Emma Goldman: An Exceedingly Dangerous Woman Page #2

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says of him he

stirred her very soul

when she heard him speak

An advocate of insurrection

and revolutionary violence

Johann Most had a large

and devoted following

within the American

anarchist movement

As a group

American anarchists

were idealistic

articulate

and organized

Though few in number

they had surprising influence

It was an

enormously powerful

well-directed movement

They talked about

equality of everyone

regardless of race and sex

They talked about the

free production of goods

on a cooperative associative level

They talked about

getting rid of the state

And they also talked about

the need for education

equal education regardless

of who you were

They were astonishing claims in 1883

In 1886

the anarchist movement captured

headlines around the country

Falsely accused of a bombing

in Chicago's Haymarket Square

four men, all anarchists,

were put to death

Their trial and execution

became a rallying point

for firebrands

like Johann Most

and galvanized a

new generation of radicals

Emma Goldman is

baptized by violence

so to speak

Or at least that's the way she sees

her career as an anarchist

She becomes the anarchist after

the five Haymarket martyrs

are executed

And she feels great affinity

with these five men

She later on in life

calls them her parents

Intellectual parents

For Goldman it must

have seemed that

and for Berkman

it must have seemed that they

finally had their founding stone

It was the place

where they took their oath

Very quickly

she..

found her own voice

Found that people

responded to her

because she spoke with such great conviction

I think on stage

she was possessed

From what I've read

about her performances

I think of her as a speaker

who let herself go

and inspired herself

I think she was from

the school of..

"I can't wait to hear what

I'm going to say next."

At her first speaking engagement

Goldman panicked

Unable to remember her topic

the campaign for

the eight-hour day

she spoke instead of

her great ideal

anarchism

I could sway people with words..

words that welled up

from within me

from some unfamiliar depth

To Goldman

anarchism combined

an optimistic faith

in human nature

with an intense

distrust of authority

She defined anarchism as

"a new social order based on liberty

and unrestricted by man-made law."

In this anarchist world

government would be replaced

by a spirit of free cooperation

from each according to his ability

to each according to his needs

That, I think

we have to accept

was Goldman's bedrock belief

when she moves

into anarchism

That's the tradition

that she's drawing on

So you've got this ideal

which is the most extreme of all

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