The Blast (magazine)
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Frequency | Semi-monthly |
Publisher | English |
The Blast was a semi-monthly anarchist periodical published by Alexander Berkman in San Francisco, California, USA from 1916 through 1917. The publication had roots in Emma Goldman's magazine Mother Earth, having been launched when her former consort Berkman left his editorial position at that publication.
History
Background
Mother Earth was an anarchist magazine established in New York City in March 1906 by Russian-Jewish émigré Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and Max Baginski (1864-1943).[1] Beginning in March 1907, the editorial staff was joined by Alexander Berkman (1870-1936), a consort of Goldman's since 1886.[2]
Berkman had gained fame (or infamy) for his part in the July 1892 attempted assassination of
In September 1914 Berkman and Goldman split, with Berkman hitting the road in an attempt to organize "Anti-Militarist Leagues" in opposition to World War I and to federate the dispersed array of local anarchist groups into a unified organization.[4] He arrived in California in the spring of 1915 where he became involved in the defense of Mathew Schmidt and David Caplan, anarchists recently arrested following years living underground in connection with the October 1910 fatal bombing of the newspaper plant of the conservative Los Angeles Times.[5] Berkman became a primary organizer of the Caplan-Schmidt Defense League in the summer of 1915 and henceforth devoted the bulk of his time to this legal fight, ending his formal editorial connection with Mother Earth.
Establishment
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Alexander_Berkman_001.jpg/200px-Alexander_Berkman_001.jpg)
The first issue of The Blast appeared dated January 15, 1916, with cover art by anarchist cartoonist Robert Minor.[6] Joining Editor and Publisher Berkman at the time of the 8-page magazine's launch was E.B. Morton as Associate Editor and M. Eleanor Fitzgerald as Business Manager.[7]
In an introductory editorial statement, Berkman noted that the provocatively named publication would be both destructive and constructive in intent:
Before a garden can bloom, the weeds must be uprooted. Nothing is therefore more important than to destroy. Nothing more necessary and difficult...
To destroy the Old and the False is the most vital work. We emphasize it: to blast the bulwarks of slavery and oppression is of primal necessity. It is the beginning of really lasting construction.[8]
The journal was originally conceived by Berkman as a "revolutionary labor paper" rather than a strictly anarchist newspaper. The Blast focused on the California labor situation and provided news about national labor events and leaders of radical political movements.
Berkman ultimately published 29 issues of The Blast.
Preparedness Day Bombing
The sensational July 1916
When radical labor leaders
In addition to founding the first local Mooney-Billings defense organization, Berkman travelled the country raising funds and public consciousness in support of the effort and winning the commitment of prominent New York attorney
By May 1917 the editorial office of The Blast had been moved from the uncomfortably tense San Francisco to New York City, where it was located in the same building as the editorial office of Mother Earth.[10] Shortly thereafter California authorities, despite having "absolutely no real evidence to go on" from their December raid, nevertheless obtained a grand jury indictment of Berkman on a charge of murder in association with the Preparedness Day bombing.[11] By the time of the California indictment Berkman had already been arrested and detained in New York City along with Emma Goldman on charges of conspiracy to undermine wartime conscription, however, and the West coast case against him came to naught.[11]
Termination and legacy
The Blast was shut down in June 1917 in the aftermath of Berkman's arrest for encouraging resistance to the draft. The publication's final issue, dated June 1, 1917, featured an
Conscription is the abdication of your rights as a citizen. Conscription is the cemetery where every vestige of your liberty is to be buried. Registration is its undertaker.
No man with red blood in his veins can be forced to fight against his will. But you cannot successfully oppose conscription if you approve of, or submit to, registration...
The consistent conscientious objector to human slaughter will neither register nor be conscripted.[12]
For their opposition to the American war effort, Berkman and Goldman were convicted of conspiracy to induce people not to register for the draft, as called for by the
The complete run of 29 issues of The Blast were re-published in book form by anarchist publisher AK Press in 2005.
Contributors
- Leonard D. Abbott
- Charles Ashleigh
- Alexander Berkman
- Emanuel Haldeman-Julius
- Ed Gammons
- Lydia Gibson
- David Leigh
- Tom Mann
- Robert Minor
- Margaret Sanger
- Warren Van Valkenburgh
- Mary Heaton Vorse
- Charles Erskine Scott Wood
References
- ^ Barry Pateman, "Introduction" to The Blast. Edinburgh, Scotland and Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005; pg. 2.
- Sasha and Emma: The Anarchist Odyssey of Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012; pp. 30-33.
- ^ Avrich and Avrich, Sasha and Emma, pp. 183-184.
- ^ Pateman, "Introduction," pp. 2-3.
- ^ Pateman, "Introduction," pg. 3.
- ^ Alexander Berkman (ed.), The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper. Edinburgh, Scotland and Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005; pp. 9-16.
- ^ Masthead, The Blast, vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1916), pg. 4. Reprinted in Berkman (ed.), The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper, pg. 12.
- ^ Alexander Berkman, "Why the Blast?" The Blast, vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan. 15, 1916), pg. 2.
- ^ a b Richard Drinnon, "Blast, San Francisco, 1916-1917," in Joseph R. Conlin (ed.), The American Radical Press, 1880-1960. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1974; pg. 402.
- ^ a b c d e Pateman, "Introduction," pg. 6.
- ^ a b c Drinnon, "Blast," pg. 403.
- ^ Alexander Berkman, "Registration," The Blast, vol. 2, no. 6 (June 1, 1917), pg. 2.
- ^ a b Pateman, "Introduction," pg. 7.
- ^ Drinnon, "Blast," pp. 405-406.
Further reading
- Alexander Berkman (ed.), The Blast: Complete Collection of the Incendiary San Francisco Bi-Monthly Anarchist Newspaper. Edinburgh, Scotland and Oakland, CA: AK Press, 2005.
External links
- The Blast partial archive of The Blast at Libcom