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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: January 26, 2020 at 6:59:26 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Socialisms]: Bekken on Jones, 'Goddess of Anarchy: > The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jacqueline Jones. Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy > Parsons, American Radical. New York Basic Books, 2017. 480 pp. > $32.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-465-07899-8. > > Reviewed by Jon Bekken (Albright College) > Published on H-Socialisms (January, 2020) > Commissioned by Gary Roth > > Lucy Parsons's Anarchism > > Despite her central role in the Haymarket events and five decades as > a leading activist in the anarchist movement, Lucy Parsons has > received little attention from historians. Until this volume, there > was only Carolyn Ashbaugh's _Lucy Parsons: An American Revolutionary > _(1976/2013) and Gail Ahren's anthology of her writings, _Lucy > Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity--Writings & Speeches, > 1878-1937_ (2004). Jacqueline Jones, professor of women's and > southern history at the University of Texas at Austin, has done > extensive research into Parsons's life and written what will likely > be the definitive biography for years to come. Yet despite her > impressive scholarship and extensive citations, Jones does not fully > grasp the nuances of the radical and labor movements--and especially > the anarchist movement--of the time. > > Jones has done extensive work with primary sources to document Lucy > Parsons's birth and early years as a slave, before refashioning > herself in the early years of Emancipation. The certainty with which > Jones derides Lucy Parsons's "fiction about her origins" (p. ix) goes > well beyond the documentary record--relying heavily on an 1886 > newspaper article Jones terms "the Rosetta Stone of Lucy Parsons's > early life" (p. 361n1), but the argument that she was born a slave is > persuasive. Although Jones dismisses Parsons's claim to Mexican > heritage, her birth name, Lucia, suggests otherwise. There seems to > be no surviving evidence as to who her father was; Jones speculates > that it was either the man who owned her mother, Thomas Taliferro, > "or another white man" (p. 12). Jones's documentation of Parsons's > final decades is less impressive, no doubt largely because Chicago > police and the FBI seized her papers and books in the aftermath of > the fire that killed her. > > In Texas, where she changed her name to Lucy and met and married > Confederate soldier turned Reconstruction Republican Albert Parsons, > the Parsonses defied the racial status quo and worked to build a > multiracial alliance before fleeing north to Chicago. While official > records might be afforded less deference (Jones concludes, for > example, that Albert lied about his age based upon an 1850 census > report listing his birth in 1845 rather than 1848--something that > could be a result of clerical error or confusion, especially as both > parents were dead within months of the interview), she draws on a > rich array of primary sources for this period. > > Jones criticizes Parsons for denying her African American heritage > after fleeing Texas, and especially for failing to adequately address > the violent oppression African Americans faced or to organize among > Chicago's African American population. Albert and Lucy Parsons only > occasionally addressed this reign of terror in their speeches and > writings after leaving Texas, although when they did address it they > consistently denounced racism, and the anarchist International > Working People's Association (IWPA) program demanded equal rights. > Chicago was hardly a safe place for African Americans. Illinois's > infamous black codes were repealed in 1870 and its antimiscegenation > law only in 1874, the year after the Parsonses arrived in Chicago. > African Americans remained a tiny proportion of the Chicago > population until the early 1900s. Lucy Parsons was far less involved > in organizing by the time a substantial African American population > had developed in Chicago, largely focused on preserving the memory of > the Haymarket Martyrs and working to expose contemporary repression, > often through the lens of the Haymarket legacy. Indeed, Lucy Parsons > shared a platform with the mother of one of the Scottsboro "boys" > during this period. > > In Chicago, the Parsonses quickly became active in the labor and > socialist movements, joining a handful of English-speakers in what > was a predominantly immigrant movement. The movement soon abandoned > electoral reform, and Albert and Lucy joined efforts to build the > IWPA. Jones states that native-born IWPA activists "presented > themselves as the new abolitionists ... [but] most native-born > workers found this analogy highly offensive" (p. 121). References to > wage slavery might connect with immigrants, she contends, but to > "white, American-born men" such rhetoric registered as an insult. No > doubt some found it so, but the language of wage slavery continued to > be employed well into the twentieth century, suggesting that it > resonated for many. And, of course, immigrants made up the core of > Chicago's working class. Jones insists that the Parsonses' rejection > of religion, voting, and temperance alienated them from ordinary > workers, ignoring the substantial numbers who joined "free-thought" > and anarchist organizations, were in any event denied the right to > vote as immigrants, and held their meetings and celebrations in > taverns and beer gardens. At the same time, she criticizes Lucy > Parsons for her failure "to speak openly and honestly of her > enslavement as a youth and of her free-spirited sexuality" (p. 348). > Jones believes Parsons had a number of sexual partners both before > marrying Albert Parsons and after he was hanged; she offers strong > evidence for some, but for many others little more than speculation. > > Lucy Parsons is of course best remembered for her (and Albert's) role > in the Haymarket events, and for her decades-long crusade to keep the > memory of the Haymarket Martyrs alive and to prevent future such > outrages. Jones's account of Haymarket relies heavily upon Timothy > Messer-Kruse, who devoted two books to resuscitating the prosecutors' > case against the Martyrs and imagining an international anarchist > terrorist conspiracy. (It being impossible to defend the trial as > fair to contemporary audiences, Messer-Kruse falls back on the claim > that the trial was acceptable by the standards of the time. One need > only look to the international protests and Governor Altgeld's pardon > of the surviving martyrs to see that the trial outraged contemporary > sensibilities.) Jones acknowledges in a footnote that Messer-Kruse's > attempt to vindicate the police and prosecutors is controversial > (citing but a single critique), but this does not seem to have > discouraged heavy reliance on his deeply flawed work. > > The resulting account is in many ways reminiscent of Henry David's > (uncited) _History of the Haymarket Affair_ (1936), with its emphasis > on dynamite talk to explain the brutal repression of Chicago's > radical labor movement. Somehow, while she acknowledges the > mainstream press's advocacy of murder of tramps and labor activists > and the severe violence police routinely meted out on picket lines, > labor demonstrations, and radical meetings, she does not adequately > take this context into account when criticizing the movement's > rhetoric. This was an era when soldiers were routinely dispatched to > suppress labor disputes, and courts treated labor unions as criminal > conspiracies (something she suggests on page 318 began in the 1920s). > Given this reality, it should not be surprising that activists were > looking for means to defend themselves. German and Czech immigrants > in Chicago organized workers' militias, but these were promptly > outlawed. Western miners did in fact use dynamite as they defended > themselves against company and government thugs, martial law, and > concentration camps. It is no coincidence that the first popular > history of the American labor movement was titled _Dynamite _(Louis > Adamic, 1931, 1935/2008), or that a more recent history of press > coverage of labor disputes during this era was titled _The Great > Industrial War _(Troy Rondinone, 2009). > > It is surely worth remembering that the Haymarket rally was called in > response to the police murder of workers picketing the McCormick > Reaper Works, and that there was no violence at the rally until > police attacked it. Who threw the bomb (which almost certainly killed > fewer people than the indiscriminate police gunfire) remains a matter > of conjecture, though the anarchists' _Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung_ > was convinced that the police were responsible and had killed their > own as a result of their incompetence. > > Jones's unremitting hostility to anarchism pervades the book. She > insists that "principled anarchists ... would have refused counsel > [at the Haymarket trial], arguing that the state-run proceedings were > inherently corrupt" (p. 145). That it was an inherently corrupt show > trial is beyond dispute, but does that mean the defendants should > meekly go like lambs to the slaughter? Jones understands anarchism's > (or at least the IWPA's) "guiding principle" to revolve around > "burst[s] of violence that would awaken the masses from their slumber > and impel them to overthrow their masters" (p. 90). This > misunderstanding flows naturally into her obsession with dynamite, > and she attributes the Parsonses' continued involvement in a range of > organizing and propaganda as evidence not of her misunderstanding, > but rather of incoherence on their part. She also seems not to > recognize that there was an actual mass movement of which they were a > part. Jones resorts to the passive voice when discussing August Spies > "becoming" editor of the _Arbeiter-Zeitung_ and "turn[ing] it into an > anarchist publication" (p. 91). It was in fact an elected position, > and the movement chose to replace an advocate of electoral reform > with an avowed anarchist. Similarly, in Jones's account, "Albert > withdrew from the [Trades & Labor Assembly], taking twelve unions > with him," and "formed a new federation--the Chicago Central Labor > Union (CLU), which consisted of an estimated 12,000 members, rivaling > the TLA" (p. 93). In actual fact, the CLU was a movement initiative, > grounded in an immigrant working class that had developed its own > unions, cultural and political associations, and daily and weekly > newspapers. > > The IWPA's and CLU's relations with the mainstream labor movement > were often contentious. Jones criticizes Albert Parsons for his > denunciation of the National Typographical Union and other business > unions, suggesting that "his animus toward the local seemed to stem > not only from broad ideological differences with its members but also > from his bitter memories of those members who had abandoned him when > he was blacklisted" (p. 121). Of course, their decision to allow > employers to blacklist a union member because of his political > activities was symptomatic of a class-collaborationist approach that > led the Typographers to routinely scab on other newspaper unions and > to boast, when they were finally locked out by publishers in 1947, > that the union had gone one hundred years without striking. For much > of her life, Lucy Parsons made her living as a dressmaker--Jones says > she "probably" employed one or two assistants in a small "factory" > with Albert as her "business partner" and salesman (p. 55, 69). The > evidence cited to support this insinuation that she was an employer > is a business card for "Parsons & Co." (pp. 372-3n1). > > Jones repeatedly asserts that the Parsonses routinely lied about > their lives and about the Haymarket events, including when they > challenged the prosecution's claim that the martyrs had planned > violence at the Haymarket rally, noting that they would not have > brought their children with them if they had any reason to expect > violence. Jones says the claim that they were at the Haymarket was > "untrue," a "myth," and notes that no one testified during the trial > to seeing the children at the rally (pp. 150, 200, 344, 349). > Elsewhere she acknowledges that the entire family was at Haymarket > Square that evening when the rally was scheduled to begin, before > proceeding to a meeting of the American Group of the IWPA called to > discuss organizing seamstresses. Jones suggests that the meeting was > called for some other unspecified, sinister purpose, but offers not > the slightest evidence for this. Albert and several others left that > meeting when a messenger arrived saying speakers were urgently needed > at the Haymarket rally. Jones says they "may have arranged for > someone else to take their children home" from the meeting, though > Albert and Lucy insisted they had brought them to the rally (p. 132). > It is not clear why she insists they were lying about this, as no > evidence contradicting them has ever been produced. It appears that > the children were sent home at some point, as the rally ran until > 10:30 p.m., when it was broken up by the police attack, but the > details have never been established. Jones claims that the Parsonses > must have known that an attack against police was planned, offering > as evidence only the fact that Albert went into hiding after police > opened fire on the demonstration. This suggestion is unsupported by > any evidence (police were not even present until after the mayor > left, creating an opportunity to attack the rally), and seems to have > been concocted to support the claim "that Albert needed the ruse of > his children's presence there in order to dispel suspicions that he > was privy to the information" (p. 152). > > A major theme of the book is Jones's concern that the Parsons paid > insufficient attention to racial oppression after leaving Texas and > that Lucy betrayed her heritage by trying to pass as Mexican. She > devotes several passages to demonstrating that reporters did not go > along with this. She also discusses instances where Lucy Parsons > addressed racial issues, including an article ("one of only a handful > of _Alarm_ pieces devoted to southern blacks," p. 127) on a massacre > of 23 African Americans in Carrollton, Mississippi. In that article, > Parsons suggested that blacks were terrorized not because of their > race but because they were poor and powerless, and that the key to > their liberation lay in arming themselves to enforce their rights. > Jones claims Lucy Parsons made only a single passing reference to > lynching and black oppression in her writings and "denigrated the > black freedom struggle", including "the opportunity to advance within > the workplace, to swim at a lakefront beach on a hot summer day, > [and] to send their children to decent schools" (p. 349). The first > claim is disproven by Jones's own book (though there are other > writings which she does not discuss), even if racism received less > attention than it deserved; the second appears to be a complete > fabrication, unsupported by any footnote or textual evidence. In > 1915, Parsons agreed to speak under the auspices of the African > American Alpha Suffrage Club (p. 302), raised funds for the > Magonistas, and offered her Spanish-speaking skills to the movement. > Jones, nonetheless, insists that Parsons did not speak Spanish, > offering no source for the claim. > > Two years later Parsons embraced the Russian Revolution, and Jones > seizes on the moment of revolutionary enthusiasm to tar Parsons with > "the Bolsheviks' bloody suppression of their political opponents, > evidenced, for example, in genocidal progroms against Jews" (p. 304). > That the Bolsheviks were ruthless dictators is now beyond dispute, > and the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and other radicals > published firsthand exposés at least as early as 1921. (Parsons > never confronted the Bolsheviks' betrayal, whether out of distrust of > press accounts or a misguided commitment to left unity. But she also > refused to join the Communist Party, identifying as an anarchist > until the day she died.) But genocidal progroms were the specialty of > the old czarist regime and the White armies that sought to restore > it; like the Makhnovshchyna, the Bolsheviks condemned progroms and > executed progromists. Here Jones seems (the relevant paragraph is > footnoted, but the note does not address the issue) to conflate the > official anti-Semitism that flourished under Stalin with the earlier > years of the Revolution. > > Jones describes Lucy Parsons' writing as "descriptive and colorful[,] > exploit[ing] melodramatic themes and [taking] considerable care in > fashioning her prose" (p. 104). But this does not discourage her from > scandal-mongering and constant digs. There is extensive speculation > about her relationships after Albert's judicial murder, supported by > contemporary gossip and by court testimony by one man following a > violent incident when she barred him from her home. Her strained > relationship with the Pioneer Aid Society, which maintained the > Haymarket Monument and supported the Martyrs' survivors, is > documented, as is her discomfort with more "American" elements in the > twentieth-century anarchist movement, which emphasized cultural > rebellion and sexual liberty in ways that left her uncomfortable. > Instead, Lucy Parsons preferred to work with immigrants, who in any > event remained a strong majority of both the anarchist movement and > Chicago's working class. > > Apparently convinced that Lucy Parsons cared more for the spotlight > than for the emancipation of the wage slaves, Jones suggests that she > might have resented the failure of Columbian Exposition organizers to > invite her to speak in 1893. There is not the slightest evidence that > she sought or expected such an invitation. It is not as if Parsons > was not regularly invited to address rallies and meetings during this > period. Indeed, Jones seems surprised that Parsons and other > anarchists sometimes spoke at "respectable" venues; this is an > artifact of her pervasive present-mindedness. Albert Parsons and his > colleagues often spoke to such audiences in the 1880s; Karl Marx was > a correspondent for the _New York Tribune;_ and radicals and > reformers regularly engaged with one another through World War I at > least (and if one considers the Popular Front, for decades beyond). > In part, I suspect, this engagement was prompted by the undeniable > brutality of the era and a shared understanding that unprecedented > concentrations of power posed an imminent danger to nearly everyone. > > As she moves into the 1910s, Jones focuses increasingly on broader > social trends and Parsons recedes into the background for pages at a > time. There are some curious choices in the extensive sections where > Jones relies on the secondary literature, and some places where she > seems to have misread her sources. For example, she discusses a > letter Parsons wrote to Eugene V. Debs "to congratulate him on his > decision not to beg for the restoration of his citizenship after his > release from prison" (p. 325). While it is true that Debs was under > the impression that he had been stripped of his "right of > citizenship," by which he seems to have meant the right to vote, the > source Jones cites for this letter makes it clear a few pages earlier > that Debs was not stripped of his citizenship (and indeed could not > have been), and retained the right to vote under Indiana state > law.[1] > > In her final years, Lucy Parsons tried to bridge ideological divides, > working with the Communist Party-dominated International Labor > Defense but also the IWW and the anarchist Free Society Group. This > led to much criticism, though as anarcho-syndicalist Sam Dolgoff, who > met her in Chicago when he was beginning his own revolutionary > career, noted, "For her, anyone against capitalism was ipso facto a > revolutionist and she saw no reason why all of them should not bury > the hatchet" (p. 326). Nearly blind and increasingly frail, Parsons > was killed at age ninety-one when her house caught fire March 7, > 1942, but remained a rebel to the day she died. Police officers and > FBI agents stole her library and any surviving papers--no doubt a > fitting end to a lifetime of struggle against the forces of > oppression, but one which will continue to frustrate historians > exploring the life of this remarkable woman. > > Note > > [1]. Morris Hillquit to EVD, March 1, 1926, in _Letters of Eugene V. > Debs_, vol. 3_, _ed._ _J. R. Constantine (Urbana: University of > Illinois Press, 1990), 547-48. > > Citation: Jon Bekken. Review of Jones, Jacqueline, _Goddess of > Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical_. > H-Socialisms, H-Net Reviews. January, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54685 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
