Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

**Elizabeth Gurley Flynn** is a feminist, labor leader and organizer and recently the chairwoman of the Anarchist Federation of Labor, a trade union affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World. Initially active in the IWW post-civil war, Flynn, a close friend of Emma Goldman, moved to fully oppose the statist turn of the Peoples’ Union. Currently, she stands as the strongest and most known opposition leader of the status quo as her popularity grows by the day.

## Background

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born on August 7, 1890, in Concord, New Hampshire, the daughter of Annie (Gurley) and Thomas Flynn. The family moved to New York in 1900, where she was educated at the local public schools. Her parents introduced her to socialism. When she was only fifteen she gave her first public speech, "What Socialism Will Do for Women," at the Harlem Socialist Club. As a result, she felt compelled to speak out for social change, making a decision she later regretted, to leave Morris High School before graduation. However, other sources state she was expelled from high school due to her political involvement.

## Career

### IWW

In 1907, Flynn became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World, and attended her first IWW convention in September of that year. Over the next few years she organized campaigns among garment workers in Pennsylvania, silk weavers in New Jersey, restaurant workers in New York, miners in Minnesota, Missoula, Montana, and Spokane, Washington; and textile workers in Massachusetts. During this period, author Theodore Dreiser 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 lamp-post 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 Worker* reporting the charge. On March 4th 1910 Spokane relented, giving the I.W.W. the right to hold speech meetings and letting all I.W.W. protestors free.

Flynn was arrested ten times during this period, but was never convicted of any criminal activity. It was a plea bargain that resulted in Flynn's expulsion from the IWW in 1916, along with fellow organizer Joe Ettor. According to historian Robert M. Eleff, three Minnesota miners had been arrested on murder charges arising from an incident which arose when a group of deputised mine guards, including an alleged gunman named James C. Myron and a former bouncer named Nick Dillon, came to the residence of one of the miners, Philip Masonovitch, to investigate allegations of the presence of an illegal liquor still on the premises. A confrontation ensued in which Myron and a bystander were shot dead. According to Eleff, some witness testimony suggested that Myron was killed accidentally by one of his colleagues, who fired into the Masonovitch residence from outside, and that the bystander was killed by Dillon. Three IWW organizers were also charged, although all three were elsewhere at the time. Head of the IWW's organizing committee, Bill Haywood seemed confident that Judge Hilton, who had successfully defended George Pettibone when he and Haywood were on trial in Idaho, could win the case for the miners.

However, 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 that they probably did not 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."

## Role in Second American Civil War

After the civil war had began, Flynn was released and eventually traveled, with the help of her colleagues, into the Republic of New York. Despite its left-leaning stature, the country initially shied away from the far-left. Flynn was one of dozens of people pressuring the Republic to turn more radical, and during this time Flynn rose to become arguably the most influential woman in the IWW. She was instrumental in organizing workers after the collapse of the Federal cause in the state so that the economy of the young country could still keep functioning.

Seeing the successes of the Syndicalists in Germany, Flynn with her radical trade union background turned fully to syndicalism, being invited as a representative of the syndicalist and trade union faction during the official declaration of the Peoples’ Union of America.

## Post-war activism

Initially, Flynn was enthusiastic about the civil war and Third American Revolution, viewing it as a necessary first step in true equality, justice and democracy, but her relationship with the new administration began to deteriorate. Starting as the war finally ended, the Union under Alfred Wagenknecht's leadership began throwing out its syndicalist and libertarian policies in place for a more Marxist government, which Flynn despised. As the Socialist Party of America's leadership was now under the thumb of Wagenknecht, Flynn officially broke with the party in 1922, forming what was a fringe syndicalist party, known as the Libertarian Party of America.

Despite how small scale it was, she unconsciously became the face of the anti-government movement, constantly getting into hot water with the government over labor and women's rights disputes. Her emphasis on equality and democracy helped rally many who felt nostalgic over the past government of the United States, though until the Spring Putsch she remained silent on the issue to avoid harassment by the government.

## Spring Putsch and rise

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Elmer Allison, already prominent figures in the public, were catapulted to infamy as they, during protests in Minneapolis in 1927, but for different reasons. As Brooklyn was rocked by anti-government protests, Flynn and the IWW organized a general strike in the area, throwing the movement into a new stage, one which the government couldn't ignore. Throughout the month of March, Flynn and Allison became temporary allies in their fight against the government. Flynn's Brooklyn strike soon spread to all of New York City, while in April the strike went nationwide, paralyzing the government and forcing Wagenknecht's entire cabinet to resign.

While Flynn welcomed these changes she was also skeptical over Allison as a leader, who took up the mantle due to his previous political affiliations and allies, even though Flynn arguably had more support.

## Contemporary times & turn to anarchism

Flynn in the aftermath of the Putsch met Emma Goldman, an anarchist who fought in New York and aided the general strike there. They became good friends, and due to Flynn's political connections she was able to lift previous restrictions on Goldman and various other anarchist figures. But as Elmer Allison upheld various political principles that made many despise Wagenknecht, namely anti-union stances which marginalized the American Federation of Labor and the Industrial Workers of the World, Flynn became more dissollutioned than ever over the current political situation.

During the 1930s, she became more interested in anarchism, and self-described herself and the Libertarian Party as "anarcho-syndicalist in nature", although that is a controversial stance within the Union. The Libertarian Party, for its part, is still quite popular behind the Socialist Party of America.