RUDOLF ROCKER (1873-1958)He was interned by the British as an "enemy alien" during World War I and was deported back to Germany in 1918, where he became a leading figure in the syndicalist International Workingman's Association.
He was forced to flee Germany again when the Nazis took power, and eventually settled in the United States where he continued to write and agitate.
The following excerpts relate his stint as a Librarian after moving to London in 1895, and are taken from his book The London Years, Robert Anscombe & Co. Ltd., London, 1956.
"On my second
London visit I found the German movement flourishing. The persecution
on the Continent made many comrades fly to London from Switzerland, France,
Belgium and other countries, with the result that they strengthened the
London movement. The Grafton Hall club had over 500 paying members,
and it was also visited by comrades from abroad. [Grafton Hall was
the new meeting place of the First (Anarchist) Section of the Communist
Workers' Educational Union. - Jon]
...The new Grafton
Hall club was the finest meeting place the foreign revolutionaries in London
ever had. There was a large room on the ground floor, where the comrades
who lived in the neighbourhood came every evening, for company, and for
their evening meal. On Saturdays and Sundays it was packed with comrades
from other parts of the huge city, who could come only on those days.
The big, bright, comfortable library was at the back.
...I was...elected
Librarian of the Workers' Educational Union. I found its old and
valuable collection of books terribly neglected. My predecessor,
a man named Milo, had been going through the books, making an index of
them. The first thing he did was to put aside about 300 French books,
which he said were useless, and should be got rid of. Luckily they
were still there, because in the midst of his work, he got another job
in Paris, and went off, leaving everything in the Library as it was.
The first book I picked out of this heap that he had flung aside as useless
was the "Histoire de la conspiration pour l'egalite, dite de Babeuf," by
Buonarroti, which had appeared in Brussels in 1828, and had soon after
the July 1830 Revolution been out of print and unobtainable. The
book had a tremendous influence on the movement and had a scarcity value.
I could hardly believe my eyes. There wasn't a single book in the
whole heap that could be described as valueless. On the contrary,
there were a number of rare and valuable books among them, including works
by Bazard, d'Argenson, Leroux and other early Socialists, and a collection
of propaganda works by French Communists of the '30's and '40's that were
practically unobtainable.
I found my work
in the Library absorbing and a great joy. I discovered an almost
complete collection of the old German Socialist literature, all the first
editions of Wilhelm Weitling, August Becker, Sebastian Seiler, Andreas
Dietsch, Ernst Dronke, Moses Hess and others. Early French and English
Socialist literature was equally well represented. There were all
the first editions of Marx and Engels, except "The Holy Family".
The minutes of the Union, which were kept till the first half of the 40's,
and had not been continued beyond that date, were valuable material.
The Library showed
signs of the very definite swing there had been in the Union since the
split following Johann Most's appearance. From this time on the Libertarian
movement was appropriately represented among the books in the Library,
though much was missing, especially French and English books and periodicals,
so that one found little of the rich literature of French anarchism.
The reason seemed to be that the Communist Workers' Educational Union had
often had to move its premises, and the books were packed in cases and
left for some time in a cellar belonging to one of the comrades, or in
a furniture depository, and some of the books were lost. During my
period of office as Librarian I succeeded in filling some of the gaps,
though the task was not easy, as there was not much money for buying books."
[My biographical information on Rocker was helped by consulting The Essential Works of Anarchism, ed. Marshall S. Shatz, Quadrangle Books, New York, 1972. This anthology is itself an essential work of anarchism, and I owe Shatz a debt of gratitude for introducing me to Rocker's thoroughly enjoyable writings.]
For further information:
A number of Rocker's writings, along with
biographical, bibliographical, and other material, can be found online
at: http://flag.blackened.net/rocker/