An article detailing a letter from an IWW member attending a Congress of the SAC. Originally appeared in the Industrial Worker (November 1968).
Guest of the Swedish Workers Central Organization (SAC) and IWW representative at its Congress now in session, Fellow Worker Evert Anderson in a letter dated October 25th announced his arrival in Stockholm and promised some reports on the proceedings. Meanwhile, along with first impressions and some discussion of plans, he had one bit of sad news to report.
He wrote:
"Secretary Herbert Anckar of SAC passed away from a heart attack and is being buried today, here in Stockholm, by his fellow workers. He was only 63 years old. Sune Blom is taking care of his official duties until a new secretary can be installed.
"From talks I've had with those close to him, I must conclude that Herbert Anckar's duties were considerable. His international connections kept him busier than I am sure he wanted to be. Let's say that he will be missed, not only in Stockholm and throughout the whole of Sweden, but in many other lands as well."
Certainly the IWW and others in a world revolutionary labor-union movement will miss this man who has worked so hard to strengthen lines of communication that have worn thin in recent decades.
We had hoped that Fellow Worker Anderson would be able to spend some days in France to renew old contacts and establish new ones with friends of the IWW there. But this, he said, will not fit into his pre-arranged travel schedule. However, a meeting with the delegate of the Syndicalist Federation from London had already been arranged, and he expected also to meet Augustine Souchy of Germany, who, like himself, was invited to Stockholm as a guest of SAC.
Anderson will be back in New York November 12th. If possible on such short notice, a meeting for him will be arranged there. In any case he will visit old-timer Dick Brazier and GEB member Bill Goring. Also, he would be especially happy to meet the young Wobblies of the new Boston branch and to speak for them in Boston. Every effort will be made to put this plan into effect.
Of course, when Anderson gets to Chicago on his way back to Twenty-Nine Palms, California, he will have every opportunity to "tell it like it is" and to exercise his once well-known talent as a speaker.
Transcribed by Juan Conatz
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