bebatjof 🇵🇸Emma Goldman was born in a Jewish family in Lithuania, which was a part of Russia then. First they moved to Koeningsberg (Kaliningrad), at the time part of the German Empire, and then to Saint-Petersburg. Both at home and in school she was frequently punished with violence for being disobedient. As a teenager she was forced to work due to her family's poverty, turning her into an autodidact.
She was raped at age 15 by a customer of her workplace.
#EmmaGoldman
#EmmaGoldman
She migrated with her half sister to the US at age 16, joining her other half sister and husband who already lived there. A year later, her parents and younger brothers also joined. They lived in upstate New York.
She had a monotonous job as a seamstress in a shop.
At work, she met her first husband, who also liked reading, dancing and traveling. They married after four months, but the relationship completely changed after moving in together. He was impotent and threatened her with violence and self-harm in case she would leave him. After a year she left anyway but her parents called her a loose woman and didn't let her move in with them, so she left for New York City with 5 dollars and her sewing machine.
On her first day in New York City, Goldman met Alexander Berkman and Johann Most at a gathering place for radicals.
Goldman started a lifelong relationship with Berkman. Most took her under his wings and mentored her in public speaking, but they soon had a fallout.
In 1892 a strike broke out in a steel factory in Homestead, just out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The strike got nationwide support. Goldman and Berkman set up a plan to assassinate the factory manager, hoping to inspire the workers to revolt against the capitalist system.
Berkman was supposed to be the gunman and Goldman was staying behind to explain the motive and spread their ideals. She briefly prostituted herself to fund the scheme.
Berkman managed to shoot the factory boss but it didn't kill him, and Berkman was sentenced 22 years in prison for attempted murder. The police didn't find proof that Goldman was complicit, so she walked free. Goldman suffered during Berkman's absence.
The action was widely condemned by workers and anarchists, including Most, their former friend and mentor.
In 1893 the United States suffered one of its worst economic crises. Goldman gave several speeches in public, telling the working class to take action against the rich. She was arrested for inciting riots and got sentenced to one year in prison.
In prison she suffered a rheumatism attack so she got sent to the infirmary where she befriended the doctor. She received informal nursing training and read a lot. When she got out, a crowd of 3000 people greeted her, and she started getting requests for lectures and interviews.
Goldman wanted to study midwifery and massage but couldn't do so in the US so she went back to Europe, funding her trip with lectures. She met with revolutionaries like Errico Malatesta, Louise Michel, and Peter Kropotkin. After receiving her diploma of midwifery in Vienna she went back to the US to put it into practice.
In 1901 U.S. president W. McKinley was shot and killed by an anarchist called Czolgosz. During interrogation Czolgosz claimed to be inspired by Goldman, which led to her arrest for "assassination plans". However, Czolgosz and Goldman didn't know each other at all, on the contrary, Czolgosz had tried to get in contact with her, but she thought he was an infiltrator. After two weeks of detention Goldman was set free and Czolgosz got convicted of murder. During this entire time Goldman had refused to condemn Czolgosz' actions, which completely isolated her from the anarchist movement.
Goldman took a break from activism focusing on midwifery, but a few years later the anarchist movement revived and she started campaigning again. She started a magazine in 1906, 'Mother Earth', with her original writings and reprints of famous revolutionaries like Proudhon, Kropotkin and Wollstonecraft.
In the same year Berkman was finally released from prison. He was in bad health and at first he struggled to readjust to life outside. However, when Goldman was arrested for meeting with other anarchists, he got so angry for this violation of freedom of assembly that he found his will to live again. Their relationship did fumble, and Berkman had an affair with a 15yo (him being 37). A year later Goldman had an affair (with someone her age).
For the following ten years Goldman held lectures, published writings, and campaigned for the anarchist cause. She collected a series of speeches and essays she had written for Mother Earth and published a book titled Anarchism and Other Essays.
She supported Margaret Sanger who coined the term 'birth control' in 1914 and became an advocate of access to contraception herself. She was arrested and spent two weeks in jail in 1916 for spreading information about birth control methods.
#EmmaGoldman #MotherEarth #MargaretSanger #BirthControl #anarchism
In 1916 the US entered WW1. Goldman and Berkman heavily campaigned against militarism and encouraged people to resist conscription. They were arrested in 1917 for interference with military operations (which included recruitment) and were sentenced to two years imprisonment and the possibility of deportation afterwards. In prison she became friends with two other anarchist women. They were released in 1919, and a few months later they were deported to Russia.
Goldman had been positive about the Russian revolution of 1917 initially, but did have her thoughts on state communism and the suppression of free speech. After arriving in Russia she found out her fears were very much justified. When the couple saw that strikes were being violently suppressed, they decided to leave, and eventually moved to Berlin.
Goldman couldn't acclimate in German left-wing spaces as she was too critical of the communist experiment in Russia, so she moved to London in 1924, where she received similar reactions.
Goldman married James Colton, a Scottish anarchist, to acquire British citizenship, which gave her peace of mind and allowed her to travel.
She travelled to Canada, and wrote her autobiography in two years in a cottage in France. In 1934 she received permission to enter the US for 3 months and her trip ended up being packed with lectures. Afterwards she stayed in Canada, writing for US publications, not being allowed in again.
In 1936 Berkman passed away after an operation. Goldman arrived too late back in Europe to say goodbye.
A few months later in 1936 the Spanish Civil War started, with the anarchists starting a revolution. Goldman was invited and felt happy for the first time since Berkmans death. She was overjoyed seeing life in a community run by and for anarchists, according to true anarchist principles. She stayed there and started working for the bulletin of the anarchists.
After the fascist victory in Spain in 1939 she returned to London, which she found even more repressive than Spain, so she travelled to Canada.
She opposed WW2, because as much as she loathed Hitler, the Allies were just fascists in disguise.
She suffered two strokes in 1940 and died in Canada on 14 May 1940, aged 70.
Emma Goldman was an anarchist, against the state, against hierarchy, against prisons.
She was against capitalism and exploitation.
She was pro tactical violence.
She was against zionism.
She was against war and against conscription.
She was pro birth control.
She was in favour of press freedom and an advocate of self-expression, notably through dancing and arts.
She was a feminist, and extended sexual freedom to queer people, which was unseen at the time.
During her lifetime she was described as "the most dangerous woman in America".
She is famous for the phrase "If I can't dance I don't want to be in your revolution." Even though she probably never said it as such, it definitely captures her personal motto.
#EmmaGoldman #anarchism #anticapitalism #antizionism #BirthControl #PressFreedom #feminism #queer #revolution #dance