Alexander Berkman is one of the most important figures in the history of Anarchism in America and around the world. He was a lifetime companion and occasional lover of Emma Goldman (who is celebrated by cheesy academics and trend-feminists for her stance on "Women's Rights", etc. Few delve into the fact that Goldman was one of the most powerful Anarchist thinkers, speakers, & organizers in the historty of the movement.)
Berkman was born in the then Russian Empire in 1870(?)and began his anti-political career in the Nihilist circles that flourished in pre-revolutionary Russia. The trend of Nihilism in his thoughts and actions might be said to have continued, long after his emmigration in the United States as a teenager. His most famous action-- the attempted assasination of HC Frick in 1892 after Frick hired Pinkerton soldiers to slaughter steel-workers in Homestead,PA during a strike/lock-out-- was perhaps his least effective. He was thrown into jail for over 2 decades, during which he endured the most disturbing tortures.
After his release (and some recovery time), Berkman began to grow into the Communist Anarchist that he is generally labeled as. He began the revolutionary newspaper The Blast! in 1916, mainly as a mode to communicate the Anarchist ideas of global worker solidarity and anti-imperialism in the face of World War I. With the entrance of the US into the war, Berkman and Goldman (as well as many others) began the No Conscription League, an organization devoted to undermining the propaganda machine of the government, which was busy churning out horror stories and glorious tales in hopes of accumulating bodies to fill the army platoons.
Both Berkman and Goldman were eventually arrested and sent to jail for preaching peace and non-violence/non-conscription. (The actual charge was that they "induce[d] persons not to register" for the armed forces. They spent 6 years in jail. While there, for organizing against the gross mistreatment of prisoners, Berkman spend 7 1/2 months in a solitary cell called "the Hole"-- measuring 2.5x4.5 feet.
Upon "release," Berkman and Goldman were deported on an overloaded galley back to Russia, which (in 1919) was in the grips of Civil War/Invasion by the West. Coming through Finland and arriving in St. Petersburg, both companions were elated to be in a country that had realized thier dreams of workers' revolution. They soon discovered, however, that "Comrade" Lenin and his Bolsheviks were Communists only in name, not in action.
Eventually, both Goldman and Berkman were evicted/induced to flee from the despotic Soviet Union. The two remained without nationality, really, for the rest of thier lives. Berkman wrote The Bolshevik Myth and The Kronstadt Rebellion in order to inform the rest of the world of what was truly going on in "Communist" Russia. The latter was written and published in 1922 in concert with his English translation of the pamphlet "The Russian Tragedy," which was written by four anonymous friends of Berkman back in Russia. The former was published in 1925. In 1929 Berkman wrote What Is Communist Anarchism? which is today published as The ABC of Anarchism. ABC is probably Berkman's most widely read work (he also published his Prison Memoirs in 1912) and probably his most important. It is written in a very simple, Q&A format, as if a conversation were being carried on (not unlike a Socratic Dialog). It is an excellent piece, though it is obviously based on the economic and social realities of the first third of our century. What becomes anarchronistic can easily be overlooked, however, and the spirit of the piece still shines through.
Many of us obviously are fond of Alexander Berkman's writings. While we don't always agree with the sort of straight & narrow, almost ascetic ideal of revolutionaries that he often pushes, we see in his texts a great deal of thought and effort in writing for people to read, unlike many Anarchist writers whose texts are so dense that only an intellectual elite could make sense of them. Berkman sets a precedent, not unworthy of following to some extent, in his devotion, humor, and straightforward humanity. Again, we don't agree with his asceticism. His idea of revolution was based on stark socialist theory and penny-by-penny gains. Our idea of revolution, well...let's party. But this doesn't keep us from admiring Berkman for the vision he carried and worked his whole life to propagate-- he gives us examples to follow, and examples of what we wish to avoid as unrepenting sensualists and aesthetes.
The writings of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman both are available through Freedom Press. Write for a catalog of their titles:
Freedom Bookshop in Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel Highstreet, London, E1 7QX
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