J.A. Andrews
- Anarchist - Melbourne - Australian Socialist League - Maritime Strike - Schellenberg farm - Sydney - Tocsin -
By Bob James
JOHN
ARTHUR ANDREWS (1865-1903) is probably the most important of the group that came together
in the Melbourne Anarchist Club. He certainly had the best chance of being
judged as such by literary people, since he has left more material (a lot of it
unpublished or published under pseudonyms) than any of the others. His had a
wide-ranging imagination and by far the strongest intellect. He was a
gifted theoretician, poet, inventor and historian.
Writing in 1894 he said about himself: 'I was born at Bendigo, Victoria on October 27, 1865 .... while I could read words of two syllables, I was nearly ten before I went out for even a few minutes unattended, and thus grew up without companions of my own age, taking instead of boyish games, books and my own meditations, which later were directed mainly in guessing as to the structure of the earth, and of adult society ... '
He went on: 'From that conception I was awakened one day, when about eleven years of age to a knowledge of the horrible reality by observing a shopkeeper vary a price. A mass of trifling recollections now crowding to mind forced home the fatal significance; and in that moment I felt as if the world had vanished from under my feet. Before everything seemed rational, secure, subsistence assured, enjoyments calculable, each for himself, but also for and with all. Now, everything was unsettled, a chaos of discordant and irrelevant speculation, subsistence and comfort a gambler's chance, every man for himself without and against every other. I came home pale and agitated, the shock of the disillusioning had been too much for me, and it was some days before I ceased to be conscious of its unnerving effects...'
Already in this one can see the two strands which were to prove decisive - the tendency to physical weakness and the capacity for brilliantly expressed introspection.
In early 1882, his father died of pthisis, or TB : ' ... My father (had become) chief clerk in the Victorian Mines and Water Supply Department where his observation of officialdom led him to vow that no son of his should be placed in the government service. It was his intention to bring us all up to handicrafts as an affirmation of his belief in the dignity of labour. Both these purposes were frustrated in so far as they concerned me by his untimely death'.
So, at 17, Andrews joined the same department as a clerk on a salary of £120 pa. In 1883 he joined the Young Men's Literary Society and 'by ability became leader'. In 1884 he had 'his first public literary triumph' and in 1885 he won a 'Melbourne Herald' competition with a poem on the Eight-Hour Day.
Though unhappy with the Public Service he persisted until the end of 1886 when he was dismissed for refusing to apologise to a senior officer, with whom apparently there had been something of a running battle.
Although now plunged again into nervous and physical ill-health to the point of considering suicide, he persisted in public activities, and with his writing. He said that he joined the Melbourne Anarchist Club (MAC) in 1886, but his first recorded appearance is 2 January 1887. Not convinced about anarchism to start with, on 9 January 1887 he spoke to the Club on 'Government Jobbery', doubtless venting some of his spleen on his former employers. Then he went to Dunolly (rural Victoria) for a period of employment with a solicitor (May 1887-mid 1888) during which his health improved.
On his return to Melbourne he widened his public activities, indicating that the severe stutter he was said to have had earlier, had at least, abated.
He returned to the Anarchist Club to find the Mutualists debating fiercely among themselves about the best methods to measure labour time and labour products to ensure equity and independence. His response to this division, which resulted in the first major split, and the Club's relocation, was to sit down and work out his own position. This he articulated as Communist Anarchism, believing his synthesis to be unique and the first worthy of the label.
Introducing this philosophy, which attempted to remove the distinctions between 'communism' and 'individualism', into the Club discussions precipitated a second split and the ultimate demise of the organisation.
Two points were at issue: whether a labourer retained the right to the product created or whether it became common property, and secondly, whether fighting and physical violence was an inevitable consequence of a change over from an exploitative and hierarchical society to a co-operative one. The Mutualists believed the Communists, in discussing the very real possibility of violence were indicating a hope for it to happen, that they were justifying the anti-anarchist hysteria and manipulative assertions that 'Anarchism' meant perpetual massacre.
While this debate was working itself out, Andrews succeeded Upham as publisher for the last two issues of 'Honesty'. Two of his pamphlets, 'Nihilism' and 'For Truth and Right', were in type at the time of the Club's fragmentation but were not published till some years later.
He continued his contributions to journals such as 'Punch', 'Bulletin' and 'The (Melbourne) Herald', often under pseudonyms, and he edited the journal of the Australian Natives Association, the 'Australian', till it ceased publication at the end of 1888.
After that, to save money, he slept in parks, in water-tanks, in doss-houses, or walked the streets without sleeping. He foraged for wild food on the river bank, strengthening his theories of self-sufficiency and belief in himself. His total income was usually derived from the sale of the 'Radical' which, along with his soap-boxing, earned him constant police harassment.
He saw women as more politically aware than men: ' ... They recognise that the workers are slaves and that the middle-class and especially those who monopolise the land are their irreconcilable enemies. There is however, a lack of thorough going revolutionaries to show them the way to effect their emancipation...'
The Communist-Anarchists and other Melbourne socialists formed a branch of the Australian Socialist League (ASL) in March 1889 and Andrews was secretary until Rosa, Flynn and others changed the constitution in July to turn it into a Social-Democratic League.
Much of his writing in 1889 appeared in Winspear's 'Radical' published at Hamilton, NSW. This arrangement contributed to Winspear's acceptance of and commitment to Anarchism and made possible the channeling of much anarchist material to the budding labour movement in eastern Australia and Adelaide. However, Winspear was inclined to a Mutualist form and eventually alienated the Sydney Socialist League executive who deserted the paper causing its final disappearance.
In addition, Andrews contributed to two Portuguese anarchist journals and to Tucker's 'Liberty' in Boston.
Early in 1890, he, like many others, took to the roads north of Melbourne, and found work on the 'Yea and Alexandra Standard'.
When the crucial struggle known as the Maritime Strike began in August 1890, Andrews played an important part in the Strike by making public confirmation of Colonel Torn Price's 'Lay them Out.' order to his troops after a denial had been issued by the Victorian Government.
Around the end of 1890 he tramped overland to Sydney, probably leaving a trail of anarchist symbols and graffiti. He soon appeared at the Sydney ASL rooms and met up with German-born anarchist Joseph Schellenberg at whose farm he then lived. By mid-1891 Andrews had helped establish some sort of 'operations centre' at the Schellenberg farm at Smithfield (just out of Sydney). From this base the members of the Communist-Anarchist Group of Central Cumberland influenced the scene in Sydney, and throughout Australia.
A simple chronological ordering of Andrews' movements, publications and participation in struggle does not adequately represent his importance. Andrews was a theoretician, not a street activist, in the main, though he did that as well, and he must be evaluated against the background of the larger industrial debate.
Difficult to follow at times and guided by principle in a way that few others could match, he was both the articulator of the Decentralised Socialist Option, and the target for the forces that destroyed that option. He was outspoken in his Anarchism at a time when mere mention of the word was like a red rag at a bull for many people. His disdain for dress and lifestyle conventions was also obvious.
Police frame-ups, newspaper campaigns of vilification and arbitrary judgments of courts harassed him and eventually killed him by breaking him physically, his weakest point.
Andrews consistently counselled reason and moderation but was just as consistently misquoted and misunderstood. His view of revolution was that it should be the result of spontaneous uprisings and he tended to disregard conspiratorial planning. He strongly supported direct action.
In July 1894, he and his fellow publishers, Wolfe and Robinson, were jailed for not having a printer's imprint in the 'correct' place on his 'Handbook of Anarchy' which should be considered his definitive statement. Andrews did have his name and address on it.
On gaining his 'freedom' Andrews worked on various publications, one of which, 'Revolt', contains material which some authorities considered seditious. He was arrested in December and jailed on 21 February 1895 for 5 months after spending 2 months in jail waiting for trial.
During 1894 he found time, probably in jail, to learn some Chinese and to write 'pot-boiler' novelettes for Sydney publishers.
Before his first arrest and between his two periods in jail, Andrews did what he could to support the affairs and families of the Active Service Brigade members jailed over the 'Hard 'Cash' and 'Justice' articles.
Coming out of jail around July 1895 he spent some time in Sydney before returning to Melbourne, 'The Socialist' of 10 September saying he intended to produce a paper. No paper eventuated but leaflets, 'Each According to His Needs' and 'Criticisms on Authority, Law and the State' bearing the address 191 Cardigan Street, Carlton (Victoria), appeared, as did 'Invicta Spes' a poem which Bernard O'Dowd regards as a masterpiece.
For the Buenos Aires Communist Anarchist journal 'El Persegrudo' he produced an article published September 1895 and he corresponded with someone in Adelaide about trying to form an anarchist group there. He continued his International correspondence with Paris and the Oregon 'Firebrand' with which last he was offered a job, but could not raise the fare.
He also, possibly produced items ascribed to the Sydney Anarchist Movement in 1896 (e.g. 'Anarchy', a newsletter and pamphlets) but the 'Daily Telegraph' of 13 January 1897 certainly reports him addressing a meeting of seven at Harrington Street (near Circular Quay) and trying to start a Sydney society. Otherwise he remained in Victoria.
From 1895, Andrews gradually tired of mass agitational work for Anarchism and concentrated on more philosophic and behind-the-scenes work. He wrote continually for papers and became well-known to numerous politicians through his quiet contributions to ongoing discussions about policy.
He continued his Internationalist activities and underlined his long-standing role as bridge from English-speakers to non-English speaking anarchists around the world, a hidden but significant aspect of Australia's history. His close friend, Bernard O'Dowd, provided the information after Andrews' death that besides Latin and Chinese, Andrews knew all the European languages except Russian which, with Hebrew, he began to study 'late in life'.
This period of relative security (he lived at 4 Brighton Street, Richmond) could not ward off the effects of previous privations and, on 26 July 1903, Andrews succumbed to TB in Melbourne Hospital (admitted late 1902).
Fleming wrote later that at the end Andrews' mind wandered, he called in a priest and died a Roman Catholic.
'Friends' kept him from a pauper's grave and had him buried in an unmarked grave in the Church of England section of the Booroondara (Kew) Cemetery.
It is perhaps accepted that he was a more than reasonable poet, (O'Dowd, a well known poet himself, certainly thought so), but what is certainly not known is the range of his work. Poems such as 'Dave and the Squatter', the 'Anarchist Battle Song' and 'Teufelsweldt' vary enormously in tone and style, while part of his prodigious prose output was science fiction, and there is an untitled novel in his papers in the Mitchell Library.
In the 'Bulletin' of 31 March 1900 Andrews listed some of his achievements as an inventor. These included: an automatic adjustor for Venetian blinds, a luminous photographic process, a 'poetical' machine and a 'penny dreadful' machine for aspiring writers, devices for stopping gas lights from jumping, for carrying ink without a bottle, for producing water from fire and for setting up type quickly. In his jail letters of 1895 he described two cheap processes for printing handbills, etc.
It is possible that Andrews died a virgin. He never married. No individual women appeared to concern him. It was suggested that he was a homosexual, comparing him to Oscar Wilde, but his own temperament and the strictures of his time were probably sufficient to prevent any such developments. He did hold and argue for liberal views about sex and marriage, views which he saw as logical parts of his anarchism. These views were perhaps shaped more by his reading of scientific journals than by personal experience.
He apparently retained the respect of most labour-oriented people who met him, radicals and others. George Black and W.G. Spence are listed as referees for job applications he made in 1899, while to O'Dowd he was always "truthful, gentle, loving and honest and withal faithful to the masses".
In 'Tocsin' after his death 'Bohemian' offered a poem, the Trades Hall Council of Coburg and Emerald Hill Political Labor Council branches expressed sympathy, and W. J. Sharples, an anarchist who knew him in Melbourne compared him to Toistoi, Kropotkin, Thoreau and Verlaine, among others. Ernie Lane remembered him as 'an outstanding figure in the Australian revolutionary movement... a man of exceptional ability...'. Jack Lang remembered him well.