LUCY PARSONS: MORE DANGEROUS THAN A THOUSAND RIOTERS: Eldine Gonzalez Parsons (1853 – 1942), described by the Chicago Police Dept as more dangerous than a thousand rioters was a labor organizer and anarchist, born around 1853 in Texas, likely as a slave, to parents of Native American, Black American, and Mexican ancestry. In 1871 she married former Confederate soldier Albert Parsons. Lucy Parsons was quoted as saying: My conception of the strike of the future is not to strike and go out and starve, but to strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production. Forced to flee from Texas by reactions to their interracial marriage, they settled in Chicago, Illinois. Parsons and her husband were involved in the labor movement in the late 19th century and participated in activism on behalf of political prisoners, people of color, the homeless and women. In 1886 her husband, who had been heavily involved in campaigning for the eight-hour day, was arrested, tried and executed on November 11, 1887, by the state of Illinois on charges that he had conspired in the Haymarket Riot — an event which was seen as a political frame-up designed to cripple the 8-hour movement. In 1905 she helped start the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and began editing the Liberator, an anarchist newspaper that supported the IWW in Chicago. She organized the Chicago Hunger Demonstrations in Jan. 1915.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 17:25:01 +0000