29, Guerilla She

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Angela Davis (born 1944) “Radical simply means ‘grasping things at the root.’ You can’t ask a mother to moderately snatch her baby out of a burning house. Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) “Only anarchist revolution and not the ballot will set women free, will make her a force hither to unknown in the World, a force of divine fire, of giving creation of free men and women.”

Harriet Tubman “There’s two things I’ve got a right to, and these are death and liberty. One or the other I mean to have. No one will take me back alive; I shall fight for my liberty, and when the time has come for us to go, the Lord will let them killm me.” [see also: Jailbreak Out Of History, the re-biography of Harriet Tubman, by Butch Lee]

Leila Khaled (born 1944) “In the beginning, all women had to prove that we could be equal to men in armed struggle. So we wanted to be like men – even in our appearance… I no longer think it’s necessary to prove ourselves as women by imitating men. I have learned that a woman can be a fighter, a freedom fighter, a political activist, and that she can fall in love, and be loved, she can be married, have children, be a mother… Revolution must mean life also; every aspect of life.”

Louise Michel “We revolutionaries aren’t just chasing a scarlet flag. What we pursue is an awakening of liberty, old or new. It is the ancient Communes of France, it is 1703; it is June 1848; it is 1871. Most especially it is the next revolution which is advancing under this dawn.”

Lucia Sanchez Saornil (1897-1970) Fists upraised, women of Iberia towards horizons pregnant with light on paths afire feet on the ground face to the blue sky. Affirming the promise of life we defy tradition we mould the warm clay of a new world born of pain. Let the past vanish into nothingness! What do we care for yesterday! We want to write anew the word WOMAN. Fists upraised, women of the world towards the horizons pregnant with light on paths afire onward, onward toward the light.

Nora Connolly O’Brien (1893-1981) “For many centuries, we ni Ireland have had an unbroken tradition of each generation having an armed uprising against Britain. In my generation we had an armed uprising in 1916 with the proclamation of freedom of the Republic of Ireland… Here we are rising again, and if we go down, we’ll rise again!”

Phoolan Devi (1963-2001) “You can call it rape in your fancy language. Do yuo have any idea what it’s like to live in a village in India? What you call rape, that kind of thing happens to poor women in the villages every day. It is assumed that the daughters of the poor are for the use of the rich” “The fear of a gun is a powerful thing.”

Qiu Jin (c.1875-1907) “Strive for women power We women love our freedom Raise a cup of wine to our efforts for freedom May heaven bestow equality on men and women We will rise in fight, yes! Drag ourselves up! Old customs were deeply humiliating: Young girls were actually mated like cows New light dawns ina time of illustrious culture Man’s desire to stand alone, supreme, to enslave us Underlings must be torn up by the roots…

Comandante Ramona (1939-2005) “We want a Mexico that takes us into account as human beings, that respects us and that recognizes our dignity. Therefore we want to unite our small Zapatista voice with the large voice of all who fight for a new Mexico. We have come here in order to should together that never more will there be a Mexico without us.” “Our hope is that one day our situation will change, that we women will be treated with respect, justice and democracy.”

Vera Zasulich (1849-1919) “It was hard to starve during summer but what will it be during the severe frost? What expectations have these intrepid fighters for the right to have, between the time of work and sleep, three hours of leisure ‘as befits human beings’?”