Editor who learned to speak his readers’ language
It’s 50 years since the death of Rudolf Rocker, the German-born journalist and trade union activist who was a crucial figure in founding the anarcho-syndicalist movement in London at the start of the last century. DONNACHA DELONG says we can learn from his work
SEPTEMBER 2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the German journalist and revolutionary Rudolf Rocker. He is well known to anarchists as the author of the book “Anarcho-Syndicalism” (first published in 1938) — a book that remains the primary source of information about the anarcho-syndicalist movement.
As well as being an accomplished journalist, Rudolf Rocker was an important figure in the history of trade unions in Britain at a time when syndicalism was a driving force. He played a key role in organising Jewish workers in the East End of London in the early 1900s.
Syndicalism is a revolutionary form of trade unionism that sees unions as the means to transform society from capitalism to one run in the interests of the majority. Anarcho-syndicalism is a form of syndicalism in which trade unions are seen as the primary revolutionary force by those who reject political parties and parliamentary action and favour direct action. Anarcho-syndicalists see democratic trade union organisation as the structure of a future free society existing within the current system.
The syndicalist movement that Rudolf Rocker helped to organise brought an end to London’s sweatshops in 1912 with a general strike among clothing workers. During the First World War he was detained as an enemy alien. After the armistice he returned to Germany and became a leading figure in the international anarchist trade union movement. He led the libertarian opposition to the Nazi regime until 1933 when he fled the country for the second time.
His interest to those of us in the NUJ extends beyond his trade union work. He was also an editor of a string of workers’ papers and went the extra mile to ensure they communicated with their readers by learning a new language, Yiddish.
Though not himself Jewish, by 1898 he had become editor of a Yiddish paper, Dos Freie Vort (The Free Word). He wrote in English and his work was translated into Yiddish for the paper. However, in his book The London Years, he describes constant rowing with his translator who was altering his text so that he no longer recognised it as his own and publishing what Rocker described as “stupid reports ... which make us look silly”.
So, he learnt the language and became editor of the revived Arbeter Fraint (The Workers’ Friend), a paper started by Jewish radicals in 1885 that, under Rocker’s stewardship, went on to become a vital publication in the mobilisation of the Jewish workers. By 1904 it had a circulation of 4,000, while Germinal, a monthly libertarian paper Rudolf Rocker himself started in 1899, sold 2,500.
As editor, he tried to instil the principle that material had to be written in way that was not above the heads of the readers — “it was no use filling it with stuff that its readers could not follow.” Arbeter Fraint was used to educate and inform the Jewish workers and played a central role in creating a radical mass movement.
The important lesson for us from Rudolf Rocker is that concern with quality is not an elitist issue. Quality journalism, focussed on informing people, is one of the most important tools of the radical and we must continue to defend it against all attacks.
A number of Rudolf Rocker memorial events have been planned for the weekend of September 19-21. Details on the Jewish East End Celebration Society website www.jeecs.org.uk