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Alan Albon

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Alan Albon
Born24 August 1921
Edmonton, London
Died30 March 1989 (1989-03-31) (aged 67)
Heathrow, London
Political partyIndependent Labor Party

Alan Albon (24 August 1921 – 30 March 1989) was a British anarchist, pacifist, conscientious objector and publisher. He was born in Edmonton, London on 24 August 1921 and died at Heathrow, Greater London, on 30 March 1989.[1]

Early life

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Albon was born into a Quaker family[2] which was concerned with pacifism.[3] In the First World War both his father and his uncle were conscientious objectors, for which they were imprisoned.[4] His family background and the injustices of the capitalist system were the major influences which determined his political identification as an adult. Around the early 1930s, anarchist Albert Meltzer encountered Albon in London as the son of the Mayor of Edmonton, London, and a pacifist, when he was a member of the Labour Party.[5] However, later Albon joined the youth section of the Independent Labour Party, in which as a pacifist, he was in the minority.[6]

On leaving school, Albon worked for a very short time in an office, after which he lived in various communities. During the war years he lived in The Barn House, an agricultural community outside Brockweir in the Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire as a conscientious objector,[7] where, because agriculture was classified as a reserved occupation, he avoided conscription into the army.[8]

In 1945, Albon met Joan Carter at a meeting of the Peace Pledge Union, after which they were married in 1947 and built their own home, a bungalow, on a plot of two acres in Suffolk.[9] Fellow anarchist Philip Sansom documented: 'He lived in a caravan, worked on a farm, and in the evenings and weekends he built the house from foundation to roof, complete with plumbing, electric wiring, sewage, the lot, all with his own hands.'[10]

Most of Albon's life was concerned with the practical application of anarchism.[11] As his brother identified, he was a builder.[12] For example, he converted the premises of the anarchist newspaper Freedom from an old industrial building in the East End first for a bookshop and then for a printshop.'[13] And he converted two Martello towers into houses, which his brother considered was perhaps 'his biggest job'.[14] He also had several political commitments. For example, for more than thirty years he contributed a column, 'Land Notes' to the anarchist newspaper Freedom.[15] Also, as fellow anarchist Nicolas Walter claimed, he was 'green long before there was a Green Movement' and was 'later a founder of the Green Anarchist paper.'[16][17] He attended the Grosvenor Square demonstration about the Vietnam war, and he visited the Greenham Common Peace Camp.[18] He participated in the squatting movement. He took a leading part in the City Farm movement. And he ended his working life as the maintenance manager of the Patchwork housing co-operative. [19]

Notes

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  1. ^ Walter 1989, p. 39.
  2. ^ SF 1989. Sansom 1989 identified 'SF' as 'Sam Fanaroff', who was born in Latvia and who had arrived in London via South Africa.
  3. ^ SF 1989.
  4. ^ Walter 1989.
  5. ^ Meltzer 1996, p. 21.
  6. ^ Meltzer 1996, p. 22.
  7. ^ Albon 1989.
  8. ^ SF 1989.
  9. ^ SF 1989.
  10. ^ Sansom 1989.
  11. ^ Sansom 1989.
  12. ^ Albon 1989.
  13. ^ Walter 1989. Woodcock (1982: 268) described the 'old industrial building in the East End' in more detail as 'the antiquated printing house in the East End that the Freedom Group had bought for a song in a bankruptcy sale.' Also the building was 84a Whitechapel High Street, that Vernon Richards bought (with 84b) in 1968 (Goodway 2019, p. 12), which needed its floors to be strengthened to take the weight of publications (VR, 1982).
  14. ^ Albon 1989.
  15. ^ Walter 1989.
  16. ^ Walter 1989.
  17. ^ Connor 2004 documented that in 1984 Albon met with Marcus Christo and Richard Hunt to form a magazine entitled Green Anarchist.
  18. ^ Sansom 1989.
  19. ^ Walter 1989.

References

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  • Albon, Norman (1989). "Alan Albon 1921-1989" (PDF). Freedom. 50 (5): 7. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • Connor, John (2004). "Two decades of disobedience: A retrospective on Green Anarchist's first twenty years". Green Anarchist. 71–72 (Spring): 7. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • SF (1989). "Alan Albon 1921-1989" (PDF). Freedom. 50 (5): 7-9. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • Goodway, David. "Introduction". In Richards, Vernon (2019) [1953]. "Introduction". Lessons of the Spanish Revolution 1936-1939. Oakland, California: PM Press. ISBN 978-1-62963-647-4.
  • Sansom, Philip (1989). "Alan Albon 1921-1989" (PDF). Freedom. 50 (5): 10. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • Meltzer, Albert (1996). I couldn't paint golden angels. Edinburgh: AK Press. ISBN 1-873176 93 7. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • VR (1986). "Premises we have had: 1936-1986". Freedom. 47 (9): 26-27. ISSN 0016-0504.
  • Walter, Nicolas (May 25, 1989). "Alan Albon: Radical and lovable". The Guardian.
  • Walter, Nicolas (1989). "Alan Albon 1921-1989" (PDF). Freedom. 50 (5): 7. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  • Woodcock, George (1982). Letter to the past. Ontario, Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside.

See also

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