Voltairine de Cleyre: feminist & anarchist

Those who, by the essence of their belief, are committed to Direct Action only are — just who? Why, the non-resistants; precisely those who do not believe in violence at all! Now do not make the mistake of inferring that I say direct action means non-resistance; not by any means. Direct action may be the extreme of violence, or it may be as peaceful as the waters of the Brook of Siloa that go softly.

What I say is, that the real non-resistants can believe in direct action only, never in political action. For the basis of all political action is coercion; even when the State does good things, it finally rests on a club, a gun, or a prison, for its power to carry them through.

Voltairine de Cleyre, in Direct Action (Jan, 1912)

 

To read the essay this quote is taken from : Direct Action : Voltairine de Cleyre

Workers Of The World Unite

 

Workers Of The World United

Flora Tristan, French socialist writer, theorist, and activist, and one of the first modern feminists to link socialism and feminism.

Tristan was the first to argue for an International Union Of Workers, and coined the phrase workers of the world unite, which was later liberated from her by Marx. As a feminist socialist, she believed that women would only achieve full citizenship with the end of wage slavery.

 

To read more from this feminist and socialist: the essay l’Union Ouvriere*
*This means Workers’ Union