Anarchism: Arguments for and Against (A6)

First published in 1981, Anarchism: Arguments for and Against is the most reprinted of Albert Meltzer’s writings. His first written response to an objector came in War Commentary in May 1944. The roots of this text lie in the 1968 pamphlet Aims and Principles of Anarchism: an essay at defining what the Anarchist Movement is and how wide a field it covers, the book he co-wrote with Stuart Christie The Floodgates of Anarchy (published in 1970) and a series of articles on ‘objections to Anarchism’ in Black Flag in the early seventies. This final edition shows how Albert responded as the movement changed around him: he was happy to make room for some feminists, but less impressed with proponents of ‘dole autonomy’. Anarchism: Arguments for and Against even turns up in some academic articles, frequently (but not only) as an obstacle to some intellectual innovation.