anarchy archives

An Online Research Center on the History and Theory of Anarchism

Home

Search

About Us

Contact Us

Other Links

Critics Corner

   
 

The Cynosure

  Michael Bakunin
  William Godwin
  Emma Goldman
  Peter Kropotkin
  Errico Malatesta
  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  Max Stirner
  Murray Bookchin
  Noam Chomsky
  Bright but Lesser Lights
   
  Cold Off The Presses
  Pamphlets
  Periodicals
   
  Anarchist History
  Worldwide Movements
  First International
  Paris Commune
  Haymarket Massacre
  Spanish Civil War
  Bibliography
   
   
   

ALBERT MELTZER'S FUNERAL


I have been told that the funeral of Albert Meltzer will take place on Friday May 24th from 100 Celestial Gardens, in Lewisham, in south London. When I looked a little bit suspicious, I was assured that "one hundred celestial gardens" is a genuine address.
The funeral of Buenaventura Durruti in Barcelona in 1936 was the biggest anarchist demonstration ever, anywhere in the world - many times bigger than the second biggest, the funeral of Kropotkin in Moscow in 1920. Albert's departure is expected to be smaller but less solemn, if the specific instructions he left (quoted by Freddie Baer on the anarchy-list a few days ago) are followed
"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 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.
"If I have miscalculated, as a worthy clerical friend assures me I have, and there really is a God, I'd like to feel if he's got any sense of humour or feeling for humanity there's nobody he would sooner have in heaven than people like me, and if he hasn't, who wants in?"
Albert Meltzer
from I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels
Dave Coull

This page has been accessed times since September 12, 2001.

OWN YOUR OWN COPY OF ANARCHY ARCHIVES

[Home]               [Search]               [About Us]               [Contact Us]               [Other Links]               [Critics Corner]