearso imprisoned, quickly spread to the Clyde where many shipyards were brought to a halt. Robert worked in Yarrows as an apprentice and became actively involved in the struggle for better wages and conditions - a battle that had to be fought and refought in ensuing years. During the Second World War the influential shop stewards' committees were dominated by the Communist Party, but their policy of subordinating the workers' interests to those of Soviet Russia drew a withering fire from anarchists, Trotskyists and non-Communist Party socialists alike. This experience had a profound effect on Robert and it was then he began to nurture the ideas of Bakunin and the industrial strategy of syndicalism. In the post-war years Robert's influence in shipbuilding became increasingly irritating to both employers and communist-led union officials, so he was ``blacklisted'' with the approval of both sides. Unable to get work he joined the Merchant Navy as an engineering officer and spent some years seeing the world and its peoples. He devoured libraries and enveloped the beliefs of syndicalism and Stirnerism (Max Stirner's ``conscious egoist''). Returning to Glasgow in the early fifties he threw himself into everything: politics, marriage and trade-union activity. He became an active member of the Glasgow Anarchist Group which consisted of Frank Leach, Jimmy Raeside and Eddie Shaw, who were already well-respected names in anarchist circles. As the writer and academic anarchist George Woodcock asserted: ``The Glasgow Anarchist Group is the only group in the world where the egocentric philosophies of Max Stirner took root and were given popular expression.'' The anarchists held open workers' forums in Renfrew Street, Glasgow, where anarchists, Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB), nationalists, and Trotskyists regularly debated . . . sometimes physically. Here, in an open-air arena, ordinary working-class men and women discussed passionately the ideas of Feurbach, Clara Zetkin, Bakunin, Kropotkin and many, many others. Robert Lynn revelled in this - what he called the University of Life. In the late fifties, with the departure of Leach and Shaw abroad, the Glasgow Anarchist Group disintegrated and the reorganisation was left to Robert. This he did by immersing himself in his local community of the Calton where he and Jean, his constant companion, became well-known, well-respected and well-loved characters. Robert went back to industry, working at Howden's engineering plant in the South Side of Glasgow where he promoted his ideas of syndicalism and libertarianism. Sadly, thanks to trade union officials who quickly recognised the threat to their power, Robert's views did not meet with any great success. However, it was the Glasgow Anarchist Group of the early seventies which was to prove the most fruitful for Robert's ideas. There came a massive blossoming of literature and direct action which exploded on the scene. The publication of pamphlets such as Practical Anarchy and Why Vote? all bearing Robert's signature, appeared and were read avidly by many people who, disillusioned with political parties of all shades, were drawn to the ideas of anarchism. A great number of events were initiated by Robert, especially the now traditional Glasgow Anarchist Summer School which attract libertarian socialists from all over Britain. His death was a blow to his family, his many friends and comrades - and even to his political opponents. He was generous to a fault and although he did not suffer fools gladly he rarely had a bad word to say about anyone - even the worst of us. Robert is survived by Jean and daughters Jean, Joan and Betty" Stuart Christie, September 2019
Bobby Campbell, Glaswegian folk musician
"Just been reminded that today is the 15th anniversary of the untimely passing of Glaswegian folk musician, journalist, raconteur and activist, Bobby Campbell (1942-1997) (pictured here in 1973 — fiddling, on the left — with his longtime comrade Gordon Mcculloch). Fondly remembered!" Stuart Christie, July 2011
"My old mate, Albert (Meltzer) in his Boys' Brigade uniform in Tottenham c. 1931-32 (and the Latymer School blazer). Fondly remembered!" Stuart Christie, July 2011
Stuart Christie, Miguel García, and Albert Meltzer in London
"123 Upper Tollington Park, Finsbury Park, London (early 1970s?): this seems to be the only photo of Albert Meltzer, Miguel Garcia and yours truly. I've an idea it was a police surveillance photo, clearly there were no David Baileys among them!" Stuart adds "As you say, Dave, you can’t actually see it’s Miguel. But believe me it is (you can also tell from his signature Alpargatas – ‘Carabanchel Nikes!’). It must have been among the police photographs in the AB trial depositions. There were books and books of them, mostly scenes of crime/forensic pics, but also a few surveillance photos among them" Stuart Christie, July 2011
"123 Tollington Park, London (late ‘60s?): one of Albert Meltzer’s memorable tea parties with many of his old friends, including: left Anne Blume’, the smiling lady on the left, the partner of Ted Kavanagh, publisher of Cuddons’ Cosmoplitan Review (and co-owner with Albert of the Wooden Shoe Bookshop). Apart from being a Dada aficionado, Anna also earned a crust for a time as a lady’s maid in a Soho brothel; Albert is directly behind her (you can just see his spectacles) and the lady laughing heartily to his left is Bronia McDonald who wrote and published mimeographed erotica for 10 shillings a page (this was, after all, the 1950s and early 1960s) another sideline was distributing vintage 8mm and 16mm ‘stag’ porn’. Bronia’s partner was Desmond (‘Des’) McDonald, a professional drama busker who entertained West End Theatre queues with his stentorian Shakespeare monologues and the good-humoured banter of a snake oil salesman. Mac and Bronia lived in St Stephen’s Gardens in Notting Hill and had been active in the local campaign against West London racketeer Peter Rachman. To Bronia’s left, standing with the ubiquitous fag in his hand, is Albert’s friend and fellow printworker, Joe Thomas, a lifelong trade union activist and committed supporter of the Anton Pannekoek inspired Movement for Workers’ Councils http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/.../obituaries/joe.htm Unfortunately I can’t for the life of me remember the names of the man and woman in the background …" Stuart Christie, July 2011
Brenda Christie, Hungarian anarchist John Rety and Dave Coull
"123 Tollington Park, London: I believe this was taken at the same soirée: Brenda Earl, John Rety <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-obituaries/7347759/John-Rety.html?fbclid=IwAR1aqM0axHHsjKVSQwzJmdGLTxJgK5oBiwuKeZBV09rIpJOiGPWAprvuuUU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../boo.../7347759/John-Rety.html and his partner Susan Johns (unfortunately badly overexposed) and, in profile, a young Dave Coull <a class="oajrlxb2 g5ia77u1 qu0x051f esr5mh6w e9989ue4 r7d6kgcz rq0escxv nhd2j8a9 nc684nl6 p7hjln8o kvgmc6g5 cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x jb3vyjys rz4wbd8a qt6c0cv9 a8nywdso i1ao9s8h esuyzwwr f1sip0of lzcic4wl gpro0wi8 py34i1dx" href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/books-?fbclid=IwAR1ew86cR8mFdAq7G4O1xlsand_WZXbRUtR3jQ7d5IQEmQR0qkS70SrW0lE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/.../culture-obituaries/books- " Stuart Christie, July 2011
"Lewisham, London (early 1980s). a cheery Albert (modelling his Sanday knitters jersey) and I on the balcony of his Lewisham high-rise. Just received it from a dear NYer friend and comrade — Hadn't seen this one before." Stuart Christie, July 2011
Photograph taken by Ken Sutherland, The Queens' Hotel, Crouch End, Hornsey, 1969
Stuart Christie and Albert Meltzer, Crouch End Broadway
"1968, Queen’s Hotel, Crouch End Broadway: Albert Meltzer (born London, January 7, 1920; died, Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset, May 7, 1996), anarchist printworker, writer, troublemaker and tireless anarchist activist, one of the most important figures in twentieth century British anarchism. (Photo by Ken Sutherland) Albert Meltzer was one of the most enduring and respected torchbearers of the international anarchist movement in the second half of the twentieth century. His sixty-year commitment to the vision and practice of anarchism survived both the collapse of the Revolution and Civil War in Spain and the Second World War; he helped fuel the libertarian impetus of the 1960s and 1970s and steer it through the reactionary challenges of the Thatcherite 1980s and post-Cold War 1990s. Fortunately, before he died, Albert managed to finish his autobiography, I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels, a pungent, no-punches pulled, Schvejkian account of a radical twentieth century enemy of humbug and injustice. A life-long trade union activist, he fought Mosley's Blackshirts in the battle of Cable Street, played an active role in supporting the anarchist communes and militias in the Spanish Revolution and the pre-war German anti-Nazi resistance, was a key player in the Cairo Mutiny [after] the Second World War, helped rebuild the post-war anti-Franco resistance in Spain and the international anarchist movement. His achievements include Cuddon's Cosmopolitan Review, an occasional satirical review first published in 1965 and named after Ambrose Cuddon, possibly the first consciously anarchist publisher in the modern sense, the founding of the Anarchist Black Cross, a prisoners' aid and ginger group and the paper which grew out of it - Black Flag. However, perhaps Albert's most enduring legacy is the Kate Sharpley Library ( http://www.katesharpleylibrary.net/), probably the most comprehensive anarchist archive in Britain. Born in 1920 into a mixed marriage in the London of Orwell's Down and Out in which there were few homes for heroes, but many heroes fit only for homes, Albert was soon enrolled into political life as a private in the awkward squad. His decision to go down the road of revolutionary politics came, he claimed, in 1935 at the age of 15 - as a direct result of taking boxing lessons. Boxing was considered a “common” sport, frowned upon by the governors of his Edmonton school and the prospective Labour MP for the area, the virulently anti-boxing Dr Edith Summerskill. Perhaps it was the boxer's legs and footwork he acquired as a youth which gave him his lifelong ability to bear his considerable bulk. It certainly induced a lifetime's habit of shrewd assessment of his own and opponents' respective strengths and weaknesses. The streetwise, pugilistic but bookish schoolboy attended his first anarchist meeting in 1935 where he first drew attention to himself by contradicting the speaker, Emma Goldman, by his defence of boxing. He soon made friends with the ageing anarchist militants of a previous generation and became a regular and dynamic participant in public meetings. The anarchist-led resistance to the Franco uprising in Spain in 1936 gave a major boost to the movement in Britain and Albert's activities ranged from organising solidarity appeals, to producing propaganda, working with Captain J R White to organise illegal arms shipments from Hamburg to the CNT in Spain and acting as a contact for the Spanish anarchist intelligence services in Britain. Albert's early working career ranged from fairground promoter, a theatre-hand and occasional film extra. Albert appeared briefly in Leslie Howard's Pimpernel Smith, an anti-Nazi film that did not follow the line of victory but rather of revolution in Europe. The plot called for communist prisoners, but by the time Howard came to make it, in 1940, Stalin had invaded Finland, and the script was changed to anarchist prisoners. Howard decided that none of the actors playing the anarchists seemed real and insisted that real anarchists, including Albert, be used as extras in the concentration camp scenes. One consequence of this meeting was Howard's introduction to Hilda Monte, a prominent but unsung hero of the German anarchist resistance to Hitler, which may have contributed to his subsequent death en route to Lisbon. Albert's later working years were spent mainly as a second-hand bookseller and, finally, as a Fleet Street copytaker. His last employer was, strangely enough, The Daily Telegraph. While by nature a remarkably gentle, generous and gracious soul, Albert's championship of anarchism as a revolutionary working class movement brought him into direct and sustained conflict with the neo-liberals who came to dominate the movement in the late 1940s. Just as people are drawn to totalitarian movements like fascism and communism because of their implicit violence and ideological certainties, many otherwise politically incompatible people were drawn to anarchism because of its militant tolerance. Albert was vehemently opposed to the re-packaging and marketing of anarchism as a broad church for academia-oriented quietists and single-issue pressure groups. It was ironical that one of this group, the late Professor George Woodcock, should publicly dismiss anarchism as a spent historical force in 1962, blissfully unaware of the post-Butskellite storm which was about to break and the influence anarchist and libertarian ideas would have on this and generations yet to come. It was his championship of class-struggle anarchism, coupled with his scepticism of the student-led New Left in the 1960s which earned Albert his reputation for sectarianism. Paradoxically, as friend and Black Flag cartoonist Phil Ruff points out in his introduction to Albert's autobiography, it was the discovery of class struggle anarchism through the “sectarianism” of Black Flag under Albert's editorship that convinced so many anarchists of his and subsequent generations to become active in the movement'. The dynamic and logic of Albert's so-called sectarianism continued to bring countless young people into the anarchist movement then and for a further thirty years until his untimely stroke in April 1996. It is difficult to write a public appreciation of such an inscrutably private man. Albert Meltzer seemed often like a member of a tug-of-war team; you never quite knew if he was there simply to make up numbers or if he was the anchor-man of the whole operation. To Albert, all privilege was the enemy of human freedom; not just the privileges of capitalists, kings, bureaucrats and politicians but also the petty aspirations of opportunists and careerists among the rebels themselves. Much of what he contributed to the lives of those who knew him must go unrecorded, but he will be remembered and talked about fondly for many years to come by those of us whose lives he touched." Stuart Christie, July 2011
Stuart Christie with Albert Meltzer at Anarchist Black Cross Fundraiser (Conway Hall)
"Conway Hall, Red Lion Square (late 1960s, early 1970s): just came across this pic with Albert Meltzer at some meeting or other. Think it was taken by Phil Ruff. The tank-top was ‘de rigeur’ in those days." Stuart Christie, July 2011
Photo taken by Phil Ruff, uploaded by Stuart Christie
"Albert Meltzer, Windsor (Ontario), overlooking Detroit, June 23, 1993."
Spanish anarchist Federico ‘Fede’ Arcos and Albert Meltzer in front of the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument
"Remembering Federico ‘Fede’ Arcos (l) (July 18, 1920-May 23, 2015 — with Albert Meltzer at the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, The Forest Home Cemetery, Chicago, 1993). ‘Fede’ was one of the principal financial mainstays of Cienfuegos Press, Refract Publications and ChristieBooks from the early 1970s until his death last summer, and it was primarily through him we were able to publish José Peirats’s 3-volume history of the CNT in English. The last time we met was at Heathrow Airport a few years ago when he was en route to Barcelona, but we spoke regularly by telephone. Sorry not to have been closer during those last difficult months for him. A toast to ‘Fede’ — ¡presente! ¡Salud y Libertad!" Stuart Christie, July 2011
Luis Andrés Edo, Albert Meltzer, Doris Ensinger (Luis's partner)
Barcelona, La Rambla, 1986 Stuart on the life of Luis Andrés Edo: "1946 – Sent to the Modelo prison for “pilfering from a goods train”, charged with having stolen a sack of potatoes (as part of a “campaign” to feed families during the hungry years) 1947 – On military service near the French-Spanish border, deserted for the first time on 27 December. In France, came into contact with CNT activists. 1951 – First clandestine trip back to Spain. 1952 – In August, second clandestine trip to Spain. Arrested. Taken to the fortress in Figueres, convicted for desertion and jailed there until… 1954 – Escaped a second time. He then lived in Paris where he made the acquaintance of Laureano Cerrada, El Quico, etc. Became a member of the Libertarian Youth (FIJL). 1961 . – Joined Defensa Interior. 1966 – Was arrested with comrades in Madrid in October and given a 9 year jail term, being freed in 1972 under the amnesty granted in relation to the MATESA affair. 1974 – Arrested in June in Barcelona following the abduction in Paris of the banker Baltasar Suárez. Freed under an amnesty in June 1976. December 1976 – April 1977 – Coordinating Secretary of the Regional Committee of Catalonia (resigned together with other Regional Committee members). October 1980. – Arrested in the wake of Lucio Uturbia’s arrest in Paris and questioned for a fortnight under “anti-terrorist legislation”. Held until August 1981. Tried in October 1984 and acquitted of all charges. 1985-1987. – Director of Solidaridad Obrera. December 1988. – Appointed secretary of the Catalonian Regional Committee, holding this post until he resigned in 1990 after making a complaint of corruption against Prenafeta and being shunned and criticised by a number of comrades and trade unions. December 1988. – Elected president of the Fundación Anselmo Lorenzo (a post he held until June 1989). 1990-2002. – Elected four times on to the board of the Fundació d’Estudis Llibertaris y anarcosindicalistes (FELLA). 1993. – Co-organiser of the ‘Anarchist World Exhibition’. 2003 – Published La Corriente. The manuscript was written surreptitiously while in prison in 1968. Published by the FELLA. 2006. – Published La CNT en la encrucijada. Aventuras de un heterodoxo (publisher, Ed.Flor de Viento, Barcelona)." Stuart Christie, July 2011
Albert Meltzer, Salvador Gurucharri and his wife Luisa, Branwen Christie, Barcelona
"RIP Salvador Gurucharri Ochoa (Barcelona 1936 — Gerona 14 May 2014): Albert Meltzer, 'Salva', his compañera Luisa and Branwen Christie (Barcelona 1985). 'Salva' was a prime mover in the formation of the clandestine anarchist Defensa Interior (D.I.) in 1962, and was responsible for recruiting me to the organisation in 1964 ... Adios, compañero!" Stuart Christie, July 2011
"10.30 am, May 24, 1996: A day mournful and overcast — funeral procession of Albert Meltzer (along Lee High Road) from his home in Celestial Gardens to Lewisham Crematorium. The cortege was led by Bill Stack’s ‘Southern Ragga Jazz Band’. " Stuart Christie, July 2011
Albert Meltzer's Funeral, Lewisham Crematorium
"12:00 pm, May 24, 1996: Lewisham Crematorium. Albert’s eulogy was delivered by Black Flag cartoonist and Sidney Street historian Philip Ruff, followed by stand-up comedian Noel James and Marlene Dietrich’s rendition of ‘See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have’ and ‘Buddy Can You Spare a Dime’ movingly sung by David Campbell. Last words were from myself. Albert’s instructions to me (as one of his executors) was that he wanted ‘...to die in dignity, but my passing celebrated with jollity’, and that he wanted a stand-up comedian telling amusing anecdotes (which he did), and the coffin 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 abyone 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 confirmation.’"
"Montjuich Cemetery: The tombs of Durruti, Ascaso and Ferrer are located in the bottom left of the plan (Sta Eulalia 1). It is also where we scattered the ashes of Albert Meltzer in 1996. The yellow highlighter was added for the benefit of those attending the scattering of Albert's (Meltzer) ashes in '96. It was quite a large crowd; reminiscent in fact of the memorial meeting at which Garcia Oliver spoke in 1937: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxBWAbKQfSE" Stuart Christie, August 2013