Emma Goldman and Union Square

“Most of you left Russia, where you had a Czar who acted in as brutal a way as any man on earth. Here in America we have capitalistic czars ... We have Gould and Astor and Sage and Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. … You built the palaces and others are living in them. The politicians are misleading you… We are told God will feed the starving, but that is humbug in the nineteenth century."

"I will speak, they can arrest me if they please, but they cannot shut my mouth."

 - Emma Goldman – 1893.

Union Square was a common place for political protest since the mid 1800s, but Emma Goldman's more famous speeches happened in the Union Square protests of 1893 (only 7 years after she arrived in America) and 1916. (See Time Magazine's brief feature from Feb. 2011 Top 10 Famous Protest Plazas and A Brief History of Union Square Protests for more information on Union Square.)

Here is another excerpt from her speech in 1893. There were more than three thousand people who gathered in Union Square for this protest:

"Fifth Avenue is laid in gold, every mansion a citadel of money and power. Yet here you stand, a giant, starved, and fettered… You too,will have to learn that you have a right to share your neighbors’ bread. Your neighbors – they have not only stolen your bread,but they are sapping your blood. They will go on robbing you, your children, and your children’s children, unless you wake up, unless you become daring enough to demand your rights. Well, then, demonstrate before the palaces of the rich; demand work. If they do not give you work, demand bread. If they deny you both, take bread. It is your sacred right."

 Emma Goldman's 1894 mugshot

Emma Goldman at the Union Square protest of 1916

At the time, Emma Goldman's speeches usually consisted of workers and immigration rights, the right to birth control and women's suffrage. The protest of 1916 with Upton Sinclair, however, involved income disparity and, as per Ragtime, involved the textile mill conditions and inevitable strike in Lawrence, MA.

Most textile and loom workers were children and immigrants

Most textile and loom workers were children and immigrants

For more information on Emma Goldman, check out this transcript of PBS's An American Experience on Goldman.

For fun and interest: check out this interview with Emma Goldman specialist Vivan Gornick What Would Emma Do? - an interview examining what Emma Goldman's response would be to the Occupy Wall Street protests.