GibburtA salute: Emma Goldman (1869-1940)
Emma Goldman, a political activist who played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century, was born 140 years ago in Kovno (now Kaunas). An outspoken writer and lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women’s rights, and social issues, Goldman was imprisoned several times after emigrating to the U.S. for “inciting to riot,” illegally distributing information about birth control, and for conspiring to “induce persons not to register” for the newly instated draft (in 1917). Eventually she was deported to Russia (where she initially supported the Bolshevik revolution—later she opposed the Soviet use of violence and repression of individual voices), and then lived in England, Canada, and France.
During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking “rebel woman” by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated violence and anarchistic revolution. Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, homosexuality, and gender politics. Following decades of obscurity, Goldman’s iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.
Thank you Robert L. Peters for posting about this remarkable woman. For pictures and some inspiring quotes please refer to Robert L. Peters’s news+ blog.
That was a strong woman, thanks for the post!
she even looks like a feminist
I wanted to carry one of the quotes here:
“The most violent element in society is ignorance.”
This article remind me meeting an other rebel woman in the anarcist collective bookstore in San Francisco, Haight Street, if you have an opportunity drop by.
I like this quote
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.”