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A New Declaration of Independence
By Emma Goldman
Published in Mother Earth, Vol. IV, No. 5, July 1909
When, in the course of human development, existing institutions
prove inadequate to the needs of man, when they serve merely to
enslave, rob, and oppress mankind, the people have the eternal
right to rebel against, and overthrow, these institutions.
The mere fact that these forces--inimical to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness--are legalized by statute laws,
sanctified by divine rights, and enforced by political power, in
no way justifies their continued existence.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all human beings,
irrespective of race, color, or sex, are born with the equal
right to share at the table of life; that to secure this right,
there must be established among men economic, social, and
political freedom; we hold further that government exists but to
maintain special privilege and property rights; that it coerces
man into submission and therefore robs him of dignity,
self-respect, and life.
The history of the American kings of capital and authority is
the history of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage,
and abuse, all aiming at the suppression of individual liberties
and the exploitation of the people. A vast country, rich enough
to supply all her children with all possible comforts, and
insure well-being to all, is in the hands of a few, while the
nameless millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth gatherers,
unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians. Sturdy sons of
America are forced to tramp the country in a fruitless search
for bread, and many of her daughters are driven into the street,
while thousands of tender children are daily sacrificed on the
altar of Mammon. The reign of these kings is holding mankind in
slavery, perpetuating poverty and disease, maintaining crime and
corruption; it is fettering the spirit of liberty, throttling
the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing humanity. It
is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the
country and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it
nurtures superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife,
and turns the human family into a camp of Ishmaelites.
We, therefore, the liberty-loving men and women, realizing the
great injustice and brutality of this state of affairs,
earnestly and boldly do hereby declare, That each and every
individual is and ought to be free to own himself and to enjoy
the full fruit of his labor; that man is absolved from all
allegiance to the kings of authority and capital; that he has,
by the very fact of his being, free access to the land and all
means of production, and entire liberty of disposing of the
fruits of his efforts; that each and every individual has the
unquestionable and unabridgeable right of free and voluntary
association with other equally sovereign individuals for
economic, political, social, and all other purposes, and that to
achieve this end man must emancipate himself from the sacredness
of property, the respect for man-made law, the fear of the
Church, the cowardice of public opinion, the stupid arrogance of
national, racial, religious, and sex superiority, and from the
narrow puritanical conception of human life. And for the support
of this Declaration, and with a firm reliance on the harmonious
blending of man's social and individual tendencies, the lovers
of liberty joyfully consecrate their uncompromising devotion,
their energy and intelligence, their solidarity and their lives.
This Declaration was written at the request of a certain
newspaper, which subsequently refused to publish it, though the
article was already in composition. |
