Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the
Industrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a...
(IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the
American Civil Liberties UnionThe American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying...
and a visible proponent of
women's rightsThe term women's rights refers to freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society...
,
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
, and
women's suffrageWomen's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
. Late in life, she became chairperson of the
American Communist PartyThe Communist Party of the United States of America is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States.During the first half of the 20th century it was the largest and most widely influential communist party in the country, and played a prominent role in the U.S...
. Flynn died in the course of a visit to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, where she was accorded a state funeral.
Gurley was born in
Concord, New HampshireThe city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2000 census, its population was 40,765. Its estimated population in 2007 was 42,392.Concord includes the villages of Penacook, East Concord and West...
in 1890.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (August 7, 1890 – September 5, 1964) was a labor leader, activist, and feminist who played a leading role in the
Industrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a...
(IWW). Flynn was a founding member of the
American Civil Liberties UnionThe American Civil Liberties Union consists of two separate non-profit organizations: the ACLU Foundation, a 501 organization which focuses on litigation and communication efforts, and the American Civil Liberties Union, a 501 organization which focuses on legislative lobbying...
and a visible proponent of
women's rightsThe term women's rights refers to freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society...
,
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
, and
women's suffrageWomen's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
. Late in life, she became chairperson of the
American Communist PartyThe Communist Party of the United States of America is a Marxist-Leninist political party in the United States.During the first half of the 20th century it was the largest and most widely influential communist party in the country, and played a prominent role in the U.S...
. Flynn died in the course of a visit to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, where she was accorded a state funeral.
Early years
Gurley was born in
Concord, New HampshireThe city of Concord is the capital of the state of New Hampshire in the United States. It is also the county seat of Merrimack County. As of the 2000 census, its population was 40,765. Its estimated population in 2007 was 42,392.Concord includes the villages of Penacook, East Concord and West...
in 1890. The family moved to
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1900, and Flynn was educated at the local public schools. Her parents introduced her to
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. When she was only 16 she gave her first speech, "What Socialism Will Do for Women", at the
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
Socialist Club. As a result of her political activities, Flynn was expelled from high school.
Activist career
In 1907, Flynn became a full-time organizer for the
Industrial Workers of the WorldThe Industrial Workers of the World is an international union currently headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. At its peak in 1923 the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a...
. Over the next few years she organised campaigns among garment workers in
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
, silk weavers in
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
, restaurant workers in
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, miners in
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
,
Missoula, MontanaMissoula is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, United States. The population was 57,053 at the 2000 census and the population of the Missoula Metropolitan Statistical Area was 95,802, making it the second-largest city and metropolitan area in Montana. It is the largest...
, and
Spokane, WashingtonSpokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, as well as the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
; and textile workers in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. During this period, author
Theodore DreiserTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist. He pioneered the naturalist school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of...
described her as "an East Side Joan of Arc".
In 1909, Flynn participated in a free speech fight in Spokane, in which she chained herself to a lamppost in order to delay her arrest. She later accused the police of using the jail as a brothel, an accusation that prompted them to try to confiscate all copies of the
Industrial WorkerThe Industrial Worker, "the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism," is the newspaper of the Industrial Workers of the World , a radical labor union. It is currently released eleven times a year, printed and edited by union labor, and is frequently distributed at radical bookstores,...
reporting the charge.
Flynn was arrested 10 times during this period, but was never convicted of any criminal activity. It was a plea bargain, on the other hand, that resulted in Flynn's expulsion from the IWW in 1916, along with fellow organizer
Joe EttorJoseph James Ettor was one of the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World.-Biography:Joseph James Ettor participated in the Lawrence textile strike at a Massachusetts textile mill in January, 1912. During the walkout, which came to be known as the Bread and Roses Strike, IWW striker Anna...
. Three Minnesota miners had been arrested on murder charges when a gunman by the name of Myron came to the residence of one of the miners and was killed. Three IWW organizers were also charged with the murder. Head of the IWW's organizing committee,
Bill HaywoodWilliam Dudley Haywood , better known as Big Bill Haywood, was a prominent figure in the American labor movement. Haywood was a leader of the Western Federation of Miners , a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World , and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist...
seemed confident that
Judge HiltonOrrin N. Hilton was a Denver judge and attorney who participated for the defense in several famous court cases. Judge Hilton successfully defended George Pettibone of the Western Federation of Miners when Pinkerton detective James McParland accused him of conspiracy to murder former Idaho governor...
, who had successfully defended George Pettibone when he and Haywood were on trial in Idaho, could win the case for the miners.
It didn't happen that way — the main organizers on the scene accepted an arrangement by which the other organizers were allowed to go free, but the three miners, none of whom spoke English fluently, faced time in prison. There was also a mixup in the sentencing; a prior agreement for one year in prison was somehow changed in the courtroom to a sentence of five to 20 years. Haywood held Flynn and Ettor responsible for allowing the miners to plead guilty to charges they probably didn't understand. Haywood wrote in his autobiography that Flynn and Ettor's "part in the affair terminated their connection with the IWW." Haywood's biographer, Peter Carlson, wrote that Ettor left the IWW, and that Flynn "remained in the union, but took pains to avoid Haywood and his supporters."
A founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920, Flynn was active in the campaign against the conviction of
Sacco and VanzettiFerdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were two Italian-born laborers and anarchists who were tried, convicted and executed via electrocution on August 23, 1927 in Massachusetts for the 1920 armed robbery and murder of a pay-clerk and a security guard in Braintree, Massachusetts.Today,...
. Flynn was particularly concerned with
women's rightsThe term women's rights refers to freedoms and entitlements of women and girls of all ages. These rights may or may not be institutionalized, ignored or suppressed by law, local custom, and behavior in a particular society...
, supporting
birth controlBirth control is a regimen of one or more actions, devices, sexual practices, or medications followed in order to deliberately prevent or reduce the likelihood of pregnancy or childbirth...
and
women's suffrageWomen's suffrage is the right of women to vote, and historically includes the economic and political reform movement aimed at extending suffrage to women. The movement's modern origins lie in France in the 18th century. Of currently existing independent countries, New Zealand was the first to give...
. Flynn also criticized the leadership of trade unions for being male dominated and not reflecting the needs of women.
Between 1926 and 1936, Flynn lived in southwest
Portland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Northwestern United States, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the state of Oregon. As of July 2008, it has an estimated population of 575,930, making it the 29th most populous in the United States. It has been referred to as the most...
with birth control activist and Wobbly
Dr. Marie EquiMarie Diana Equi was an American medical doctor and anarchist. Her father was Italian and her mother of Irish parentage.-Biography:...
. Though Flynn was in poor health most of her time in Portland, she was an active and vocal supporter of the
1934 West Coast Longshore StrikeThe 1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike lasted eighty-three days, triggered by sailors and a four-day general strike in San Francisco, and led to the unionization of all of the West Coast ports of the United States...
. In 1936, Flynn joined the U.S. Communist Party and wrote a feminist column for its journal, the
Daily WorkerThe Daily Worker was a newspaper published in New York City by the Communist Party USA, a Comintern-affiliated organization. Publication began in 1924. While it generally reflected the prevailing views of the party, some attempts were made to make it a paper that reflected the spectrum of left-wing...
. Two years later, she was elected to the national committee. Her membership in the Party led to her ouster from the board of the ACLU in 1940.
During the
the Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
she played an important role in the campaign for equal economic opportunity and pay for women and the establishment of day care centres for working mothers. In 1942, Flynn ran for
Congress at-largeBriefly from 1873 to 1875, and 1883-1885 with one representative respectively, and again from 1933 through 1945, after New York was apportioned two extra seats in the United States House of Representatives, the state elected representatives At-large, instead of from districts...
in New York and received 50,000 votes.
In July 1948, 12 leaders of the Communist Party were arrested and accused of violating the
Smith ActThe Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that makes it a criminal offense for anyone toIt also required all non-citizen adult residents to register with the government; within four months, 4,741,971 aliens had registered under the Act's provisions.The Act...
by advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence. They appealed to the Supreme Court, which upheld their conviction in
Dennis v. United StatesDennis v. United States, , was a United States Supreme Court case involving Eugene Dennis, general secretary of the Communist Party USA, which found that Dennis did not have a right under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to exercise free speech, publication and assembly,...
; two justices wrote in dissent that they were convicted in violation of their Constitutional rights for engaging in activities protected by the First Amendment.
Flynn launched a campaign for their release, but in June 1951, was herself arrested in the second wave of arrests and prosecuted under the Smith Act.
After a nine-month trial, she was found guilty and served two years in the women's penitentiary at
Alderson, West VirginiaAlderson is a town in Greenbrier and Monroe Counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Greenbrier River. The population was 1,091 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Alderson is located at ....
. She later wrote an account of her prison experiences in
The Alderson Story: My Life as a Political Prisoner.
Later years and legacy
After her release from prison, Flynn resumed her activities for leftist and Communist causes. She became national chairperson of the Communist Party of the United States in 1961. She made several visits to the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
and died while there on September 5, 1964. The Soviet government gave her a state funeral in
Red SquareRed Square is the most famous city square in Moscow, and arguably one of the most famous in the world. The square separates the Kremlin, the former royal citadel and currently the official residence of the President of Russia, from a historic merchant quarter known as Kitai-gorod...
with over 25,000 people attending. In accordance with her wishes, Flynn's remains were flown to the United States for burial in Chicago's
Waldheim CemeteryGerman Waldheim Cemetery, also known as Waldheim Cemetery, was a cemetery in Forest Park, a suburb of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois. It was originally founded in 1873 as a non-religion specific cemetery, where Freemasons, Roma, and German-speaking immigrants to Chicago could be buried without...
, near the graves of
Eugene DennisEugene Dennis was a long-time leader of the Communist Party USA and union organizer. He was born Francis Xavier Waldron in Seattle but adopted the pseudonym of Eugene Dennis in the 1930s.-Biography:...
,
Bill HaywoodWilliam Dudley Haywood , better known as Big Bill Haywood, was a prominent figure in the American labor movement. Haywood was a leader of the Western Federation of Miners , a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World , and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist...
and the Haymarket Riot Martyrs.
Flynn's influence as an activist was far-reaching, and her exploits were commemorated in a popular ballad. The song "Rebel Girl" was written by
Joe HillJoe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund, and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World . He was executed for murder after a controversial trial...
in honor of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
A fictionalized version of Flynn is depicted in
John UpdikeJohn Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
's novel
In the Beauty of the LiliesIn the Beauty of the Lilies is a 1996 novel by John Updike. It takes its title from a line of the abolitionist song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." Beginning in 1910 and ending in 1990, it covers four generations of the Wilmot family, tying its fortunes to both the decline of the Christian...
in which she is said to have had an affair with the anarchist
Carlo TrescaCarlo Tresca was an Italian-born American anarchist, newspaper editor, and labor agitator.-Labor organizer:...
.
Quotes
Quotes:
"History has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human freedom, against political oppression and economic slavery."
"We believe that the class struggle existing in society is expressed in the economic power of the master on the one side and the growing economic power of the workers on the other side meeting in open battle now and again, but meeting in continual daily conflict over which shall have the larger share of labor's product and the ultimate ownership of the means of life."
Selected Works
Books:
- Sabotage: the conscious withdrawal of the workers' industrial efficiency. Cleveland, Ohio: I.W.W. Pub. Bureau, 1916.
- Debs, Haywood, Ruthenberg,. New York, Workers library publishers, 1939.
- I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier--for Wall Street. New York, Workers library publishers, 1940.
- Earl Browder: the man from Kansas. New York, Workers library publishers, 1941.
- Questions and answers on the Browder case. New York, Citizens' Committee to Free Earl Browder, 1941.
- Coal miners and the war. New York, Workers library publishers, 1942.
- Women in the war. New York, Workers library publishers, 1942.
- Daughters of America: Ella Reeve Bloor, Anita Whitney. New York, Workers library publishers, 1942.
- Women have a date with destiny.. New York, Workers library publishers, 1944.
- Meet the communists New York, Communist Party, U.S.A., 1946.
- Woman's place in the fight for a better world. New York, New Century Publishers, 1947.
- The twelve and you: what happens to democracy is your business, too!. New York, New Century Publishers, 1948.
- Labor's own William Z. Foster; a Communist's fifty years of working-class leadership and struggle.. New York, New Century Publishers, 1949.
- Stool-pigeon. New York, New Century Publishers, 1949.
- The plot to gag America. New York, New Century Publishers, 1950.
- A message to all women communists from Elizabeth Gurley Flynn on Mother's Day, May, 1950. New York: National Women's Commission, Communist Party, U.S.A., 1950.
- Debs and Dennis, fighters for peace. New York, New Century Publishers, 1950.
- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn speaks to the Court: opening statement to the Court and statement in the case of the Sixteen Smith Act victims in the trial at Foley Square, New York.. New York, New Century Publishers, 1952.
- 13 Communists speak to the Court. New York, New Century Publishers, 1953.
- Communists and the people; Summation speech to the jury in the Second Foley Square Smith Act trial of thirteen communist leaders. New York, New Century Publishers, 1953.
- I speak my own piece: autobiography of "The Rebel Girl".New York, Masses & Mainstream 1955.
- An appeal to women New York: Campaign Commitee, People's Rights Party, 1955.
- Horizons of the future for a socialist America. New York, Communist Party, USA, 1959.
- Freedom begins at home. New York, New Century Publishers, 1961.
- Ben Davis on the McCarran Act at the Harvard Law Forum. by Benjamin J. Davis
Benjamin J. "Ben" Davis , was an African-American lawyer and communist who was elected to the city council of New York City, representing Harlem, in 1943...
New York, Gus Hall-Benjamin Davis Defense Committee, 1962. (introduction)
- The Alderson Story: My Life as a Political Prisoner. New York: International Publishers, 1963.
- The McCarran Act, fact and fancy. New York, NGus Hall-Benjamin J. Davis Defense Committee, 1963.
Articles:
Further reading
- Camp, Helen C. Iron In Her Soul: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and the American Left. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-87422-105-3 (hardbound) ISBN 978-0-87422-106-0 (paperback)
External links