Sunday, March 18, 2012

Anarchist Personalities I: Alexander Berkman



“The People! My Greek mythology moods have often pictured him to me as the mighty Atlas, supporting on his shoulders the weight of the world, his back bent, his face the mirror of unutterable misery, in his eye the look of hopeless anguish, the dim, pitiful appeal for help.”

From Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist by Alexander Berkman

This blog mainly exists as a forum to consider different aspects of anarchism, to question its philosophies and the real world consequences or benefits of a large group of people living without the aid of government, class or any ruling bodies. I may be staunchly anti-government and anti-capitalism but that doesn’t mean I don’t try to discern whether these personal opinions are morally good and feasible in the real world. I don’t desire simply to express my opinion nor do I expect others to agree on every aspect but hope they will question and argue many of my comments.

That being said I am also a lover of history; I respect what the past has to teach us about the present and future so it makes perfect sense to me not only to use this as a forum of thought but also to include short biographical vignettes of historical figures that have had a great impact on the development of anarchism. This is the first in a series that will develop gradually called “Anarchist Personalities,” and since I am a moderate in anarchistic ideas, believing them to be true but questioning whether I am correct in that assumption or not, I thought it would be appropriate to begin with a personality quite the opposite, Alexander Berkman. Berkman had no qualms about his beliefs and as an anarchist he could be classified as an extremist, which is easy enough to see in the story of his life.

Instead of briefly going over the facts of his entire life in one 1,000 word or so post I thought it would serve the purpose of illuminating the type of man and anarchist Berkman was through one event in his life. It is impossible to appropriately detail even the dullest of lives in less than a few hundred pages at least, and Berkman certainly didn’t live a dull life by any standard.

In late June and early July of 1892 the iron and steel workers at Homestead Pennsylvania went on strike. At the time the chairman of Carnegie Steel, the company that owned the Homestead Steel Works, was Henry Clay Frick, a no-nonsense manager who already had a long history as a strike buster and had no intention of negotiating with the strikers. The workers were locked out, the steel works fortified, scabs smuggled in and the Pinkertons, a detective agency of the day that would hire out men to protect the interest of companies like Carnegie’s, were called in. When the Pinkertons arrived by boat a battle ensued between the strikers and the Pinkertons which cost lives on both sides. No one is sure who shot first, but the Pinkertons were eventually driven back by the overwhelming number of the strikers. The victory was short lived, however, as the national guard soon came in to ‘restore order’ and though many of the workers eventually returned to work their demands were not met and the union was a broken relic.



This is relevant backstory to one of the most famous events in Berkman’s life. The Battle of Homestead garnered much infamy and the number of innocent civilians that were killed was greatly exaggerated, by the time the news of the battle reached Berkman supposedly many women and children were murdered in cold blood by the Pinkertons and the strikers won a righteous battle. This was mostly a fairytale, but it didn’t matter much to Berkman.

In his book Prison Memoirs Of An Anarchist, Berkman describes the news of the Homestead strike and battle as something magical. Here was the turning point, thought Berkman, a sign that the proletariat, as he referred to ‘the people’ in his memoir, was ready to throw off the shackles and yoke of the capitalist giants and their governmental backers. Berkman formulated an insidious plan.

He left Worcester, Massachusetts where he was living with another famous anarchist, Emma Goldman, and headed for Homestead by train. Apparently he stopped by Frick’s office on 5th Avenue prior to the 23rd of July, introducing himself to Frick as one Simon Bachman, and was dismissed by Frick. He returned in the early afternoon of that July day, a couple days after his first visit, brushed past the astonished receptionist and entered Frick’s office again where the man was speaking with John Leishman, the vice-president of Carnegie Steel.

There are conflicting results of what followed, but both agree on one important detail; Berkman drew a revolver and attempted to assassinate Frick. In a biography commissioned by Frick, Henry Clay Frick: The Man, Berkman managed to shoot Frick twice in the neck, then pulled a dagger on him before Frick attacked Berkman himself, gained the upper hand and with the help of two assistants subdued Berkman in a chair. Ingeniously Frick seemed to possess some kind of premonition and forced Berkman’s jaw open where Berkman allegedly concealed an explosive capsule that would have blown the hell out of them all.

Berkman’s account differed in many of these details, especially in the extraordinary heroism of Frick. In his memoirs Berkman describes the event as over in a flash. His first shot hits Frick but he is unsure of where and if he is dead or not. It soon became apparent that Frick was still very much alive as he yelled out “Murder!” and Berkman was struck from behind by an employee after the gun misfired and he struggled with a Leishman. There is no mention of an explosives are hand-to-hand combat with Frick himself who apparently hid behind his desk.

Whichever account is true (if either) isn’t as important as Berkman’s basic actions. In his memoirs he made no secret of his ideal anarchist, a selfless man willing to do anything for ‘the people’ at a moment’s notice, even if that meant sacrificing oneself…or committing murder against an enemy of freedom. He was even somewhat disgusted by the hero of What Is to Be Done?
a popular novel among radicals like Vladimir Lenin and the anarchists, because the character showed too much hesitation and unwillingness to upset his own life for the revolution.

I won’t dive into the complex and controversial question of whether Berkman’s actions were justified or not. Some will say yes, others no. Personally I vouch for pacifism; more was accomplished by Martin Luther King Jr. in his non-violent marches than any bombing attack by revolutionaries. But one has to admire Berkman for his dedication and willingness to act. Berkman lived a life of extreme commitment. He suffered atrocious treatment in prison which his memoirs will expose, faced deportation from the United States for his anarchist views and many other tragedies in his life but never wavered in his beliefs. These are the facets of Berkman’s personality that are praiseworthy, even if his violent actions as a young radical are not.

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