Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

Emma Goldman is a documentary film that was shown on US television (PBS) and released on DVD in 2004. It is an episode in the long-running program American Experience. Here is some basic information about it.

** Written, produced and directed by Mel Bucklin
** Original music composed by Brian Keane
** Narrated by Blair Brown
** Run time: 83 minutes

Emma Goldman, also known as Red Emma, was an anarchist agitator and author, who is described in the subtitle of the film as An exceedingly dangerous woman. This film is the story of her life.

THE WITNESSES

Several witnesses were interviewed for the film. Here are the names in the order of appearance:

** Barry Pateman, historian

** Tony Kushner, playwright

** Stephen Cole, historian

** Martin Duberman, historian

** Oz Frankel, historian

** Andrei Codrescu, writer

** Alice Wexler, biographer

** Kevin Baker, writer

** Robert Rosenstone, historian

** Edgar Lawrence “E.L.” Doctorow (1931-2015), novelist

** David Thelen, historian

** Al Orensanz, sociologist

** Christine Stansell, historian

** Orlando Figes, historian

Eleven persons are listed as historical advisors, including the following:

** Paul Avrich (1931-2006)
** Richard Drinnon (1925-2012)

Excerpts from the letters of Emma Goldman are read by Linda Emond

Excerpts from the letters of Alexander Berkman are read by Denis O’Hare

PART ONE

In this film we follow the life of Emma Goldman from the beginning to the end. From she was born in 1869 until her death in 1940. She was born in Lithuania, which was at the time a province of the Russian Empire. In 1885 she left Russia and moved to the US where she would spend a large part of her life.

In 1889 she met Alexander Berkman, known as Sasha, who would become her lifelong friend and companion. Berkman, who was born in 1870, was also from Lithuania. He had arrived in the US in 1888.

Throughout her life Emma talked and wrote about many topics that were related to her understanding of anarchism. But the main focus was not always the same. The main focus shifted from one period of her life to another, depending on what happened around her and the response she received.

During her time in the US she would often go on lecture tours all over the country, but several times she was arrested when the authorities felt that he had crossed the line. This film shows how and why her main focus shifted over time:

# 1. From 1885 - Workers’ right
# 2. Women’s rights
# 3. From 1903 - The revolutionary movement in Russia
# 4. Free speech
# 5. 1916 - Birth control for women
# 6. From 1917 - World War One – against the war – against conscription
# 7. In Russia 1919-1921: Her disillusionment with the Revolution
# 8. Life in exile 1922-1940 – writing her memoirs

Emma Goldman made a big impression on people around her. She made many friends. But she also made many enemies. Some of them were on the left wing of politics. They did not always agree with her understanding of anarchism. Others were on the right wing of politics. They were often powerful officials and politicians who could throw her in jail, as they did in 1917, or even deport her, as they did in 1919. In December 1919, she, Sasha, and more than two hundred “red” dissidents were shipped to Russia.

The witnesses in the film have studied her life in great detail. Many of them seem to like many things about her, but not everything. The crucial point is her views on violence. This is where many modern observers will disagree with her, even if they are sympathetic and regard her as a positive character. The narrator explains:

“Goldman's position on violence was never totally clear. She rejected violence intellectually, but always her sympathies went to the motivations of those who committed acts of violence. ‘Violence never has and never will bring constructive results,’ she wrote. ‘But my mind and my knowledge of life tell me that change will always be violent’.”

Stephen Cole adds the following observation:

“She felt that violence sometimes was necessary because of the implacable opposition of governments and industrialists to workers. Over time she recognized that almost invariably however those acts were counter-productive. You are giving them a sword if you talk about using a sword yourself.”

PART TWO 
One event which made a huge impression on Emma was the Haymarket bombing which happened in 1886, shortly after her arrival in the US. The narrator presents the background:

“In 1886, the anarchist movement captured headlines around the country. Falsely accused of a bombing in Chicago's Haymarket Square, four men, all anarchists, were put to death. Their trial and execution became a rallying point for firebrands like Johann Most, and galvanized a new generation of radicals.”

Oz Frankel explains why this made a big impression on her:

“Emma Goldman is baptized by violence so to speak. Or at least that's the way she sees her career as an anarchist. She becomes the anarchist after the five Haymarket martyrs are executed. And she feels great affinity with these five men. She later on in life calls them her parents. Intellectual parents.”

[Seven of eight were sentenced to death. Two sentences were later commuted to life in prison. Four were hanged, while one committed suicide in jail rather than face the gallows. When the narrator talks about four executions and when Frankel talks about five martyrs, both are correct.]

Another event which made a huge impression on her was the Bolshevik suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion which took place in 1921. Emma and Sasha had arrived in Russia in 1919. Anarchists were not Marxists, but Emma and Sasha had been cautiously optimistic about the Bolshevik Revolution of October 1917, because they wanted things to change in Russia.

The longer they stayed, the less they liked it. In the film we hear about their meeting with Lenin. They called for free speech, but Lenin told them there was no room for free speech in Russia, because the revolution was under attack. The final straw was the Bolshevik suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion in March 1921. The narrator explains:

“For Goldman and Berkman, the decisive moment came on March 16, 1921. That night, the Bolsheviks attacked Kronstadt, a naval base near Petrograd and the last bastion of anarchist dissent.”

At the end of 1921, Emma and Sasha left Russia. During the followingyears Emma wrote two books about her disillusionment in Russia. She also wrote her memoirs - Living My Life – which were published in two volumes in 1931. On this occasion, when she wanted to present her book, she was allowed to enter the US, but only for a brief visit.

During the last two decades of her life, she and Sasha spent most of their time in France. Sasha committed suicide in 1936. In 1939 Emma moved to Canada and she was still there in February 1940 when she suffered a stroke. The narrator explains what happened:

“On May 14, 1940, Emma Goldman died. Denied entry into the United States for so many years, she was finally permitted, in death, to cross the border. She was buried in Chicago's Waldheim Cemetery [now named Forest Home Cemetery], near the graves of the Haymarket martyrs.”

A brief epilogue at the end of the film focuses on her legacy.

Alice Wexler: “She raised people's consciousness. You know, she transformed people's thinking. She made them question their own lives and their political assumptions and she spoke back to power.”

Barry Pateman: “If we look everything that she did. The fight for free speech, the fight for women to have control over their bodies, the fight...the fight against state intrusion in our life, the fight against totalitarianism, becoming the nettle of our conscience; she didn't do it for wealth, she didn't do it for money, she didn't do it for personal gain. She did it for all of us.”

PART THREE

This film is an excellent biography of Emma Goldman. All parts of her life (except one) are covered in great detail. And all witnesses (except one) are well-chosen.

It is a balanced account. Neither a total defense, nor a total attack. The producers present the facts, telling us what she did and said, allowing the viewers to draw their own conclusions.

Whether you like Emma Goldman or not, she played a significant role in the history of the United States for almost four decades: from 1885 to 1919. Her story deserves to be told and this film does it very well. In my opinion, it has only two minor flaws:

# 1. The last part of Emma’s life is missing: the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939. In this war, Franco, the Spanish military and the Catholic Church were on one side while the Spanish Republic – a left-liberal coalition – was on the other side. When the war began in July 1936, the Spanish anarchists implemented an anarchist revolution in the republican zone.

Emma was invited to Barcelona where she was welcomed by the CNT and the FAI. For the first time in her life she lived in a community run by and for anarchists, according to anarchist principles.

When Sasha had committed suicide in June 1936, she almost lost the will to live. Her visit to the anarchist collectives in Spain brought her back to life again.

The omission of this chapter of Emma’s life is all the more surprising because the producers have an expert at hand: Alice Wexler, who has written a book about Emma in exile. The subtitle of her book is From the Russian Revolution to the Spanish Civil War. But the expert is not allowed to talk about this topic, and the Spanish experience is never mentioned. The decision to exclude this chapter of Emma’s life is most unfortunate.

# 2. One witness is not well-chosen: British historian Orlando Figes. As you can see from the list above, he is the last witness on the list. He appears in the section about Emma’s life in Russia 1919-1921. If you ask me, his contribution does not raise the quality of the film. Here is what he says about her:

“I think ultimately she's probably an enlightened fool in that she intellectualized a revolution she didn't really understand. And projected onto Russia her own hopes of liberation. Hopes, which I suppose were rooted in her own personal trajectories. And that was a pretty foolish thing to do.”

You can say many things about Emma, but she was not a fool. Describing someone as a fool does not seem right for an academic. It sounds like something a child would say. A professional historian should know better than that.

I have two additional reasons when I say Figes is not a well-chosen witness. The first reason: in 2010 he was involved in a scandal about fake reviews on Amazon. Using a pseudonym he had been posting reviews in which he trashed books written by his rivals and praised his own books. When it was suggested that he was the author of the anonymous reviews, he responded in three stages:

(A) He denied the allegation and said he was upset that anyone could think that he would do something so bad. (B) He said his wife had done it to help him and he did not know anything about it. (C) He admitted that he had done it and apologized to all who had been hurt in this matter.

The second reason: his book The Whisperers about life in the USSR under Stalin was set to be published in Russian. But when the Russian publisher began to check the facts in the book, they discovered so many mistakes that they decided not to publish it. 

[For details, see the article "Orlando Figes and Stalin's Victims" in the US magazine the Nation, 11 June 2012.]

The film about Emma was aired in 2004. Obviously, the producers of American Experience could not know what one of their witnesses was going to do five or ten years later. But with the benefit of hindsight we can see that the decision to use him as a witness was most unfortunate.

CONCLUSION

Most episodes of American Experience run for ca. 52 minutes, but there are exceptions to the rule. If a topic is considered very important, the producers will make an episode a bit longer. Emma Goldman is an exception. The episode about her life runs for 83 minutes. This means the topic is covered in great detail.

As stated above, this film is an excellent biography of Emma Goldman. I have mentioned the flaws, because I think they deserve to be mentioned, for the record, but I will not let them affect my overall judgement of the film.

If you are interested in the history of the modern world, in particular the question of human rights and political ideologies, this film is something for you.

PS # 1. Writings by Emma Goldman:

My Disillusionment in Russia (1923) and My Further Disillusionment in Russia (1924). These two books were merged into one account published in 1925 and reprinted several times. Living My Life, published in 2 volumes in 1931 and reprinted several times. Vision on Fire: Emma Goldman on the Spanish Revolution edited by David Porter (1983, 2006). Emma Goldman: A Documentary History of the American Years edited by Candace Falk, Barry Pateman, and Jessica Moran, volumes 1 and 2 published 2008, volume 3 published 2012.

PS # 2. Books about Emma Goldman:

** Rebel in Paradise by Richard Drinnon (1961, 1983)

** Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman by Paul Avrich & Karen Avrich (2012, 2014) (this work was left unfinished when Paul Avrich died in 2006; it was completed by his daughter Karen Avrich)

** Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life by Alice Wexler (1984)

** Emma Goldman in Exile: From the Russian Revolution to the Spanish Civil War by Alice Wexler (1989, 1993)

PS # 3. Books about two events that made a big impression on Emma Goldman:

** The Haymarket Tragedy by Paul Avrich (1984, 1986)

** Kronstadt 1921 by Paul Avrich (1970, 2006)

PS # 4. American Experience is a television program produced by PBS. The first episode was aired in 1988. The number of episodes differs from one season to the next, but the program is still running today. The story under review here (Emma Goldman) is season 16 episode 7 from 2004.

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 Emma Goldman (1869-1940)

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