Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in 1890 in Concord, New Hampshire, to a radical, activist working-class family. When she was 10, the family moved to the South Bronx, where she attended public school. By the time she was 15, Flynn was active in socialist groups. At 15, she gave her first public speech, and the next year she was expelled from high school. She became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
In the years leading up to World War I, Flynn was active on women's rights, free speech for IWW speakers and organizing textile strikes in places like Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Paterson, New Jersey. She also worked to organize garment workers in Pennsylvania, silk weavers in New Jersey, restaurant workers in New York City and miners in Minnesota.
Flynn opposed the war when it broke out, and like many war opponents, she was charged with espionage. The charges were dropped and Flynn began working to defend immigrants threatened with deportation for their opposition to the war.
In 1920, Flynn helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and was elected to the national board. From 1927-1930, she chaired International Labor Defense. During that time she was active in trying to free jailed labor organizers Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings. For the first half of the 1930s, she withdrew from public life because of bad health, but she returned to public life in 1939 and was re-elected to the ACLU board. When Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin signed a nonagression pact, the ACLU expelled all Communist Party members from its ranks, including Flynn.
Flynn ran for the Communist Party of America's Central Committee successfully, and ran for a seat in Congress unsuccessfully. During World War II, Flynn fought for women's economic equality. After the war, as communism grew more unpopular in the United States, Flynn shifted back to defending free speech rights for radicals. In 1951, she was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government based on the Smith Act of 1940. She spent more than two years in prison.
She returned to political action once she was out of prison, and in 1961, she became the first woman elected national chair of the Communist Pary. A critic of the Soviet Union, Flynn traveled behind the Iron Curtain and was stricken ill. She died in the USSR and was given a state funeral in Red Square.
The story of the Rebel Girl - Socialist worker
- π»Link to all Hexbear comms https://hexbear.net/post/1403966
- π Come listen to music and Watch movies with your fellow Hexbears nerd, in Cy.tube](https://live.hexbear.net/c/movies
- π₯ Read and talk about a current topics in the News Megathread https://hexbear.net/post/5617902
- β Come talk in the New Weekly PoC thread https://hexbear.net/post/5749645
- β¨ Talk with fellow Trans comrades in the New Weekly Trans thread https://hexbear.net/post/5683605
- π New Weekly Improvement thread https://hexbear.net/post/5745083
- 𧑠Disabled comm megathread https://hexbear.net/post/5683218
- β Parenting Chat https://hexbear.net/post/5746665
reminders:
- π You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
- π Hexbearβs algorithm prioritizes comments over upbears
- π Sorting by new you nerd
- πΆ Join the unofficial Hexbear-adjacent Mastodon instance toots.matapacos.dog
Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):
Aid:
Theory:
- β€οΈFoundations of Leninism
- β€οΈAnarchism and Other Essays
so Vicky 3 may have something useful in it. had a long discussion with a formerly trump supporting co-worker (he seems like a squishy normie mostly apolitical rural guy).
i basically described market socialism to him as a "Cooperative Economy", responding to him being blackpilled about data centers and inhuman government. then I just described market socialism. by the end of our discussion he said "yeah we should just let the workers run these corporations and own them".
yeah "Cooperative Economy", it sounds good to americabrains. no red scare trigger words.
i've been using for others but he's the first that just straight up stated he wanted to seize the means (by using the government to purchase the corps from the owners/investors and giving ownership to workers). then I said a violent revolution may be required, and he sighed and agreed (then we had to get back to our depts)
Push the bit. Is not a man entitled to the sweat of his brow? If I dig a hole I should get paid? Why does my boss get to spend someone else money? If he wanted money he should show some personal responsibility and earn it himself. Shovel right there. He cna just dig same as me.
he did love the idea of democratically electing management and the CEO. i suggested elections from their peer groups. workers elect managers, managers elect CEO, limited terms and recall. he thought that sounded great.
still have to pry the idea that everything bad is purely "wall street" but it's a good start. he's not entirely wrong