August 21 - Emma Goldman Says: “Take the Bread!”

Labor History in 2:00 · Aug 21, 2026 · 1m

On this day in Labor History the year was 1893.

That was the day that workers-rights and women’s rights activist and anarchist Emma Goldman gave a speech in New York City.

Emma Goldman was born in what is today Lithuania.

She came to the New York in 1885, where she built a reputation as a powerful speaker.

In New York she addressed a crowd of between 3,000 to 4,000 unemployed workers in Union Square.

The country was at the beginning of a depression that would sweep the nation.

Working families were finding it harder and harder to put food on the table.

By the end of 1893 unemployment would…