9 July

Today in 1917, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman, leaders of the No-Conscription League, were found guilty of conspiracy against the draft. Each was fined $10,000 and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. After the end of the war, they were expelled from the United States and left for Russia.

‘But whatever your decision, the struggle must go on. We are but the atoms in the incessant human struggle towards the light that shines in the darkness–the Ideal of economic, political and spiritual liberation of mankind!’

Emma Goldman’s address to the jury, 9 July 1917