Working Class Calendar

Camilo Cienfuegos (1932 - 1959)

Sat Feb 06, 1932

Image: Camilo Cienfuegos, in Cuba in the 1950s [Wikipedia]

Camilo Cienfuegos, born on this day in 1932, was a Cuban revolutionary who served as one of Fidel Castro's top guerilla commanders, known as the "Hero of Yaguajay" after winning a key battle of the Cuban Revolution.

In 1954, Cienfuegos became an active member of the underground student movement against U.S.-aligned dictator Fulgencio Batista. On December 5th, 1955, the eve of the anniversary of the death of 19th-century Cuban independence figure Antonio Maceo, soldiers opened fire on Cienfuegos and other students who were returning to Havana university after placing a wreath on Maceo's monument.

Cienfuegos credited this incident with his political awakening and decision to dedicate his life to freeing Cuba from Batista's government. Along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro, he was a member of the 1956 Granma expedition, which launched Fidel Castro's armed insurgency to establish Cuban independence.

On the evening of October 28th, 1959, Cienfuegos' Cessna 310 ('FAR-53') disappeared over the Straits of Florida during a night flight, returning from Camagüey to Havana. Despite several days of searching, his plane was not found. By mid-November, Cienfuegos was presumed lost at sea. In 1979, the Cuban government established the "Order of Cienfuegos" in his honor.

In October 1958, when a Cuban Masonic organization expressed concern that someone captured by the rebels might be tortured and killed, Cienfuegos replied:

"Your petition is unnecessary, because under no condition would we put ourselves at the same moral level as those we are fighting...We cannot torture and assassinate prisoners in the manner of our opponents; we cannot as men of honor and as dignified Cubans use the low and undignified procedures that our opponents use against us."

• Date: 1932-02-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.cndh.org.mx.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Seattle General Strike (1919)

Thu Feb 06, 1919

Image: Seattle General Strike participants leaving the shipyard after going on strike, 1919. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1919, a general strike involving ~100,000 workers in Seattle began. Workers, vilified as "Bolsheviki", set up an alternative government that distributed 30,000 meals daily and a police force that did not carry weapons.

Dissatisfied workers in several unions began the strike to gain higher wages after two years of World War I wage controls. Government officials, the press, and much of the public viewed the strike as a radical attempt to subvert American institutions.

During the strike, a cooperative body made up of rank and file workers from all the striking locals was formed, called the General Strike Committee. It acted as a "virtual counter-government for the city", according to labor historian Jeremy Brecher.

The committee organized to provide essential services for the people of Seattle during the work stoppage. A system of food distribution was also established, which distributed as many as 30,000 meals each day.

Army veterans created an alternative to the police in order to maintain order. A group called the "Labor War Veteran's Guard" forbade the use of force and did not carry weapons, using "persuasion only". Major General John F. Morrison, stationed in Seattle, claimed that he had never seen "a city so quiet and orderly."

On February 7th, Mayor Ole Hanson threatened to use 1,500 police and 1,500 troops to replace striking workers the next day, but the strikers assumed this was an empty threat and were proved correct. A few days later, Hanson stated the "sympathetic strike was called in the exact manner as was the revolution in Petrograd."

Union leadership, including the American Federation of Labor (AFL), began to exert pressure on the General Strike Committee and individual unions to end the strike, causing some locals to return to work.

The executive committee of the General Strike Committee, pressured by the AFL and international labor organizations, proposed ending the general strike at midnight on February 8th, but their recommendation was voted down by the General Strike Committee.

On February 10th, the General Strike Committee voted to end the general strike the following day, listing the following reasons: "Pressure from international officers of unions, from executive committees of unions, from the 'leaders' in the labor movement, even from those very leaders who are still called 'Bolsheviki' by the undiscriminating press. And, added to all these, the pressure upon the workers themselves, not of the loss of their own jobs, but of living in a city so tightly closed."

Immediately following the general strike's end, the Socialist Party headquarters was raided by police, and thirty-nine IWW members were arrested as "ringleaders of anarchy" despite playing a marginal role in the strike's development.

• Date: 1919-02-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, depts.washington.edu.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

La Canadenca Strike (1919)

Wed Feb 05, 1919

Image: Military forces patrolled the city during the general strike (23/3/1919), Josep Brangulí Soler, National Archive of Catalonia. [elnacional.cat]

On this day in 1919, a general strike broke out in Catalonia when thousands of workers across multiple industries went out on strike, causing widespread power outages and the Spanish government to declare a state of war.

The strike was initiated after an energy company, La Canadenca, reduced wages and fired over one hundred striking workers who were protesting the pay cuts. This and the curbing of labor rights prompted the rest of the workers at La Canadenca to go on strike and demand the readmission of those sacked and wage increases.

The labor stoppage soon spread to other companies in the sector via the CNT's union for water, gas and electricity workers. The lack of electricity in the city affected transport, hampering the provision of supplies and paralyzing 70% of factories in the province of Barcelona.

A state of war was declared by the government and over 3,000 workers were detained. Despite this, the strike ended after two days on the conditions of no repercussions for participating workers, a wage increase, and an 8 hour work day.

• Date: 1919-02-05
• Learn More: www.barcelona.cat, www.regeneracionlibertaria.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005)

Tue Feb 04, 1913

Rosa Parks, born on this day in 1913, was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. U.S. Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat for a white person.

According to historian Dr. Casey Nichols, following this arrest, Parks immediately contacted local NAACP president E.D. Nixon and informed him of her arrest. Within hours, the Women’s Political Council (WPC), formed in 1946 to address the grievances of black bus patrons in Montgomery, sprang into action, printing flyers, phoning potential supporters, and organizing carpools.

The boycott succeeded in 1957 after the Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement, and she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

After the boycott's conclusion, Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan and began working as an assistant to Detroit Congressman John Conyers. She has received numerous honors, including over 40 honorary degrees, the Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and two NAACP image awards. In 2002, Parks produced a biographical film titled “The Rosa Parks Story.”

"The only tired I was was tired of giving in."

• Rosa Parks

• Date: 1913-02-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, teacher.scholastic.com, repository.wustl.edu.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

J.W. Loguen (1813 - 1872)

Fri Feb 05, 1813

Jermain Wesley Loguen, born into slavery on this day in 1813, was an abolitionist, bishop of the AME Church, and author of "The Reverend J. W. Loguen, as a Slave and as a Freeman, a Narrative of Real Life".

At the age of 21, he escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, and his home as a free man went on to become a major stop in the railroad. He also founded schools for black children in Utica and his city of resident, Syracuse, New York.

On October 1st, 1851, an enslaved man he was harboring known as "Jerry" was arrested under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. The anti-slavery Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city and, when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the "Jerry Rescue".

• Date: 1813-02-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org.
• Tags: #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC School Boycott (1964)

Mon Feb 03, 1964

Image: A propaganda poster showing a black child looking through a broken window, urging the viewer to participate in the boycott. From the Queens College Civil Rights Archives [zinnedproject.org]

On this day in 1964, 464,000 New York City school children, about half of the city's student body, boycotted the segregated school system, one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in U.S. history.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, a newspaper at the time, "Though segregation in New York was not codified like the Jim Crow laws in the South, a de facto segregation was evident in the city's school system." The NY Times reported that more than a third of the schools were picketed by parents, students, teachers, and activists.

Bayard Rustin, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the Freedom Rides, directed the boycott. A flier explaining the reason for the boycott stated the following:

"We have found that one of the quickest ways to destroy inequality and segregation is to hit it in the pocketbook. Financial aid to the school system is based upon pupil attendance. No pupils — no money. It's as simple as that."

• Date: 1964-02-03
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org, crdl.usg.edu.
• Tags: #CivilRights.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Betty Friedan (1921 - 2006)

Fri Feb 04, 1921

Betty Friedan, born on this day in 1921, was an American feminist activist and writer, authoring the widely influential book "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963. "The Feminine Mystique" is often credited with sparking the second wave of American feminism in the 20th century.

In 1966, Friedan co-founded and was elected the first president of the National Organization for Women (NOW), which aimed to bring women "into the mainstream of American society now [in] fully equal partnership with men."

In 1970, Friedan organized the nationwide Women's Strike for Equality on August 26th, the 50th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting women the right to vote.

The national strike was successful beyond expectations in broadening the feminist movement; the march led by Friedan in New York City alone attracted over 50,000 people. In 1971, Friedan joined other leading feminists to establish the National Women's Political Caucus.

Friedan's politics around feminism were not always intersectional with respect to class and race. Despite the success NOW achieved under her leadership, Friedan's decision to pressure Equal Employment Opportunity to use Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to enforce more job opportunities among American women met with fierce opposition within the organization.

Siding with arguments from the group's black members, many of NOW's leaders accepted that black people below the povery line, both men and women, needed those opportunities more than predominantly white upper class women.

Friedan stepped down as president in 1969 and founded the "First Women's Bank and Trust Company" a few years later.

"The truth is that I've always been a bad-tempered bitch. Some people say that I have mellowed some. I don't know..."

- Betty Friedan

• Date: 1921-02-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org.
• Tags: #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Cinderloo (1821)

Fri Feb 02, 1821

Image: An unknown artist's impression of the uprising [shropshirestar.com]

On this day in 1821, 3,000 striking workers in present-day Telford, England clashed with Yeomanry, who fired into the crowd after workers refused an order to disperse. Two workers were killed, two were sentenced to death, and nine were arrested.

Colliers across the Coalbrookdale Coalfields had gone on strike the previous day in response to the lowering of their wages, and production across the area came to a halt. A large body of men marched to ironworks at Madeley Wood and Dawley, blowing out all the furnaces, damaging machinery, and inciting non-striking workers to join in.

By mid-afternoon the next day, a crowd of 3,000 had gathered at Old Park, near two industrial spoil heaps known as the 'Cinders Hills'. Yeomanry were sent out to disperse the crowd, and they were read the Riot Act and ordered go home. When Yeomanry moved forward to arrest the ringleaders of the strike, they were assaulted by the crowd. After further attempts to control the protesters were frustrated, the Yeomanry fired onto the crowd, killing two.

Nine strikers were arrested - two were sentenced to death and the other seven served nine months of hard labor. The initial dispute which had caused the riot was resolved soon after, with some ironmasters agreeing to reduce the daily pay of the workers by 4d instead of 6d.

• Date: 1821-02-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.dawleyheritage.co.uk.
• Tags: #Labor, #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC Tenants Resist Evictions (1932)

Tue Feb 02, 1932

Image: A rent strike in Harlem, New York City, September 1919 [dissentmagazine.org]

On this day in 1932, a crowd of more than 1,000 clashed with police attempting to evict three families in the Bronx. The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion which kept 77,000 tenants from being evicted.

The New York Times described the crowd like this: "Women shrieked from the windows, the different sections of the crowd hissed and booed and shouted invectives. Fighting began simultaneously in the house and the street".

The action was part of a larger period of tenant rebellion in 1930s New York City. Beginning in 1930, small bands of people, often led by communists, began to use strong-arm tactics to prevent marshals from putting furniture on the street. Rent riots began in the Lower East Side and Harlem, but quickly spread to other parts of the city.

Historians Richard Boyer and Herbert M. Morais claimed that these acts of resistance kept 77,000 tenants from being evicted.

• Date: 1932-02-02
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.tenant.net.
• Tags: #Tenant.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

E.P. Thompson (1924 - 1993)

Sun Feb 03, 1924

Image: E.P Thompson, unknown year [The Guardian]

E.P. Thompson, born on this day in 1924, was an English Marxist historian and communist intellectual known for works such as "The Making of the English Working Class" (1963) and "Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism" (1967).

Thompson was born in Oxford on February 3rd, 1924. His older brother was a British officer in the Second World War, captured and shot while aiding Bulgarian anti-fascist partisans. After his own military service, Thompson studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and joined the Communist Party of Great Britain.

In 1946, Thompson formed the Communist Party Historians Group with Christopher Hill, Eric Hobsbawm, Rodney Hilton, Dona Torr and others. In 1952, they launched the influential journal "Past and Present".

Thompson is probably best known for his 1963 work "The Making of the English Working Class", which focuses on the development of the capitalist-era class system in England. He left the Communist Party after the Soviet invasion of Hungary, but remained committed to communist politics.

Thompson became a major figure in the New Left in Britain from the 1960s, becoming a prominent supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and a vociferous left-wing critic of the Labour governments of 1964–70 and 1974–79.

Thompson died in 1993, and his final work, "Witness Against the Beast", a biography of poet William Blake, was published posthumously the same year.

"We must commence to act as if a united, neutral and pacific Europe already exists. We must learn to be loyal, not to 'East' or 'West' but to each other, and we must disregard the prohibitions and limitations imposed by any national state."

- E.P. Thompson

• Date: 1924-02-03
• Learn More: www.britannica.com, pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Greensboro Sit-ins Begin (1960)

Mon Feb 01, 1960

Image: Sitting from left: Joseph McNeil, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson on second day of sit-ins, Woolworth, Greensboro, February 2nd, 1960 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1960, the "Greensboro Four" sat down at F. W. Woolworth Company Store's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest segregation.

The four men had purchased toothpaste and other products from a desegregated counter at the store with no problems, but were then refused service at the store's lunch counter when they each asked for a cup of coffee.

The four students returned the next day, and within a few days the protest included hundreds of students. The Greensboro Sit-in sparked a movement of sit-in protests against segregation across the country, continuing into the summer and expanding to other places of discrimination, such as swimming pools, parks, and art galleries.

On July 25th, after months of harassment, including a bomb threat, and nearly $200,000 in losses ($1.7 million in 2020 dollars) the Greensboro Woolworth's finally ended its discriminatory policies. Four years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated desegregation in public accommodations.

• Date: 1960-02-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Farabundo Martí Executed (1932)

Mon Feb 01, 1932

Farabundo Martí was a Salvadoran labor organizer and Marxist-Leninist revolutionary executed by the state on this day in 1932 after he helped lead a peasant uprising against President Maximiliano Hernandez Martínez.

Martí was born in Teotepeque, El Salvador on May 5th, 1893. He abandoned studying in university in favor of more directly participating in revolutionary working class organizing. He was a member of a number anti-capitalist organizations throughout the region, and became a founder of the Central American Communist Party in 1925.

In 1928, Martí fought alongside Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua in opposition to the country's occupation by the U.S. military. In 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador to help initiate a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers.

The uprising against dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, fomented by collapsing coffee prices, enjoyed some initial success, but was soon drowned in a bloodbath, crushed by the Salvadoran military just ten days after it had begun. Over 30,000 indigenous people were killed at what was to be a "peaceful meeting" in 1932; this became known as "La Matanza" ("The Slaughter").

For his role in the uprising, Martí was executed on orders from Salvadoran President Martínez on February 1st, 1932.

• Date: 1932-02-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org, www.telesurenglish.net.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Louis Allen Murdered (1964)

Fri Jan 31, 1964

Louis Allen was a civil rights activist in Liberty, Mississippi who was assassinated by white supremacists on this day in 1964. When Allen told the U.S. government that he feared for his life, the Justice Department refused to protect him.

Allen had previously tried to register to vote and had allegedly talked to federal officials after witnessing the 1961 murder of Herbert Lee, an NAACP member and volunteer with the SNCC, by E. H. Hurst (1908 - 1990), a white Mississippi state legislator.

Allen watched as Hurst assassinated Lee with a single gunshot to the head and was forced by local police to testify in court that Hurst acted in self-defense (Hurst falsely claimed Lee attacked him a tire iron).

After giving this coerced testimony, Allen talked to the FBI and the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Jackson, asking for protection if he testified about how his testimony was made under duress. The Justice Department said they could not offer him protection, and so Allen declined to speak out.

When Allen reported receiving death threats, the FBI referred the matter to the office of Amite County Sheriff Daniel Jones. The FBI did so despite an agent acknowledging in a 1961 memo that "the local sheriff was involved in the plot to kill him". FBI documentation also noted that Jones was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Following the murder of Herbert Lee, Sheriff Jones began a campaign of harassment against Allen, arresting him on false charges multiple times and breaking his jaw with a flashlight. When Allen filed formal complaints about Jones' behavior, they were ignored.

On January 31st, 1964, the day before Allen had planned to move out of the state entirely, he was assassinated on his own property. In 2011, the CBS program "60 Minutes" conducted a special on his assassination which suggested that Allen was killed by Sheriff Jones. No one has been arrested or prosecuted for his murder.

• Date: 1964-01-31
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, snccdigital.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of George Square (1919)

Fri Jan 31, 1919

Image: David Kirkwood being detained by police during 1919 Battle of George Square on January 31st 1919 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1919, the Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow, Scotland, a conflict between Glasgow police and the British Army against 25,000 striking Glasgow workers who were demanding a 40-hour work week.

The strike began a few days earlier, on January 27th, after a meeting of around 3,000 workers gathered in St. Andrew's Halls. The movement for the 40 hour week grew quickly; by the 30th, more than 40,000 workers from local engineering and shipping industries had joined in, and sympathy strikes broke out among power station workers and local miners.

On January 31st, approximately 20,000-25,000 workers gathered in George Square. Fighting broke out between city police and workers, and labor leaders David Kirkwood and William Gallacher were beaten and taken into custody. During the riot, the sheriff of Lanarkshire called for military aid, and British troops, supported by six tanks, were moved to key points in Glasgow.

Kirkwood was found innocent after a photo surfaced of him being struck with a baton from behind by a policeman, however Gallacher served five months in prison. The strike ended on February 12th in defeat for the workers, who did not win a 40-hour work week.

• Date: 1919-01-31
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.glasgowlive.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ecuador Fuel Strike (1994)

Sun Jan 30, 1994

Image: Protesters in Quito, taking to the streets in 2019 after the government ended fuel subsidies, causing price increases

On this day in 1994, approximately half a million workers staged a 24-hour strike in Ecuador to protest a government increase in fuel prices, blocking roads and burning tires.

Fuel prices would again cause widespread strikes and civil unrest in 2019, when President Lenín Moreno issued a decree on October 1st, ending subsidies for diesel and extra gasoline with ethanol to comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions.

Leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the United Workers Front (FUT) announced a national strike to protest the resultant fuel increases on October 9th, 2019.

• Date: 1994-01-30
• Learn More: www.latimes.com, www.workers.org, www.dw.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Marina Ginestà (1919 - 2014)

Wed Jan 29, 1919

Image: Iconic photo of Marina Ginestà i Coloma by Juan Guzmán on top of Plaça de Catalunya, 9, 08002 Barcelona, Spain in 1936 [Wikipedia]

Marina Ginestà, born on this day in 1919, was a French-born Spanish communist who served in the Spanish Civil War. She became famous due to the photo taken by Juan Guzmán on a Barcelona roof in 1936, when she was just 17 years old (shown).

Ginestà was born in Toulouse, France to a working-class leftist Jewish family that had emigrated to France from Spain. She moved to Barcelona with her parents at the age of 11. Ginestà later joined the Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia.

As the war broke out, she served as a reporter and a translator assisting Mikhail Koltsov, a correspondent of the Soviet newspaper Pravda.

The famous photograph by Juan Guzmán was taken on July 21st, 1936. It shows the 17 year old Ginestà wearing an army uniform and posing with a M1916 Spanish Mauser rifle on the top of the original Hotel Colón in Barcelona. Because she was a reporter, it was the only time Ginestà had carried a gun.

Before the end of the war, Ginestà was wounded and evacuated to Montpellier. As France was occupied by the Nazis, she fled to the Dominican Republic and married a former Republican officer. Marina Ginestà died in Paris at the age of 94 in January 2014.

On the iconic photograph, Ginestà stated "It's a good photo. It reflects the feeling we had at that moment. Socialism had arrived, the hotel guests had left. There was euphoria. We retired in Columbus, we ate well, as if bourgeois life belonged to us and we would have changed category quickly."

• Date: 1919-01-29
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.rtve.es.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Birthdays, #Journalism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fort Leavenworth Prison Strike (1919)

Wed Jan 29, 1919

On this day in 1919, 150 workers at Fort Leavenworth Prison stopped their assigned work in the middle of the day, beginning a labor strike that would quickly grow to more than 2,000 strong over the next few days and win reforms.

The same night, three prisoners started a fire and burned parts of the quartermaster's warehouse, causing $100,000 of damage, although it's unclear whether this was part of the labor action.

Although the initial group of prisoners were not settled on specific demands, 2,300 workers who went on strike the next day spent their day organizing, setting up committees and electing leaders from each wing of the prison. Out of this organization came a drafted a list of demands, including the immediate release of military prisoners, immunity from punishment for all men who had participated in the strike, and establishing a permanent grievance committee.

The strike was successful. Over the next few months, many improvements were made: committee members replaced some of the prison guards; prisoners were given charge of discipline in the kitchen, mess hall, and yard; meat, poultry, butter, and eggs came from a farm from inside the prison; new bathrooms were built; prison officials gave five members of the Prisoners Committee adjudication powers for fellow prisoners accused of breaking basic prison rules.

• Date: 1919-01-29
• Learn More: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Plaza Bulnes Massacre (1946)

Mon Jan 28, 1946

Image: Elías Lafertte deposits an offering for the victims of incidents in Plaza Bulnes. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1946, a group of labor organizers in Santiago, Chile were gunned down by police while holding a solidarity rally in Plaza Bulnes. Six were killed and several more were wounded. Among the workers killed was Ramona Parra Alarcón, a young communist activist who became an icon for the victims of this massacre.

After the incident, the Communist Party of Chile withdrew from the government. The next year, the concentration camp Pisagua (formerly used for detaining citizens of enemy nations during WWII) was re-opened, and a period of open state persecution of communists and anarchists began.

• Date: 1946-01-28
• Learn More: es.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

James Larkin (1874 - 1947)

Wed Jan 28, 1874

Image: Irish politician and Trade Unionist James (Jim) Larkin, circa 1910. [Wikipedia]

James Larkin, born on this day in 1874, was an Irish republican, revolutionary socialist, and trade unionist who co-founded the industrial Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), the Irish Labour Party, and the Irish Citizen's Army (ICA).

Larkin, also known as "Big Jim", was born to Irish emigrants and began working from the age of seven years old. He took an interest in socialism at a young age, joining the Independent Labour Party as a teenager.

In 1905, while working on the docks, Larkin participated in a strike and was elected to the strike committee, losing his foreman's job as a result. The union was impressed with his organizing ability, and he later gained a permanent position with them, beginning his career as a labor organizer.

In 1908, Larkin began organizing in Dublin, working with other Irish socialists such as James Connolly and William O'Brien. He also initiated a worker's newspaper, The Irish Worker and People's Advocate, however it was subject to censorship and shut down in 1915.

In 1908, Larkin founded the industrial Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU). Under Larkin's leadership the union continued to grow, reaching approximately 20,000 members in the time leading up to the Dublin lock-out.

In 1913, led by union busting capitalist William Martin Murphy, over 400 of Dublin's employers began requiring their workers to sign a pledge not to be a member of the ITGWU and not to engage in sympathetic strikes, causing the Dublin lock-out, one of the most severe labor conflicts in Irish history.

Larkin and other labor leaders were arrested for sedition on August 28th while the lock-out continued. Striking workers were subject to police violence, leading Larkin to call for the formation of a workers' militia, the Irish Citizen's Army. During this period, Vladimir Lenin referred to Larkin as 'a remarkable speaker and a man of seething energy [who] has performed miracles amongst the unskilled workers'.

Following the lock-out's defeat, Larkin came to the United States to do a speaking tour on invitation of "Big Bill" Haywood of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). On November 7th, 1919, during a series of anti-Bolshevik raids, Larkin was arrested and charged with 'criminal anarchy' for helping publish socialist literature.

Larkin eventually returned to Ireland, allying with the newly formed Soviet Union, attending at the 1924 Comintern Congress in Moscow. His relationship with the Soviet Union became strained in the 1930s, as Larkin's syndicalist politics clashed with the Marxism-Leninism of the Comintern.

Larkin spent the rest of his life as a organizer, receiving fatal injuries from a fall while supervising repairs to the Worker's Union of Ireland's Thomas Ashe Hall in Dublin in 1946.

"No, men and women of the Irish race, we shall not fight for England. We shall fight for the destruction of the British Empire and the construction of an Irish republic."

- James Larkin

• Date: 1874-01-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Samuel Gompers (1850 - 1924)

Sun Jan 27, 1850

Samuel Gompers, born on this day in 1850, was a founder of the American Federation of Labor, serving as its president for 38 years. Gompers expelled radicals from the AFL, promoted trade unionism, and advocated for racist immigration policies.

Although Gompers began his career sympathetic to socialist and Georgist thought, he became increasingly conservative throughout his career, making "peace" with capitalist labor relations rather than seeking to abolish them. This led to a split in the labor movement, with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) representing the more radical advocacy of labor interests via industrial unionism.

As AFL President, Gompers promoted collaboration among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL and supported collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages for laborers.

Gompers also successfully promoted anti-immigrant and anti-socialist politics using the influence of the AFL, endorsing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and supporting the U.S. government and its entry into World War I as the state arrested anti-war union leaders.

Gompers was particularly critical of the IWW, stating "the IWWs...are exactly what the Bolsheviki are in Russia, and we have seen what the IWW Bolsheviki in Russia have done for the working people."

• Date: 1850-01-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, aflcio.org, gompers.umd.edu, depts.washington.edu.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Auschwitz Liberated (1945)

Sat Jan 27, 1945

Image: Prisoners being led out of the Auschwitz gates, possibly a re-enactment taken a few weeks after January 27th. The motto "Arbeit macht frei" (English: "Work sets you free") can be seen above the gate. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, the largest such complex during the Holocaust. In 2005, the United Nations named today as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As Soviet forces approached the camp, Nazis attempted to evacuate prisoners from the camp and to destroy evidence of their atrocities. Approximately 56,000 inmates were forced on a "death march" west away from the camp through the Polish winter.

Around 15,000 prisoners (about 1 in 4) perished during their forced march, and, by the time the Soviets had arrived, only 9,000 remained on-site, monitored by a handful of remaining SS guards and staff.

The buildings themselves were left largely intact, along with large amounts of clothing, seized items, and human hair, alongside the dying prisoners left behind.

One Red Army general, Vasily Petrenko, is quoted as saying, "I who saw people dying every day was shocked by the Nazis' indescribable hatred toward the inmates who had turned into living skeletons. I read about the Nazis' treatment of Jews in various leaflets, but there was nothing about the Nazis' treatment of women, children, and old men".

Efforts were made to document the atrocities, and to hospitalize the remaining inmates. Auschwitz remained in use as an ad hoc facility for German POWs until the end of the war in Europe later that year.

Since 2005, the day has been marked annually by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating all those targeted and killed by the Third Reich, including around six million Jews and five million others.

• Date: 1945-01-27
• Learn More: www.smithsonianmag.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.ushmm.org.
• Tags: #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Angela Davis (1944 - )

Wed Jan 26, 1944

Image: **

Angela Davis, born on this day in 1944, is a Marxist and feminist activist, prison abolitionist, philosopher, and educator.

Ideologically a Marxist, Davis was a member of the Communist Party USA until 1991, after which she joined the breakaway "Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism". She is the author of over ten books, covering topics such as class, feminism, and the U.S. prison system.

Born to an African-American family in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis studied French at Brandeis University and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany. Back in the U.S., she joined the Communist Party and, as a Marxist feminist, involved herself in a range of radical movements, including second-wave feminism, the Black Panther Party, and the campaign against the Vietnam War.

In 1969, Davis was hired as an acting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1970 UCLA's governing Board of Regents fired her due to her Communist Party membership; after a court ruled this illegal, the university fired her again, this time for her alleged use of "inflammatory language".

Praised by Marxists and others on the left, Davis has received numerous awards, including the Lenin Peace Prize in 1980. Davis has also been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, and was Time magazine's "Woman of the Year" for 1971 in its 2020 "100 Women of the Year" edition.

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."

- Angela Davis

• Date: 1944-01-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com, www.marxists.org, www.marxists.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anti-Gulf War D.C. Protests (1991)

Sat Jan 26, 1991

On this day in 1991, between 75,000 - 250,000 placard-wielding students, veterans, farmers, and feminists marched past the White House in protest of the Gulf War initiated by President George Bush. The march stretched over a mile long, sweeping down Pennsylvania Avenue.

Chants included "Hey, Hey, Uncle Sam, we remember Vietnam" and "No blood for oil!". Representative Rangel (D-NY) was the only member of Congress among the speakers there, saying "We have no right to have a Clint Eastwood foreign policy".

• Date: 1991-01-26
• Learn More: www.baltimoresun.com, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Passaic Textile Strike (1926)

Mon Jan 25, 1926

Image: Children of strikers in the 1926 Passaic Textile Strike used to picket outside the White House, Washington, D.C. [Wikipedia]

The Passaic Textile Strike was a walkout by 15,000 mill workers that began on this day in 1926 in New Jersey. It began as the one of the first communist-led strikes in the U.S., however the AFL took over on condition that radicals step aside.

Conducted in its initial phase by a "United Front Committee" organized by the Trade Union Educational League of the Workers Party (TUEL), the strike lasted more than a year, ending on March 1st, 1927, when the final mill being picketed signed a contract with the striking workers.

The Passaic Textile Strike was one of the first communist-led work stoppages in the United States, and notable left figures such as Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Norman Thomas, and Robert W. Dunn helped organize it. Although political radicals led the strike for the first several months, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) took over negotiations in the fall of 1926 on condition of communist activists stepping aside.

The strike was memorialized by a seven reel silent movie titled "The Passaic Textile Strike", intended to generate sympathy and funds for the striking workers. Six of the seven reels survive today.

• Date: 1926-01-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu, digitaltamiment.hosting.nyu.edu.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fumiko Kaneko (1903 - 1926)

Sun Jan 25, 1903

Image: Fumiko Kaneko sits on her knees wearing a striped kimono with her hands clasped in front of her, staring intently ahead. c. 1925, author unknown [Wikipedia]

Fumiko Kaneko, born on this day in 1903, was a Japanese anarchist, nihilist, and opponent to Japanese imperialism in Korea. Fumiko is perhaps best remembered for her "The Prison Memoirs Of A Japanese Woman", written while imprisoned after being convicted of high treason against the Japanese government.

Together, Fumiko and her Korean partner Pak Yol published two magazines which highlighted the problems Koreans faced under Japanese imperialism and showed influences of their radical politics. Sometime between 1922 and 1923, they also established a group called "F"utei-sha (Society of Malcontents)", which Fumiko identified as a group for direct action against the government.

These activities soon brought Pak and Fumiko under government scrutiny. In September 1923, the Japanese government therefore made a number of arrests, mostly Koreans, on limited evidence, and among those arrested were Pak and Fumiko.

After lengthy judicial proceedings, Fumiko and Pak were convicted of high treason for attempting to obtain bombs with the intention of killing the emperor or his son. They were both sentenced to life in prison, however Fumiko allegedly committed suicide in her cell in 1926.

Here is a short excerpt from one of Fumiko's interrogations while imprisoned (text by Max Res from theanarchistlibrary.org):

Q: Your class?

A: A divine commoner.

Q: How are you employed?

A: My job is tearing down everything that currently exists.

• Date: 1903-01-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org