Format Compact (tabloid) Political alignment Anarchist ISSN 0016-0733 | Founded June 1890 (1890-06) Language Yiddish | |
Ceased publication December 1977 (1977-12) | ||
The Freie Arbeiter Stimme (Yiddish: פֿרייע אַרבעטער שטימע; English: The Free Voice of Labor) was the longest-running anarchist periodical in the Yiddish language, founded initially as an American counterpart to Rudolf Rocker's London-based Arbeter Fraynd (Workers' Friend). The early Yiddish spelling, פֿרייע אַרבייטער שטיממע (Fraye Arbayter Shtimme), reflects the early 20th century fashion to Germanize certain Yiddish words. Over the years, the title was changed to the native Yiddish pronunciation, פֿרייע אַרבעטער שטימע (Fraye Arbeter Shtime).
Publication began in 1890 and continued under the editorial of Saul Yanovsky until 1923. For a period the paper was under the editorial of Mark Mratchny, an exiled Ukrainian anarchist and former editor of Nabat (The Alarm), the organ of the anarchist Nabat Federation during the Makhnovist-Bolshevik peace agreement. The paper ran for 87 years until it finally was forced to stop publication in 1977 under the editorial of Ahrne Thorne due to the declining and aging population of both Yiddish speakers and anarchists in the United States.
Contributors have included David Edelstadt, Emma Goldman, Abba Gordin, Rudolf Rocker, Moishe Shtarkman, and Saul Yanovsky. The paper was also known for publishing poetry by di Yunge, Yiddish poets of the 1910s and 1920s.
The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists
The newspaper's story has been memorialized in a documentary by Steve Fischler and Joel Sucher of Pacific Street Films: The Free Voice of Labor: The Jewish Anarchists (1980). The movie contained a short interview with a very young Joe Conason. Paul Avrich was a consultant on the film. As of 2006, AK Press has begun distributing it as part of a double DVD release entitled Anarchism in America.