Mollie Steimer

Mollie Steimer, pseudonym for Marthe Alperine, (Russian Молли Штеймер; born November 21, 1897 in Dunajewzy, Russia, † July 23, 1980 in Mexico City) was a Russian author, political activist and anarchist.

Life

Under her pseudonym Mollie Steimer Marthe Alperine was in the international anarchist movement known as a woman who fought for uncompromising anarchism. Born in Russia in 1913 her family emigrated to New York City (USA). Steimer worked in a textile factory and as a 20 -year-old, she joined the Jewish group Frayhayt (Freedom) at. Steimer busy at this time with the works of August Bebel ( Women and Socialism ), Mikhail Bakunin ( law and anarchy ), and Peter Kropotkin ( Memoirs of a Revolutionist ). In New York City, she lived for a time in a six- room apartment together with members of the group Frayhayt. The group distributed anti-war leaflets of approximately 10,000 copies, of which some have been confiscated. Police investigation led to the group Frayhayt and in October 1918 Steimer was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In court ( 10 October 1918) setting out its anarchist philosophy by saying that anarchism represents a new social order and each person should have the same freedoms have been physically and mentally to develop without interference authoritarian. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict in 1919, and instead of jail time, she was expelled from the U.S.. She traveled to Petrograd, where she lived with a friend, Senya Fleshin, also an anarchist. Both organized a group, the anarchist prisoners assisted in Russia. There she worked with the editor Vsevolod Wolin by the journal Golos Truda ( The Voice of the work) together and was a member of Nabat, a coalition of anarchist organizations. On November 1, 1922 she was because of her activities along with Fleshin arrested on the grounds that " aid a criminal organization " and " criminal elements ". Were also arrested Samuel Lipman, Gabriel Prober, Jacob Abrams and Jacob Schwartz. Schwartz died in prison from the effects of abuse.

Steimer was sentenced to two years' banishment to Siberia, escaped to Moscow and was arrested again. In Berlin, Emma Goldman had asked the anarchist May Picqueray, who traveled as a delegate of the Federation of Metal Workers to Moscow to push for the release of Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin. Picqueray went to Moscow to the office of Leon Trotsky and handed him a petition for the release of the two detainees. They were later released some weeks from prison and expelled from Russia. After her deportation Steimer and Fleshin lived alternately in Berlin and Paris.

In Berlin she met Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. There Steimer wrote for various anarchist journals and later in Paris, she joined a group of anarchists, which lived in exile. Emma Goldman Steimer characterized as a fanatic with an iron will, which advocated a with all their soul for the anarchist ideal.

In later years she lived with Fleshin in Mexico City, where they operated a photo studio. Steimer died in 1980 of a heart attack.

Further Reading

• Abe Bluestein, Fighters for Anarchism: Mollie Steimer and Senya Fleshin. Libertarian Publications Group, New York 1983.
• Paul Avrich, Anarchist Portraits; Szajkowski, Zosa. Double Jeopardy -The Abrams Case of 1919. American Jewish Archives, April 23, 1971, 8-32.
• Naomi Shepherd, A Price Below Rubies: Jewish Women as Rebels and Radicals. In 1993.

DVD

• Anarchism in America. (And there are contemporary interviews with figures including Mollie Steimer (DVD). AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-51-2