Emma Goldman: Speech against Conscription and War

From 1893 to 1917 Emma Goldman delivered numerous and controversial lectures regarding anarchism, women’s rights, patriotism, and labor conditions. In addition to her efforts on the lecture circuit, in 1906 Goldman established the anarchist journal Mother Earth, which she edited in New York City’s bohemian center of Greenwich Village. In 1910 several of Goldman’s Mother Earth pieces were collected in the anthology Anarchism and Other Essays.

American entrance into World War I was opposed by Goldman as a capitalist conflict enriching bankers and munitions makers at the expense of the international working class. Her opposition to the war and conscription is well represented by her Speech against Conscription and War at Forward Hall in New York City, delivered on June 14, 1917. Goldman’s antiwar activities resulted in her arrest and sentence to a two-year prison term under the Espionage Act. Following her imprisonment, Goldman was exiled to Russia, but she left the workers’ paradise in 1921, settling in London three years later. Her denunciation of capitalism, as well as Bolshevism, led to increasing political isolation.