J. Edgar Hoover called her one of “two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country,” yet Emma Goldman now is more fondly remembered than feared. A pioneer of anarcha-feminism, Goldman helped pave the way for women’s liberation and free-love ideology. She preached of the benefits from and need for communism in its purest form, and for the abolishment of classes. Her speeches fueled the anarchic fire that burned throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Lithuania in 1869, she moved to Rochester, NY after refusing to let her father marry her off. Despite the golden promises about the New World, Emma, along with her sister Helena, soon discovered that the U.S. wasn’t the land of opportunity she had hoped for. Emma
…show more content…
Most. Most, editor of the anarchist Die Freiheit, enlisted Goldman to go on a speaking tour, where he wrote speeches for her. She soon found she could use her words to enlighten her audiences and move them to action. Her words were her weapon. Johann Most believed the demand for an eight hour workday was a distraction from the real struggle, the complete overthrow of capitalism. While speaking in Buffalo, an old man confronted Emma; he brought up that he was too old to see the destruction of capitalism; was he supposed to completely give up the idea of working less hours? This made her realize the revolution was the little things as much as, if not more than, the big things. With this, she ditched Most and studied the writings of Peter Kropotkin. In 1892, steel workers for Andrew Carnegie in Homestead, Pennsylvania went on strike. The interim executive (Carnegie was in Europe), Henry Clay Frick, had fired the workers, evicted them from their homes, and said the only way to get both back was to apply individually. He would no longer deal with labor unions. When strikebreakers were brought in, an altercation ensued between them and the unionists; sixteen men were killed. Across the nation, civilians ands newspapers alike sympathized with the
Most. Most, editor of the anarchist Die Freiheit, enlisted Goldman to go on a speaking tour, where he wrote speeches for her. She soon found she could use her words to enlighten her audiences and move them to action. Her words were her weapon. Johann Most believed the demand for an eight hour workday was a distraction from the real struggle, the complete overthrow of capitalism. While speaking in Buffalo, an old man confronted Emma; he brought up that he was too old to see the destruction of capitalism; was he supposed to completely give up the idea of working less hours? This made her realize the revolution was the little things as much as, if not more than, the big things. With this, she ditched Most and studied the writings of Peter Kropotkin. In 1892, steel workers for Andrew Carnegie in Homestead, Pennsylvania went on strike. The interim executive (Carnegie was in Europe), Henry Clay Frick, had fired the workers, evicted them from their homes, and said the only way to get both back was to apply individually. He would no longer deal with labor unions. When strikebreakers were brought in, an altercation ensued between them and the unionists; sixteen men were killed. Across the nation, civilians ands newspapers alike sympathized with the