CHAPTER 1 Flight to the West MY MOTHER waved farewell as the TWA plane took off from Newark airport. In a moment I lost sight of her. The big winged ship taxied to the end of the field, and swung around. Another few seconds and the plane had lifted clear of earth. and was gliding smoothly through space. Looking eastward as we climbed, I could see the Statue of Liberty, ships moving in New York Bay, the skyscrapers of Manhattan with their lights just beginning to stab the gathering dusk. Between were railroad yards and the smoke-stacks of countless industrial plants. Below, as the plane straightened its course, was the city of Newark, with a shimmering streak of illumination recognizable as Broad Street. The sun was gone from the sky, darkness came quickly, and other towns over which we passed were mere blurs of light. September 17, 1933 This was my...
Over 200 people crowded the little hall at 13, Farringdon Road, at our second meeting, on March 15th. The debate was to have been on Individualist and Communist Anarchism; but as no Individualists or Mutualists appeared to state their side of the question, the discussion turned chiefly on Free Communism. Comrade Kropotkin opened the proceedings with an hour's speech, which we print elsewhere. When he resumed his seat, the audience showed their interest in the subject by a brisk fire of questions, and then engaged in a somewhat desultory debate. The chief result of the discussion was to show that we Socialists of all shades of opinion are a long way yet from a thorough common understanding. 11 Nature is not slow to equip us in the prison uni... (From : AnarchyArchives.)
Suggestions that I write my memoirs came to me when I had barely begun to live, and continued all through the years. But I never paid heed to the proposal. I was living my life intensely -- what need to write about it? Another reason for my reluctance was the conviction I entertained that one should write about one's life only when one had ceased to stand in the very torrent of it. "When one has reached a good philosophic age," I used to tell my friends, "capable of viewing the tragedies and comedies of life impersonally and detachedly -- particularly one's own life -- one is likely to create an autobiography worth while." Still feeling adolescently young in spite of advancing years, I did not consider myself competent to undertake such a task. Moreover, I always lacked the necessary leisure for concentrated writing. My enforced European inactivity left me enough time to read a great deal, including biographies and autobiographies. I discovered, much to my discomf...
Anarchism in St. Pancras. -On Sunday, March 23, Comrade Neilson lectured to the St. Pancras Branch of the S. D. F. on -,A More excellent Way," advocating Free Communism 2 as against Social Democracy. There was a most energetic discussion. Evidently Communist Anarchism is making rapid way in this part of London. GERMAN ANARCHISTS IN LONDON. -On March 3 the German Anarchist Club Arbeiterbund and Gleicheit held an enthusiastic public meeting at Cooper's Hall, to show up the policy of "the Social-Democrat's new comrade," that mighty potentate known among the Berlin street Arabs as "mangy William." DARLINGTON. -On 9th March Kropotkin spoke before the Sunday Lecture Society at Darlington, upon "The Problems of our Century." 'faking the historical... (From : AnarchyArchives.)
HUDDERSFIELD.--On Nov. 3rd, Albert Tam lectured on "The Labor Question," and "Can we do without Government?" BRIGHTON.--At the Freethought Hall on November 10th, a very successful Chicago Anniversary meeting was held; Barker and Frank Cooper being the speakers. ABERDEEN.--Kropotkin lectured at the Albert Hall on the 28th October. On the 29th he spoke in the Friendly Society's Hall. Good audiences. MANCHESTER.--Kropotkin addressed several well-attended meetings here, and in the surrounding district during November. YARMOUTH.--On November 10th Mrs. Schaack and other comrades addressed a good meeting in commemoration of our Chicago comrades. HACKNEY.--On November 6th a Chicago Commemoration meeting was held at the Crown Coffee Tavern, 2 Columb... (From : AnarchyArchives.)
Norwich --J. Blackwell visited the comrades in this city on the 19th inst. and spoken in the course of a discussion on -Strikes at a local society's meeting the same evening Moore and other comrades also took part, The following day (Sunday) Blackwell spoke in the morning in the Market Place, in the afternoon in the Gordon Hall on "Anarchist Socialism," and in the evening in the same hall on 11 The Gospel of Freedom." A great many questions were asked after the last two lectures and the replies appeared to be satisfactory. The Norwich Socialists include in their ranks a number of young promising speakers who win without doubt be of great service to the Anarchist cause. Freedom: A Journal of Anarchist Socialism Vol. 3 -- No. 36, NOVEMBER, 18... (From : AnarchyArchives.)
On the Case of Ettor and Giovannitti Coooper Union, New York Dedicated to the World's Workers, In Behalf of Ettor and Giovannitti, By the Speaker PRICE FIVE CENTS Published By The ETTOR-GIOVAKNITTI DEFENSE COMMITTEE NOBLE FIGHTERS FOR THE WORKERS' CAUSE The pathway to civic liberty and Industrial freedom is marked with blood, its miles are the cross, stake, gibbet, guillotine, scaffold, and the firing squad. Shall the electric chair be added to that bloody list.- ARTURO GIOVANNITTI JOSEPH J. ETTOR In a prison cell, accused by capitalists' agents of a crime committed by a policeman. Ettor and Giovannitti organized the 85,000 Lawrence textile workers, whose wages averaged less than six dollars per week. The bosses were defeated, the mill work... (From : Archive.org.)