Emma & Me

I have become fascinated by the life of anarchist Emma Goldman. 

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about anarchism: Anarchism is often defined as a political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, or harmful. However, others argue that while anti-statism is central, it is inadequate to define anarchism.Therefore, they argue instead that anarchism entails opposing authority or hierarchical organization in the conduct of human relations, including, but not limited to, the state system. Proponents of anarchism, known as "anarchists", advocate stateless societies based on non-hierarchical free associations. As a subtle and anti-dogmatic philosophy, anarchism draws on many currents of thought and strategy. Anarchism does not offer a fixed body of doctrine from a single particular world view, instead fluxing and flowing as a philosophy.

I include this definition, in that it is still a state of believing or philosophy that I have a hard time wrapping my head around. Perhaps because of it being subtle, and fluxing, it is not a theory you can easily pin down. Interesting, in that in my questioning and curiosity around systems, I have been asked if I am an anarchist. I smile at this, as if I’d want to say I could be defined by one word, as if anyone could, even, Emma Goldman. I’m reading her autobiography, called Living My Life, and her life, if not her politics, is a roller coaster ride through cities on two continents, from stays in posh hotels, staging and speaking at radical conventions, even to prisons and jails. She is a good writer, and a thoughtful and thought provoking woman, if you can get past her being an accomplice in attempted murder. If anyone is still naive enough to believe that America was built only on beautiful Christian ideals, and that our current culture is only a degradation of what once was, this book will set them straight. 

Goldman writes; In the latter part of 1909 New York again experienced a vice crusade. The reformers had discovered the white-slave traffic! They got busy, though they were without the slightest notion regarding the sources of the evil they were trying to eradicate (p. 269).

This book is making me think about my own politics, or lack thereof. I struggle with what we can change, and what we can’t and wondering how hard should we work towards ideals we believe in. Should we risk our lives for ideals? Do we really owe our 8 hour work week to those anarchists and union folks who risked and often gave their lives for better working conditions? How do we stand up now to hierarchical workplaces that often tout ideals about equality and diversity but still believe that one person’s job is worth much more money than another’s? How much money is it worth to earn to jeopardize our health and our earth’s health, as in drilling and fracking? How did our earth become a commodity that some are rich off of, and others die for the obtaining of these ‘products’? 

Besides her talks and meetings, Goldman also started an anarchist journal, titled, Mother Earth . It was considered, "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature,"  and was edited by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, another well-known anarchist. It’s articles included a variety of topics including; the labor movement, education, literature, the arts, state and government control, and women's emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual "who's who" of the radical left in the United States in the years prior to 1920. (Wikipedia). 

On this, Mother’s Day, I offer a tribute to my mother earth, sustainer of my life, full of water which ebbs and flows, and like philosophy, like life, like thought, is moving, always. I also offer a tribute to Emma Goldman, who mothers me in my intellectual life, who challenges me to think, and who fearlessly chronicled history in a way that no text book ever could have.