Today, March 8th. is the day we raise our glass and say thank you to those countless women that stood up and broke their shackles, not for themselves, but for all the downtrodden and marginalised, They saw and felt the injustice, they saw that better world and boldly marched towards it, no matter the opposition.
There are legions of them, some we remember with pride, others have slipped off the pages of history, though their deeds didn't, their effort has moved forward the realisation of a free and just world for all.
So a big show of gratitude to the Lousie Michel's of this world, the bold and the fierce ones, the quiet and determined ones, The well known and the forgotten.
There are legions of them, some we remember with pride, others have slipped off the pages of history, though their deeds didn't, their effort has moved forward the realisation of a free and just world for all.
So a big show of gratitude to the Lousie Michel's of this world, the bold and the fierce ones, the quiet and determined ones, The well known and the forgotten.
Claire Lacombe, actress, whose greatest role was revolution.
It was a steaming July day in Paris in 1792. In the midst of a meeting of the revolutionary Legislative Assembly, a beautiful, unknown black-haired woman with the mannerisms and rich voice of a seasoned performer stood up to speak:
“Legislators! A Frenchwoman, an actress at the moment without a part; such am I; that which should have caused me to despair fills my soul with the purest of joy. As I cannot come to the assistance of my country, which you have declared to be in danger, with monetary sacrifices, I desire to offer it the devotion of my person. Born with the courage of a Roman matron and with hatred for tyrants, I shall consider myself happy to contribute to their destruction…Perish all despots to the last man!”
For the next three years, Claire Lacombe, a struggling provincial actress, would become a star among the most extremist elements of the French revolution. Known as “Red Rosa,” she danced atop the ruins of the Bastille, was shot in the arm during the storming of the Tuileries, and co-founded the radical, influential feminist “Republican Revolutionary Society” (also known as the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women). These “enraged” women of the maligned lower-class fought for equal rights and the destruction of all aristocrats.
Militant and fierce, Lacombe and her “dragoons” terrified the men of the revolution. In 1794, Lacombe was thrown in jail, and women’s clubs were outlawed. When she was released 16 months later, “she mingled with the crowd outside,” Lacombe’s biographer Galina Sokolnikova wrote, “and vanished into obscurity.”
Unbinding my feet I clean out a thousand years of poison,
With heated heart arouse all women’s spirits.
Alas, this delicate kerchief here,
Is half stained with blood, and half with tears.
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