Commentary

At a dance in the early 20th century, a woman named Emma Goldman was quietly scolded for dancing with such “reckless abandon”. She replied:

“I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”

Goldman, an early anarchist thinker, was speaking to a wider theme. She was being reprimanded by a young cousin of Alexander Berkman [her lover and friend], as “it did not behoove an agitator to dance.” Furthermore, “it was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement.” Such frivolity could only damage “The Cause.”Emma was furious. Her 1931 autobiography, Living My Life, puts it thus:

“I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it.”

This has been widely taken as the origins of the phrase: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution!”

Within the radical left today (and across the wider spectrum, of course) there remain many who have misunderstood this positive, creative, colourful vision of anarchism as described by Goldman, instead languishing in black clothes and shunning frivolity, for the sake of dedication to “The Cause.” David Rovics’ wonderful “I’m a better anarchist than you” describes it best:

“…i don’t eat meat
i just live on moldy chives
or the donuts that i found
in last week’s dumpster dives
look at you people in that restaurant
i think you are so sad
when you coulda been eating bagels
like the ones that i just had
i think it is a shame
all the bourgeois things you do
i’m a better anarchist than you…”

In 1906, Goldman wrote frequently about anarchism, politics, labour issues, atheism, sexuality, and feminism – what today seems a radical agenda, Goldman brought alive over a hundred years ago.

Her message stands true today: it is a message of love, appreciation of beauty, personal responsibility and self-management, absolute rejection of authority. It is a message of recognizing the beautiful creative potential of humanity.

Goldman’s life spoke testament to her willingness to be persecuted for her beliefs; to suffer for speaking as her conscience directed. Despite imprisonments and threats, Emma continued to publicly advocate her beliefs in the development of a vibrant and creative future, beyond militarism and powerful industrialists.

Today would have been Emma’s 139th birthday. A woman whose tireless work (and fearsome dancing!) has inspired all the great politically-charged musicians – The Clash, The Ex, Chumbawumba, Fugazi, Billy Bragg, David Rovics, Robb Johnson, the Riot Folk Collective, Against Me!, the Von Steins, The Fuse! and The Epoxies – to name but a few (not to mention dozens of artists and writers such as Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky), deserves a decent party. Let us, tonight, in memory of Emma Goldman, raise a glass, to love, to solidarity, to the spirit of the dance – then turn up the punk, and bust a groove on our very own living room dancefloors!

This tribute is posted in hope at evoking a little of the spirit of Emma Goldman inside each of us; that we thrust our full energies into whatever is at hand – whether that be fighting injustice or tearing up the dance floor! That, today, we can each strive that little bit extra to fulfill “everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things.”

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