Working Class Calendar

Brisbane General Strike (1912)

Thu Jan 18, 1912

Image: Illustration from the Brisbane "Worker" newspaper condemning the brutality of the Queensland Police Service on Black Friday [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1912, tramway workers in Brisbane, Australia were fired after they wore union badges despite them being banned. Their dismissal led to a general strike with more than 50,000 workers. Union badges remained banned until 1980.

At the time, the tramways in Brisbane were owned by the General Electric Company of the United Kingdom and managed by an American, Joseph Stillman Badger, who refused to negotiate with the Australian Labour Federation or let his employees wear union badges on their uniform.

On January 18th, 1912, a large crowd of sightseers gathered to watch as tramway employees donned the union badges in defiance of this ban. Badger addressed the wearers at the depot and gave them the choice of removing the badges or not working; most chose the right to wear the badges, and later 10,000 workers marched to modern day King George Square to listen to labor organizers speak.

Forty-three Brisbane based Trade Unions subsequently formed the Combined Unions Committee and appointed a General Strike Committee. The General Strike Committee planned for a general strike on January 30th and began functioning as an alternative government in the area, whose approval became needed for work to be done.

As planned, trade unionists of Brisbane went out on a general strike January 30th, 1912, not just for the right to wear a badge but also for the basic right to join a union. Brisbane was brought to a standstill by the next day - trains didn't run, hotels were closed, most transport shut down, and most food shops were closed. Only shops with special permits issued by the Committee were opened in order to keep the Australian government running at the minimal margin.

Workers celebrated with parades, speeches, and sporting contests. The government began prohibiting these demonstrations, and, when 15,000 workers defied this ban on February 2nd, 1912, they were attacked by police. Strikers and their family members were beaten and arrested en masse.

Emma Miller, a 70-year old trade unionist and suffragist, stood her ground and stabbed the rump of the Police Commissioner's horse. The horse threw the Commissioner to the ground, giving him life-long limp.

The strike failed due to a lack of money and particularly food. It officially ended when the Employers Federation, supporting the strike, agreed on the March 6th, 1912 that there would be no victimization of strikers from Badger and the company.

Despite this, many workers who had participated were blacklisted by Badger until 1922, when the Queensland Government acquired the tram system and reinstated them. Wearing of union badges on uniforms remained forbidden until 1980.

• Date: 1912-01-18
• Learn More: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Hayes Pond (1958)

Sat Jan 18, 1958

Image: Lumbee men Simon Oxedine and Charlie Warriax, both veterans, with captured KKK flag at VFW convention. Image published in Life Magazine, 1958. Page 26-28. [progressive.org]

On this day in 1958, armed Lumbee Native Americans broke up a KKK rally near Maxton, North Carolina, driving the white supremacists away and confiscating their flag. Four Klansmen were injured in the "Battle of Hayes Pond".

Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole was the organizer of the Klan rally. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were Lumbee leaders who attacked the Klansmen and successfully disrupted the rally.

The year prior, Cole had initiated a campaign of harassment designed to intimidate the Lumbee Tribe to help organize the local Klan. He called a rally on January 18th, and 100 Klansmen arrived at the private field near Hayes Pond which Cole had leased from a sympathetic farmer. Cole managed to erect the cross, but before he could finish the ceremony, over 500 Lumbee men appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.

Four Klansmen were injured in the subsequent exchange of gunfire. Cole was later found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to two years in prison.

• Date: 1958-01-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, progressive.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Hawaiian Kingdom Overthrown (1893)

Tue Jan 17, 1893

On this day in 1893, a U.S.-backed coup d'état against Queen Lili'uokalani took place, establishing the Republic of Hawaii and beginning the process of U.S. annexation. The U.S. apologized for this in 1993, but did not give the islands back.

The majority of the insurgents were non-natives, and they successfully requested assistance from the U.S. government, who sent 162 sailors to occupy Oahu.

Although the coup forces established an independent republic, they did so with the ultimate goal of the United States annexing the islands, which occurred in 1898.

This revolution and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii signaled an expansion of U.S. imperialist interests. The same year, the U.S. fought and won the Spanish-American War, acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and establishing economic control of Cuba via the Platt Amendment.

In 1993, the U.S. government issued an "Apology Resolution", acknowledging that "the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands".

Hawaiian scholar Dr. Keanu Sai has written about the illegality of the U.S. occupation and annexation, citing an 1893 Executive Agreement between President Grover Cleveland and Queen Lili'uokalani. On June 1st, 2010, Sai filed a lawsuit against President Obama on this basis, demanding the restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom government.

• Date: 1893-01-17
• Learn More: www.nea.org, hawaiiankingdom.org, hawaiiankingdom.org, en.wikipedia.org, learning.blogs.nytimes.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Herndon Addresses the Court (1933)

Mon Jan 16, 1933

Angelo Herndon (1913 - 1997) was a communist labor leader convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black and white workers in Atlanta, Georgia. He addressed the court on this day in 1933, stating "You cannot kill the working class".

After nearly 1,000 unemployed workers, both black and white, demonstrated at the Atlanta federal courthouse on June 30th, 1932, local officials began to monitor known and suspected radicals. On July 11th, Herndon, an active labor organizer in the area, was arrested while checking on his mail. A few days later his hotel room was searched, and Communist Party publications were found.

Herndon was charged with insurrection under a Georgia Reconstruction era law. His case went to the Supreme Court twice, and Herndon was freed when the insurrection charge was finally ruled unconstitutional in 1937.

Here is an excerpt of what Herndon said to the court on January 16th, 1933, at 19 years of age:

"You may do what you will with Angelo Herndon. You may indict him. You may put him in jail. But there will come thousands of Angelo Herndons. If you really want to do anything about the case, you must go out and indict the social system. But this you will not do, for your role is to defend the system under which the toiling masses are robbed and oppressed...

You may succeed in killing one, two, even a score of working-class organizers. But you cannot kill the working class."

• Date: 1933-01-16
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Zunyi Conference Ends (1935)

Thu Jan 17, 1935

The Zunyi Conference was a three day meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) that ended on this day in 1935, resulting in Mao Zedong's leadership within the party and a decreased influence from the Communist International. The Conference took place during the Long March (a military retreat of CPC forces from attacks by the Nationalists).

The Zunyi Conference involved a power struggle between the leadership of Bo Gu and the opposition, led by Mao Zedong. The result was in Mao's favor, and the conference concluded with Mao in position to take over military command and become the leader of the Communist Party.

The Red Army had been fleeing their overwhelmed base of operations at Jiangxi-Fujian for several months by this point in the Long March, and this conference involved the debate/accountability of CPC leadership for various tactical and strategic failures. The CPC went on to achieve a new base of operations in Shaanxi Province and continued its revolutionary activity from there.

The Conference was completely unacknowledged until the 1950s and still no detailed descriptions were available until the fiftieth anniversary in 1985. The site of the meeting has now become a popular tourist destination in China.

• Date: 1935-01-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, en.chinaculture.org.
• Tags: #Communism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

MLK Jr. (1929 - 1968)

Tue Jan 15, 1929

Martin Luther King Jr., born on this day in 1929, was an American Christian minister and activist who became one of the most visible leaders of the U.S. civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968.

King is best known for advancing civil rights through nonviolence and civil disobedience, inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi.

On October 14th, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches. In his final years, he expanded his focus to include opposition towards poverty, capitalism, and the Vietnam War.

For his activism, King was the target of multiple assassination attempts, arrested 23 times, and surveilled and harassed by the U.S. government. In particular, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover targeted by Dr. King by making him a target of COINTELPRO, a secret program where FBI agents spied on, infiltrated, and attempted to discredit "subversive" political movements.

In 1968, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference organized the "Poor People's Campaign" to address issues of economic justice. King traveled the country to assemble "a multiracial army of the poor" that would march on Washington to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol until Congress created an "economic bill of rights" for poor Americans.

Before the plans for the march could come to fruition, however, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee while supporting striking black sanitation workers. James Earl Rey was convicted for the murder, but speculation of government involvement has persisted for decades after his death.

"I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

- MLK Jr.

• Date: 1929-01-15
• Learn More: crossculturalsolidarity.com, kinginstitute.stanford.edu, thekingcenter.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Draftee's Prayer Published (1943)

Sat Jan 16, 1943

On this day in 1943, the Baltimore Afro-American published the "Draftee's Prayer", an ode against imperialist war and call to fight domestic oppression. It reads:

"Dear Lord, today

I go to war:

To fight, to die,

Tell me what for?

Dear Lord, I'll fight,

I do not fear,

Germans or Japs;

My fears are here

America!"

• Date: 1943-01-16
• Learn More: books.google.com, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (1919)

Wed Jan 15, 1919

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were prominent German communists who were assassinated on this day in 1919 by the German Freikorps, a group of government-sponsored paramilitary forces, after the Spartacist Uprising.

Luxemburg and Liebknecht had co-founded the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), groups that had been engaging in revolutionary political activity.

In 1919, Luxemburg and Liebknecht participated in the "Spartacist Uprising", an armed rebellion against the German state. The uprising was forcibly put down by the Freikorps and, for their role in it, both Luxemburg and Liebknecht were tortured and summarily executed by the government forces on this day that year.

Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg have since become celebrated martyrs of the German left. Since 1919, an annual Liebknecht-Luxemburg Demonstration has been held in Berlin, the world's largest funerary parade and the biggest meeting of the German left. The annual "L-L Demo" is held on the second Sunday in January. In 2016, 14,000 people attended the rally in Liebknecht's and Luxemburg's honor.

Epitaphs composed by German playwright Bertolt Brecht read as follows:

Epitaph for Karl Liebknecht Here lies Karl Liebknecht The fighter against war When he was struck down Our city still continued to stand.

Epitaph for Rosa Luxemburg Here lies buried Rosa Luxemburg A Jewess from Poland Champion of the German workers Murdered on the orders of The German oppressors. Oppressed; Bury your differences!

"Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelations. Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength."

- Rosa Luxemburg

• Date: 1919-01-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.versobooks.com, revolutionarydemocracy.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tunisian Revolution (2011)

Fri Jan 14, 2011

On this day in 2011, following twenty-eight days of mass uprising in Tunisia, President Ben Ali formally resigned, marking a new period of democratic reforms in the country. Ben Ali successfully evaded arrest by fleeing to Saudi Arabia.

The protests were sparked in part by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a disgruntled street merchant whose wares had been seized, on December 17th, 2010. In the month that followed, hundreds of thousands of Tunisians poured into the streets, clashing with police.

338 people were killed, including one journalist who was hit in the head with tear gas fired by police. 2,147 were injured, according to the Associated Press.

28 days after the protests began, Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia and officially resigned from his post. Despite being tried in absentia, Ben Ali successfully evaded arrest in Saudi Arabia, dying there in 2019 at the age of 83.

After Ben Ali was ousted from power, the police and army defected from the state and sided with protesters. Labor unions, such as the UGTT, also played an integral role in organizing the mass protests.

Despite achieving a more democratic government, Tunisia remains in political crisis. On July 25th, 2021, amid ongoing anti-government protests, President Kais Saied suspended parliament, dismissed the Prime Minister, and withdrew immunity of parliament members.

• Date: 2011-01-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.aljazeera.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Adolph Reed (1947 - )

Tue Jan 14, 1947

Adolph Reed Jr., born on this day in 1947, is a Marxist American professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in the study of issues of racism and U.S. politics. He is a contributing editor to The New Republic and has been a frequent contributor to The Progressive and The Nation and other leftwing publications.

Reed's work on U.S. politics is noted for its critique of identity politics and anti-racism, particularly of their role in black politics. In his essay "The Limits of Anti-Racism", Reed wrote:

"As a basis for a politics, antiracism seems to reflect [a depoliticization of] the critique of racial injustice by shifting its focus from the social structures that generate and reproduce racial inequality to an ultimately individual, and ahistorical, domain of 'prejudice' or 'intolerance.'"

• Date: 1947-01-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, www.wsws.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mombasa General Strike (1947)

Mon Jan 13, 1947

Image: Mombasa, 1947

On this day in 1947, 15,000 workers in Mombasa, Kenya initiated a general strike, demanding higher and equal wages for all races. Although the strike was declared illegal, workers persisted and won major concessions 12 days later.

In 1945, Kenya was a colony of Great Britain. Threats of a worker strike due to low wages led the British to create an investigatory "Phillips Committee", but, by the end of 1946, workers in Mombasa were upset with any meaningful change.

In December 1946, workers held mass meetings, rumors spread about a potential strike, and government officials worked to prevent any labor action. On January 7th, 1947, 3,000 workers met to organize a strike, which began on the 13th with more than 15,000 workers, approximately 75% of the workforce in Mombasa, engaging in a general strike.

The labor stoppage crossed many industries, including government, railroad, hotel, domestic workers, and dock workers. Taxi drivers went around the city spreading word of the strike and urging others to participate.

The government immediately declared the strike illegal, citing the "Defense Regulations", which mandated the port at Mombasa to stay open, as it was the only major access site to Kenya Colony and Uganda.

Despite this, workers persisted, meeting every day at a soccer field to organize. On the second day of the strike, 10,000 workers showed up to the daily meeting, which was run with no official leader, giving everyone an opportunity to speak.

After more than a week of the city being paralyzed, a government official promised to gain improvements in working conditions within three months if the people would end their strike. Workers agreed and, on January 25th, 1947, all workers returned to their jobs.

At the end of March, workers were given a 20-40% wage increase, housing allowances, paid holidays, paid overtime, and a higher minimum wage.

• Date: 1947-01-13
• Learn More: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu, worldhistoryconnected.press.uillinois.edu.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

James Farmer Jr. (1920 - 1999)

Mon Jan 12, 1920

James Farmer Jr., born on this day in 1920, was a civil rights activist who organized the first Freedom Rides, co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and fought for desegregation alongside MLK Jr.

In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee of Racial Equality (which later became CORE) in Chicago along with George Houser, James R. Robinson, and others The organization was dedicated to ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence.

In a 1964 interview for the book "Who Speaks for the Negro?", Farmer described the founding principles of CORE as involving the people themselves rather than "experts", rejecting segregation, and opposing it via nonviolent direct action.

In 1961, Farmer, then working for the NAACP and serving as the national director of CORE, organized the first set of Freedom Rides, direct action protests against segregated bus systems throughout the South.

• Date: 1920-01-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, jamesfarmer.umwblogs.org, jamesfarmerlectures.umwblogs.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rizo Šurla (1922 - 2003)

Thu Jan 12, 1922

Image: Rizo Surla, being interviewed by Radio and Television of Montenegro in 1979 [YouTube]

Rizo Šurla, born on this day in 1922, was a Yugoslav photographer, actor, and anti-fascist who fought with the Yugoslav Partisans during World War II. Šurla was a prominent member of the Afro-Albanian community in the town of Ulcinj.

According to journalist Mustafa Canka, Šurla was a boxer and waiter in Zagreb, as well as a partisan fighter on the Srem Front. Canka quotes Ulcinj chronicler Ismet Karamanaga: "He was striking, unusually beautiful, kind of like the famous Muhammad Ali, radiating charm and positive energy".

Canka also cites a Ulcinj resident, Daudet Abazovic, who called Šurla "a symbol of Ulcinj and Ulcinj's Black community."

• Date: 1922-01-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, lefteast.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Casas Viejas Massacre (1933)

Wed Jan 11, 1933

Image: Guards search houses in the small town of Casas Viejas. / SUR

On this day in 1933, forces of the Second Spanish Republic massacred suspected anarchists in the town of Casas Viejas, trapping families in their homes and setting them on fire. 21-24 people were killed.

The massacre happened following revolutionary marches by the anarcho-syndicalist union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT). Earlier in January, two government guards were wounded in one of these demonstrations.

The Second Spanish Republic (not to be confused with the socialist governments during the Spanish Civil War), forcibly suppressed this working class movement. On January 11th, 1933, the "Civil Guard" and "Assault Guard" arrived in the village Casas Viejas. Many of the villagers fled, but some anarchists tried to resist arrest and barricaded themselves in the home of an anarchist, Francisco Cruz Gutiérrez, who was nicknamed Seisdedos.

When guards under the command of Captain Rojas arrived, they set the house on fire with the anarchists and their families still inside. One anarchist, Maria Silva Cruz, survived the fire and emerged with a child, a boy, still alive.

Soldiers and police then arrested anyone in the village who possessed a gun, marched them to the smoking ashes of the cottage and their dead colleagues, and shot them in the back. Between twenty-one and twenty-four people died during the incident.

The massacre led to widespread outrage among left-wing groups, some of which had previously participated in the Second Spanish Republic, significantly undermining support for and compliance with the government.

• Date: 1933-01-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.surinenglish.com.
• Tags: #Anarchism, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907 - 1972)

Fri Jan 11, 1907

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, born on this day in 1907, was a Polish-born American rabbi, civil rights activist, and one of the leading Jewish theologians and philosophers of the 20th century.

Heschel was active in the civil rights movement, marching with MLK Jr. in Selma, Alabama. At the Vatican Council II, as a representative of American Jews, Heschel was also responsible for persuading the Catholic Church to remove anti-Semitic language from its doctrine, including references to "deicide" and expectations of conversion to Christianity.

"Few are guilty, but all are responsible."

- Abraham Joshua Heschel

• Date: 1907-01-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.myjewishlearning.com, www.blackpast.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Donghak Peasant Rebellion Begins (1894)

Wed Jan 10, 1894

On this day in 1894, the anti-colonial Donghak Peasant Rebellion began with the "Gobu Uprising", where 1,000 peasants stormed the county of Gobu, freeing prisoners, occupying government buildings, and causing the county ruler to flee.

The Donghak Peasant Rebellion was an uprising that took place in late Joseon-era Korea during the 1890s. "Donghak" refers to a religious movement, founded in 1860, which preached for social equality and the uplifting of the peasantry. Choe Jeu was executed by the state in 1864.

Amidst a backdrop of growing foreign influence in Korea (which would eventually lead to colonization by Japan), Donghak peasants rebelled against oppression by feudal rulers. The uprising began in the county of Gobu in Jeolla province, where the magistrate had extorted vast amounts of wealth and forced the peasants to build a reservoir.

On January 10th, 1894, approximately 1,000 peasant rebels gathered at an empty horse ranch, from which they split off into two separate armies where they successfully destroyed three of Gobu's four gates, occupied government offices, and set about destroying prisons and freeing the people held in them.

As rebels successfully defeated government forces, unrest would spread across the country, and the panicked Joseon dynasty called for Chinese Qing dynasty for support. Doing this, however, aggrieved the Japanese government, which was competing with China for influence over Korea.

Japan invaded Korea, occupying Seoul, triggering the First Sino-Japanese War. Following a temporary truce, the peasant rebellion would resume in October, this time directed towards the Japanese occupation.

The Japanese proved successful in defeating the uprising, however, continuing to quell rebels through 1895. Korea would become increasingly absorbed into Japan's sphere of influence before official annexation in 1910.

• Date: 1894-01-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.jeongeup.go.kr.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Pemberton Mill Collapse (1860)

Tue Jan 10, 1860

On this day in 1860, the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts collapsed, killing around 150 people, mostly Scottish and Irish women. Despite workers testifying that the building was unsafe, no one was punished for the disaster.

John B. Tuttle, superintendent of brickwork, told the architect Charles Bigelow he thought the walls insufficient, and another engineer testified in court he knew the building was not well-made.

The Pemberton Mill was rebuilt and still stands today.

• Date: 1860-01-10
• Learn More: www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com, historicipswich.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

UK Miners' Strike (1972)

Sun Jan 09, 1972

Image: A crowd of striking workers facing off with police on the street [BBC News]

On this day in 1972, all the coal miners in Britain went on strike, the first official national miners' strike since 1926. After the Battle of Saltley Gate rendered the last large stockpile of fuel inaccessible in February, workers won their demands.

The dispute arose from pay negotiations. Miners, led by Joe Gormley, initially asked for pay rises of between 35-47%, while the National Coal Board (NCB) was only prepared to offer 7.4%. After the strike began, all 289 coal mines in the country ceased production.

At the beginning of the strike, it was estimated that there were sufficient stockpiles of fuel to supply national requirements for about 8 weeks, however the fuel was unevenly distributed throughout the country. The success of the strike depended on ensuring the scarcity of fuel.

Accordingly, the miners enjoyed solidarity from other industries - engineers ceased working at collieries, train drivers refused to drive trains carrying fuel, and dockworkers refused to unload ships carrying coal.

Under guidelines agreed between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the NCB, and the government, dispensation was given to allow fuel to be transported to "priority consumers", i.e., hospitals, nursing homes, orphanages, and, later, schools.

By February, the last large accessible stockpile of solid fuel in the country was held by a West Midlands Gas Board (WMGB) coke plant in Birmingham, where up to 700 vehicles were collecting fuel each day for in miles-long queues. The WMGB argued that they could stay open because they did not employ miners directly.

Thousands of picketing workers descended on the open coke works, attempting to close it, but were initially repelled by a large police force. Arthur Scargill, a left-wing leader of the strike and NUM member, asked for solidarity from local engineering unions.

With their support, more than 10,000 workers managed to close the depot on February 10th, an event known as "The Battle of Saltley Gate". With the country facing massive power outages, the government conceded to worker demands.

"The victory on the 10 February was a battle between the working class and the government, which the working class won."

- Peter Jackson, of the Birmingham Trades Council

• Date: 1972-01-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, news.bbc.co.uk.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Senator Beveridge's Imperialist Speech (1900)

Tue Jan 09, 1900

On this day in 1900, Senator Albert J. Beveridge (1862 - 1927) gave a speech that made plain the United States' imperialist intentions for the Pacific region. It was given a few years after the U.S. had acquired Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines in the Spanish-American War. Here is a short excerpt:

"Mr. President, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever...and just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either.

We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world...The Pacific is our ocean...Where shall we turn for consumers of our surplus? Geography answers the question. China is our natural customer...The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East..."

• Date: 1900-01-09
• Learn More: china.usc.edu, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

German Coast Uprising (1811)

Tue Jan 08, 1811

Image: **

On this day in 1811, the largest slave revolt in U.S. history began near modern day LaPlace, Louisiana when ~100 enslaved men began marching towards New Orleans, collecting more people and destroying slaveowners' property as they went.

On the first day, 64-125 enslaved men marched from sugar plantations in and near present-day LaPlace on the German Coast toward the city of New Orleans, collecting more men as they traveled. During their two-day, twenty-mile march, the men burned five plantation houses (three completely), several sugarhouses, and crops, armed with little more than hand tools.

The revolt ended when white planters, aided by Native American trackers, captured and executed Charles Deslondes (suspected leader of the revolt). In the following days, nearly one hundred enslaved people were either sentenced to death in unfair trials or summary executions, while only two white people were killed during the uprising.

• Date: 1811-01-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, ushistoryscene.com, www.blackpast.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Arturo Giovannitti (1884 - 1959)

Mon Jan 07, 1884

Arturo M. Giovannitti, born on this day in 1884, was an Italian-American IWW organizer, socialist political activist, and poet. Giovannitti was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and is best remembered for his leadership and subsequent arrest in the 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike.

Along with "Smiling Joe" Ettor, Giovannitti was sent to Lawrence to help rally and organize striking workers there. When a striking worker was shot and killed, Ettor and Giovannitti were arrested as accomplices to the murder on little to no evidence.

While in jail, he wrote many poems, "The Walker" in particular becoming well-known. The trial made the textile strike a national controversy and resulted in "Big Bill" Haywood and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn coming in to lead the strike in their stead. Months after the strike itself ended, Ettor, Giovannitti, and a third co-defendant were acquitted of all charges.

"A man may lose his soul for just one day

Of splendor and be still accounted wise,

Or he may waste his life in a disguise

Like kings and priests and jesters, and still may

Be saved and held a hero if the play

Is all he knew. But what of him who tries

With truth and fails and then wins fame with lies?

How shall he know what history will say?

By this:

No man is great who does not find

A poet who will hail him as he is

With an almighty song that will unbind

Through his exploits eternal silences. Duce, where is your bard? In all mankind

The only poem you inspired is this."

• Arturo Giovannitti, "To Mussolini"

• Date: 1884-01-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tragic Week (Argentina, 1919)

Tue Jan 07, 1919

Image: Photograph taken during the "Semana Trágica" in Argentina, in 1919. Depicts an overturned wagon on the street. [WikiCommons]

On this day in 1919, the "Semana Trágica" began in Argentina when police attacked striking metalworkers in Buenos Aires, killing five, after workers set the police chief's car on fire. The city was quickly placed under martial law.

The "Semana Trágica" (Tragic Week in English, not to be confused with the Spanish Tragic Week) was the violent supression of a general workers' uprising, beginning with the attack on January 7th. In addition to the actions of the police and military, right-wing vigilantes launched pogroms against the city's Jews, many of whom were not involved, in order to suppress the rebellion.

The conflict began as a strike at the Vasena metal works, an English Argentine-owned plant in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. On January 7th, workers overturned and set fire to the car of the police chief Elpidio González. Militant workers also shot and killed the commander of the Army detachment protecting González. Following this, police attacked, killing five workers and wounding twenty more.

On the same day, maritime workers of the port of Buenos Aires voted in favor of a general strike for better hours and wages. After the police attack at Vasena, a waterfront strike began: all ship movements, and all loading and unloading, came to a halt.

Rioting soon spread throughout Buenos Aires, and workers battled with both state and right-wing paramilitary forces. Police utilized members of the far-right Argentine "Patriotic League", who targeted the city's working class Russian Jewish population, which they associated with the rebellion, beating and murdering many uninvolved civilians.

On the 11th, the city was placed under martial law, and the military restored control over the city over the next several days. Estimates of the death toll range from between 141 to over 700. The United States embassy reported that 1,500 people were killed in total, "mostly Russians and generally Jews", and that many women were raped.

• Date: 1919-01-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.elhistoriador.com.ar.
• Tags: #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

SNCC Adopts Anti-War Position (1966)

Thu Jan 06, 1966

Image: People protesting the murder of Sammy Younge, January 1966, crmvet.org [snccdigital.org]

On this day in 1966, the SNCC adopted an official stance against the Vietnam War, connecting the struggle for liberation at home to Vietnamese liberation struggle. "We ask, where is the draft for the freedom fight in the United States?"

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. The group emerged in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina and Nashville, Tennessee and played a key role in helping black people in the South both register and exercise their right to vote.

In a November 1965 staff meeting, SNCC decided to issue a public statement about the Vietnam War, although some workers voiced concern about the political consequences. One worker wrote "While we care a great deal about both Vietnam and civil rights, we can’t do anything to help the Vietnam situation, and we can hurt ourselves by trying."

On January 3rd, 1966, twenty-one year old civil rights activist Sammy Younge was murdered by white supremacists in Tuskegee, Alabama. His death pushed SNCC to make a public stance on the war, regardless of the political consequences.

Three days later, on January 6th, SNCC’s Executive Committee released a statement on the Vietnam War, writing "the murder of Samuel Young in Tuskegee, Alabama, is no different than the murder of peasants in Vietnam, for both Young and the Vietnamese sought, and are seeking, to secure the rights guaranteed them by law." Here is an excerpt from their statement:

"We believe the United States government has been deceptive in its claims of concern for the freedom of the Vietnamese people, just as the government has been deceptive in claiming concern for the freedom of colored people in other countries as the Dominican Republic, the Congo, South Africa, Rhodesia, and in the United States itself.

...We question, then, the ability and even the desire of the United States government to guarantee free elections abroad. We maintain that our country's cry of 'preserve freedom in the world' is a hypocritical mask, behind which it squashes liberation movements which are not bound, and refuse to be bound, by the expediencies of United States cold war policies.

...We recoil with horror at the inconsistency of a supposedly 'free' society where responsibility to freedom is equated with the responsibility to lend oneself to military aggression...We ask, where is the draft for the freedom fight in the United States?"

• Date: 1966-01-06
• Learn More: snccdigital.org, en.wikipedia.org, snccdigital.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico Founded (1867)

Sun Jan 06, 1867

Image: An artistic depiction of the Grito de Lares by Leonardo Rivera

On this day in 1867, the Revolutionary Committee of Puerto Rico was founded by exiled revolutionaries to fight for independence from Spain. These revolutionaries included Juan Ríus Rivera, Segundo Ruiz Belvis, Ramón Emeterio Betances, and José Francisco Basora.

The Committee began planning an armed revolution in Puerto Rico in early 1868, issuing several "Proclamas" criticizing Spanish exploitative practices and demanding rebellion against the government. On September 23rd, 1868, the Revolutionary Committee, led by Betances, declared independence in the city of Lares, Puerto Rico, calling it the Republic of Puerto Rico.

Several hundred rebels took over city hall, looted stores owned by "peninsulares" (Spanish-born men), and took some of the store owners prisoner. The revolutionary uprising was suppressed by the Spanish militia, and around 475 rebels were imprisoned. The event became known as "El Grito de Lares" (shown).

• Date: 1867-01-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.loc.gov.
• Tags: #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dundalli Executed (1855)

Fri Jan 05, 1855

Image: 1855 sketch of Dundalli by Silvester Diggles [Wikipedia]

Dundalli, executed by the state on this day in 1855, was an Aboriginal lawman who mediated conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland.

Characterized by colonial authorities as a criminal, Dundalli was an indigenous leader who coordinated decade-long resistance to the process of colonization.

As tensions escalated between indigenous people and settlers around Brisbane, Dundalli's role as a tribal leader led to widespread speculation that he instigated various violent conflicts. Despite this perception, modern historians note his restraint - he had not exacted revenge for his brother's murder at the hands of a settler and rival tribe and had saved at least one settler's life in a raid.

In 1854, Dundalli entered Brisbane to be paid for removing a felled tree and was arrested by the police. Tried and convicted for murder on flimsy evidence, he was hanged a few months later on this day in 1855. Historian Libby Connors writes that, from the gallows, Dundalli gave a speech addressed to his wife and Turrbal, Ningy Ningy, and Djindubari people gathered nearby, calling on them to avenge his death.

Connors states "In the end, the theatre of his own execution and gallows speech provides further evidence that a parallel system of justice was operating in the region which the colonial authorities refused to acknowledge."

• Date: 1855-01-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, eprints.usq.edu.au.
• Tags: #Colonialism, #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org