Thread by @WomenReadWomen

Kanno Sugako (1881–1911), was a Japanese radical anarcho-feminist.

She was the first woman to be executed in modern Japan for political reasons, having led a plot to overthrow the government, which was endorsing the sale of girls to textile factories.
#InternationalWorkersDay

Later, when the judge asked Kanno if she wished to make a final statement, she stated her only regret was that the plot failed.

I learned about her from a book called "Flowers in Salt" by Sharon Sievers about the modern beginnings of feminism in Japan.

Japan wanted to modernize after seeing the threat of US technology in the late 1800s. The government was able to create a trade economy due to the literal enslavement of women and girls in textile factories which strengthened male ruling power via export industries.

Companies visited rural towns promising a better life for young women. Farming parents believed their daughters would have more opportunities if they could support themselves, and the government created propaganda to this aim.

Girls as young as 6 walked through the mountains to the factories with no shoes, so it was eventually called a trail of blood.

Resistance to company collection of girls actually sparked one of the first modern labor protests in Japan.

Female workers were locked in, and the dorms were a prison. The invention of lamps meant that working hours extended to as much as 36 hours at a time. Their handwoven textiles were exported for company profit, and male overseers raped them.

There were stories of men finding women's bodies near the factories, where they had escaped just long enough to kill themselves.

Kanno lived at a time when this was happening, and had been raped herself when she was fifteen.

Kanno wanted to stop the government expansion which was coming at the expense of human rights, and in particular depended on the slavery of the female sex caste.

The modern economy of Japan was created through enslaving and selling women and girls.

As radical feminists know, all economies are built on women's subordination.

"I am convinced our sacrifice is not in vain. I believe I will be able to die a noble death without fear or anguish."

- Kanno Sugako

theanarchistlibrary.org/library/kanno-…

Industrialization requires the creation of a slave labor class; historically, this has often been women. The women's movement began as a labor movement; the global economy depends on the cheap or unpaid labor of women.
#InternationalWorkersDay
nytimes.com/interactive/20…