Happy Birthday Emma

[TBF]

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) stands as a major figure in the history of American radicalism and feminism. A well-known and influential anarchist of her day, Goldman was an early advocate of free speech, birth control, women’s equality and independence, and workers’ rights. Her public stance against military conscription led to an eighteen-month imprisonment before the First World War, followed by her deportation from the U.S. in 1919. For the rest of her life she continued to participate in the social and political movements of her time, from the Russian Revolution to the Spanish Civil War.

As an orator Emma Goldman was fiery and brilliant, drawing crowds of thousands to hear her speak. She is known for her extraordinary energy and appetite for life. Many of us associate her with the quote: "If I can’t dance, it’s not my revolution." ...

more - http://www.persimmontree.org/articles/Issue13/articles/EmmaGoldman_ReflectionsOnAging.php

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Happy Birthday, Emma!

You lit the flame that still shines the way for so many of us...

[Starry Messenger]

2. k&r!!

[scarletwoman]

3. Brilliant woman! Thank you for posting this!

Happy Birthday, Emma! :party:

[femrap]

4. K and R....

We need many more who follow in her steps.

[socialist_n_TN]

5. Always happy to kick an OP about a

working class hero.

[TBF]

6. Context for the quote "If I can't dance, it's not my revolution" -

The quote is from "Living my Life" (her autobiography) - here is the context:

"At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause. I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal. (p. 56) "

cite: http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/Features/dances_shulman.html

I think many women could relate to this - I absolutely love the spirit she shows here.

[socialist_n_TN]

7. Nice quote. I think that's one of the problems

that a revolutionary movement often faces. Yes, it IS a serious business, but it's serious BECAUSE the end result we want to accomplish is what Emma was talking about here. A life that allows EVERYBODY, not JUST the capitalist elites, to ENJOY the life they have and not just spend it in unceasing toil for the benefit of that small portion of the population called "owners".

TBF, I'm sending you another PM.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

8. Not my cup of tea...

"As the events preceding World War II began to unfold in Europe, Goldman reiterated her opposition to wars waged by governments. "uch as I loathe Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Franco," she wrote to a friend, "I would not support a war against them and for the democracies which, in the last analysis, are only Fascist in disguise."<146> She felt that England and France had missed their opportunity to oppose fascism, and that the coming war would only result in "a new form of madness in the world".<146> This position was vastly unpopular, as Hitler's attacks on Jewish communities reverberated throughout the Jewish diaspora".

I wonder what she would have wanted Britain to do? Let Hitler invade?

[RainDog]

9. Gandhi was also opposed to military action

so was General Smedley Butler.

you have to also understand the context of the times - WWI was a devastating war - improvements in field medicine made it possible for many to live who would have otherwise died - but those people returned home without half of their faces or without legs -

the experience of war was traumatic b/c of the uses of mustard gas -

Butler was opposed b/c, even tho he was a decorated marine, he knew from his military experience that, too often, the military was used for the economic benefit of the few at the expense of the many. he wanted to take the profit out of war to make sure wars were fought for valid reasons.

in other words - it wasn't just Goldman who had this reaction.

The American population was very skittish about involvement in either war and only agreed after huge propaganda campaigns and, in the case of WWII, the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

...just to provide some context.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

11. WW1 means a lot to me..

My dad's mother's three brothers fought in it. One, Harry was killed and is buried under the poppies. Another brother was injured and later died. The youngest got there at almost end and made it home safe. My mum's dad, grandpa a Welshman, fought with the Royal Irish fusiliers, from 1914 till the end in 1918. I knew my granpa well and I know of the horrors. Dad's uncle was mustard gassed as well as shot. Harry was shot through the very pocket he kept all the postcards from home. My dad has the postcards with the fatal bullet hole going through them. My grandpa lived with the memories of that war for the rest of his life. That was the war where they went up and over the trenches...barbed wire..gas. When I was a girl I saw men shaking, twitching or jumping out of their skin, and my mum would whisper to me "shell shock". Families live with the results of wars for decades....generations.

My parents lived through the German bombing of WW2 and I grew up hearing about what they went through. I lived 50 miles from London. My dad told me the sky glowed red when London was being bombed.

And Goldman thought that England should have used the wars as an opportunity to oppose fascism...What on earth does that mean?

I think Goldman wasn't talking about just the American population being skittish about going to war, but she said all governments should not wage war even in self defence. I supposed if she had her way everyone would have just gave in to the Germans/Japanese because to her they were just another state to aim her anarchism at...like to her all governments were evil whether it be your own government or some mad bugger who just invaded your country and killed millions of people...same dif..

A well armed military is a good thing for the defence of a country's people. But what George W Bush did by invading countries that were no a threat or had even done anything the US, was a bad thing. Bush needs to be held accountable.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. Gandhi, like Emma, was an Anarchist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism_in_India

[TBF]

10. She was an anarchist with the view that the state had no right to wage war.

Here is a statement of explanation from the Emma Goldman papers: "Though she was not a pacifist, Emma Goldman insisted on the anarchist principle that the state has no right to make war. She believed that most modern wars were fought on behalf of capitalists at the expense of the working class, and that the draft was a form of illegitimate coercion."

http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/goldman/Exhibition/deportation.html

She repeatedly spoke out against totalitarianism, she was no fan of Mussolini, Hitler, or Stalin for that matter.

[calimary]

12. A worthy role model even to this very day. She really put herself on the line.

Funny how so many of the issues she advocated for - we're STILL fighting over. And we STILL have not settled them.

[locahungaria]

13. Happy Birthday, Emma.....

and happy to kick this OP!

:kick:

[Liberal_in_LA]

14. k&r

[blindpig]

16. k&r

[riderinthestorm]

17. She was so far ahead of her time. She saw with great clarity the end result would be of capitalism

and our sham democracies.

"She felt that England and France had missed their opportunity to oppose fascism, and that the coming war would only result in "a new form of madness in the world".



Our wars for geostrategic resources like oil are a natural consequence of our unbridled capitalism. She saw and understood all too well to what "madness" the western powers were heading. Hell, Britain, Spain, France and the US already had an ugly, bloody, and transparent history for all to see by 1900. Her advocacy for women's rights, birth control and workers rights were prescient.

Happy Birthday Emma!