Molly Steimer
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Molly Steimer (November 21, 1897 - July 23, 1980) was was born in Dunaevtsky, Russia. She immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 15. She became an anarchist and activist who fought for as a trade unionist, an anti-war activist and a freed speech campaigner.
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[edit] Activism
Standing just 4 feet 9 inches at age fifteen, Steimer went to work in the garment factories of New York's Lower East Side. She soon became involved in trade union activities, and interested in anarchism. She was influenced by the works such as August Bebel's Women and Socialism, Mikhail Bakunin's Statehood and Anarchy, Peter Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist and Emma Goldman's Anarchism and Other Essays. She later became an associate of Emma Goldman's. Goldman described Steimer as "having an iron will and a tender heart."
In 1917, at the age of 20, Steimer help to form a group called Frayhayt (Freedom) with other Jewish anarchists. Together they shared a six-room apartment at 5 East 104th Street in Harlem with members of the group. This also became the place where the Frayhayt held its meetings and published its newspaper, Der Shturm (The Storm)[1]. She was an associate of Emma Goldman. Goldman described Steimer as "having an iron will and a tender heart." During World War I, she opposed the United States' participation in the war.
[edit] Arrest
In 1918 was arrested for distributing leaflets, she had helped write and print, that which condemned President Woodrow Wilson for sending American troops to fight in Soviet Russia. A Yiddish language leaflet also called for a general strike to protest against the government's policy of intervention. One of her co-defendants Jacob Schwartz, was brutally beaten by police. He succumbed to his injuries on October 14th. Steimer and three others, Jacob Abrams, Hyman Lachowsky, and Samuel Lipman, were convicted of violating the U.S. Espionage Act and sentenced to serve 15 years in the Federal Penitentiary in Jefferson City Missouri. At the trial she made a passionate statement about freedom and anarchism, which she said she would die for.
[edit] Deportation
After an unsuccessful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court Steimer and her co-defendants were ordered to be deported in 1923. Initially she refused to leave her cell and said that she would not leave until all political prisoners were free. Eventually she relented, but again refused to be transported to Ellis Island until a railroad strike was resolved. Ten days later the strike was called of and Steimer was transported to Ellis Island. She was deported to her native Russia on November 1, 1922 Estonia. Steimer arrived in Moscow on December 15, 1921.
[edit] Europe
She saw the Russian Revolution of 1917 as a Revolution that had taken a "wrong turn" and that the anarchists would need to continue the struggle. While in Russia she met fellow anarchist Senya Fleshin who had recently been released from prison. He had been arrested for criticizing the new Bolshevik government. Fleshin and Steimer were soon re-arrested and charged with aiding criminal elements in Russia. The following year they were deported to Germany where they joined Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman in Berlin. When Hitler came to power Steimer Fleshin were forced to flee to Paris. When France was invaded by the German Army the couple moved to Mexico.
[edit] Later life
She eventually settled in Cuernavaca, Mexico with her life long companion Senya Flechin, where they ran a photographic studio.[2] Steimer died in Cuernava, Mexico, on 23rd July, 1980.
