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The Military and the Victor Record

The Colorado strikes of 1903-1905 had everything: troops, martial law, bull pens, deportations, explosions, constant frame-ups, company vigilantes, even attempts to supress a newspaper. The companies and the state government threw the whole book at workers and their families. Even sympathizers miles away from the scene of the strike did not go unscathed.

As the strikes wore on, more and more strikers were arrested, held for a time in the bull-pens, and then released. When the Victor Record protested against the continued militia outrages, the troops raided the newspaper and arrested the entire staff on a charge of criminal libel. Fortunately, they neglected Emma Langdon, a young apprentice learning to operate the typesetting machine, who happened to be at home ot the time of the raid. Hearing news of it, she waited until nightfall, then stole through the darkened streets and climbed into the back of the print shop through a window. Working through the night, Emma Langdon got out an issue of the paper single-handed, writing the news stories and editorials, setting the type, and running the press by herself. The protest against this attack on the Victor Record was so great nationwide that the staff was released and the charges dropped.

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[ 19 January 2006: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

Clémence Desrochers - look at those dimples!!! How can you resist someone who transcends her innate adorable cutesy demeanour with songs about working women. Now in her early 70s, Clemence Desrochers is one of Quebec's most sympathetic treasures, a humanist with an irreverent sense of humour, poet and painter, is known for her bitingly satirical, yet compassionate monologues. She accurately evoked industrial life in her song, La vie d’factrie.

Oh wait, was that gutsy ...? She is that, too!

[ 19 January 2006: Message edited by: deBeauxOs ]

Madeleine Parent

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posted by lagatta: ... Clémence, who is a lesbian, also wrote a wonderful love song decades ago about an old lesbian couple: "Les deux vieilles", when the topic of same-sex love (and of later-life love, for that matter!) was far less mainstream than it is now.

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Julien's success came equally in Quebec and in Europe, as well as in English Canada. ... She was hostess 1965-6 for CBC TV's 'Mon Pays, mes chansons.' In 1967 she toured the USSR (returning in 1975) and represented Quebec at the Primera Festival de la Cancion Popular in Cuba. She performed in Toronto in 1964 and 1968.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Julien's repertoire consisted exclusively of songs by Quebec writers. In 1968 she began to write song lyrics. ... She also composed songs to words by Michel Tremblay.

She travelled to Burkina-Faso with the humanitarian aid organization Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation in 1993. ... She subsequently travelled to Rwanda in 1994. In her final years she suffered from degenerative aphasia, which affected her power of speech and imposed a partial paralysis.

Julien was a singer known for her expressive power and sensitivity, qualities drawn equally from music and theatre.

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[ 20 January 2006: Message edited by: deBeauxOs ]

Emily Davison

[ 20 January 2006: Message edited by: arthur ]

They have split off into two currents; the disagreements are not really worth getting into here: www.madres.org and www.madresfundadora.org.ar - the Hebe Bonafini current (just madres) has launched a Popular University: Universidad popular Madres de Plaza de Mayo.

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posted by arthur: ... all this week I've been trying to write something about Emily Davison, one of the most courageous women in memory.

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Her gravestone bears the WSPU (Women's Social and Political Union) slogan, "Deeds not words."

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"MARIE-JOSEPH ANGELIQUE, negress, slave woman of Thérèse de Couagne, widow of the late François Poulin de Francheville, you are condemned to die, to make honourable amends, to have your hand cut off, be burned alive, and your ashes cast to the winds."
— Judge Pierre Raimbault, June 4, 1734

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She was imprisoned in 1893 at Blackwell's Island penitentiary for publicly urging unemployed workers that they should "Ask for work. If they do not give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, take bread." (The statement is a summary of the principle of expropriation advocated by anarchist communists like Peter Kropotkin.) She was convicted of "inciting a riot" by a criminal court of New York, despite the testimonies of twelve witnesses in her defense. The jury based their verdict on the testimony of one individual, a Detective Jacobs. Voltairine de Cleyre gave the lecture In Defense of Emma Goldman as a response to this imprisonment. While serving the one year sentence, she developed a keen interest in nursing.

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posted by Makwa: I'm kind of a fan of Marie-Joseph Angélique, who, in 1734, in a doomed attempt to escape human enslavement, burned down the home of her imprisoners and a good chunk of Montreal.

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[ 22 January 2006: Message edited by: Amy ]

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An urban legend in Toronto holds that Goldman's ghost haunts the union hall on Spadina Avenue, now a Chinese restaurant, where she often spoke and where her body was displayed after her death.

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1- Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman gang-raped by a group of village men after they wrongfully accused her young brother of having sex with a girl from the village. It was a very sordid affair, her young brother having, in fact, been sodomized by 3 village men. She had the courage to stay in her village, to stand up to her attackers, and to file charges against them.

In August 2005, the Pakistani government awarded Mukhtaran the Fatima Jinnah gold medal for bravery and courage. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf awarded Mukhtaran a financial settlement of Rs.500,000 (about US$8000) which she used to build two local schools, one for girls and another for boys. There were no schools for girls in Mukhtaran's village before this and she never had the opportunity to get an education.

For more on her story:

Mukhtaran Bibi

The six wives of Henry VIII each have quite an interesting story, most notably Catherine Parr (for using her wiles against ol' Hal) and Anne of Cleves, for being wily enough to finagle a divorce from him rather than be executed. Anne of Cleves is really interesting; apparently Henry went into a rage when he met her, saying she was "too ugly", and thus making her fear for her life. There's a book called "Divorced, Beheaded, Survived" by Karen Lindsay which is a "feminist look" at these women. It's great.

My most fave is Lady Jane Grey, the nine days' queen, who was married and crowned Queen against her will. She refused the crown in front of a room full of onlookers. She was manipulated by her greedy in-laws, and went on to be executed because she would not renounce her faith, and was 16 when she died. Very strong character.

Here's a link to some short biographies of these, and more, women from that time:

http://www.geocities.com/tudorhist/tudorwomen.htm

So much intrigue. So much determination. So many disappearing male relatives.

(With a username like "Het heru" - the Egyptian goddess of love and beauty, more commonly known as "Hathor" - you had to know I was going to be fishing further back in history.)

If I have to pick someone nearer in history, how about Sojourner Truth? I cannot imagine what escaping slavery with only one of your children must do to your soul, but she went on to do some amazing work and write "ain't I a woman?" among other works.

NASA even named a rover after her.

(edit: infernal typos.)

[ 27 February 2006: Message edited by: het heru ]

[ 28 February 2006: Message edited by: Bobolink ]

Audre's courage and commitment are much needed now, and her message that "Your silence will not protect you" still resonates at a time when too many people are keeping quiet about injustice that is happening all over the planet.

Remembering Audre
www.lordeatsapience.blogspot.com

[ 07 March 2006: Message edited by: wonderboy19 ]

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posted by wonderboy19: Audre Lorde, black, lesbian, feminist, poet has been a great inspiration to me over the years. ... her message that "Your silence will not protect you" still resonates at a time when too many people are keeping quiet about injustice that is happening all over the planet.

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