EP 62
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - The Rebel Girl Continues to Educate and Incite and Inspire
Appropo of the current moment in our country, New Hampshire is currently embroiled in a legal battle at the intersection of history, free speech, labor law, and women's rights. Earlier in the year the state's Division of historic resources approved and erected a historical marker recognizing the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, known as the "Rebel Girl" who was born in Concord in 1890.
Guests Arnie Alpert and Mary Lee Sargent, who have filed suit to restore the marker to its agreed location in Concord are joined by Attorney Andru Volinsky who is representing them against the state, join Wayne King in this episode.
Listen here: https://feeds.podetize.com/LuMV1-v0gr.mp3
Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/cx4t_QyeWLc
Show notes: https://centristchange.blogspot.com/2023/08/ed-62-elizabeth-gurly-flynn-rebel-girl.html
According to Arnie Alpert,
The birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Concord in 1890 is a perfect subject for a historic marker.
Flynn first gained notoriety as a soapbox speaker at age sixteen, when she was arrested after speaking at a socialist rally in Manhattan’s theatre district. The New York Times reported the incident, calling Flynn “a mere slip of a girl, with snapping black eyes and expressive features.” Disorderly conduct charges were soon dropped, but her career – and habit of getting arrested for activities which should have been protected under the First Amendment – was launched.
By age 17, Flynn was supporting strikers as a member of the radical union, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which believed in organizing across industrial rather than craft lines, and which believed in organizing all workers regardless of race, sex, or national origin. Flynn was soon crisscrossing the country, supporting the IWW’s free speech fights in the northwest and organizing drives from Minnesota to New Jersey, including the 1912 “Bread and Roses” textile strike in Lawrence.
Motivated initially by the working class poverty she witnessed in New England mill towns, Flynn believed that socialism was the answer to the ills of capitalism and in particular to the oppression of women. When the IWW was largely crushed during World War I and the subsequent “Red Scare,” Flynn organized the Workers Defense Union to raise funds and political support for labor activists facing prison and death for their activities. It was at that time that she joined the founders of the American Civil Liberties Union as a charter member and served on their board.
At age 46, when her reputation for oratory and advocacy had been well established for decades, she joined the Communist Party and soon became a member of its National Committee. Fifteen years later, with the Cold War and the second Red Scare heating up, she was arrested for perhaps the twelfth time under a federal law known as the Smith Act. In essence, the Smith Act made it illegal to be a Communist, under the assumption that the Communist Party was committed to the violent overthrow of the government. Flynn’s self-defense at trial – considered by AmericanRhetoric.com to be one of the 100 top speeches in American history – emphasized her own political beliefs and insisted, “Never have I, and not now do I, intend to advocate the overthrow of government by force and violence, nor do I intend to bring about such overthrow.”
Mary Lee Sargent and I filed suit in Merrimack County Superior Court to call for the state to reverse its illegal removal of the Elizabeth Gurley Flynn historical marker.
August 8, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/08/08/op-ed-why-im-suing-the-state-gurley-flynn-historical-marker-should-be-returned/The two New Hampshire residents who petitioned the state’s Division of Historical Resources to establish a historical marker near the birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn filed suit Monday in Merrimack County Superior Court calling for the Flynn marker, which the state dedicated on May 1 and removed on May 15, to be reinstalled.
August 7, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/08/07/lawsuit-calls-for-elizabeth-gurley-flynn-historical-marker-to-be-reinstalled-in-concord/The controversial state historical marker at the 1890 birthplace of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn in Concord was removed Monday morning after Executive Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, and others complained about hosting a marker for someone who once headed the nation’s Communist party.
May 15, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/05/15/sununu-orders-flynns-controversial-historical-marker-removed/For example, two communities claim to be the birthplace of the Republican Party, Exeter, New Hampshire and Ripon, Wisconsin.
May 6, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/05/06/distant-dome-history-is-not-always-comfortable/Flynn’s story started in Concord, where she was the first child of Annie Gurley, a seamstress, and Thomas Flynn, a quarry worker.
May 5, 2023 | https://indepthnh.org/2023/05/05/op-ed-elizabeth-gurley-flynns-history-making-life-began-in-nh/
Show Your Support for the Rebel Girl
The Rebel Girl
A Song by Joe Hill
“Rebel Girl” was inspired by Joe Hill’s friend, Elizabeth Gurley-Flynn, who was a prominent speaker and leader in the Industrial Workers of the World. Hill wrote the song in 1915 while in prison in Salt Lake City, and hoped it would draw more women to the IWW. The original song is performed here by Alyeah Hansen at a park near downtown Salt Lake City. Today’s updated lyrics change the Rebel Girl’s role from supporting Rebel Boys to becoming a powerful force herself.
Original lyrics:
There are women of many descriptions
In this queer world, as everyone knows
Some are living in beautiful mansions
And are wearing the finest of clothes
There are blue blooded queens and princesses
Who have charms made of diamonds and pearl
But the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl
That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl
To the working class she's a precious pearl
She brings courage, pride and joy
To the fighting Rebel Boy
We've had girls before, but we need some more
In the Industrial Workers of the World
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl
Yes, her hands may be hardened from labor
And her dress may not be very fine
But a heart in her bosom is beating
That is true to her class and her kind
And the grafters in terror are trembling
When her spite and defiance she'll hurl
For the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl
That's the Rebel Girl, that's the Rebel Girl
To the working class she's a precious pearl
She brings courage, pride and joy
To the fighting Rebel Boy
We've had girls before, but we need some more
In the Industrial Workers of the World
For it's great to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl
Updated lyrics, by Hazel Dickens:
There are women of many descriptions
In this cruel world, as everyone knows.
Some are living in beautiful mansions,
And are wearing the finest of clothes.
There’s the blue blooded queen or the princess,
Who have charms made of diamonds and pearls
But the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl.
CHORUS
She’s a Rebel Girl, a Rebel Girl!
She’s the working class, the strength of this world.
From Maine to Georgia you’ll see
Her fighting for you and for me.
Yes, she’s there by your side with her courage and pride.
She’s unequaled anywhere.
And, I’m proud to fight for freedom
With a Rebel Girl.
Though her hands may be hardened from labor
And her dress may not be very fine
But a heart in her bosom is beating
That is true to her class and her kind.
And the bosses know that they can’t change her
She’d die to defend the worker’s world.
And the only and thoroughbred lady
Is the Rebel Girl.
Mary Lee Sargent
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