#WCW Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964)
Elizabeth was one of the most influential labor leaders in America. At 16, she was expelled from school for giving a speech entitled “What Socialism Will Do for Women.” By 17, Flynn was heavily involved in the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and took an active role in the Spokane Free Speech Fight of 1909. Flynn was part of the famous 1912 “Bread and Roses” strike at the Lowell Textile Mills and the 1913 Patterson Silk Strike. As a female leader in the mostly male IWW and she explained her prominence with this quote, “The IWW has been accused of pushing women to the front This is not true. Rather, the women have not been kept in back, and so they have naturally moved to the front.”
In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). During WWII she fought for equal pay for women and daycares for working mothers. In 1951, she was arrested for her association with the Communist Party and spent several years in jail. Upon release, she continued her radical political activities. In 1961, she became the first female president of the Communist Party in the U.S. She made several trips to the Soviet Union and was visiting there when she died in 1964. According to her wishes, she was buried next to the martyrs of the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago’s Waldheim Cemetery. She is forever immortalized in the 1915 song “Rebel Girl” written by Joe Hill for the IWW’s “Little Red Songbook.” Modern recording of the song: https://youtu.be/L0Oc-CXJu0A
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