Emma Goldman: An Exceedingly Dangerous Woman Page #2

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because she spoke with such great conviction

I think on stage

she was possessed

From what I've read

about her performances

I think of her as a speaker

who let herself go

and inspired herself

I think she was from

the school of..

"I can't wait to hear what

I'm going to say next."

At her first speaking engagement

Goldman panicked

Unable to remember her topic

the campaign for

the eight-hour day

she spoke instead of

her great ideal

anarchism

I could sway people with words..

words that welled up

from within me

from some unfamiliar depth

To Goldman

anarchism combined

an optimistic faith

in human nature

with an intense

distrust of authority

She defined anarchism as

"a new social order based on liberty

and unrestricted by man-made law."

In this anarchist world

government would be replaced

by a spirit of free cooperation

from each according to his ability

to each according to his needs

That, I think

we have to accept

was Goldman's bedrock belief

when she moves

into anarchism

That's the tradition

that she's drawing on

So you've got this ideal

which is the most extreme of all

You can't vote in anarchism

You can't get coalitions with various

other groups to get anarchism

Anarchism is the most

extreme of all

And therefore how

that balances

with needs and the feelings

and the routines

of everyday life

was a huge problem

for American anarchists

and anarchists worldwide

How can I deal

with the fact that I

haven't got any rent?

That's a huge gap.

Anarchism as

a political philosophy

is almost

jaw-droppingly nave

If freedom is

a good inclination

if suspicion of state power

is a good inclination

the question is how is that

to translate into

practical politics?

I think, she was a

serious political theorist who

actually thought

an anarchist movement

you could create this kind

of self-governing world

Anarchism is sort of

the noblest of all dreams

It seems to me in some ways

it's almost a

profoundly Christian dream

though people never talk

about it that way

Well, why do people..

stick with their god

It's what they have

It was her god

that revolutionary ideal

he was a very religious woman

if you think about it

But Goldman also believed

that to create

a more perfect society

acts of political violence

were occasionally justified

a belief shared by

her friend and lover

Alexander Berkman

Violence would soon begin

to dog her every step

June 1892

A strike at the

Andrew Carnegie-owned steel plant

in Homestead

Pennsylvania

escalated into one of the bloodiest

labor battles the country had seen

The Homestead strike

came during a period

of intense unrest

Thousands of men and women

fought for the right to strike

to form unions

and to establish a forty-hour work week

They were met with force

from police

from soldiers

and from the hired armed guards

of the Pinkerton Detective Agency

On June 25th

workers called a strike

Henry Clay Frick

plant manager

closed the mill

and locked them out

Then he called

in the Pinkertons

Two weeks later

in the middle of the night

300 Pinkertons

crammed onto barges

nd were towed ten miles up

the Monongahela River

to Homestead

Armed workers were waiting

on the river bank

At dawn

a pitched battle broke out

Twelve hours later

three Pinkertons

and seven strikers

lay dead

To us, it sounded like the awakening

of the American worker

the long-awaited day

of resurrection

In Alexander Berkman

it stirred something deeper

It was the moment for

what anarchists called

"propaganda by the deed"

a political assassination

His target:

Henry Clay Frick

Emma and Sasha and their friends

live in virtual reality

There is therefore

an element of

folly

in their attempt to solve

this country's problems

by going to

Pennsylvania

and getting rid

of this industrialist

And they do believe that

by getting rid of Frick

they'll ignite a revolution

But what neither

of them have

Sasha, Emma, or any of their friends

is a cultural translator

Someone to explain to them

the intricacies

of this culture

the indigenous culture

And probably because

it's a blindspot they

really don't understand

that there is a difference

between living in United States

and living in Czarist Russia

In the basement of their

crowded tenement building

Goldman kept watch

as Berkman mixed the explosives

What if anything should go wrong?

But then

did not the end justify the means?

What if a few should have to perish?

The many

would be made free

yes

the end in this case

justified the means

Berkman tested his

homemade bomb

on a remote beach

on Staten Island

It failed

He decided to use

a gun instead

Goldman wanted

to accompany him

But he insisted

she remain behind

to explain his action to the world

It's Berkman who goes

to kill Frick

It's Berkman who's

obviously the chosen one

One senses in Berkman

a great desire to be a martyr

to go down that road

This was going to be

an act of suicide

In other words

he was a suicide bomber

That's how he

envisioned himself

and the idea of this act

was that he was going

to sacrifice himself

He was going to try

to assassinate Frick

again who he saw as

being a murderer essentially

Posing as an employment agent

for strikebreakers

Berkman gained entrance

to Frick's office

He pointed his revolver

at Frick's head and fired

The bullet struck Frick

in the shoulder

Berkman lunged at Frick

managing to stab him

with a sharpened steel file

before being

dragged away

Frick stopped a deputy sheriff

from shooting Berkman

"I do not think I will die"

he gasped

"but whether I do or not..

the Company will pursue

the same policy..

and it will win"

Berkman is a bit of a klutz

he tries his hands at

making [a] bomb and he can't do it

He gets a revolver, he can't do it either

It's a bit of a radical

pulp fiction

with very crude elements

and great emotions

ut very little experience

and very little understanding

of the place

and also of the time

Workers had not risen

in rebellion

Quite the contrary

they were appalled by it

This was an outsider

who had come into the middle

of their struggle

and had managed

almost single-handedly

to undermine

the support that they had

The workers wanted

better wages

Job security

Better working conditions

Recognition of their union

In other words

everything the workers wanted were ways

in which they could advance

in American

capitalist society

They wanted

a fairer America

Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman

wanted a different America

A different world

Within six months

the Homestead strike collapsed

Berkman was sentenced

to 22 years

He and Goldman kept her role

in the plot against Frick a secret

On a balmy fall day

Berkman began his sentence..

All is quiet

What will become of me?

I don't know

The future is dark

My hand gropes blindly

hesitantly

I clutch desperately

to the thread

that still binds me to the living

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