Lucy Parsons

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Parsons 1920

Lucy Eldine Gonzalez Parsons , née Lucy Eldine Gonzalez , also Lucia Gonzalez (probably in Texas around 1853 - March 7, 1942 ) was an American leader in the American labor movement , a radical socialist and anarcho-communist . She was known to be a strong speaker. Parsons joined the radical movement after her marriage to newspaper editor Albert Parsons and moved with him from Texas to Chicago. There she took part in the newspaper The Alarm , as its editor Albert was known. After her husband's execution in 1887 in connection with the Haymarket massacre , Parsons remained a leading radical activist as the founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and a member of other political organizations.

biography

Early days

Lucy (or Lucia) Eldine Gonzalez was likely born in Texas in 1853 , despite having Virginia as her place of birth on her children's birth certificates . Parsons may have been born a slave, the child of parents of indigenous North American , African American, and Mexican ancestors. In 1871 she married the former Confederate soldier Albert Parsons. Due to intolerant reactions to their intermarriage , they were forced to flee north of Texas. They settled in Chicago , Illinois.

Lucy Parsons' roots are undocumented and she has told different stories about her origins, making it difficult to distinguish between facts and legends. Lucy was likely born a slave, although she denied any African roots and claimed only North American and Mexican ancestry. Before she married Albert Parsons, her name was Lucy Gonzalez . She could have been married to Oliver Gathing before 1871.

Career as an activist

Parsons and her husband had become influential anarchist organizers primarily in the labor movement of the late 19th century and were described by the Chicago Police Department in the 1920s as "more dangerous than a thousand rioters". They also participated in subversive activism on behalf of political prisoners , marginalized ethnic groups, homeless people and women. She began writing for The Socialist and The Alarm, the journal of the International Working People's Association (IWPA), which she founded in 1883 with Parsons and others. Her husband, who had campaigned strongly for the eight-hour day , was arrested by the State of Illinois in 1886 , convicted and executed on November 11, 1887 for allegedly participating in the Haymarket uprising, an event widely regarded as a political conspiracy and stands for the start of the May Day demonstrations.

Parsons was invited to write for the French anarchist newspaper Les Temps Nouveaux and gave speeches with William Morris and Peter Kropotkin during a visit to Great Britain in 1888 .

In 1892 she briefly published the journal Freedom: A Revolutionary Anarchist-Communist Monthly . She was arrested many times for speaking publicly or distributing anarchist literature. While continuing to advocate the anarchist cause, she came into ideological conflict with some of her contemporaries, including Emma Goldman, as she focused on class politics rather than gender issues.

Photograph from 1886

In 1905 she helped found the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and began working as editor of the anarchist newspaper The Liberator , which supported the IWW in Chicago. Lucy's focus shifted somewhat to class struggle linked to poverty and unemployment, and she organized the Chicago Hunger Demonstrations in January 1915, prompting the American Federation of Labor , the Socialist Party, and Jane Addams ' Hull House to participate in a huge January 12 demonstration . Parsons was also quoted as saying, "My view of the future struggle is not to strike and go out and starve, but to strike and stay inside and appropriate the means of production." Parsons saw the sit-in strikes in the US and later factory takeovers by workers in Argentina ahead.

In 1925 she began working with the National Committee of International Labor Defense (ILD, US subsidiary of the IRH ) in 1927, a communist- run organization that defended labor activists and illegally accused African-Americans such as the Scottsboro Boys and Angelo Herndon. While it is generally recognized by almost all biographical accounts (including those from the Lucy Parsons Center, the IWW, and Joe Knowles) that Parsons joined the Communist Party in 1939 , there are certain doubts, particularly in Gale Ahrens' essay "Lucy Parsons: Mystery Revolutionist, More Dangerous Than A Thousand Rioters ", which can be found in the anthology Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality, Solidarity: Writings and Speeches, 1878–1937 (" Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality and Solidarity: Writings and Speeches "). In this volume, Ahrens also points out that the Communist Party's death obituary did not identify her as a member.

Conflict with Emma Goldman

Lucy Parsons.jpg

Emma Goldman and Lucy Parsons represented different generations of anarchism. This led to ideological and personal conflicts. Carolyn Ashbaugh explained the differences in detail:

“Lucy Parsons' feminism, which analyzed women's oppression as a function of capitalism, was founded on working class values. Emma Goldman's feminism took on an abstract character of freedom for women in all things, in all times, and in all places; her feminism became separate from its working class origins. Goldman represented the feminism being advocated in the anarchist movement of the 1890s [and after]. The intellectual anarchists questioned Lucy Parsons about her attitudes on the women's question. "

“Lucy Parsons' feminism, which saw the oppression of women as an effect of capitalism, was based on working class values. Emma Goldman's feminism took on a more abstract nature of freedom for women in all matters, times and places. Their feminism shed its working class roots. Goldman represented feminism in the anarchist movement of the 1890s [and after]. The intellectual anarchists questioned Lucy Parsons' position on women. "

After Captain Mahoney (of the New York City Police Department) blew up one of Goldman's Chicago lectures in 1908, headlines hit the news that every prominent anarchist had come to the spectacle, “except for Lucy Parsons, who Emma Goldman doesn't give up on on the best footing ". Goldman responded to her absence with the support of Frank Harris' book The Bomb , a largely fabricated account of the Haymarket massacre and the road to the execution of his martyrs. (Parsons had published The Famous Speeches of the Haymarket Martyrs, a truthful rendition of the Haymarket Martyrs' speeches firsthand.)

Parsons was entirely devoted to the liberation of the working class, condemning Goldman for "targeting large, middle-class audiences"; Goldman accused Parsons of swimming on her husband's martyrdom. “There was no doubt that the two women had a competitive mindset. In general, Emma preferred the limelight, ”wrote Candace Falk (Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman). Goldman sought to keep her place in the limelight as a celebrated American anarchist by making daring sexual and kinship issues "the focus of an ongoing debate among anarchists about the relative importance of such personal issues."

Parsons wrote in The Firebrand: “Mr. [Oscar] Rotter [an advocate of Free Love ] is trying to dig up the disgusting 'diversity' clutter and pin it to the beautiful budding bud of labor liberation from wage slavery and label them one and the same. Diversity in sexual relationships and economic freedom have nothing to do with each other. ”Goldman replied:

“The success of the meeting was unfortunately weakened by Lucy Parsons who, instead of condemning the unjustified Comstock attacks and arrest of anarchists… took a stand against the editor of the Firebrand, [Henry] Addis, because he tolerated articles about free love… Apart from the fact that anarchism not only teaches freedom from the economic and political areas, but also in social and sexual life, L. Parsons has the least cause to object to treatises on free love ... I spoke after Parsons and had a hard time changing the unpleasant mood that her remarks elicited, and I also succeeded in gaining the sympathy and the material support of the people present ... "

"The success of the meeting was unfortunately diminished by Lucy Parsons, who, instead of condemning the unjustified Comstock attacks and arrests of anarchists, attacked the Firebrand editor Addis for allowing free love articles ... Besides the fact that anarchism is not just Teaches freedom in economic and political terms, but also in social and sexual life, L. Parsons has little reason to reject treatises on free love ... I spoke after Parsons and had a hard time changing the unpleasant mood that her remarks had evoked, and I also managed to gain the sympathy and material support of those present ... "

Parsons replied: "The line will be sharply drawn with people who enlighten nobody and do infinitely more harm than good."

Goldman briefly mentioned in her autobiography Living My Life the presence of "Mrs. Lucy Parsons, widow of our martyr Albert Parsons" at a workers' meeting in Chicago and noted that she was "actively involved". Goldman later attested Albert Parsons to have become a socialist and anarchist and continued to boast of having "married a young mulatto "; Lucy Parsons was not mentioned further.

death

Parsons continued to give fiery speeches in Chicago's Bughouse Square into her 80s, impressing Studs Terkel . One of her last appearances was at the International Harvester in February 1941.

Parsons died on March 7, 1942 in a house fire in the Avondale Community Area of ​​Chicago. Her lover, George Markstall, died the next day of injuries sustained while trying to save her. The age of 89 was assumed. After her death, the police confiscated her library of over 1,500 books and all of her personal papers. She is buried near her husband in Waldheim Cemetery near the Haymarket Memorial (now Forest Home Cemetery) in Forest Park, Illinois (then part of the city of Chicago).

Grave in Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Ill., Taken on May 1, 2015

On October 15, 2015, a copy of William Morris' Signs of Change: Seven Lectures Delivered on Various Occasions was sold at auction in England . It was inscribed, "To Lucy E Parsons by William Morris, November 15, 1888," stamped "Surplus Library of Congress Duplicate," and some pages showed traces of smoke damage.

Legacies, Appreciations and Monuments

In 1970, the Lucy Parsons Center was founded in Boston , Massachusetts. It has existed since then as a collectively operated radical bookstore and information store .

Released in 1989, directed and produced by Ruth Dunlap Bartlett (also known as Helena Stevens), the short film Lucy Parsons Meets William Morris: A Hidden History tells a story based on Lucy Parsons visit to London in 1888.

In 2004 the city of Chicago named a park after Lucy Parsons.

On July 16, 2007, a part of the PBS television series History Detectives featured a book that allegedly belonged to Lucy Parsons. During that part, it was determined that the book was a copy of a biography of the life and trial of Albert Parson's co-defendant August Spies , which Parsons had probably misplaced for the purpose of raising money to prevent her husband's execution. The section also provided background information on Parsons' life and the Haymarket massacre.

In 2016, The Nation magazine published a free online short film by animator Kelly Gallagher called "More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters: The Revolutionary Life of Lucy Parsons" about Lucy Parsons.

A movie about Lucy Parsons, Albert Parsons and the anarchists of Chicago is in the works.

Works

literature

  • Jacqueline Jones, Goddess of Anarchy - The life and times of Lucy Parsons, American radical . New York: Basic Books, 2017. ISBN 978-0-465-07899-8 .
  • Carolyn Ashbaugh, Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary . Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1976.
  • Paul Avrich , The Haymarket Tragedy . Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984.
  • Paul Buhle and Nicole Schulman, Wobblies! A Graphic History of the Industrial Workers of the World . New York: Verso, 2005.
  • David Roediger and Franklin Rosemont (Editors), A Haymarket Scrapbook . Chicago: Charles H. Kerr Publishing Co., 1986.
  • Keith Rosenthal, " Lucy Parsons: More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters, " Joan of Mark, September 6, 2011.
  • “Lucy Parsons Is Burned to Death in Chicago; Husband Was Hanged After Haymarket Riot, New York Times, Mar 8, 1942, 36.

Web links

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  1. ^ Lori Henderson: Memory of Controversy and Controversial Memories: Lucy Parsons and the Haymarket Tragedy . In: Eastern Illinois University (Ed.): Historia . 17, 2008, pp. 13-23. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  2. ↑ About Lucy Parsons . The Lucy Parsons Project. Retrieved August 10, 2010: “Born in Texas, 1853, probably as a slave, Lucy Parsons was an African-, Native- and Mexican-American anarchist labor activist who fought against the injustices of poverty, racism, capitalism and the state her entire life. "
  3. ↑ About Lucy Parsons . about.com . Retrieved May 15, 2013.
  4. ↑ Alexander Trachtenberg [1932]: The History of May Day . Marxists.org , March 2002 (accessed January 19, 2008).
  5. ^ Philip S. Foner: The First May Day and the Haymarket Affair . In: May Day: A Short History of the International Workers' Holiday, 1886-1986 . International Publishers, New York 1986, ISBN 0-7178-0624-3 , pp. 27-39.
  6. ↑ Lucy Parsons: American Anarchist . Anarchist Writers. Retrieved August 14, 2013.
  7. ^ A b Women's History Information Project: "Lucy Parsons: Woman Of Will."
  8. ↑ Wobblies! 14th
  9. ↑ Carolyn Ashbaugh: Lucy Parsons: American Revolutionary . Charles H. Kerr Publishing, Chicago 1976, ISBN 0-88286-005-4 .
  10. ^ Daily Tribune (March 17, 1908); Quoted in Falk, Love, Anarchy, and Emma Goldman , 65
  11. ↑ Candace Falk: Anarchy, Love, and Emma Goldman , ISBN 0-03-043626-5 , p. 66.
  12. ^ Lucy Parsons, "On Variety," The Firebrand , Sep. 27, 1896, Free Society; also at Ashbaugh, 204.
  13. ↑ Emma Goldman. Emma Goldman: A Documentary… , pp. 312-313; originally published in Part IV, Letters from A Tour , Sturmvogel, November 15, 1897.
  14. ^ Lucy Parsons, "Salutation to the Friends of Liberty," The Liberator , Chicago, September 3, 1905; Lucy Parsons, Ahrens, ed., 88.
  15. ↑ Emma Goldman: Living My Life . Alfred A Knopf, 1931, ISBN 0-486-22544-5 .
  16. ↑ Nancy Watkins: Who Loves Lucy? . In: Chicago Tribune Magazine , Tribune Co., Nov. 9, 2008, p. 23. Retrieved September 7, 2013. 
  17. ↑ International News Service : Widow Of Anarchist Dies When Chicago Home Burns . In: St. Petersburg Times , March 8, 1942. Retrieved November 26, 2012. “Mrs. Lucy Parsons 80-year-old blind anarchist whose first hus band, Albert Parsons, died on the gallows as a result of the Haymarket riot, ... " 
  18. ^ Haymarket Widows . The Lucy Parsons Project. Retrieved August 10, 2010: "Lucy Parsons and her companion George Markstall, with whom she had lived since around 1910, died in a fire at their Chicago home in March 1942."
  19. ↑ Browse by City: Forest Park . In: Findagrave.com . Retrieved May 5, 2008.
  20. ↑ Kelly Gallagher: More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters: The Revolutionary Life of Lucy Parsons . In: The Nation . November 15, 2016, ISSN  0027-8378 (English, thenation.com [accessed on July 11, 2017]).
  21. ^ Parsons: Haymarket Affair. In: Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc. (Amazon), accessed July 11, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Parsons, Lucy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Parsons, Lucy Eldine Gonzalez (full name); Gonzalez, Lucy Eldine (maiden name); Gonzalez, Lucia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radical socialist and anarcho communist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1942