Tag Archives: Alexander Berkman

Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman: “¡Abajo los Anarquistas!” (1908)

¡Debemos deshacernos de los Anarquistas! Son una amenaza para la sociedad. ¿No dice eso Hearst? ¿No nos aseguran la  M. & M. y los señores de la Cámara del Comercio, quienes también le declararon la guerra a la Labor [N. del T.: AFL, American Federation of Labor / Federación Estadounidense del Trabajo], que los Anarquistas son peligrosos y que son responsables de todos nuestros problemas? ¿Acaso no todo novato de la Labor y todo injerto de político grita contra los Anarquistas? ¿No es eso prueba suficiente de que los Anarquistas son peligrosos?
Continue reading Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman: “¡Abajo los Anarquistas!” (1908)

Alexander Berkman: La Necesidad de Trasladar los Ideales a la Vida (1910)

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Ha pasado un año desde la muerte de Francisco Ferrer. Su martirio ha llamado a la indignación casi universal contra la camarilla de sacerdotes y dominadores que condenaron a un noble hombre a la muerte. Los elementos pensantes y  progresivos de todo el mundo han vociferado su protesta sin ambigüedades. En todas partes se ha manifestado simpatía por Ferrer, víctima moderna de la Inquisición Española, y se ha expresado profundo aprecio por su obra y propósito. En resumen, la muerte de Ferrer ha tenido éxito — como probablemente ningún otro martirio de la historia reciente — en despertar la consciencia social de las personas. Ha esclarecido la actitud eternamente inalterable de la iglesia como enemiga del progreso; ha expuesto convincentemente al Estado como el calculador rival del avance popular; ha, finalmente, despertado profundo interés en el destino de los infantes y la necesidad de la educación racional.
Continue reading Alexander Berkman: La Necesidad de Trasladar los Ideales a la Vida (1910)

Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman: “¡Abajo los Anarquistas!” (1908)

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¡Debemos deshacernos de los Anarquistas! Son una amenaza para la sociedad. ¿No dice eso Hearst? ¿No nos aseguran la  M. & M. y los señores de la Cámara del Comercio, quienes también le declararon la guerra a la Labor [N. del T.: AFL, American Federation of Labor / Federación Estadounidense del Trabajo], que los Anarquistas son peligrosos y que son responsables de todos nuestros problemas? ¿Acaso no todo novato de la Labor y todo injerto de político grita contra los Anarquistas? ¿No es eso prueba suficiente de que los Anarquistas son peligrosos?
Continue reading Emma Goldman & Alexander Berkman: “¡Abajo los Anarquistas!” (1908)

Alexander Berkman: La Necesidad de Trasladar los Ideales a la Vida (1910)

alexander-berkman-2

Ha pasado un año desde la muerte de Francisco Ferrer. Su martirio ha llamado a la indignación casi universal contra la camarilla de sacerdotes y dominadores que condenaron a un noble hombre a la muerte. Los elementos pensantes y  progresivos de todo el mundo han vociferado su protesta sin ambigüedades. En todas partes se ha manifestado simpatía por Ferrer, víctima moderna de la Inquisición Española, y se ha expresado profundo aprecio por su obra y propósito. En resumen, la muerte de Ferrer ha tenido éxito — como probablemente ningún otro martirio de la historia reciente — en despertar la consciencia social de las personas. Ha esclarecido la actitud eternamente inalterable de la iglesia como enemiga del progreso; ha expuesto convincentemente al Estado como el calculador rival del avance popular; ha, finalmente, despertado profundo interés en el destino de los infantes y la necesidad de la educación racional.

Continue reading Alexander Berkman: La Necesidad de Trasladar los Ideales a la Vida (1910)

Bolsheviks Shooting Anarchists

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Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman (1922)

We have just received the following letter from our comrades Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, who are now stranded in Stockholm. This letter gives us the truth about the terrible persecution of Anarchists in Russia. We ask all Anarchist and Syndicalist papers to republish this letter, and we hope comrades in this country will help us in pushing the sale of this issue, of which we have printed a much larger number than usual.

Dear Comrades, — The persecution of the revolutionary elements in Russia has not abated with the changed political and economic policies of the Bolsheviki. On the contrary, it has become more intense, more determined. The prisons of Russia, of Ukraina, of Siberia, are filled with men and women — aye, in some cases with mere children — who dare hold views that differ from those of the ruling Communist Party. We say “hold views” advisedly. For in the Russia of to-day it is not at all necessary to express your dissension in word or act to become subject to arrest; the mere holding of opposing views makes you the legitimate prey of the de facto supreme power of the land, the Tcheka, that almighty Bolshevik Okhrana, whose will knows neither law nor responsibility.

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Deportation — Its Meaning and Menace: Last Message to the People of America

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Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman

Ellis Island, New York, U.S.A., December, 1919.

Introduction

With pencil and scraps of paper concealed behind the persons of friends who had come to say good-bye at the Ellis Island Dep334
Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman

Ellis Island, New York, U.S.A., December, 1919.
Introduction

With pencil and scraps of paper concealed behind the persons of friends who had come to say good-bye at the Ellis Island Deportation Station, Alexander Berkman hastily scribbled the last lines of this pamphlet.

I think it is the best introduction to this pamphlet to say that before its writing was finished the rulers of America began deporting men directly and obviously for the offense of striking against the industrial owners of America.

The “Red Ark” is gone. In the darkness of early morning it slipped away, leaving behind many wives and children destitute of support. They were denied even the knowledge of the sailing of the ship, denied the right of farewell to the husbands and fathers they may never see again. After the boat was gone, women and children came to the dock to visit the prisoners, bringing such little comforts as are known to the working class, seedy overcoats for the Russian winter, cheap gloves and odds and ends of food. They were told that the ship was gone. The refined cruelty of the thing was too much for them; they stormed the ferry-house, broke a window, screamed and cried, and were driven away by soldiers

The “Red Ark” will loom big in American history. It is the first picturesque incident of the beginning effort of the War Millionaires to crush the soul of America and insure the safety of the dollars they have looted over the graves of Europe and through the deaths of the quarter million soldier boys whom American mothers now mourn.

Yes, the “Red Ark” will go into history. Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman whom the screaming harlots of the yellow press have chosen to call the “leaders” of those whose distinction is that they have no leaders, are more fortunate than otherwise. Berkman and Goldman have been deported as “Russians.” They were born in Russia, but they did their thirty years’ work of en, enlightenment in this, our America. I think they are therefore Americans, in the best sense, and the best of Americans. They fought for the elementary rights of men, here in our country when others of us were afraid to speak, or would not pay the price. In all the leading cities of this land, they have contributed to the intellectual life of the younger, aspiring generation. I venture to say that there is hardly a liberal in the United States whose life has not been influenced directly or indirectly and made better, by Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.

Alexander Berkman spent in American prisons more years than like to remember. He did it deliberately. He did it for the welfare of men, and the American portion of mankind. He never hesitated to offer his life for his brother. I recall a picture; it is in Russia. We were gathered in Moscow. It looked as though the Revolution were going to its death. Everywhere the Soviet armies Were retreating, the masses were sinking into despair, the German working class was not rising in rebellion as we had hoped, the Austrians likewise; the White Terror was raising its head through. out Russia. A pallid girl, a Russian-American immigrant returned to her native country, held in her hand the bulletin of the day’s news. “A hundred Alexander Berkmans distributed throughout Europe at this time, and the history of Europe would be different!” she exclaimed.

Berkman wrote a book, “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist,” which is one of America’s vital literary products. It won for him the admiration of such intellectuals here as had the courage to admire.

The “intellectuals” for the most part did not bid Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman good-bye. Most of those who dared to visit the passengers of the “Red Ark” in their Ellis Island prison were young men and women of the working class. That is as it should be. It is in the working class where Goldman and Berkman’s brave work will find the growth that will count. American plutocracy knew this. That is why American plutocracy deported Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman.

This pamphlet is the “good-bye message” of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman; and I think it is in spirit the message of all the passengers of the “Red Ark.” As such it appears first in this form and will appear later in history. Read it and keep it for the future.

Robert Minor

Deportation — Its Meaning and Menace
I

The war is over, but peace there is not. On a score of fronts human slaughter is going on as before; men, women, and children are dying by the hundred thousands because of the blockade of Russia; the “small nations” are still under the iron heel of the foreign oppressor; Ireland, India, Egypt, Persia, Korea, and numerous other peoples, are being decimated and exploited even more ruthlessly than before the advent of the- Great Prophet of World Democracy; “self-determination” has become a by-word, nay a crime, and world-wide imperialism has gotten a strangle hold upon humanity.

What, then, has the Great War accomplished? To what purpose the sacrifice of millions of human lives, the unnamable loss in blood and treasure? What, especially, has happened in these United States?
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The Russian Tragedy (A Review and An Outlook)

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Alexander Berkman (1922)

The Russian Tragedy (A Review and An Outlook)

Foreword

We live at a time when two civilisations are struggling for their existence. Present society is at death grips with the New Ideal. The Russian Revolution was but the first serious combat of the two forces, whose struggle must continue till the final triumph of the one or of the other.

The Russian Revolution has failed — failed of its ultimate purpose. But that failure is a temporary one. In the point of revolutionising the thought and feeling of the masses of Russia and of the world, in undermining the fundamental concepts of existing society, and lighting the torch of faith and hope for the Better Day, the Russian Revolution has been of incalculable educational and inspirational value to mankind.

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Memoria libertaria. Alexander Berkman, La rivoluzione Russa, da: “La Revue Anarchiste”, N° 4, aprile 1922, 03 di 05.

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La rivoluzione russa

di Alexander Berkman

III

Ciò che ho imparato, l’ho imparato a poco a poco, giorno dopo giorno, in diverse parti del paese. Ho avuto delle occasioni eccezionali per osservare e studiare. Ero in stretti rapporti con i capi del Partito Comunista, in contatto con quasi tutti i militanti, uomini e donne, ho partecipato alle loro attività, e ho viaggiato molto attraverso il paese nelle condizioni più favorevoli per prendere contatto personalmente con la vita degli operai e dei contadini.
Continue reading Memoria libertaria. Alexander Berkman, La rivoluzione Russa, da: “La Revue Anarchiste”, N° 4, aprile 1922, 03 di 05.

A Sketch of Alexander Berkman

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by Emma Goldman
Taken from The Russian Tragedy (A Review and An Outlook) (Berlin: Der Syndikalist, 1922).
To write a biographic sketch of even an ordinary man within the limited space at my disposal would be difficult. But to write about one whose personality is so complex and whose life so replete with events as that of Alexander Berkman, is almost an insurmountable task. To do justice to such a rich and colorful subject one must not be so limited by space as I am. Above all, one should be removed, in point of time and distance, from the life to be portrayed. Which is not the case in the present instance.
I shall therefore not attempt a biography at the present time. I shall merely joint down a few outstanding features in the life and activities of our Comrade, which may serve as an introduction to something bigger yet to be written. Perhaps it may lead the reader to acquaint himself with Alexander Berkman’s own story, the “Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist”, which portrays the various phases of his life and his ideal much more forcefully and intimately than any biographer could do.
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La necesidad de trasladar los ideales a la vida – Alexander Berkman

Berkman

Ha pasado un año desde la muerte de Francisco Ferrer. Su martirio ha llamado a la indignación casi universal contra la camarilla de sacerdotes y dominadores que condenaron a un noble hombre a la muerte. Los elementos pensantes y progresivos de todo el mundo han vociferado su protesta sin ambigüedades. En todas partes se ha manifestado simpatía por Ferrer, víctima moderna de la Inquisición Española, y se ha expresado profundo aprecio por su obra y propósito. En resumen, la muerte de Ferrer ha tenido éxito —como probablemente ningún otro martirio de la historia reciente— en despertar la consciencia social de las personas. Ha esclarecido la actitud eternamente inalterable de la iglesia como enemiga del progreso; ha expuesto convincentemente al Estado como el calculador rival del avance popular; ha, finalmente, despertado profundo interés en el destino de los infantes y la necesidad de la educación racional.

Continue reading La necesidad de trasladar los ideales a la vida – Alexander Berkman