Emma Goldman

BORN: June 27, 1869 • Kovno, Russia

DIED: May 14, 1940 • Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Anarchist; political activist

"Those in authority have and always will abuse their power."

Emma Goldman was an anarchist. She believed in the political theory known as anarchy, which holds all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocates a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups. She believed in the independence of women, sexual freedom and birth control, freedom of expression, and the right to form labor unions. Her willingness to fight for these causes—at all costs—resulted in her deportation (permanent exile) from America. But her advocacy of such causes made her one of the most hated and feared figures of the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era. (The Gilded Age was the period in history following the Civil War and Reconstruction [roughly the final twenty-three years of the nineteenth century], characterized by a ruthless pursuit of profit, an exterior of showiness and grandeur, and immeasurable political corruption. The Progressive Era was the period that followed the Gilded Age [approximately the first twenty years of the twentieth century]; it was marked by reform and the development of a national cultural identity.)

Simple beginnings

Emma Goldman was born on June 27, 1869, in the small town of Kovno, Russia (modern-day Lithuania). Being a Jew, she and her family suffered under the anti-Semitic (anti-Jewish) laws of the day, which included being forced to live in Jewish ghettos (imoverished areas) and frequently moving to escape oppression. It was a difficult life.

Her father reacted to society's hatred of his race by taking out his anger on his family, often through violence. As explained on the Jewish Women's Archive Web site, Goldman considered her father "the nightmare of my childhood." Young Goldman was acutely aware of the injustice done to the Russian Jews, but she thought her father's anger would be more productive if directed toward their persecutors. By age twelve, she was already thinking in terms of political organization and action.

Goldman left Russia in her early teens to obtain what she believed would be a modern education in Germany. She was sorely disappointed to realize that her schooling there would be nothing but lectures, memorization, and authoritarian teaching. Her rebellious attitude toward such schooling led her to fights with her German relatives with whom she was living. After just six months, she returned to Russia.

Her father forced her to work in a factory and informed her that she would be entering into an arranged marriage. (In an arranged marriage, parents pick their child's spouse.) He refused to hear her ideas of furthering her education, insisting that Jewish women need only know how to prepare fish and give their husbands many children. Goldman, at sixteen, would have nothing to do with such plans. In 1885, she set sail for America with her half-sister, Helena.

Disappointment with America

Despite her anticipation of living in freedom, Goldman quickly realized that only the wealthy enjoyed true freedom in her new homeland. In Rochester, New York, factory work was even harder than it had been in Russia; for a ten-and-a-half-hour day, she was paid a meager $2.50. Goldman experienced firsthand the inequality of America's social classes; she knew all too well of the inhuman working conditions of industrial society.

Within four months of arriving in America, Goldman accepted a marriage proposal from Jacob Kershner, another immigrant factory worker. The two shared interests in reading, dancing, and traveling, and Kershner offered Goldman an escape from the drudgery of her home life living with relatives. Though hesitant, she married Kershner in February 1887.

Discovers anarchism

Goldman found marriage, like America, disappointing. The couple began having marital problems. A depressed Kershner turned to cards and gambling, wasting the little money the newlyweds had. This strained relationship, now void of any dancing or happiness, made Goldman feel isolated and lonely. She had left her job out of respect for her husband's wishes to uphold the societal norm that proper married women do not work outside the home. Money troubles became a major concern.

In the midst of this great personal sadness, Goldman took special interest in the resolution of national controversy. On May 4, 1886, labor activists held a rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square to protest the police brutality of strikers (employees refusing to work) at the local McCormick Harvester Company the day before. The rally was peaceful until someone threw a bomb at the police after they tried to shut down the demonstration. People in the crowd were injured, and one police officer was killed.

In the chaos that ensued, an uncertain number of demonstrators were killed, as were six police officers (though evidence indicates they were killed by friendly fire, for the most part). Some of the officers lingered for several weeks before they died from their injuries. America followed their fate in newspaper accounts.

The press and the police blamed Chicago's anarchist leaders for the bombing, and the public agreed with that assumption. In keeping with the general panic surrounding the event, eight anarchists were arrested. Despite plenty of evidence to suggest their innocence, all eight were found guilty of the crime. Seven were sentenced to death; one was to serve fifteen years in prison. Of the seven who were given the death penalty, one committed suicide the night before the execution, and two had their sentences commuted to life in prison. The remaining four were executed on November 11, 1887, despite international protest at the apparent injustice of the rulings.

Goldman followed the situation in the news and was convinced of the innocence of the eight men. Empowered by this sense of righteousness, she took up the anarchist cause and became its most outspoken activist. According to SunSITE, a University of California at Berkeley digital library Web site, anarchism is a political philosophy that embraces the concept of a society based on shared ownership and voluntary agreements among individuals and groups. It further poses that without the consent and involvement of each individual in the social order, any form of government gets its power from the threat of force. Some anarchists believe in the use of violence to further their cause; others do not. In anarchy, there is no single source of power or authority, no leader. This is not to be interpreted to mean that anarchy means chaos or disorder; rather, it favors order based on cooperation and voluntary participation.

Anarchism was especially appealing to the working class in the Gilded Age. As America evolved from a society based on agriculture to one based on industry, members of the lower classes were controlled and exploited by their wealthier peers. Business owners and managers were unconcerned about the health and safety of their workers; they did as little for them as possible. The Gilded Age was the time period in history when capitalism (an economic philosophy based on private ownership of business and competition) first made Americans aware that, because of its belief in private ownership and willful competition, the poor would get poorer while the rich would get richer. Anarchism was seen as a solution, or an alternative, to a capitalist society. In theory, it would allow everyone to live equally.

Begins a life of political activism

As Goldman's political philosophies became clearer to her, so too did her personal beliefs. She left Kershman and chose to live with the shame divorce brought to a woman of her era rather than remain in an empty and oppressive relationship. She also left Rochester in favor of New York City, where she could live among other passionate anarchists. She immediately immersed herself in the anarchists' world and spent her time attending meetings, organizing labor demonstrations and strikes, and engaging in philosophical and political discussions.

For Goldman and her fellow activists, the State—meaning any form of government—was restrictive (limiting) and not in the best interests of the individual. They promoted the idea that the State should be destroyed. Goldman herself was not in favor of violence; part of her definition of anarchism was a belief in the basic goodness of each individual human. She believed anarchy could work because, without the provocation of capitalism and government force, people would not live in fear. No one would have anything the next person did not have, so there would be no need for crimes such as robbery and murder.

Every cause Goldman believed in and fought for was an extension of her basic belief in absolute freedom. She found a soul mate in 1889 in fellow Russian immigrant Alexander Berkman (1870–1936), who would become the great love of her life as well as a lifelong comrade in the quest for anarchism. The two made the agreement that they would dedicate their lives to their cause and willingly give their lives if necessary, either together or apart.

With passion and eloquence, Goldman quickly established herself as a gifted speaker in the anarchist community. She was popular among her fellow anarchists but feared and loathed for her commitment by most of American society. What happened in 1892 only served to cement her reputation as a rabble-rouser (someone who stirs up large groups of people in anger or violence) and a radical (someone with extreme views who wants change).

Homestead Strike of 1892

Homestead, Pennsylvania, was a steel-mill town with a population of more than ten thousand people. Of those inhabitants, just over thirty-four hundred were employed by Carnegie Steel Company. Of those employees, eight hundred were skilled and earned an average of $2.43 for a twelve-hour shift, or roughly twenty cents an hour. Unskilled laborers earned fourteen cents an hour.

In 1889, these wages were paid on a sliding scale that was dependent on the market price (the price paid to the steel companies by other businesses who bought their product) being paid for steel. The higher the market price, the higher the wages would be. If the market price dropped, so did wages. Twenty and fourteen cents an hour was the average.

This agreement between management and labor was due to expire on June 30, 1892. Of the eight hundred skilled workers, all but twenty were members of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers. These union members were expecting better terms upon expiration of the old contract. Their expectations did not seem unrealistic. Andrew Carnegie (1835–1919), owner of the mill, had publicly empathized with (claimed to understand the feelings of) strikers in other industries. He even implied that he understood how their frustration led to violence.

Carnegie was out of the country in 1892, visiting his homeland of Scotland. Negotiations were in the hands of Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), chairman of Carnegie Steel. Frick was known for his hard-hearted, antiunion attitude. He had no patience for workers who complained and would not tolerate rebellion in any form.

The union would not accept the new contract proposed by Carnegie Steel because it required workers to accept an 18- to 26-percent decrease in wages. Union leader Hugh O'Donnell met with Frick throughout June in the hopes of reaching a compromise that both sides could accept. Frick refused to consider any negotiations. Instead, he ordered the construction of a solid-wood fence topped with barbed wire built around the mill. Workers soon called it "Fort Frick."

As meetings continued to be held without progress, frustrated workers made dummies that looked like Frick and superintendent J. A. Potter and hung them on mill property. Potter sent men to tear down the dummies, but Carnegie employees turned powerful water hoses on them. Frick used this event as an excuse to order a lockout (an event in which workers are forbidden to work and are refused pay). In addition to the 3 miles of fencing he had built, Frick contacted Pinkerton National Detective Agency. He paid $5 a day to each of three hundred detectives to act as guards at the mill. The detectives arrived on July 6. By this time, workers had already barricaded themselves inside the steel plant.

Frick never had the chance to carry out his plan to hire strikebreakers. Citizens of the town joined Carnegie Steel's displaced workers and confronted the Pinkerton detectives just outside the mill. With both sides armed, they fought from 4 am on July 6 until 5 pm. It is not clear who fired the first shot, but when gunfire had ceased, seven strikers and three detectives were dead, with numerous others injured. The strikers surrendered that same day. Although there was no more violence, workers had made it clear that no one would run the Carnegie plant but themselves. This attitude worried the sheriff of Homestead, who contacted Governor Robert Pattison (1850–1904) in hopes of getting some help. On July 12, eight thousand state troops marched into Homestead under the governor's orders and took control. They evicted workers from their homes, repeatedly arrested others just so that they could charge them bail, and generally harassed those who had been involved in the strike.

When news accounts of the slaughter reached Goldman and Berkman, who had been following the unfolding of events through newspaper reports, a feeling of desperation took over. Goldman wrote in her autobiography, Living My Life, "Sasha [Alexander Berkman] broke the silence. 'Frick is the responsible factor in this crime, he must be made to stand the consequences."' Berkman went to Homestead and shot Frick. He failed to kill him, however, and spent the next fourteen years in prison. Goldman was not arrested because of insufficient evidence to prove her involvement.

Carnegie's Homestead plant reopened on July 27 with a thousand new workers under the protection of the military. The company pressed charges against O'Donnell and the strikers, but no jury would find them guilty. Both sides decided to drop the matter. The strike officially ended on November 20, 1892. Three hundred locked-out employees were rehired and joined the newly hired workers in the mill. Under their new contract, former employees worked longer hours at a lower hourly wage than they had before the strike. Most of the strikers who were not rehired were blacklisted (their names were put on a list that circulated throughout the industry, warning potential employers not to hire the troublemakers). This resulted in them being unable to get jobs in the steel industry. The strike did nothing but hurt the reputation of labor unions throughout the country.

Although Carnegie privately wrote letters to Frick in support of Frick's handling of the affair, Carnegie publicly implied that Frick was responsible for the tragic events stemming from the strike and asked him to resign as chairman. In spite of his departure from the steel firm, Frick was rewarded handsomely when Carnegie bought Frick's stocks in the company for $15 million.

Spends a year in jail

In August 1893, Goldman led a march of one thousand people in Union Square in New York City. Speaking in English and German, she encouraged the working-class poor to steal bread if they needed it, telling them they were entitled to at least that much. In October of that year, she was found guilty of trying to start a riot and sentenced to one year in prison. Upon her release in 1894, she published an account of her experience in the New York World newspaper.

While awaiting sentencing, famous journalist Nellie Bly (1864–1922) interviewed Goldman. In the interview, published in the September 17, 1893, issue of the New York World and available on the Berkeley Digital Library SunSITE Web site, Goldman revealed that she spoke four languages and wrote and read two. When Bly inquired as to the prisoner's future, Goldman replied, "I shall certainly get a year or a year and a half, not because my offense deserves it, but because I am an Anarchist."

Free speech for all

In 1901, President William McKinley (1843–1901; served 1897–1901; see entry) was assassinated by anarchist Leon Czolgosz (1873–1901). When he told police he had been influenced by Goldman's many public speeches, Goldman was arrested on charges that she was somehow involved in McKinley's assassination. Authorities released her due to lack of evidence, but the anarchist avoided appearing in public for a few years to avoid charges of harassment.

When Goldman returned to the spotlight, she embarked on the most politically active period of her lifetime. From 1906 to 1917, she edited her magazine Mother Earth, a political and literary periodical devoted to publishing anarchist essays and other writings by radical writers. In 1910, she gave 120 speeches, in thirty-seven cities and twenty-five states. Topics of her speeches focused on free speech, a concept that was not well tolerated by authorities since the assassination of McKinley. Goldman's speeches, however, attracted not only the common laborer but men and women of the middle class who believed her ideas were necessary to keep the government under control. That same year, Goldman published the first of what would be many collections of essays.

Goldman on other issues

Although Goldman's beliefs had their roots in Jewish tradition and the search for universal justice, her personal opinion was that religion was repressive because of its many rules and the submissive role she believed it required of women. She criticized not only Christianity but also traditional Jewish religion. She considered it narrow-minded and made it a point to take part in public activities on Jewish holidays to show her rejection of Judaism as a religion.

Goldman also rejected the idea of marriage in its Progressive Era form. She did not believe women should be submissive to men, nor did she believe they were put on earth solely to have children and raise families. Although she was not a firm supporter of women's suffrage (the right to vote) because she did not believe it would bring women the status they deserved, she did believe in the equality of women. She played a pioneering role in the birth control movement. Having worked as a nurse and midwife (someone who helps deliver babies) in New York's Lower East Side in the 1890s, she saw what happened to women and children when birth control was not permitted. She fought for its legality on the basis of women's freedom as well as social and economic freedom.

The matter of war

Goldman was not a pacifist (a person completely against war and violence), but she did not believe the government had the right to make war. In her eyes, war was fought only to improve the conditions of life for the wealthy, and the cost usually came at the expense of the working class.

When it became apparent that the United States would participate in World War I (1914–18) in 1916, Goldman used her magazine as a forum to discuss the wrongness of such an action. She was merely part of a much larger antiwar movement. Despite its size, the government crushed the movement in an almost panic-stricken effort. Mother Earth was banned, as were any other periodicals opposing the war. Under the direction of President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924; served 1913–21), hundreds of immigrant activists were deported.

Just weeks after America entered the war, Goldman launched the No-Conscription League. Conscription is also known as the draft, in which the government orders all male citizens age eighteen and over who are physically and mentally able to serve in the military. The League encouraged people to speak out against the draft. When it became clear that Goldman and her peers were having an effect on Americans (more than eight thousand people attended just one meeting), the government arrested both Goldman and Berkman in 1917 and charged them with conspiring against the draft. They were found guilty, and each served a two-year prison sentence.

Goldman was released in 1919, only to be almost immediately rearrested by J. Edgar Hoover (1895–1972), head of the Justice Department's General Intelligence Division. Eager to advance his career, Hoover pushed to the limit the government's plan to deport all immigrant radical activists. Goldman was a main target of his efforts. On December 21, 1919, more than two hundred immigrant activists, including Goldman and Berkman, were exiled to the Soviet Union.

Goldman spent the remaining twenty-one years of her life in exile. During that time, she lived in several countries, including Russia, Sweden, Germany, France, England, and Canada. She remained politically active. In 1934, a ninety-day lecture tour brought her back to the United States. During her visit, Hoover had his men follow her to ensure she would not incite riots. Exile was hard for Goldman, who considered America her home.

Spanish Civil War

Goldman's beloved Berkman committed suicide in 1936; his death devastated her. In July of that year, the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) broke out, and the idea of an anarchist revolution in Spain brought Goldman some comfort. She worked endlessly to help her fellow anarchists in Spain by writing hundreds of letters to supporters and editors in the United States. When the anarchist revolution failed in 1939, she spent the last year of her life trying to raise money and find homes for the women and children refugees of the Spanish war.

Goldman suffered a stroke in February 1940, and she lost her ability to speak. She died in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 14, 1940. Goldman's body was buried next to the demonstrators killed in the Haymarket Riot. Her friend and lawyer Harry Weinberger spoke at her funeral and memorialized her with these words, as published on The Emma Goldman Papers Project Web site: "You will live forever in the hearts of your friends and the story of your life will live as long as the stories are told of women and men of courage and idealism."

For More Information

BOOKS

Chalberg, John. Emma Goldman: American Individualist. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

Falk, Candace, Lyn Reese, and Mary Agnes Dougherty. The Life and Times of Emma Goldman: A Curriculum for Middle and High School Students. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California, 1992.

Glassgold, Peter, ed. Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth. Washington, DC: Counterpoint Press, 2001.

Goldman, Emma. Living My Life. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1931. Reprint, New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

Goldman, Emma. Red Emma Speaks: Selected Writings and Speeches. 3rd ed. Edited by Alix Kates Shulman. Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 1998.

PERIODICALS

Bly, Nellie. "Nelly [sic] Bly Again: She Interviews Emma Goldman and Other Anarchists." New York World (September 17, 1893). Available at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Samples/bly.html (accessed on September 2, 2006).

Goldman, Emma. "Was My Life Worth Living?" Harper's Magazine (May 1, 2000).

Goldman, Emma. "What Is There in Anarchy for Women?" St. Louis Post Dispatch Sunday Magazine (October 24, 1897). Available at http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/Samples/whatis.html (accessed on September 2, 2006).

WEB SITES

Berkeley Digital Library Site. The Emma Goldman Papers.http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Goldman/ (accessed on September 2, 2006).

"Exhibit: Women of Valor: Emma Goldman." Jewish Women's Archive.http://www.jwa.org/exhibits/wov/goldman/ (accessed on September 2, 2006).

Goldman, Emma. "I Will Kill Frick." History Matters.http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/99/ (accessed on September 2, 2006).

PBS. American Experience: Emma Goldman.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/ (accessed on September 2, 2006).

Wehling, Jason. "Anarchy in Interpretation: The Life of Emma Goldman." Spunk Library.http://www.spunk.org/texts/people/goldman/sp001520/emmabio.html (accessed on September 2, 2006).