Anarchy!

by Peter Glassgold

In March of 1906, Emma Goldman published the first issue of Mother Earth, a "Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature." Conceived as a forum for anarchists of every school and variety, Mother Earth laid the groundwork for American radical thought. It did more than report on the contemporary scene—it was part of the action—and its preoccupations preoccupy us still: birth control, women's rights, civil liberties, and questions of social and economic justice.

Mother Earth appeared without interruption until August 1917, when it was killed by wartime postal censorship. Though Emma Goldman has since become a legendary figure, scarcely any material from her magazine ahs remained in print. This Mother Earth reader sets right this great wrong, and restores to public memory and important body of work—provocative writings by Margaret Sanger, Alexander Kropotkin, and dozens of other radical thinkers of the early twentieth century.

About the Author:
Peter Glassgold's fiction, poetry, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in such publications as Forward, The Nation, The New Leader, and Publishers Weekly. His most recent book, the novel Angel Max, was nominated for the 1998 America Award for Fiction. He lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Philosophy, Feminism, Anarchism, Anthologies

464 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Terence · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a century since Emma Goldman and her comrades fought to create a more just and equitable society but reading these articles from Mother Earth (fl. 1906-1917), the reader would not be faulted for thinking she was reading something from 2019. Sadly.

What is “Anarchism,” from “Appendix: The Trial and Conviction of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman”: “Anarchism wants to change the false values of hatred, of strife, of brother murdering brother, the false values of exploitation and robbery, of tyranny, of oppression. We want to change these false values and give humanity new values; in the words of the great, perhaps the greatest philosopher of modern times, we want to transvalue all human values, to give them a new meaning, a new foundation, with the hope and the necessary results of a different and better society.”

"Without Government," Max Baginski:

In human nature today such traits are fostered and developed which separate instead of combining, call forth hatred instead of a common feeling, destroy the humane instead of building it up. The cultivation of these traits could not be so successful if it did not find the best nourishment in the foundations and institutions of the present social order.

"Leon Czolgosz," Max Baginski:

For years we are maintaining the illusion that no social question exists in this country; that our republic has no place for the struggle of poor and rich.

"McKinley's Assassination from the Anarchist Standpoint," Voltairine de Cleyre:

[I]t follows that Anarchism does create rebels.... And since among the ranks of dissatisfied people are to be found all manner of temperaments and degrees of mental development ... it follows that there are occcasionally [sic] those who translate their dissatisfaction into a definite act of reprisal against the society which is crushing them and their fellows.... Moreover, Anarchism less than any of these can have anything to do in determining a specific action, since, in the nature of its teaching, every Anarchist must act purely on his own initiative and responsibility; there are no secret societies nor executive boards of any description among Anarchists.... The hells of capitalism create the desperate; the desperate act - desperately!

"Violence and Anarchism," Alexander Berkman:

Organized society can have but one raison d'etre, namely, the greatest good of its members.

"Anarchism and American Traditions," Voltairine de Cleyre:

Here, indeed, we arrive at the point where we ... can see that the simple government conceived by the Revolutionary Republicans was a foredoomed failure....

The love of material ease has been, in the mass of men ... always greater than the love of liberty.... This it is which begets the complicated mechanism of society; this it is which, by multiplying the concerns of government, multiplies the strength of government and the corresponding weakness of the people; this it is which begets indifference to public concern, thus making the corruption of government easy.

"Anarchist Symposium: Kropotkin"

State-enacted law ... exists "to rob the producer of a part of his product, and to protect a few in the enjoyment of what they have stolen from the producer or from the whole of society."

"Voltairine de Cleyre," Alexander Berkman

But only those means justify the end which are in their character and tendency in accord with it; and then they are of the end, a part of the end itself. If not, then the means gradually master us, and finally master our end.

"Feminism in America," Robert Allerton Parker

American feminism is a byproduct of the middle-class habit of thought, instead of being, as it claims, a vital and creative force. Its shallowness and sterility - its failure to strike the fundamental note of human freedom and development - renders American feminism of no interest except as an amusing and typical instance of feminine intellectual homosexuality."

"The Social Aspects of Birth Control," Emma Goldman

For ages she has been on her knees before the altar of duty as imposed by God, by Capitalism, by the State, and by Morality…. [S]he will no longer be a party to the crime of bringing hapless children into the world only to be ground into dust by the wheel of capitalism and to be torn into shreds in trenches and battlefields. And who is to say her nay? After all it is woman who is risking her health and sacrificing her youth in the reproduction of the race. Surely she ought to be in a position to decide how many children she should bring into the world, whether they should be brought into the world by the man she loves and because she wants the child, or should be born in hatred and loathing….

I may be arrested. I may be tried and thrown into jail, but I never will be silent; I never will acquiesce or submit to authority, nor will I make peace with a system which degrades woman to a mere incubator and which fattens on her innocent victims. I now and here declare war upon this system and shall not rest until the path has been cleared for a free motherhood and a healthy, joyous, and happy childhood.

“The Dominant Idea,” Voltairine de Cleyre”

And first, against the accepted formula of modern Materialism, ‘Men are what circumstances make them,’ I set the opposing declaration, ‘Circumstances are what men make them’; and I contend that both these things are true up to the point where the combating powers are equalized, or one is overthrown. In other words, my conception of mind, or character, is not that it is a powerless reflection of a momentary condition of stuff and form, but an active modifying agent, reacting on its environment and transforming circumstances sometimes slightly, sometimes gently, sometimes, though not often, entirely….

We dabble in many things; but the one great real idea of our age … is the Much Making of Things – not the making of beautiful things, not the joy of spending living energy in creative work; rather the shameless, merciless driving and overdriving, wasting and draining the last bit of energy, only to produce heaps and heaps of things – things ugly, things harmful, things useless, and at the best largely unnecessary….

It is not to be supposed that anyone will attain to the full realization of what he purposes, even when those purposes do not involve united actions with others; he will fall short; he will in some measure be overcome by contending or inert opposition. But something he will attain, if he continues to aim high….

What, then, would I have? you ask. I would have men invest themselves with the dignity of an aim higher than the chase for wealth; choose a thing to do in life outside of the making of things, and keep it in mind….

“Martin Eden,” Hippolyte Havel

Reading has become a part of our life, and I feel a certain mistrust towards people who do not read, a mistrust of their intellect, their depth and love. Books aid us to draw closer the lines separating man and man; they bring us nearer to the suffering, the disappointments and the disillusions of our fellow beings; they are the bridges of human souls. There are days when one’s heart just cries out for a book; a book that moves one to his depths, one in which the melodies of the heart find an answering echo, a book to live over again life’s experiences; a book, in short, standing out from the literary rubbish heap, filling us with deep joy and forming new values.

“Voltairine de Cleyre’s Posthumous Book,” Leonard D. Abbott

Pessimism lurks below the surface of everything she has written, and she felt, at times, a strong inclination to give up the battle altogether.

"Prisons and Crime," Alexander Berkman

Thus, while the penal institutions on the one hand protect society from the prisoner so long as he remains one, they cultivate, on the other hand, the germs of social hatred and enmity....

He is brutalized by the treatment he receives and by the revolting sights he is forced to witness in prison. What manhood he may have possessed is soon eradicated by the "discipline."...

Then he is released. His former friends spurn him; he is no more recognized by his acquaintances; society points its finger at the ex-convict; he is looked upon with scorn, derision, and disgust; he is disrupted and abused. He has no money, and there is no charity for the "moral leper." He finds himself a social Ishmael, with everybody's hand turned against him - and he turns his hand against everybody else.

The penal and protective functions of prisons thus defeat their own ends. Their work is not merely unprofitable, it is worse than useless; it is positively and absolutely detrimental to the best interests of society....

Kindness alone is truly reformative, but this quality is an unknown quantity in the treatment of prisoners, both young and old.

“On Liberty,” Voltairine de Cleyre

There is but one way that free speech can ever be secured; and that is by persistent speaking. It is of no use to write things down on paper and put them away in a storeroom, even if that storeroom happens to be the Library at Washington and the thing written is that “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.” That’s like anything else put away on a shelf and forgotten. Speak, speak, speak, and remember that whenever anyone’s liberty to speak is denied, your liberty is denied also, and your place is there where the attack is.

“Tannenbaum before Pilate,” Alexander Berkman

“Before I was arrested I knew little or nothing about the police or courts. I was practically ignorant of all such things. But from what I have learned since – in this court and in the Tombs – I have come to have no respect at all for the court and the law.

“Editor’s Note”

For revolutionary anarchists, the social war – the response to the social question and the precursor to the social revolution – presupposed the manifold powers of the state being organized to maintain the economic and social status quo, namely, capitalism, the exploitation for monetary profit of the laboring class by the class of owners. In this they differed fundamentally from socialists, who subscribed to the positive value of the state when in the proper hands.

“Aim and Tactics of the Trade-Union Movement,” Max Baginski

The beginning of modern industry found the producer in abject slavery and without the understanding of an organized form of resistance. Exploitation reigned supreme, ever seeking to sap the last drop of strength of its victims. No mercy for the common man, nor any consideration shown for his life, his health, growth, and development. Capitalism’s only aim was the accumulation of profits, of wealth and power, and to this Moloch everything else was ruthlessly sacrificed.

This spirit of accumulation did not admit of the right of the masses to think, feel, or demand; it merely considered them a class of coolies, specially created, as it were, for their masters’ use.
This notion is still in vogue today, and if the conditions of the workers at this moment are somewhat better, somewhat more endurable, it is not thanks to the milk of human kindness of the money power. Whatsoever the workingmen gave achieved in the way of better human conditions – a higher standard of living, or a partial recognition of their rights – they have wrenched from their enemies through a hard and bitter struggle that required great endurance, tremendous courage, and many sacrifices.

“The Source of Violence,” Alexander Berkman

Away with your cursed law and order based on the hourly murder of the workers, on the oppression and robbery of widows and orphans. Away with your damned shams and cant!... I know that all life under capitalism is violence; that every instant of its existence spells murder and bloodshed. Every one of you who defends the present system knows it. Every on of you is guilty, openly and secretly, of violence and outrage in the protection of his interests. Well, then, since you have driven labor to this necessity, it defends its interests with the weapons you use against it, the weapons you force upon it….

As long as the world is ruled by violence, violence will accomplish results…. Away with deceit and cant! As long as you uphold the capitalist system of murder and robbery, just so long will labor resort to violence to wrest better terms. And the sooner we gain the courage to face the situation honestly, the speedier will come the day when the archcrime of the centuries – Capitalism – the source and breeder of all other crime and violence, will be abolished and the way cleared for a society based on solidarity of interests, where brotherhood and humanity will become a reality and violence disappear, because unnecessary.

“The Mexican Revolution,” Voltairine de Cleyre

His philosophy of work is, Work so as to live carefree. This is not laziness; this is sense – to the person who has that sort of makeup.

“The Commune of Paris,” Peter Kropotkin

The German Socialists advocated that the State should take possession of all accumulated wealth and give it over to associations of workers, and further, should organize production and exchange and generally watch over the life and activities of society.

To them the Socialists of the Latin race, strong in revolutionary experience, replied that it would be a miracle if such a State could ever exist; but if it could, it would surely be the worst of tyrannies. This ideal of the all-powerful and beneficent State is merely a copy from the past, they said; and they confronted it with a new ideal: An-archy, i.e., the total abolition of the State, and social organization from the simple to the complex by means of the free federation of popular groups of producers and consumers….

If the question had merely been how best to elaborate a theory, we should have said, Theories, as theories, are not of so very much importance. But as long as a new idea has not found a clear, precise form of statement, growing naturally out of the things as they actually exist, it does not take hold of men’s minds, does not inspire them to enter upon a decisive struggle. The people do not fling themselves into the unknown without some positive and clearly formulated idea to serve them, as it were, for a spring-board when they reach the starting-point.

“National Atavism,” Internationalist

Certain it is that the battle which is to bring liberty, peace, and well-being to humanity is of a mental, social, economic nature and not of a nationalistic one. The former brightens and widens the horizon, the latter stupefies the reasoning faculties, cripples and stifles the emotions, and sows hatred and strife instead of love and tenderness in the human soul. All that is big and beautiful in the world has been created by thinkers and artists whose vision was far beyond the Lilliputian sphere of Nationalism. Only that which contains the life’s pulse of mankind expands and liberates. That is why every attempt to establish a national art, a patriotic literature, a life’s philosophy with the seal of the government attached thereto is bound to fall flat and to be insignificant….

Prejudices are never overcome by one who shows himself equally narrow and bigoted. To confront one brutal outbreak of national sentiment with the demand for another form of national sentiment means only to lay the foundation for a new persecution that is bound to come sooner or later. Were the retrogressive ideas of the Jewish Nationalists ever to materialize, the world would witness, after a few years, that one Jew is being persecuted by another.

“America and Russia,” Leo Tolstoy

Speaking of my past, I condemn myself unreservedly, for all my faults and errors were the natural result of my aristocratic birth and training, which is the worst thing that can befall a man, as it stifles every human instinct. Turgenev wrote to me: “You have tried for many years to become a peasant in conduct as well as in ideas, but you nevertheless are the same aristocrat. You are good-hearted and have a charming personality, but I have observed that in all your practical dealings with the peasants you remain the patronizing master who likes to be esteemed for his benefactions and to be considered the bounteous patriarch,” in which he was very right.

“The Promoters of the War Mania,” Emma Goldman

The workers must learn that they have nothing to expect from their masters. The latter, in America as well as in Europe, hesitate not a moment to send hundred thousands of the people to their death if their interests demand it. They are ever ready that their misguided slaves should have the national and patriotic banner over burning cities, over devastated countrysides, over homeless and starving humanity, just as long as they can find enough unfortunate victims to be drilled into mankillers, ready at the bidding of their masters to perform the ghastly task of bloodshed and carnage….

The determined antimilitarist is the only pacifist. The ordinary pacifist merely moralizes; the antimilitarist acts; he refuses to be ordered to kill his brothers. His slogan is: “I will not kill, nor will I lend myself to be killed.”

“Speaking of Democracy,” Martha Gruening

East St. Louis [where a race riot occurred 2 July 2017] is an example of that democracy we are to spread over the world – the democracy of caste and race oppression, of unspeakable cruelty and intolerance, of hideous injustices. It is the democracy of President Wilson and Mr. Gompers. The former has carefully refrained from making any public statement disapproving the massacre, while the latter is its open and shameless apologist. I have seen this democracy at close range, and I know what it means. That is why I want the world made unsafe for it.

“Appendix: The Trial and Conviction of Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman”

So no great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or circumstances or place or time. The law does not even make an attempt to go into the complexity of the human soul which drives a man to despair or to insanity, out of hunger or out of indignation into a political act….

[Mirza Sultan-Galiev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent history of a somewhat silly Bohemian journal.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of anarchist newspaper articles from the early 20th century. I expected it to be a bit dated and it was, but there were a few really good articles on anarchist theory. I particularly liked being introduced to Voltairine de Cleyre. I also learned about some episodes in the labor rights and free speech battles that were quite interesting. Some of this authors spent time in jail just for talking about birth control and/or being anti-war. Other parts of it were way too dogmatic for me. An interesting first hand historical record.

[Cloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another of the thousands of books which has shaped my, "Philisophical Anarchy," as Carl Bode would say. I am constantly in flux between Communist Anarchism, and Revolutionary Socialism. This marked one of the first periods when I was heavily involved in the Anarchist forums, and where my, "Inner-Libertarian," as Mr. Smith would say comes from. Everyone from Emma Goldman to her lover Alexander Berkman inspired me from page to page. Continuing on into my current thoughts.

[Vladamiraaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just some historical perspective. How can you rate historical perspective?

[Ed Wagemann]

Why Everything You Think You Know About Punk Is Completely Wrong:
http://generation-add.blogspot.com/20...

[Tommy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some good stuff of Emma's here.

[Alexia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays from Mother Earth. I love this book!

[Craig Bolton]

Anarchy!: An Anthology of Emma Goldman's Mother Earth by Peter Glassgold (2001)