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I had originally planned to post a "blockbuster 300th blog post blogtacular" a couple of weeks ago, but things kind of got out of control. For one thing, I got kind of carried away with my article on Emma Goldman and I didn't want to wait to post it. So "Notes on Emma Goldman" was really the 300th posting for greeklish.org and this was just fine, I guess. But then came Dayton's Hurricane Ike Blackout of 2008 and we ended up cleaning up storm damage and sitting in the dark without power for four days. It could have been worse, but it was no fun at all. Incidentally, the complete failure of all our aquarium filters and air pump resulted in the loss of all of our pet goldfish. Longtime readers wil recall our fish were the topic of much discussion a few years back. No worries, though...We have rebuilt the aquarium into a tropical tank now and we're hoping for another good run with the new batch of fish.
Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya From a set entitled "Heroes of the Soviet Union," dated 1973.
So, onward and upward with our 301st blog article spectacular! To celebrate this landmark event, we are launching several new pages and sections, including some big additions to our Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya archive. This particular section is visited regularly by people from all around the world who want to learn about the struggle and sacrifice of the legendary Soviet heroine. New to the section are two image galleries. The "Posters and Paintings" gallery features images and information regarding Soviet-era depictions of Zoya. Some of the images are items from my personal collection and one image is of a portrait owned by my good friend Randy Graham. Thanks Randy! We have also added a gallery called "Exhibits and Photographs" that features rare photographs and pictures of exhibits from the Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya Museum in Moscow. These pictures and captions were provided by Nina Lebed, our friend from Russia. Большое спасибо, once again, Nina! Finally, a we've added another rare picture postcard to our "Post Card Gallery." The post card is from a 1973 set entitled Heroes of the Soviet Union and in my opinion, the color portrait on this particular post card is one of the best depictions of Zoya I have ever seen.
Another of our new features is the "Recommended Reading" page, which will list some of my favorite works of all time. The page is still under construction, but to kick it off, I have created a list of some recommended works on the topics of Marx and Marxism. Since most of my reading and study over the past decade or so has involved Marxism and the radical left, I figured this was a good way to launch this particular page. The banner image at the top of the page is a photo taken by my friend Kave Heydari during a recent visit to the Marx Memorial Library in London. Thanks so much for the photo, Kave!
Finally, I have added a new list called "Favorite greeklish.org articles" to the left side of our main page. The list features links to some of my favorite articles from the last 3½ years. Some of these pieces were quite controversial, as you can well see by reviewing the "comments" sections for the respective posts. Some of the articles are quirky or silly and a few of them are just pieces that I simply enjoyed writing. If you missed any of these the first time around, you might want to check them out. Then again, if you've read them before, they could be worth yet another look.
We really enjoy sharing the material at greeklish.org with all of our friends and family as well as the thousands of visitors around the world who happen upon our site each and every month. Thanks to all our friends who have contributed photos, texts, and comments and thanks to all of our readers, from Russia, Greece, Iran, India, Pakistan and everywhere else all around the world!
“I do not believe in God, because I believe in man. Whatever his mistakes, man has for thousands of years past been working to undo the botched job your God has made.”
— Emma Goldman Living My Life
Emma Goldman
A couple of weekends ago, we were out and about on a Saturday and I asked Thomai and the girls if I could stop into Half Price Books for a second since we were in the neighborhood. They’re all well aware that it’s a “given” for me to do a quick run through to HPB any time that we’re in the general area, so there were no objections. Now, I was really looking for a couple of minutes worth of browsing and I wasn’t intending to pick anything up that day, but it’s pretty tough for me to leave any second-hand bookstore empty-handed. And, sure enough, after a couple of minutes I emerged from the store with some great finds. One of my acquisitions was a two-volume set of Ernst Mandel’s Marxist Economic Theory (the 1968 Merlin Press ed.), which is something you kind of don’t expect to find sitting on the shelves of a Dayton, Ohio book store. But I was even more excited to find a brand-new unread copy of Emma Goldman’s autobiography Living My Life(The Penguin Classics edition) for only $5. It was really a steal, because the retail price is $18. After checking out, I happily returned to the girls who were waiting patiently in the car, set my new books on my lap and told Thomai I was ready to go. She looked at the Goldman volume on the top of my stack and said, “Wow.” The woman knows me all to well and she knows how much I love Emma, so she was very happy for me. I am so lucky, for sure.
One of the first works by Goldman that I ever read was My Disillusionment Russia. It’s probably been about seven years now since I read it, but I remember being impressed with at her insight and detail, even though I didn’t necessarily agree with all of her conclusions. Emma wrote from an unmistakable perspective of one who was personally invested in the struggle of the oppressed without allowing her emotions to blunt or otherwise compromise her message. While she was not always committed to the attentat, she was relentless and uncompromising in her work and she was always certain to remind people that the oppressed must work to free themselves while learning from the inspirational examples and sacrifices of the vanguard.
Living My Life is a formidable tome and these days I don’t have as much down time to read as I would like. So it will be a while before I can get through all 56 chapters, but with only a few chapters under my belt right now, I can already tell what a great read this will be. The book opens in turn-of-the century New York, set against the backdrop of a political diversity that is unknown in today’s America. Emma’s vivid and detailed writing conveys every bit of the enthusiasm and passion that fueled her revolutionary work from her early days all the way through to her final years. Consider, for example, the following excerpt in which Emma reflects upon the day she learned of the eviction of striking steel workers and their families from the Homestead mill-towns:
Far away from the scene of the impending struggle, in our little ice-cream parlour in the city of Worcester, we eagerly followed developments. To us it sounded the awakening of the American worker, the long-awaited day of his resurrection. The native toiler had risen, he was beginning to feel his mighty strength, he was determined to break the chains that had held him in bondage so long, we thought. Our hearts were fired with admiration for the men of Homestead.
We continued our daily work, waiting on customers, frying pancakes, serving tea and ice-cream; but our thoughts were in Homestead, with the brave steel-workers. We became so absorbed in the news that we would not permit ourselves enough time even for sleep. At daybreak one of the boys would be off to get the first editions of the papers. We saturated ourselves with the events in Homestead to the exclusion of everything else. Entire nights we would sit up discussing the various phases of the situation, almost engulfed by the possibilities of the gigantic struggle.
One afternoon a customer came in for an ice-cream, while I was alone in the store. As I set the dish down before him, I caught the large headlines of his paper: "LATEST DEVELOPMENTS IN HOMESTEAD -- FAMILIES OF STRIKERS EVICTED FROM THE COMPANY HOUSES -- WOMAN IN CONFINEMENT CARRIED OUT INTO THE STREET BY SHERIFFS." I read over the man's shoulder Frick's dictum to the workers: he would rather see them dead than concede to their demands, and he threatened to import Pinkerton detectives. The brutal bluntness of the account, the inhumanity of Frick towards the evicted mother, inflamed my mind. Indignation swept my whole being. I heard the man at the table ask: "Are you sick, young lady? Can I do anything for you?" "Yes, you can let me have your paper," I blurted out. "You won't have to pay me for the ice-cream. But I must ask you to leave. I must close the store." The man looked at me as if I had gone crazy.
I locked up the store and ran full speed the three blocks to our little flat. It was Homestead, not Russia; I knew it now. We belonged in Homestead. The boys, resting for the evening shift, sat up as I rushed into the room, newspaper clutched in my hand. "What has happened, Emma? You look terrible!" I could not speak. I handed them the paper.
Sasha was the first on his feet. "Homestead!" he exclaimed. "I must go to Homestead!" I flung my arms around him, crying out his name. I, too, would go. "We must go tonight," he said; "the great moment has come at last!" Being internationalists, he added, it mattered not to us where the blow was struck by the workers; we must be with them. We must bring them our great message and help them see that it was not only for the moment that they must strike, but for all time, for a free life, for anarchism. Russia had many heroic men and women, but who was there in America? Yes, we must go to Homestead, tonight!
from Living My Life, Chapter 8 (Penguin Classics ed., pp. 58-59)
I’m sure that if Emma had her life to live over again, she would -- in Trotsky’s words -- “try to avoid this or that mistake.” But what a legacy Emma left to those who truly desire and struggle to change the world for the better. She once said:
“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”
What a world it would be if we there were more people like Emma Goldman. Recommended Reading Living My Life full text online from Anarchy Archives
