Deportation, Its Meaning and Menace: Last Message to the People of America

by Emma Goldman

This is a mostly polemical essay by Emma Goldman about her deportation from the United States to Russia in December 1919. It was written before disillusionment with Bolshevism, as recounted in "My Disillusionment in Russia" (1923).

Genres: Nonfiction

Audible Audio

First published July 22, 2010

About the author

Emma Goldman was a feminist anarchist known for her political activism, writing and speeches. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Kovno in the Russian Empire (present-day Kaunas, Lithuania), Goldman emigrated to the US in 1885 and lived in New York City, where she joined the burgeoning anarchist movement.Attracted to anarchism after the Haymarket affair, Goldman became a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands.

She and anarchist writer Alexander Berkman, her lover and lifelong friend, planned to assassinate Henry Clay Frick as an act of propaganda of the deed. Although Frick survived the attempt on his life, Berkman was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison. Goldman was imprisoned several times in the years that followed, for "inciting to riot" and illegally distributing information about birth control. In 1906, Goldman founded the anarchist journal Mother Earth.

In 1917, Goldman and Berkman were sentenced to two years in jail for conspiring to "induce persons not to register" for the newly instated draft. After their release from prison, they were arrested—along with hundreds of others—and deported to Russia.

Initially supportive of that country's Bolshevik revolution, Goldman quickly voiced her opposition to the Soviet use of violence and the repression of independent voices. In 1923, she wrote a book about her experiences, My Disillusionment in Russia. While living in England, Canada, and France, she wrote an autobiography called Living My Life. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, she traveled to Spain to support the anarchist revolution there. She died in Toronto on May 14, 1940, aged 70.

During her life, Goldman was lionized as a free-thinking "rebel woman" by admirers, and derided by critics as an advocate of politically motivated murder and violent revolution.Her writing and lectures spanned a wide variety of issues, including prisons, atheism, freedom of speech, militarism, capitalism, marriage, free love, and homosexuality. Although she distanced herself from first-wave feminism and its efforts toward women's suffrage, she developed new ways of incorporating gender politics into anarchism. After decades of obscurity, Goldman's iconic status was revived in the 1970s, when feminist and anarchist scholars rekindled popular interest in her life.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly polemic, and occasional material which would be of interest to a historian. This was before she was disenfranchised with Bolshevism, so there is some sympathy for them here which I think ruins a lot of it. In fact when she lumps herself in with the state socialists she almost provides a cogent justification for her own deportation. In any case there is not much analysis here worthy of note, but its a nice fiery pamphlet style document.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many interesting points in the first half which are very relevant to our current age. The second half unfortunately is mostly just quotes from the US founding fathers though. It was a pamphlet directed towards gaining the sympathies of the US proletariat though, so I can understand the reasoning.

[Starkcorp Awo · Rating 5 out of 5]

These comics are definitely entertaining

[R. Reddebrek · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strong warning of the violence of borders and deportations and how citizenship as a concept can be used as a weapon.

[Judith Smulders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite several ridiculous claims by Alexander Berkman such as "there have been no pogroms in Soviet Russia" (claimed this in 1919 during which the Russian civil war left a trail of jews murdered by the reds as well as the whites) and that "America is on the treshold of the social revolution" the pamphlet gives great insight into the movement for social equality and unionism in the United States after the Great War. Berkman describes the struggle of socialists and anarchists against participation in the wareffort in Europe and the crack-down upon these activists after the peace had been signed. Most of all the book carries significant weight in explaining the efforts of governments who are interested in protecting capital, private wealth and meagre workers rights against any form of public dissent. This message is still very accurate, especially in the U.S. where the mohawk valley-formula after World War II carried out the task of getting rid of strikes and opposition to workers exploitation.

[Luís Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnífico! Sintéticas, inteligentes e profundamente humanistas as palavras de Emma Goldmann e Berkman neste livro! Uma vez mais, toda a gente deveria ler este livro!
(lido em Chengdu, China)