A short biography of the Swedish anarchist Emil Manus.
“I am keen to emphasize that during the countless attacks directed against us at that time, we defended the movement and each other unitedly and in solidarity. Manus was always a reliable and good comrade in such situations.” C. J. Björklund.
Emil Svensson was born in Landskrona in the Scania region of Sweden on November 29th, 1889. He apprenticed as a typographer. He joined the Young Socialists (Social-demokratiska ungdomsforbündet) at an early age. This organisation, whilst a youth affiliate of its parent, the Social-Democratic Party, was heavily influenced by anarchist ideas. He obtained work at the Academic Printing House in Uppsala. Another young anarchist from Scania, Oskar Malmborg, also worked there. Emil acquired the name Manus from his constant calls for more manuscripts to typeset.
After the Great Strike of 1909, which began on August 4th and lasted two months, both he and Malmborg were sacked and blacklisted. The following year, they and the typographer Emil Malmborg, went on a journeyman tour around Europe, visiting Germany, Austria, France and Italy and Switzerland on foot (The journeyman tradition was strong in both Scandinavia and Germany-see the lives of Wilhelm Weitling and Johann Most). As journeymen, they received 5 öre per kilometre from the International Typographers’ Association, which, as they walked 7,000 kilometres, was enough for at least their board and lodging.
They returned home later in the year. Oskar Malmborg then obtained work at the Brand’s printing works in Stockholm and got Emil a job as a typesetter on piece rates. By now, Emil had met another young anarchist, Eva Lofgren, and they were to marry. They carried on agitation, and for a time, harboured their friend and comrade Carl Johann Björklund. Their home was subject to raids by the police for their anti-militarist activity.
Manus ignored a draft summons. When the poice came to arrest him, he rolled himself up in a carpet so short his legs were sticking up. In this apparel, he was taken to army barracks, but soon released. However, in late 1917, he was sentenced to four months imprisonment for publishing an anti-militarist pamphlet entitled Tyska Faren (this was commuted after the end of World War One).
Released after a few months, he and Eva, who had also been imprisoned for four months for producing revolutionary literature, were forced to move to Copenhagen in Denmark where they took part in the activities of the Young Socialist Federation, Federation (Ungsocialistisk Forening, USF) kindred to that of the Swedish youth grouping. This produced a newspaper called Den Røde Krig (Red War), in collaboration with the Danish anarchist Andreas Fritzner. Unfortunately, Manus found it hard to gain employment in Denmark, and he was supplied with bread and butter by a Swedish comrade who worked as a dishwasher in a hotel. Often gave lectures on anarchism and syndicalism giving lectures on anarchism and syndicalism at the Karl Marx discussion club and both he and Eva spoke at USF events and wrote for the syndicalist weekly Solidaritet and for Den Røde Krig.
In December 1922, Emil took part in the Berlin congress of the syndicalist International Workers Association. In January 1923, he travelling to Paris to attend the international anarchist congress there, due to convene in October. However, two days before the opening of the conference, on October 5th, the French police arrested the Swiss-Italian anarchist Luigi Bertoni, along with Mans and Björklund. Both Manus and Björklund were brutally treated in prison. Emil wrote a poem about his prison time (excerpted here):
Like a good little child,
the great rebel eagle rests in his corner.
– – –
So I sit behind bars
and await the moment of liberation.
Manus and Björklund were then deported back to Sweden.
Manus then worked on the Swedish anarchist paper Brand (Torch) edited by Björklund, for a period of ten years as dispatcher and treasurer. He also wrote anarchist and antimilitarist texts and also acted as a speaker, although somewhat hindered by a stutter. Among the pamphlets he wrote were “The Path of Freedom”, “The Executioner of the Working Class – Militarism”, “Manifesto to Sweden’s Largest Party”, “What Every Young Man and Woman Must Know”, “The Riksdan that Tricks Us” and “Down with the Kingdom”.
However, the tough life that Emil Manus had led had broken his health.
He took part in the 25th anniversary congress of the syndicalist union, the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC) in midsummer 1935. On a boat trip on Lake Mälaren, he fell ill, and died on the way back to Stockholm.His last words were: "I feel like I'm dying, boys! Throw the carcass into the lake." Hundreds of SAC members attended his funeral on 6th July. In 1945, a memorial to him was unveiled at the New Cemetery in Enskade. There, Björklund thanked him for his contribution to the fight for freedom.
Nick Heath
Sources:
https://sovversiva.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/25-ar-sedan-emil-manus-dog/
https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/anarchiststudies/vol-33-issue-1/article-10083/
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