Death of a good comrade [Daniel Mullen]

We regret to report the death, on April 31st, of Dan Mullen, one of our most militant comrades. Although only 48, Dan Mullen had a long record of anarchist revolutionary activity. After serving in the last war, he soon came under the influence of libertarian ideas and went to Ireland to become a member of the I.R.A., but when he found that the army was being used as a means of enforcing governmental tyranny, he revolted and was imprisoned under the threat of the death sentence. He managed, however, to escape, and went to Scotland where he soon joined the anarchist movement in Glasgow and Blantyre.

The depression forced him, like many others, to come south and he settled at Welwyn Garden City. In this typically middle-class town and with very little help he carried on a lone campaign, so intensely and uncompromisingly that he was constantly being thrown out of work on account of his propaganda among his fellow wage slaves.

The outbreak of the Spanish struggle saw him at once eager to join the fight for the social revolution, and he at last managed to get to Spain as a technician. To his bitter disappointment he was immediately wounded however, receiving injuries to both legs, an arm and his head. He spent three months in hospital in Barcelona and was disabled for a long time after his return to England.

When he recovered it was to return to the same cycle of temporary work and persecution. Since the outbreak of war he had ceaselessly carried on revolutionary anti-militarist propaganda. At the beginning of this year, however, he fell ill and after a short illness, died. He was buried at Hatfield Hyde on May 5th.

Always irrevocably opposed to tyranny and oppression from whatever quarter it came and whatever guise it assumed; tirelessly and selflessly devoted to his anarchist and anti-war principles; ceaselessly, and in spite of ill-health, working for the anarchist movement, his life remains an example of revolutionary morality for those of us who remain to carry on his work.

We extend our sympathy to his widow who loses a very brave and noble husband, and to his children who lose a kind and devoted father. Our only pledge to them must be that Dan Mullen’s sacrifice has not been in vain, and that we will do all in our power to build that society of which he dreamed and fought for so valiantly.

J.W.[Jack Wade]

From a recent anonymous donation (thanks!)

From: War Commentary for Anarchism v.3, n.15 (July 1942) page 12.