anarchist writer and feminist
. She was a prolific writer and speaker, opposing the state
, marriage, and the domination of religion in sexuality and women's lives. She began her activist career in the freethought movement
. De Cleyre was initially drawn to individualist anarchism
but evolved through mutualism
to an "anarchism without adjectives
." She believed that any system was acceptable as long as it did not involve force. However, according to anarchist author Iain McKay, she embraced the ideals of stateless communism
.
Written in red their protest stands, For the Gods of the World to see; On the dooming wall their bodiless hands have blazoned "The writing on the wall|Upharsin," and flaring brands Illumine the message: "Seize the lands! Open the prisons and make men free!" Flame out the living words of the dead Written-in-red.
The paramount question of the day is not political, is not religious, but is economic. The crying-out demand of today is for a circle of principles that shall forever make it impossible for one man to control another by controlling the means of his existence.
Government is as unreal, as intangible, as unapproachable as God. Try it, if you don't believe it. Seek through the legislative halls of America and find, if you can, the Government. In the end you will be doomed to confer with the agent, as before.
I think it can be shown that the law makes ten criminals where it restrains one. On that basis it would not, as a matter of policy merely, be an economical institution.