ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the remarkable life of Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx, who fought for the rights of the working class in Britain just prior to the turn of the century. She helped in the formation of labor unions and participated in their fight for equality. She also fought for the rights of women workers, believing the plight of the working class to be similar to that of women.
Described by Rachel Holmes, one of her biographers, as a woman everyone should know who was the “foremother of social feminism,” Eleanor did not just talk about what should be done, she did these things. She organized gas workers, dockworkers, miners, and engineers as they fought for equality. She also taught them to read and write when the occasion called for it.
In the end, Eleanor Marx fell prey to the man she loved, who projected the heaviness of his character onto her—which lead to her death, either by suicide, or more likely, by murder at the age of 43.
