Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, and Ulrike Heider
Voltairine de Cleyre, Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, and Ulrike Heider
An anarchist who supports male domination contradicts the implicit critique of power which is the fundamental principle upon which all of anarchism is built. Sexist anarchists do exist, but only by virtue of directly contradicting their own anarchism. This contradiction leaves sexist anarchists open to criticism on their own terms. Anarchism must be feminist if it is to remain consistent.L. Susan Brown, "Beyond Feminism: Anarchism and Human Freedom," in Howard J. Ehrlich (ed.), Reinventing Anarchy, Again
The right to vote, or equal civil rights, may be good demands, but true emancipation begins neither at the polls nor in the 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 realize 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 inner regeneration, to cut loose from the weight of prejudices, traditions, and customs.
Emma Goldman, The Tragedy of Woman's Emancipation
Anarchism and feminism have always been closely linked. Many outstanding feminists have also been anarchists, including the pioneering Mary Wollstonecraft (author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman ), the Communard Louise Michel, and the tireless champion of women's freedom, Emma Goldman. Freedom , the world's oldest anarchist newspaper, was founded by Charlotte Wilson in 1886. In addition, all the major anarchist thinkers (bar Proudhon) were supporters of women's equality.
Gary Elkin, Andrew Flood, Iain McKay, and Dave Neal, "An Anarchist FAQ," section A.3.5
They [Spanish anarchist men] struggled, they went out on strike, etc., but inside the house, worse than nothing. I think we should have set an example with our own lives, lived differently in accordance with what we said we wanted. But no. [For them] the struggle was outside. Inside the home [our desires] were purely utopian.
Azecena Fernandez Barba
[quoted by Aileen O'Carroll, "Mujeres Libres"][A revolutionary] must share our conviction that woman, different from man but not inferior to him, intelligent, working, and free like him, must be declared his equal in all political and social rights; and that in free society, religious and civil marriage must be replaced by free marriage.
Mikhail Bakunin, Program of the Fraternity
... there are reformist strategies that waste the energies of women, that raise expectations of great change, and that are misleading and alienating because they cannot deliver the goods. The best (or worst) example is electoral politics. Some socialists (beguiled by the notion of gradualism) fall for that one. Anarchists know better. You cannot liberate yourself by non-liberatory means; you cannot elect a new set of politicians (no matter how sisterly) to run the same old corrupt institutions -- which in turn run you.
Carol Ehrlich, "Socialism, Anarchism, and Feminism," in Howard J. Ehrlich (ed.), Reinventing Anarchy, Again
Nowhere is woman treated according to the merit of her work, but rather as a sex. It is therefore almost inevitable that she should pay for right to exist, to keep a position in whatever line, with sex favors. Thus it is merely a question of degree whether she sells herself to one man, in or out of marriage, or to many men.
Emma Goldman, The Traffic in Women
Gays are not oppressed on a whim, but because of the specific need of capitalism for the nuclear family. The nuclear family, as the primary -- and inexpensive -- provider and carer for the workforce, fulfilled in the nineteenth century and still fulfills an important need for capitalism. Alternative sexualities represent a threat to the family model because they provide an alternative role model for people. Gays are going to be in the front line of attack whenever capitalism wants to reinforce family values.
Louise Tierney, "Looking to the Future"
Love, the strongest and deepest element in all life, the harbinger of hope, of joy, of ecstasy; love, the defier of all laws, of all conventions; love, the freest, the most powerful molder of human destiny; how can such an all-compelling force be synonymous with that poor little State- and Church-begotten weed, marriage?
Free love? As if love is anything but free. Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love.
Emma Goldman, Marriage and Love
Get your own Free Home Page