Milly Witkop
Milly Witkop | |
---|---|
Zlatopol, Russian Empire (now Ukraine) | |
Died | November 23, 1955 | (aged 78)
Known for | Anarcho-syndicalist writings and activism |
Spouse | Rudolf Rocker |
Children | Fermin Rocker |
Relatives | Rose Witcop (sister) |
Milly Witkop(-Rocker) (March 3, 1877 – November 23, 1955) was a
Early life and period in London
Witkop was born Vitkopski in the
In London, she worked in a tailoring sweatshop and saved enough money to finance her parents' and sisters' passage to England. The hard conditions she worked under led her to question her faith. Her involvement in a bakers' strike led her to become involved with the group around the
From October 1898, Rocker and Witkop co-edited the Arbeyter Fraynd. In March 1900, the two also started publishing the newspaper Germinal, which was more focused on cultural topics. In 1907, the couple's son, Fermin, was born. Rocker and Witkop were opposed to World War I after it broke out in 1914, unlike many other anarchists such as Kropotkin, who supported the Allied cause. To ease the poverty and deprivation caused by the joblessness that accompanied the war, Witkop and her husband opened a soup kitchen. In December 1914, however, Rocker like many Germans and Austrians in the UK, was interned as an enemy alien. Witkop continued her anti-war activities until she was also arrested in 1916. She remained imprisoned until the autumn of 1918. She then left the United Kingdom to join her husband and son in the Netherlands.[1]
Germany
At first, the couple welcomed the
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After its founding in early 1919, a discussion about the role of girls and women in the union started. The male-dominated organization had at first ignored gender issues, but soon women started founding their own unions, which were organized parallel to the regular unions, but still formed part of the FAUD. Witkop was one of the leading founders of the Women's Union in Berlin in 1920. On October 15, 1921, the women's unions held a national congress in Düsseldorf and the Syndicalist Women's Union (SFB) was founded on a national level. Shortly thereafter, Witkop drafted Was will der Syndikalistische Frauenbund? (What Does the Syndicalist Women's Union Want?) as a platform for the SFB. From 1921, the Der Frauenbund was published as a supplement to the FAUD organ Der Syndikalist, Witkop was one of its primary writers.[1]
Witkop reasoned that proletarian women were exploited not only by capitalism like male workers, but also by their male counterparts. She contended therefore that women must actively fight for their rights, much like workers must fight capitalism for theirs. She also insisted on the necessity of women taking part in class struggle. Housewives could use boycotts to support this struggle. From this, she concluded the necessity of an autonomous women's organization in the FAUD. Witkop also held that domestic work should be deemed equally valuable to wage labor.[4] In a 1921 article in Der Frauenbund, Witkop argued that the most important issue facing the SFB was the "sexual issue". She called for access to birth control and advocated a childbearing strike. A debate on the issue within the German syndicalist movement ensued. Meetings on the issue were well-attended meetings and new SFB chapters were formed.[5]
United States
She was not only active in the syndicalist and feminist movement, but also worked to fight racism and anti-Semitism. She was often frustrated by what she considered an unwillingness to fight anti-Semitism in the labor movement. The rise of the
After World War II, Witkop had some sympathy for the Zionist movement, but was skeptical as to whether a nation state could solve the "Jewish question". She favored the idea of bi-nationality developed by Martin Buber and Ahad Ha'am. The Mohegan commune, especially Witkop, was active in sending material support to German anarchists. They sent several hundred packages to Germany.[1]
Witkop died on November 23, 1955. She had been suffering from difficulties of breathing for months.[1]
References
Sources
- Fishman, William J. (1974). Jewish Radicals: From Czarist Stetl to London Ghetto. New York: Pantheon Books.
- Nelles, Dieter (2000). Anarchosyndicalism and the Sexual Reform Movement in the Weimar Republic (PDF). Socialism and Sexuality. Amsterdam.
- Rübner, Hartmut (1994). Freiheit und Brot: Die Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD): Eine Studie zur Geschichte des Anarchosyndikalismus. Berlin: Libertad Verlag.
- Vallance, Margaret (1973). "Rudolf Rocker – a biographical sketch". Journal of Contemporary History. 8 (3): 75–95. S2CID 159569041.
- Wolf, Siegbert (2007). "Witkop, Milly". Datenbank des deutschsprachigen Anarchismus. Retrieved 8 October 2007.
Further reading
- Bianchi, Vera (2018). "Feminismus in proletarischer Praxis: Der 'Syndikalistische Frauenbund' (1920 bis 1933) und die 'Mujeres Libres' (1936 bis 1939)". Arbeit – Bewegung – Geschichte. 17 (1): 27–44.
- Bock, Hans-Manfred (1969). Syndikalismus und Linkskommunismus von 1918 bis 1923: Ein Beitrag zur Sozial- und Ideengeschichte der frühen Weimarer Republik. Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hain.
- Frost, Ginger S. (2008). Living in Sin: Cohabiting as husband and wife in nineteenth-century England. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Graur, Mina (1997). An Anarchist Rabbi: The Life and Teachings of Rudolf Rocker. New York: St. Martin's Press.
- Klan, Ulrich (1986). 'Es lebt noch eine Flamme': Rheinische Anarcho-Syndikalisten/-innen in der Weimarer Republik und im Faschismus. Grafenau-Döffingen: Trotzdem Verlag.
- Regin, Cornelia (1989). "Hausfrau und Revolution. Die Frauenpolitik der Anarcho-Syndikalisten in der Weimarer Republik". Internationale Wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der Deutschen Arbeiterbewegung. 25 (3): 379–398.
- Vogel, Angela (1977). Der deutsche Anarcho-Syndikalismus: Genese und Theorie einer vergessenen Bewegung. Berlin: Karin Kramer Verlag.