Jack Grancharoff

Jelesko Grancharoff (; 5 July 1925 – 15 May 2016), better known by his nickname Jack the Anarchist, was a Bulgarian and Australian resistance fighter and anarchist. He is best known for the central role he played within the anarchist movement in Australia, from the 1950s until his death.

Born into a family of agricultural workers in the Bulgarian town of Malko Tarnovo, Grancharoff joined the resistance before reaching his twenties and fought against Nazi forces. He also joined the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, becoming one of their local officials. After the end of the war, he participated in the Popular Front alongside the communists but adopted increasingly critical positions toward them and began agitating against them. He was arrested and then deported to a concentration camp, where he met anarchists and became an anarchist himself through his contact with them.

Released from the camp and at immediate risk of being rearrested, he left his family and fled to Turkey, where he was arrested once again. In 1949, he managed to reach Italy and succeeded in being accepted into Australia, where he arrived the following year. Starting in 1955, Grancharoff animated a Bulgarian anarchist group and began establishing networks, a process that grew stronger after his arrival in Sydney, where he associated with the Sydney Push. Noted by Australian authorities as a particularly peaceful anarchist, he distributed propaganda within the Sydney Domain and the University of Sydney and subsequently founded a group there, which published their journal, Red and Black over the following decades. From 1977 he associated with Jura Books.

In parallel, he participated in numerous demonstrations and actions, holding a pivotal position within the Australian anarchist movement of that era. Considered a threat to national security by Australian authorities, he was repeatedly denied citizenship until the late 1990s.

Grancharoff died in 2016 at the age of 90 and was cremated at the Wolumla Clavering Park. Since then, his memory has been carried on and continues to influence other anarchists.

Biography

Early life and resistance during World War II Jelesko Grancharoff was born on 5 July 1925, in Malko Tarnovo, Bulgaria, a village located 5 km from the Turkish border, into a family of agricultural workers.

He joined the Bulgarian Resistance during World War II and was noted as a young anti-fascist and resistance fighter in his region. Under pressure from the Communist Party, he was expelled from the Agrarian Party and accused of being in the pocket of Turkish conservatism. He was therefore relatively open to the Push and became one of its figures.

Since his death, his life has inspired a series of Australian thinkers and anarchists, including 'citizen-journalist Takver; Melbourne anti-fascist and anarchist Andy Fleming; and long-time activist and broadcaster Joe Toscano'.

Works

Red and Black (1965–2000s?) (all issues from No. 1 to No. 29).

What We Take For Granted (2004).

The Anarchist-Communist Mass Line: Bulgarian Anarchism Armed (2008).

Primary sources

Trial and police files At least several files by ASIO in the National Archives of Australia, including:

A6119, 976