Whether she was speaking truth to power (and the powerless) within the dictatorship of the
proletariat or the dictatorship of the dollar, Goldman always provoked a response. She dealt with
issues like birth control, individual freedom, civil rights, feminism, sexual orientation, and fairness
in the workplace long before many of these topics were either popular or fashionable. For her
tireless and fearless efforts, she was censored, threatened, evicted, imprisoned, and eventually
deported from the home of the brave.
“The history of the political activities of man proves that they have given him absolutely nothing
that he could not have achieved in a more direct, less costly, and more lasting manner,” Goldman
declared about women's struggle for the vote. “As a matter of fact, every inch of ground he has
gained has been through a constant fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through
suffrage. There is no reason whatever to assume any woman, in her climb to emancipation, has
been, or will be, helped by the ballot.”
Which brings us to, of course, her commitment to anarchism. While the term “anarchy” today
usually invokes images of chaos and public disorder, to Goldman and her comrades, to be an
anarchist was to espouse equality, freedom from coercive institutions, lack of a centralized
government, and the end of capitalism. As hard as it might be to imagine in the age of video
games, MTV, and cyberspace, Emma's lectures drew overflow crowds in every corner of America
and even the corporate press reported on them the following day.
Goldman also shattered the establishment image of an anarchist as either a bomb-
throwing lunatic or a four-eyed drone. Goldman embraced art, drama, music, nature, and life itself.
proletariat or the dictatorship of the dollar, Goldman always provoked a response. She dealt with
issues like birth control, individual freedom, civil rights, feminism, sexual orientation, and fairness
in the workplace long before many of these topics were either popular or fashionable. For her
tireless and fearless efforts, she was censored, threatened, evicted, imprisoned, and eventually
deported from the home of the brave.
“The history of the political activities of man proves that they have given him absolutely nothing
that he could not have achieved in a more direct, less costly, and more lasting manner,” Goldman
declared about women's struggle for the vote. “As a matter of fact, every inch of ground he has
gained has been through a constant fight, a ceaseless struggle for self-assertion, and not through
suffrage. There is no reason whatever to assume any woman, in her climb to emancipation, has
been, or will be, helped by the ballot.”
Which brings us to, of course, her commitment to anarchism. While the term “anarchy” today
usually invokes images of chaos and public disorder, to Goldman and her comrades, to be an
anarchist was to espouse equality, freedom from coercive institutions, lack of a centralized
government, and the end of capitalism. As hard as it might be to imagine in the age of video
games, MTV, and cyberspace, Emma's lectures drew overflow crowds in every corner of America
and even the corporate press reported on them the following day.
Goldman also shattered the establishment image of an anarchist as either a bomb-
throwing lunatic or a four-eyed drone. Goldman embraced art, drama, music, nature, and life itself.
45
… YOU'RE NOT
UPPOSED TO KNOW
UPPOSED TO KNOW