Milly Witkop
Milly Witkop (also Milly Witkop rocker; born March 1, 1877 in Slotopol ; † November 23, 1955 in New York State ) was a Jewish anarcha feminist , anarchy psycho-psychic and author.
Life
Milly Witkop was born in the Shtetl Slotopol, about 80 kilometers northwest of Jelisavetgrad in the Ukraine, as the eldest of four sisters into a pious family. She emigrated to London at a young age in 1894 because of the anti-Semitic riots following the assassination attempt on the Tsar .
There she met her partner Rudolf Rocker and became involved in the anarcho-syndicalist labor movement. With Rocker, she published the Yiddish magazines Arbeter Fraynd and Germinal in London . She gave birth to her son Fermin Rocker there . Because of her anti-militarist agitation against the participation of England in the First World War, she had to spend two years in prison from 1916. On August 28, 1916, during your hearing in London, which decided on your further detention, Milly Witkop put on record: “ By anarchy, I understand a social condition in which the economic exploitation and political oppression of the broad masses by privileged minorities is impossible. In other words, a social condition where the producers themselves are the owners and administrators of the means of production and all social wealth and where consequently all forms of political domination and economic monopoly are things of the past. Anarchy is that form of social organization where economic equality and political and intellectual freedom form a synthesis, where each individual is granted the full development of his or her abilities, and where the deepest social feelings go hand in hand with the greatest possible personal independence. “After the end of the First World War, she went to her husband and son who had previously emigrated to the Netherlands.
In November 1918 she went to Germany and organized with Rocker the establishment of the Free Workers' Union of Germany and, with other women of the syndicalist women's association, from 1921 the supplement " Der Frauenbund " in the magazine " Der Syndikalist ". Witkop was of the opinion that the proletarian woman was not only exploited by capitalism, but also by her male companions. She therefore suggested that women should actively stand up for their rights.
When Hitler came to power , the family went to the USA via Switzerland, southern France, Paris and London in the summer of 1933. Neither of them saw Europe again. In the USA Rocker and Witkop tried above all to create awareness of the Spanish Civil War and to promote the work of the Mujeres Libres .
In 1937, she and her companion Rudolf Rocker went from New York to the anarchist community near Lake Mohegan in Westchester County, 50 kilometers away . She died there in 1955.
literature
- Milly Witkop-Rocker: What does the Syndicalist Women's Association want? Berlin: The syndicalist, Fritz Kater, undated [1922]; that., 2nd edition. Berlin: The syndicalist , Fritz Kater , 1923. [Reprint: Hamburg 1988].
- Milly Witkop-Rocker, Hertha Barwich, Aimée Köster and others: The Syndicalist Women's Association , Unrast Verlag , Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-89771-915-6
Secondary literature
- Werner Portmann / Siegbert Wolf: "Yes, I fought" From dreams of revolution, 'aerial people' and children of the shtetl. Biographies of Radical Jews. Unrast Verlag, Münster 2006. (therein: “Open the gates of freedom” - Milly Witkop-Rocker (1877–1955), anarchist and feminist, p. 249ff.).
- Silke Lohschelder: anarchist feminism . On the trail of a utopia. Unrast Verlag , Münster 2000.
- Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism. Libertad Verlag , Berlin / Cologne 1994.
- Vera Bianchi: Feminism in proletarian practice: The "Syndikalistische Frauenbund" (1920 to 1933) and the "Mujeres Libres" (1936 to 1939) , in progress - Movement - History , Issue I / 2018, pp. 27–44.
Web links
- Witkop, Milly von Siegbert Wolf in the Lexicon of Anarchy
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Witkop, Milly |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Witkop rocker, Milly |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Jewish anarchist feminist, anarcho-syndicalist and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 1, 1877 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Slotopol , Ukraine |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 23, 1955 |
| Place of death | New York , United States |