Kdo chodil s Voltairine De Cleyre?

Voltairine de Cleyre (; née De Claire; November 17, 1866 – June 20, 1912) was an American anarchist feminist writer and public speaker.

Born into extreme poverty in Michigan, de Cleyre taught herself how to read and write, and became a lover of poetry. She was educated at a Catholic convent, which improved her literary and linguistic capabilities, but also influenced her turn towards anti-theism and anti-authoritarianism. After graduating, de Cleyre began her activist career in the freethought movement, lecturing around the country and writing for a number of rationalist publications. Drawn towards socialism and individualist anarchism, she converted fully to anarchism in the wake of the Haymarket affair, which radicalized her against the state and capitalism.

She moved to Philadelphia, where she lived for most of her adult life and taught many of the city's Jewish anarchists. By the late 1890s, de Cleyre was a leading figure in the American anarchist movement, regularly speaking at events, writing for publications and organizing anarchist groups. She also went on a lecture tour of the United Kingdom, during which she was introduced to Spanish anarchists, who influenced her adoption of the philosophy of anarchism without adjectives and her later defense of the propaganda of the deed.

Following a murder attempt by Herman Helcher, a mentally ill former student of hers, her physical health rapidly deteriorated and she never fully recovered, but was able to return to writing and public speaking after a few years. During the free speech fights of the early 20th century, she was arrested for inciting a riot in Philadelphia. Towards the end of the 1900s decade, she grew increasingly depressed and lost her faith in anarchism. But by 1910, she had returned to the movement and moved to Chicago, where she lectured on progressive education. During the final years of her life, she was a keen supporter of the Mexican Revolution. She died in 1912, and was buried near the grave of the Haymarket anarchists.

Although eulogized by many anarchists of her time, she was largely forgotten or ignored in many histories of the anarchist movement, due in part to her short life. Her biographers, Paul Avrich and Margaret Marsh, and collectors of her writings, such as A. J. Brigati, Sharon Presley and Crispin Sartwell, brought her life and work back to public attention by the turn of the 21st century.

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Dyer Daniel Lum (February 15, 1839 – April 6, 1893) was an American labor activist, economist and political journalist. He was a leading figure in the American anarchist movement of the 1880s and early 1890s, working within the organized labor movement and together with individualist theorists.

Born into an abolitionist family, Lum voluntarily enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War, in which he fought for the abolition of slavery. After the war, he plied his trade as a bookbinder in New England and became involved in the nascent spiritualist movement, although he soon became skeptical of organized religion and converted to Buddhism. At this time, he became involved in the growing political reform movement, joining the Greenback Party and lobbying for the institution of the eight-hour day, as well as monetary and land reforms.

By the early 1880s, he had become disillusioned by third party politics and moved towards revolutionary socialism and individualist anarchism. He joined the International Working People's Association (IWPA) and the Knights of Labor, within which he advocated for workers organization to push for economic reform and political revolution. Lum was deeply affected by the Haymarket affair, as he was close friends with many of the defendants, including Albert Parsons, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg, the latter of whom he helped commit suicide in order to avoid execution. Lum's involvement in the affair became a source of criticism from Chicago anarchists, who accused him of displaying a cavalier attitude towards revolutionary martyrdom, as well as the individualist Boston anarchists, who were alienated by his advocacy of revolutionary violence. Lum attempted to use his position to bridge the divide between the two factions, but was ultimately unsuccessful.

After Haymarket, he moved away from advocating violent revolution and became more closely involved in trade union organizing, which he thought provided a means through which to achieve a free association of producers and anarchy. He became an influential figure within the American Federation of Labor (AFL), encouraging its anti-political stance and practice of voluntary association. At this time, he developed a political programme that called for the implementation of mutualist economics through workers' organization and revolutionary tactics. But by the early 1890s, he was overcome by depression and suicidal ideations. He committed suicide in 1893, months before the pardoning of the Haymarket defendants.

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Samuel H. Gordon (1871–1906) was a Russian-American physician. Having emigrated to the United States in the early 1890s, he joined the Jewish anarchist movement in Philadelphia and began taking lessons in the English language from Voltairine de Cleyre. Before long, he was engaged in a romantic relationship with her and participated in her anarchist activism, but their relationship quickly became strained after she rejected his marriage proposal. de Cleyre herself paid his way through medical school and he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine in 1898, after which he left the anarchist movement and broke up with de Cleyre. When de Cleyre was hospitalized by an assassination attempt in 1902, he refused to help her, which ostracized him further from the anarchist movement. Gordon died from gastritis in 1906.

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