John Turner (anarchist)
John Turner | |
|---|---|
 Turner ca. 1900 | |
| Born | 24 August 1864 |
| Died | 9 August 1934(aged 68) |
| Movement | Anarchist movement,labour movement |
| Part ofa serieson |
| Anarchism |
|---|
 |
John Turner(24 August 1864 – 9 August 1934)[1]was an English-bornanarchistshop steward. He referred to himself as "of semi-Quakerdescent. "[2]
Turner was the first person to be ordered deported from the United States for violation of the 1903Anarchist Exclusion Act.
Career
[edit]Turner was a member of theSocialist Leaguebut left to become a member of theFreedomanarchist groupand later on became general secretary of theShop Assistants' Union,which he had founded.[3]At one point, the union attempted to nominate Turner forParliament,but he declined since he preferred not to "waste his time in parliamentary debates".[4]
Deportation from United States
[edit]Turner had spent seven months of 1896 (during which time he metVoltairine de Cleyre) lecturing throughout the US.[5]He returned to the country in October 1903, just seven months after enactment of theAnarchist Exclusion Act,which barred anyone from entering the country who held anarchist views. He was arrested on October 23 after he gave a lecture at the Murray Hill Lyceum. When he was searched, immigration officials found a copy ofJohann Most'sFree Societyand Turner's speaking schedule, which included a memorial to theHaymarket Martyrs.[6]That was enough to order his deportation. Turner was held in detention atEllis Islandfor three months awaiting appeal of his case to theUS Supreme Court.Before the final ruling, Turner was released on US$5,000 bail. He then gave some lectures around the country, wrongly speculated that the Supreme Court would declare the law unconstitutional[7]and returned to England before the judgment could come down against him.[8]
Editing and activism
[edit]Turner worked on several publications in addition toFreedom.He was a member of the collective that put outCommonweal[9]and was also the editor ofFreedom'ssyndicalistjournalThe Voice of Labour,which denounced the "blight of respectability" of mainstreamlabour unions.The paper began as a weekly in 1907 and advocateddirect actionand thegeneral strike.[10]
After theRussian Revolution,Turner traveled toRussiaas part of the British Labour Delegation, and attempted to helpAron Baronacquirereprievefrom a death sentence. Baron was subsequently charged with having "aroused public sentiment abroad against his imprisonment in theSolovietzkiand having induced revolutionists visiting Russia to seek his release ". Baron was then sent to a prison inSiberia.[11]
Throughout the many changes in the history ofFreedom,Turner was its publisher from when it was renamedFreedom: A Journal of Libertarian Thought, Work and Literaturein 1930 to his death in 1934.[12]
References
[edit]- ^Becker, Heiner (October 1986)."John Turner 1864-1934"(PDF).Freedom / A Hundred Years.Vol. 47, no. 9. pp. 12–13.Archived(PDF)from the original on 16 May 2022.Retrieved15 May2022.
- ^Turner, John.The Independent,December 24, 1903.
- ^Avrich, Paul(1988).Anarchist Portraits.Princeton University Press.p.160.ISBN0-691-00609-1.
- ^Rocker, Rudolf.The London Years.AK Press,2005, pg. 101.
- ^Goldman, Emma(1970).Living My Life Vol. 1.Courier Dover Publications.p.346.ISBN0-486-22543-7.
- ^Chalberg, John(1991).Emma Goldman: American Individualist.HarperCollins.pp.85–86.ISBN0-673-52102-8.
- ^"ANARCHIST TURNER TELLS OF HIS FIGHT; Was Stared At on Ellis Island as If a Wild Animal".New York Times.14 March 1904.Archivedfrom the original on 4 March 2016.Retrieved9 August2008.
- ^Porter Bliss, William Dwight (1908).The New Encyclopedia of Social Reform: Including All Social-reform Movements.Funk & Wagnalls.p.50.
- ^Quail, John.The Slow Burning Fuse,London, Paladin Books, 1978.
- ^Voice of Labour.February 9th, 1907
- ^Maximoff, Gregori.The Guillotine at Work: Twenty Years of Terror in Russia,p.543
- ^McKercher, William Russell.Freedom and Authority,Black Rose Books, Ltd, 1989, p.214.
Further reading
[edit]
- "ANARCHISTS ARE RAIDED; Murray Hill Lyceum Meeting Goes Wild with Rage. JOHN TURNER TAKEN OFF STAGE Locked Up at Ellis Island on Warrant from Washington, Which Charges Inciting to Anarchy",The New York Times,October 24, 1903, page 1.
- "Anarchism and the Assassination of McKinley", Sidney Fine,The American Historical Review,Vol. 60, No. 4 (Jul., 1955), pp. 777–799
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1864 births
- 1934 deaths
- Anarcho-communists
- English anarchists
- General secretaries of the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks
- Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress
- Scottish anarchists
- Socialist League (UK, 1885) members
- People deported from the United States
- British cooperative organizers