Elizabeth Gurley Flynn was born in 1890 in Concord, New Hampshire, to a radical, activist working-class family. When she was 10, the family moved to the South Bronx, where she attended public school. By the time she was 15, Flynn was active in socialist groups. At 15, she gave her first public speech, and the next year she was expelled from high school. She became a full-time organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
In the years leading up to World War I, Flynn was active on women's rights, free speech for IWW speakers and organizing textile strikes in places like Lawrence, Massachusetts, and Paterson, New Jersey. She also worked to organize garment workers in Pennsylvania, silk weavers in New Jersey, restaurant workers in New York City and miners in Minnesota.
Flynn opposed the war when it broke out, and like many war opponents, she was charged with espionage. The charges were dropped and Flynn began working to defend immigrants threatened with deportation for their opposition to the war.
In 1920, Flynn helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and was elected to the national board. From 1927-1930, she chaired International Labor Defense. During that time she was active in trying to free jailed labor organizers Thomas J. Mooney and Warren K. Billings. For the first half of the 1930s, she withdrew from public life because of bad health, but she returned to public life in 1939 and was re-elected to the ACLU board. When Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin signed a nonagression pact, the ACLU expelled all Communist Party members from its ranks, including Flynn.
Flynn ran for the Communist Party of America's Central Committee successfully, and ran for a seat in Congress unsuccessfully. During World War II, Flynn fought for women's economic equality. After the war, as communism grew more unpopular in the United States, Flynn shifted back to defending free speech rights for radicals. In 1951, she was arrested for conspiracy to overthrow the government based on the Smith Act of 1940. She spent more than two years in prison.
She returned to political action once she was out of prison, and in 1961, she became the first woman elected national chair of the Communist Pary. A critic of the Soviet Union, Flynn traveled behind the Iron Curtain and was stricken ill. She died in the USSR and was given a state funeral in Red Square.
The story of the Rebel Girl - Socialist worker
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This morning while I was saying hi to the cat in my neighborhood I've been trying to make friends with, I saw a snail in the wild for the first time ever
Snail photo
Cat friendship seems like it has been established as well! It's a pretty skittish cat and I think my respirator was making it extra suspicious of me, but once I was able to communicate that I'm friendly it came over and was very sweet. I got some photos with it as well but unfortunately I don't think posting those would be a very good idea.
Here's my extremely realistic artist's interpretation of the cat.
Its coat is actually pretty complex but I did my layers in the wrong order and I couldn't be bothered to try and make it look textured and clean up the outlines later.
Seems like a very skeptical cat in this fine artist rendition
Yeah I think it was uncertain of my device but I think since it was getting pet in return it accepted the trade. The photo was taken with the front facing camera as well so perhaps it was getting a look at itself on my screen at the time.