No Master [Leaflet with poem, distributed at Emma Goldman meeting, Norwich 1925]

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(A. Bird For E.G.’s meeting Norwich - April 1925
1000)

No Master

Saith man to man, We’ve heard and known 
That we no master need 
To live upon this earth, our own, 
In fair and manly deed. 
The grief of slaves long passed away 
For us hath forged the chain, 
Till now each worker’s patient day 
Builds up the House of Pain. 

And we, shall we too, crouch and quail, 
Ashamed, afraid of strife, 
And lest our lives untimely fail 
Embrace the Death in Life? 
Nay, cry aloud, and have no fear, 
We few against the world ; 
Awake, arise! the hope we bear 
Against the curse is hurled.

It grows and grows—are we the same, 
The feeble band, the few? 
Or what are these with eyes aflame, 
And hands to deal and do? 
This is the host that bears the word, 
NO MASTER HIGH OR LOW—
A lightning flame, a shearing sword, 
A storm to overthrow. 

WILLIAM MORRIS. 

Read FREEDOM, Monthly, Twopence
127 Ossulston Street, London, N.W.1.

[Note: ‘Norwich provided Emma Goldman with the largest audience she has addressed in this country. On Sunday, April 19th, the Electric Theatre was packed with 900 people to hear her lecture on “Lessons of the Russian Revolution.” Our comrade showed how the Revolution had been side-tracked by the Dictatorship and never given a chance to express itself. The interest shown was intense, a long string of questions being asked. Emma Goldman is never so fine as when she is dealing with questions, and her answers were greatly appreciated. The appeal on behalf of the prisoners realised £4 12s. The resolution was carried with but twenty dissentients. Altogether the meeting was a great success, due to hard work on the part of Norwich comrades’.
‘Emma Goldman’s lectures’, Freedom May 1925.’ http://archivesautonomies.org/IMG/pdf/nonfrenchpublications/english/freedom/freedom-volume39-n426.pdf  ]