I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels

Albert Meltzer (1920-whenever) has been involved actively in class struggles since the age of 15; exceptionally for his generation in having been a convinced Anarchist from the start, without any family background in such activity. I Couldn't Paint Golden Angels is a lively, witty account of what he claims would have been the commonplace life of a worker but for the fact that he spent sixty years in anarchist activism. As a result it is a unique recounting of many struggles otherwise distorted or unrecorded, including the history of the contemporary development of anarchism in Britain and other countries where he was involved, notably Spain. His story tells of many struggles, including for the first time, the Anglo-Spanish cooperation in the post-War anti-Franco resistance and provides interesting sidelights on, amongst others, the printers' and miners' strikes, fighting Blackshirts and the battle of Cable Street, the so-called Angry Brigade activities, the Anarchist Black Cross, the Cairo Mutiny and wartime German anti-Nazi resistance, the New Left of the 60s, the rise of squatting - and through individuals as varied as Kenyata, Emma Goldman, George Orwell, Guy Aldred and Frank Ridley - all of which have crowded out not only his story, but his life too.