Bertrand Russell's Political Activism

Bertrand Russell was throughout his life very involved in political activism, I was just sharing this with some of my students and thought I should share it here as well.

In 1910, Russell rand for office as a man promoting women's suffrage (he did not get elected). Here are some adds from that campaign:

 Being a man who promoted votes for women he was publicly ridiculed, it's hard to believe, but the notion that women should have the vote was considered absurd by many. Russell tells of antics that happened in votes for women's rallies where he spoke. In one case he was speaking at an event and someone brought in a set of women actresses and rats, in the middle of the speech they released the rats, and the women actresses stod on chairs shrieking to indicate that women were helpless and scared and not capable enough to vote. In a pamphlet called Anti-Suffragist Arguments, he said that the reason men opposed votes for women was that they  feared "their liberty to act in ways that are injurious to women will be curtailed and that they will lose that pleasing sense of dominion."   

In his 80s he advocated for nuclear disarmament, participated in public protests, and wrote the Russell-Einstein Manifesto with the famous physicist Albert Einstein about the dangers of nuclear weapons. Here is a picture of an 82-year-old Bertrand Russell protesting in favor of nuclear disarmament:

Finally, and to end this post, here is a message he left for future generations. Unfortunately, I believe this message is as important now as when he said it in the 50s, but I guess he knew what was coming and that the future would still have the challenges he identified in his own time.