Earlier questions from a fellow blogger - now rethought in 2023

In 2009 Willow from Willow Manor first asked the questions. 

1. Are you a native Australian? How many generations of your family were born there? I was born and raised here - primary school, high school and univ­ersity. Then I lived for six years overseas, one year by myself and later five years with my brand new husband, largely in Israel and the UK. We travelled all across the Cont­inent, but as poor students, we slept in our car boot.

MY family comes from Southern Russia/now Ukraine. Joe was born in Czechoslovakia, emigrating with family to Australia when he was 4. With a tiny pop­ulation, Australia decided after WW2 that it was time to Populate or Perish.

2. If you could have dinner with one historical figure, who would it be and why? Emma Goldman (1869-1940) grew up in Jewish Kovno and St Petersburg where she assoc­iated with radical students. At 20 she imm­igrated to the U.S, settling in Rochester NY. She worked in cl­oth­ing fact­ories, mix­ing with socialist and an­ar­ch­ist co-work­ers.

Emma Goldman: Revolution as a Way of Life,

by Vivian Gornick, 2013

There was a peaceful ral­ly against a Ch­ic­ago company in May 1886 until the police demand­ed the crowd disp­er­se. When a bomb exploded among the police, the police respond­ed with gunfire; 6 workers were killed and many more injured. The massacre created general hysteria against im­mig­r­ants and labour leaders, leading to 8 anarchist lead­ers being arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy. Most of the Chic­ago Eight mem­b­ers were hanged in Nov 1887.

In 1893 Emma was gaoled in NY for inciting a riot when some unempl­oyed work­ers reacted to her fiery speech. Rel­eased 2 years lat­er, Goldman lectured across Europe and U.S.

In 1906 she founded and edited the per­iodical Mother Earth, until its suppres­sion in WW1. Her cam­p­aigns were often pro-woman eg con­trac­eption. Of course her American natural­is­ation was legally rev­oked in 1908. Nonetheless she pub­l­ish­ed­ Anarchism and Other Essays.

Goldman also lectured on Henrik Ibsen, Aug­ust Strindberg and George Bernard Shaw's dramas, introd­ucing European play­wrights to American aud­iences. Her lectures were pub­lished in 1914 in Social Significance of the Modern Drama.

When WW1 broke out in Europe, she saw it as an imperialist war that was sacrificing workers as can­non-fodder. In July 1917 she was sentenced to 2 years prison for her anti-war act­iv­ities. By her release in Sept 1919, the U.S was hys­t­erical over the rumoured network of communist operativ­es, and her ideas earned Gold­man the enmity of powerful polit­ic­al authorit­ies. Red Emma’s deportation to the Soviet Union seemed like a personal crusade!

In 1920 immigrant Italian unionists, Nicola Sacco and Bart­ol­om­eo Van­zet­ti, were con­vict­ed of killing 2 men in Mass. Despite world­wide prot­ests denying the defend­ants’ guilt, the 2 were executed in 1927. Emma remained active, liv­ing acr­oss Europe, lectur­ing and wri­t­­ing her au­t­obiogr­aphy, Living My Life 1931. In 1940 she work­ed for the anti-Fascists in the Spanish Civil War, then died from a stroke in 1940. What a brave, politically committed and literate woman!

3. What do you consider your greatest accomplishment? I am still married after 52 years, with 2 mature sons and 5 gorgeous grandchildren. That is not just an accomplishment - it is an awesome miracle. Plus the grandchildren understand computers :)

One of my sons and all 5 of the grandchildren

2016

4. Other than your loved ones, what is your most treasured po­s­session? Australian colonial art was very derivative in the C19th, looking like British art with perhaps a kangaroo added in for lo­c­al col­our. As Australia was moving slowly towards Fed­er­ation, it became clear that artists, writ­ers, musicians and architects would need to dev­elop Australian tastes. From 1888 on, the first young artists moved into the bush north of Melb­ourne to paint from life. I have 8 of these beautiful Heidelberg School paintings.

5. Before blogging, what, if any, was your main mode of personal expression? I co-started an IRC channel (#30plus) for mature people in Oct 1993. Sydneysider Daniel Ben-Sefer and I had met in another chann­el (#Israel) earlier that year but we were disappointed with the juvenile, male-focused discussions. So we created a new channel for people 30+ and invited every academic we knew. For the first 15 years of #30plus and channel mailing lists, I was very grateful for the excitement and the intel­l­ect­­ual stim­ul­at­ion. Although the chann­el still funct­ions well, hack­ers, right wingers and anti-Semites changed the at­mos­phere from warm to occasionally dodgy.

Now I’ll post these 5 questions to Joanne's Ramblings, for her to answer and then she will post them on to another blogger. Thanks Joanne.