Dr. Doug Douglass

On this day, 27 June 1869, Emma Goldman, the legendary Jewish writer, feminist, birth control advocate and anarchist was born in what is now Lithuania. Emigrating to New York City, she worked in many different jobs, like in textile sweatshops, as a masseuse, and in an ice cream parlour. Goldman stressed the importance of the interconnectedness of different struggles, like women's rights, as well as the need to transform our everyday lives: "The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in courts. It begins in woman's soul. History tells us that every oppressed class gained true liberation from its masters through its own efforts. It is necessary that woman learn that lesson, that she realise that her freedom will reach as far as her power to achieve her freedom reaches. It is, therefore, far more important for her to begin with her inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs. The demand for equal rights in every vocation of life is just and fair; but, after all, the most vital right is the right to love and be loved. Indeed, if partial emancipation is to become a complete and true emancipation of woman, it will have to do away with the ridiculous notion that to be loved, to be sweetheart and mother, is synonymous with being slave or subordinate. It will have to do away with the absurd notion of the dualism of the sexes, or that man and woman represent two antagonistic worlds." For her activism she was arrested many times, jailed repeatedly and eventually stripped of her citizenship and expelled and deported to Russia. We have some of her work, as well as items celebrating her life, available here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/emma-goldman