From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Sun May 14 2006 - 13:46:30 EDT
Did Marx and Engels, and the other revolutionary socialists of their
time, celebrate Mother's Day after 1870? The following refers to the
"radical origins of Mother's Day -- as a powerful feminist call
against war" (and for internationalism). Since the "Mother's Day
Prolamation" by Julia Ward Howe was written in 1870, M&E should have
known about it.
In solidarity, Jerry
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<http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14930>
Geov Parrish
WorkingForChange.com
Last year in this space, I took the occasion of Mother's
Day weekend to reprint the 1870 call by American poet
and women's leader Julia Ward Howe for the establishment
of the holiday. <snip>
The radical origins of Mother's Day -- as a powerful
feminist call against war, penned in the wake of the
U.S. Civil War in 1870
<snip>
Here is the original, pre-Hallmark, Mother's Day Proclamation, penned
inBoston by Julia Ward Howe in 1870:
Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts,
Whether your baptism be that of water or of tears
Say firmly:
"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant
agencies,
Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity,
mercy and patience.
We women of one country
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.
From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up
with
Our own. It says, "Disarm, Disarm!"
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice!
Blood does not wipe out dishonor
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the
summons of war.
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate
the dead.
Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to
the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace,
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not
of Caesar,
But of God.
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of
nationality
May be appointed and held at some place deemed most
convenient
And at the earliest period consistent with its objects
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions.
The great and general interests of peace.
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