Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) was born in Concord, New Hampshire on 7 August, 1890. The family moved to New York in 1900 and Flynn was educated at the local public school. Introduced by her parents to socialism, she was only 16 when she gave her first speech, What Socialism Will Do for Women, at the Harlem Socialist Club. As a result of her political activities, Flynn was expelled from high school.

In 1907 Flynn became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World --IWW. Over the next few years she organised campaigns among:

• garment workers in Pennsylvania
• silk weavers in New Jersey
• restaurant workers in New York
• miners in Minnesota, Missoula, Montana, and Spokane, Washington
• textile workers in Massachusetts.

During this period the writer, Theodore Dreiser, described her as "an East Side Joan of Arc." Flynn was arrested ten times during this period but was never convicted of any criminal activity.

A founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, Flynn was active in the campaign against the conviction of Sacco and Vanzetti. Flynn was particularly concerned with women's rights. She supported birth control and women's suffrage. Flynn also criticised the leadership of trade unions for being male dominated and not reflecting the needs of women.

In 1936 Flynn joined the Communist Party and wrote a feminist column for his journal, the Daily Worker. 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 Second World War she played an important role in the campaign for equal economic opportunity and pay for women and the establishment of day care centres for mothers working in industry. In 1942 Flynn ran for U.S. Congress at large in New York and received 50,000 votes.

In July 1948 12 leaders of the Communist Party were arrested and accused of advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government by force and violence. Flynn launched a campaign for their release, but in June 1951 was arrested in the second wave of arrests and charged with violating the Alien Registration Act.

After a nine-month trial she was found guilty and served two years in the women's penitentiary at Alderson, West Virginia. She later wrote an account of her prison experiences in The Alderson Story: My Life as a Political Prisoner (1955).

After serving five years she was released and soon afterwards became national chairman of the Communist Party in 1961. She made several visits to the Soviet Union and died while there on September 5, 1964. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was given a state funeral in Red Square. In accordance with her wishes, Flynn's remains were flown to the U.S. for burial in Chicago's Waldheim Cemetery, near the graves of Eugene Dennis, Bill Haywood and the Haymarket Riot Martyrs.

The song "Rebel Girl" was written by Joe Hill in honor of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

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."

References

External links

• SABOTAGE, THE CONSCIOUS WITHDRAWAL OF THE WORKERS' INDUSTRIAL EFFICIENCY
• Memories of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

1890 births | 1964 deaths | American communists | Feminists | Trade unionists | Suffragists

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn