Emma Goldman: An Exceedingly Dangerous Woman

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On a cold December morning in 1919

just after 4:
00 am

Emma Goldman,

her companion Alexander Berkman

and more than two hundred

other foreign-born radicals

were roused from their

Ellis Island dormitory beds

and more than two hundred

other foreign-born radicals

were roused from their

Ellis Island dormitory beds

In the freezing darkness

the deportees began

a journey into exile

Thrown out of the United States

for her opposition to the First World War

and especially for her political beliefs

Goldman claimed she was proud to be

selected for the honor of deportation

Privately,

she was devastated.

One does not live in a

country thirty-four years

and find

it easy to go

I found my spiritual birth here

All I know, I have gained here

Through the port-hole

I could see the great city

receding into the distance

It was my beloved city

the metropolis of the New World

For nearly thirty years,

Goldman taunted mainstream America

with her outspoken attacks on government

big business and war

oldman condemned capitalism,

denounced marriage,

and crusaded for birth control.

The newspapers called her

a "modern Joan of Arc"

A heretic

A woman possessed of an

uncompromising single-mindedness

Personally she could be obnoxious

OZ FRANKEL, Historian

She could be ruthless

She could be vindictive

A plain Russian Jewish girl

ANDREI CODRESCU, Poet

But with some magnetism.

ANDREI CODRESCU, Poet

I think she was a serious political theorist who

ROBERT ROSENSTONE, Historian

actually thought through an anarchist movement, you could

create this kind of self-governing world..

henever the state became too powerful,

BARRY PATEMAN, Historian

when it became too

intrusive in people's life

when it became too cruel

Emma's voice was there..

Anarchism was often associated

with violence and terrorism,

and that's the image that people have today

ALICE WEXLER, Biographer

I think her whole life was operatic

MARTIN DUBERMAN, Playwright

Meaning flamboyantly larger than life

Goldman's story is one

of passionate defiance

The story of a life dedicated

to free speech

free thought

free love

The story of an exceedingly

dangerous woman

I think she was a

AL ORENSANZ, Sociologist

difficult person

maybe a dangerous woman

to everybody..

she was totally

unacceptable

Dezembro de 1885

Emma Goldman crossed three seas

to reach the promised land

In 1885, the feisty

sixteen-year-old Russian girl

had just escaped

an arranged marriage

by threatening to drown herself

in the Neva River

America, she hoped

would be her salvation.

the land of hope,

the land of opportunity

a land of infinite possibility

When you come

into this country

all things are possible for you

All things are possible

You can forget the past

you can have a brave new world..

and for a radical revolutionary

like Emma Goldman

the volatility of this country

seemed like a

great opportunity for

creating a genuinely new world

for creating whatever was

going to come after capitalism

And I think that she entered

this world as did many

politicized people, political radicals

coming here feeling that this was the place

where the revolution could be born.

It was the 15th of August

the day of my arrival in New York City

All that had happened in my life

until that time

was now left behind me

cast off

like a worn-out garment

Cast off was a miserable

childhood in St. Petersburg

where she lived under the

tyranny of a Czarist regime

and under the thumb of a father

anxious to rid himself of his

unwanted rebellious daughter

She had also just walked away

From four years of factory work

in upstate New York

and walked out on a brief,

loveless marriage

to an immigrant like herself

I was twenty years old

My entire possessions

consisted of five dollars

and a sewing machine

I had no friends

but I carried the address

of Die Freiheit

an anarchist newspaper

Within a day of her arrival

Goldman walked into

Sach's Caf

She's walking into a place

one can imagine it

tumultuous

full of people

writers

working men,

printers

people working

in textile shops

All there after

a day's work

from a political meeting

talking about politics

the hubbub

the smell of beer

the amazing

number of languages being spoken

She came home

when she came to Sachs

Sitting at a nearby table

was Alexander Berkman

Berkman,

called "Sasha" by his friends

had been in the country

only a year

He would become

the stillpoint of her life

He was quite standoffish at first

He didn't think women

were reliable revolutionaries

He thought women

attended radical meetings

in order to look for men

and once they found men

they were gone

and took the men with them

He's young

he's ferocious

he's charming

he's dedicated

he lives and breaths

anarchism

She's aware that something's

happening in her

She may not even be aware of it

maybe we're saying too much

You've suddenly changed

and you're there

And now you are with other people

you're not alone

It must have been

a fantastic time for her

Soon the German anarchist

Johann Most

entered Goldman's life

Most would become her mentor

And her idol

Most seems to have been

a brilliant orator

Sarcastic,

biting

funny

witty

vicious use of language

The reptile brood

"extirpate the reptile brood"

he'd say about the middle class

and the upper class

And Emma

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

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