Europe in a blaze, twelve million men engaged in the most frightful butchery that history has ever recorded; millions of women and children in tears; the economic, intellectual, and moral life of seven great peoples brutally suspended, and the menace becoming every day more pregnant with new military complications – such is, for seven months, the painful, agonizing, and hateful spectacle presented by the civilized world.
But a spectacle not unexpected – at least, by the Anarchists, since for them there never has been nor is there any doubt – the terrible events of today strengthen this conviction – that war is permanently fostered by the present social system. Armed conflict, restricted or widespread, colonial or Eu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) No one at all capable of an intense conscious inner life need ever hope to escape mental anguish and suffering. Sorrow and often despair over the so-called eternal fitness of things are the most persistent companions of our life. But they do not come upon us from the outside, through the evil deeds of particularly evil people. They are conditioned in our very being; indeed, they are interwoven through a thousand tender and coarse threads with our existence.
It is absolutely necessary that we realize this fact, because people who never get away from the notion that their misfortune is due to the wickedness of their fellows never can outgrow the petty hatred and malice which constantly blames, condemns, and hounds others for something that i... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Life be good to you. Whether we shall ever meet again, who know? I am losing hope, together with many other things I have been losing since December. But still I cling to the straws of possibilities. If I could at least hear from yourself as to how things stand, and whether he near or even the distant future may be looked forward to with any expectation. But in any event, and whatever may be hidden in the lap of the Gods for me, should even no line ever reach you from me again, you need but re-read my notes from Ellis Island, or to recollect their contents in case the notes do not exist any more, and to feel that they express my feelings now just as they did then. That is sufficient to say, and I know you will understand, even if you ... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Paris, Sept. 29th 1926
Dear Theodore Dreiser
Before you leave Paris I want to let you know how much I have enjoyed the evening with you and thank you for it. I can not begin to tell you how hungry I am for some of the people who have been in my life in America-people who began their struggle almost at the same time with me and whom I have seen grow and do worth while things. To me it was never so important whether these people have chosen the thorny path that was mine, but that they set out to give something out of the ordinary. You are among them and one who has certainly given lasting work. And what is more, you have not stopped growing, that is more than can be said for other of our own generation. It is therefore not idle flattery... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Jefferson City, MO, 29 June 1919,
Darling, mine.
There is so much, so much I want to write you. I scarcely know where to begin & where to let off. I will have to content myselfs with the most essential & leave the other when we meet - just three months from to day. My birth-day - like last year I spent it in bed. Not quite so ill, but in pain & discomfiture. The same thing I had 2 weeks ago & which I will probably have to endure during most of the Summer. As a result of my laying off a very funny thing happened. Funny only because I have so short a time in here. Other wise it would have been the beginning of a serious & bitter struggle. I have repeatedly written you how very decent Dr Mc Nearney has always been to ... (From: University of Berkeley.) Denver is not unlike a prison. Its inhabitants, too, have been sent there "to do time." That which makes the position of the prisoner preferable, is the consolation that the State will feed him and that some day his time will expire. The majority of Denverites have no such cheerful outlook, Although arriving there with hopes of a speedy return, it's usually imprisonment for life.
We all know the paralyzing effect of the daily grind for existence, even for most of us who can boast an average physique. How much more paralyzing must it be for those who go to Denver as a last resort to rescue life from its downward path?
Under such conditions and in such an atmosphere people are not interested in abstract ideas. "To hell with Bebel's spee... (From: Anarchy Archives.) THE popular notion about marriage and love is that they are synonymous, that they spring from the same motives, and cover the same human needs. Like most popular notions this also rests not on actual facts, but on superstition.
Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few people can completely outgrow a convention. There are to-day large numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but who submit to it for the sake of public opinion. At any rate, while it is true that some marriages are based on love... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Marriage. How much sorrow, misery, humiliation; how many tears and curses; what agony and suffering has this word brought to humanity. From its very birth, up to our present day, men and women grown under the iron yoke of our marriage institution, and there seems to be no relief, no way out of it. At all times, and in all ages, have the suppressed striven to break the chains of mental and physical slavery. After thousands of noble lives have been sacrificed at the stake and on the gallows, and others have perished in prisons, or at the merciless hands of inquisitions, have the ideas of those brave heroes been accomplished. Thus have religious dogmas, feudalism and black slavery been abolished, and new ideas, more progressive, broader and cl... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) The Pioneers of human progress are like the Seagulls, they behold new coasts, new spheres of daring thought, when their co-voyagers see only the endless stretch of water. They send joyous greetings to the distant lands. Intense, yearning, burning faith pierces the clouds of doubt, because the sharp ears of the harbingers of life discern from the maddening roar of the waves, the new message, the new symbol for humanity.
The latter does not grasp the new, dull, and inert, it meets the pioneer of truth with misgivings and resentment, as the disturber of its peace, as the annihilator of all stable habits and traditions.
Thus the pathfinders are heard only by the few, because they will not tread the beaten tracks, and the mass lacks the streng... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) So long as discontent and unrest make themselves but dumbly felt within a limited social class, the powers of reaction may often succeed in suppressing such manifestations. But when the dumb unrest grows into conscious expression and becomes almost universal, it necessarily affects all phases of human thought and action, and seeks its individual and social expression in the gradual transvaluation of existing values.
An adequate appreciation of the tremendous spread of the modern, conscious social unrest cannot be gained from merely propagandistic literature. Rather must we become conversant with the larger phases of human expression manifest in art, literature, and, above all, the modern drama--the strongest and most far-reaching inter... (From: Anarchy Archives.) There was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the universe. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely for their delectation. It was their vain conception that a supreme being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into possession of it.
When, however, the human mind was illumined by the torch-light of science, it came to understand that the Earth was but one of a myriad of stars floating in infinite space, a mere speck of dust.
Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor recognized her, to whom he owed his life. In his egotism he sought an explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was no... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) When, in the course of human development, existing institutions
prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to
enthralled, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal
right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.
The mere fact that these forces--inimical to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness--are legalized by statute laws,
sanctified by divine rights, and enforced by political power, in
no way justifies their continued existence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings,
irrespective of race, color, or sex, are born with the equal
right to share at the table of life; that to secure this right,
there must be established among men economic, social, and
poli... (From: University of Berkeley.) To the Editor, “Spain and the World”.
Dear Comrade,
I was interested in the article, ‘Palestine and Socialist Policy’, by our good friend Reginald Reynolds in ‘Spain and the World’ of July 29th. There is much in it with which I fully agree, but a great deal more which seems to me contradictory for a Socialist and a near-anarchist. Before I point out these inconsistencies, I wish to say that our friend’s article lends itself to the impression that he is a rabid anti-Semite. In point of truth, I have been asked by several people how it happens that ‘Spain and the World’ printed such an anti-Semitic article. Their surprise was even greater that Reginald Reynolds should be gu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) To give an adequate exposition of the Philosophy of Atheism, it would be necessary to go into the historical changes of the belief in a Deity, from its earliest beginning to the present day. But that is not within the scope of the present paper. However, it is not out of place to mention, in passing, that the concept God, Supernatural Power, Spirit, Deity, or in whatever other term the essence of Theism may have found expression, has become more indefinite and obscure in the course of time and progress. In other words, the God idea is growing more impersonal and nebulous in- proportion as the human mind is learning to understand natural phenomena and in the degree that science progressively correlates human and social events.
God, today... (From: Anarchy Archives.) On my first visit to Spain in September 1936, nothing surprised me so much as the amount of political freedom I found everywhere. True it did not extend to fascists; but outside of these deliberate enemies of the revolution and the emancipation of the workers in Spain, everyone of the anti-fascist front enjoyed political freedom which hardly existed in any of the so called European democracies. The one party that made the utmost use of this was the PSUC, the Stalinist party in revolutionary Spain. Their radio and loudspeakers filled the air. Their daily marches in military formation with their flags waving were flaunted in everybody’s face. They seemed to take a special pleasure in marching past the house of the Regional Committee as ... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Some twenty-one years ago I heard the first great Anarchist speaker--the inimitable John Most. It seemed to me then, and for many years after, that the spoken word hurled forth among the masses with such wonderful eloquence, such enthusiasm and fire, could never be erased from the human mind and soul. How could any one of all the multitudes who flocked to Most's meetings escape his prophetic voice! Surely they had but to hear him to throw off their old beliefs, and see the truth and beauty of Anarchism!
My one great longing then was to be able to speak with the tongue of John Most,--that I, too, might thus reach the masses. Oh, for the naivety of Youth's enthusiasm! It is the time when the hardest thing seems but child's play. It is the ... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Ever since the beginning of the European conflagration, the whole
human race almost has fallen into the deathly grip of the war
anesthesis, overcome by the mad teaming fumes of a blood soaked
chloroform, which has obscured its vision and paralyzed its
heart. Indeed, with the exception of some savage tribes, who know
nothing of Christian religion or of brotherly love, and who also
know nothing of dreadnaughts, submarines, munition manufacture
and war loans, the rest of the race is under this terrible
narcosis. The human mind seems to be conscious of but one thing,
murderous speculation. Our whole civilization, our entire culture
is concentrated in the mad demand for the most perfected weapons
of slaughter.
Ammunition! Ammunitio... (From: University of Berkeley.) The inexorable master, Death, has again visited the
Anarchist ranks. This time its victim was Ross Winn, one of the most earnest and able
American Anarchists.
Never has the power of the Ideal been demonstrated with
greater force than in the life and work of this man, Ross Winn. For nothing short of a
great Ideal, a burning, impelling, all absorbing ideal could make possible the task that
our dead comrade so lovingly performed during a quarter of a century.
Born in Texas forty-one years ago, of farmer parents, young
Winn was expected to follow the path of his fathers. But the boy had other dreams, dreams
extending far beyond his immediates. His were dreams of the world, of humanity, of the
st... (From: Kate Sharpley Library.) Published Essays and Pamphlets
Sacco and Vanzetti by Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman [Published in The Road to Freedom
(New York), Vol. 5, Aug. 1929.]
THE names of the "good shoe-maker and
poor fish-peddler" have ceased to represent merely two Italian
workingmen. Throughout the civilized world Sacco and Vanzetti
have become a symbol, the shibboleth of Justice crushed by Might.
That is the great historic significance of this twentieth century
crucifixion, and truly prophetic, were the words of Vanzetti when
he declared, "The last moment belongs to us--that agony is
our triumph."
We hear a great deal of progress and by
that people usually mean improvements of various kinds, mostly
life-saving discoveries and labor-savi... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Published Essays and Pamphlets
Samuel Gompers by Emma Goldman [Published in The Road to Freedom (New York), Vol. 1,
March 1925.]
The numerous tributes paid to the late President of the American
Federation of Labor, emphasized his great leadership. "Gompers
was a leader of men," they said. One would have expected that the
disaster brought upon the world by leadership would have proven
that to be a leader of men is far from a virtue. Rather is it a
vise for which those who are being led are usually made to pay
very heavily.
The last fifteen years are replete with examples of what the
leaders of men have done to the peoples of the world. The Lenins,
Clemenceaus, the Lloyd Georges and Wilson, have all posed as
great lead... (From: Anarchy Archives.) To write a biographic sketch of even an ordinary man within the limited space at my disposal would be difficult. But to write about one whose personality is so complex and whose life so replete with events as that of Alexander Berkman, is almost an insurmountable task. To do justice to such a rich and colorful subject one must not be so limited by space as I am. Above all, one should be removed, in point of time and distance, from the life to be portrayed. Which is not the case in the present instance.
I shall therefore not attempt a biography at the present time. I shall merely joint down a few outstanding features in the life and activities of our Comrade, which may serve as an introduction to something bigger yet to be written. ... (From: Anarchy Archives.) It has been suggested that to create one genius nature uses all of her resources and takes a hundred years for her difficult task. If that be true, it takes nature even longer to create a great idea. After all, in creating a genius nature concentrates on one personality whereas an idea must eventually become the heritage of the race and must needs be more difficult to mold.
It is just one hundred and fifty years ago when a great man conceived a great idea, Robert Thomas Malthus, the father of Birth Control. That it should have taken so long a time for the human race to realize the greatness of that idea, is only one more proof of the sluggishness of the human mind. It is not possible to go into a detailed discussion of the merits of Malthu... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) To fully grasp the social importance of the Modern School, we must understand first the school as it is being operated today, and secondly the idea underlying the modern educational movement.
What, then, is the school of today, no matter whether public, private, or parochial?
It is for the child what the prison is for the convict and the barracks for the soldier--a place where everything is being used to break the will of the child, and then to pound, knead, and shape it into a being utterly foreign to itself.
I do not mean to say that this process is carried on consciously; it is but a part of a system which can maintain itself only through absolute discipline and uniformity; therein, I think, lies the greatest crime o... (From: Anarchy Archives.) Legend tells us that healthy newborn infants aroused the envy and hatred of evil spirits. In the absence of the proud mothers, the evil ones stole into the houses, kidnapped the babies, and left behind them deformed, hideous-looking monsters.
Socialism has met with such a fate. Young and lusty, crying out defiance to the world, it aroused the envy of the evil ones. They stole near when Socialism least expected and made off with it, leaving behind a deformity which is now stalking about under the name of Socialism.
At its birth, Socialism declared war on all constituted institutions. Its aim was to fell every injustice to the ground and replace it with economic and social well-being and harmony.
Two fundamental principle... (From: Anarchy Archives.) “We Don’t Believe in Conscription” (Delivered at the Harlem River Casino, New York City, May 18, 1917)
Meeting of No-Conscription League (Hunts Point Palace, 8 P.M. New York, June 4, 1917)
Speech Against Conscription and War (Delivered at Forward Hall, New York City, June 14, 1917)
Address to the Jury (Delivered during her Anti-Conscription trial, New York City, July 9, 1917)
“We Don’t Believe in Conscription” (Delivered at the Harlem River Casino, New York City, May 18, 1917)
Transcript by New York City Police Department patrolman William H. Randolph, obtained from the Immigration and Naturalization Service via FOIA. Introduced as Government’s Exhibit 31 in the June-July 1917 anti-... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) It seems to me that our old pro-revolutionary Anarchist literature has ceased to answer the demands of the modern day. Without going now into any discussion as to whether Anarchist literature has ever adequately dealt with the practical application of our ideas, the question at issue now is whether the time has not come for a new and more popular interpretation of our ideas, particularly in light of the World War, the Russian Revolution and the subsequent vital social developments.
I feel that with the almost generally admitted fact of the bankruptcy of Socialism and the growing conviction of the failure of Bolshevism and of revolutionary party dictatorship, the opportunities for Anarchist propaganda have immeasurably increased. Peop... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Now, as to the methods employed by Syndicalism—Direct Action, Sabotage, and the General Strike.
DIRECT ACTION.
Conscious individual or collective effort to protest against, or remedy, social conditions through the systematic assertion of the economic power of the workers.
Sabotage has been decried as criminal, even by so-called revolutionary Socialists. Of course, if you believe that property, which excludes the producer from its use, is justifiable, then sabotage is indeed a crime. But unless a Socialist continues to be under the influence of our bourgeois morality—a morality which enables the few to monopolize the earth at the expense of the many—he cannot consistently maintain that capitalist proper... (From: TheAnarchistLibrary.org.) Pamphlet published by Mother Earth Publishing Association, 55 West 28th Street, New York, 1913
SYNDICALISM
The Modern Menace to Capitalism
BY
EMMA GOLDMAN
Price Five Cents
MOTHER EARTH PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION
55 WEST 28th STREET, NEW YORK
1913
SYNDICALISM
THE MODERN MENACE TO CAPITALISM
IN view of the fact that the ideas embodied in Syndicalism have been practiced by the workers for the last half century, even if without the background of social consciousness; that in this country five men had to pay with their lives because they advocated Syndicalist methods as the most effective, in the struggle of labor against capital; and that, furthermore, Syndicalism has been consciously practiced by the workers of... (From: Anarchy Archives.) There Is No Communism in Russia
By Emma Goldman
Communism is now on everybody's lips. Some talk of it with the
exaggerated enthusiasm of a new convert, others fear and condemn it as
a social menace. But I venture to say that neither its
admirers—the great majority of them—nor those who denounce
it have a very clear idea of what Bolshevik Communism really is.
Speaking generally, Communism is the ideal of human equality and
brotherhood. It considers the exploitation of man by man as the source
of all slavery and oppression. It holds that economic inequality leads
to social injustice and is the enemy of moral and intellectual
progress. Communism aims at a society where classes have been
abolished as a result of co... (From: hartford-hwp.com.) Our reformers have suddenly made a great discovery--the white slave traffic. The papers are full of these "unheard-of conditions," and lawmakers are already planning a new set of laws to check the horror.
It is significant that whenever the public mind is to be diverted from a great social wrong, a crusade is inaugurated against indecency, gambling, saloons, etc. And what is the result of such crusades? Gambling is increasing, saloons are doing a lively business through back entrances, prostitution is at its height, and the system of pimps and cadets is but aggravated.
How is it that an institution, known almost to every child, should have been discovered so suddenly? How is it that this evil, known to all sociologists, should now be made... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
