Working Class Calendar

February 28th Salvadoran Massacre (1977)

Mon Feb 28, 1977

Image: A photo of General Romero in military uniform, unknown year

On this day in 1977, following fraudulent elections that put General Romero in power, the right-wing Salvadoran military viciously attacked anti-government protesters in San Salvador, killing between 200 and 1,500 people.

The protest was anti-government in character, and took place following fraudulent elections earlier that year, in which the National Opposing Union (Spanish: "Unión Nacional Opositora", UNO), a political coalition composed of the Christian Democratic Party, the National Revolutionary Movement, and the Nationalist Democratic Union, had "lost" to the right-wing, military-controlled National Conciliation Party.

On February 28th, 1977, a crowd of political demonstrators gathered in downtown San Salvador to protest the electoral fraud. Security forces arrived on the scene and opened fire, resulting in a massacre as they indiscriminately killed demonstrators and bystanders alike.

Estimates of the number of civilians killed range between 200 and 1,500. The casualties were underreported by the New York Times, which reported on March 1st, 1977 that only six people had been killed. President Molina blamed the protests on "foreign Communists" and immediately exiled a number of top UNO party members from the country.

One of the consequences of the massacre was the formation of "February 28 Popular Leagues" (Spanish: "Ligas Populares 28 de Febrero", LP-28), a movement launched in September 1977 by the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP), functioning as its mass front.

• Date: 1977-02-28
• Learn More: www.jstor.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Massacre, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Reichstag Fire (1933)

Mon Feb 27, 1933

Image: The Reichstag burning in February 1933. From the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1933, the Reichstag was burned. Nazis blamed the arson on communists and arrested them en masse. Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was executed for the act, but some historians believe the burning may have been a false flag by the Nazis in order to consolidate their power.

The first report of the fire came shortly after 9:00 pm on February 27th, 1933. The police conducted a thorough search inside the building and found Van der Lubbe, who was arrested.

On February 28th, President Paul von Hindenburg issued the "Reichstag Fire Decree", suspending civil liberties and beginning a widespread crackdown on communists. The Nazi-controlled police arrested leftists en masse, including all of the communist Reichstag delegates, severely crippling their participation in the elections the following week.

Van Der Lubbe, and four communist leaders were tried in the Leipzig Trial in September 1933. All except Van der Lubbe were acquitted, and the Dutch council communist was executed at the age of 24.

At the same time Nazis were using the fire as a pretext to suppress their political opponents, communists internationally were accusing Nazis of organizing the fire as a false flag operation. Historians remain divided on the issue, with some concluding that van der Lubbe acting alone and others believing that Nazis were responsible for the arson.

In July 2019, more than 80 years after the fire, an affidavit from Hans-Martin Lennings, a former member of a Nazi paramilitary, was discovered. The document stated that, the night of the fire, his unit had driven Van der Lubbe from an infirmary to the Reichstag and that the fire was ongoing when they arrived, indicating Van der Lubbe's innocence and possible Nazi complicity.

In any case, the Reichstag Fire proved a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany, with Nazis winning the subsequent March elections after imprisoning and terrorizing their left opposition. The Reichstag Fire Decree paved the way for Nazi dictatorship, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

• Date: 1933-02-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, encyclopedia.ushmm.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation (1939)

Mon Feb 27, 1939

Image: Fansteel strikers picketing the plant and continuing their strike after being gassed out of the factory where they were engaging in a sit-down strike. [historyillinois.org]

On this day in 1939, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the National Labor Relations Board could not order an employer to re-hire workers fired for striking, even if the strike was triggered by that employer's illegal actions. The case is known as National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation.

In the late 1930s, sit-down strikes had become prevalent in the auto industry and were particularly effective at winning worker demands. In a sit-down strike, workers stay by their station in the factory but refuse to work it. Factory management was usually reluctant to try and force workers out of the factory for fear of damaging expensive machinery, and often capitulated to them.

On February 17th, 1937, workers frustrated by failed attempts at getting Fansteel to recognize their union announced a sit-down strike and seized a portion of their factory. The employer won an injunction ordering the union men to vacate the premises, which they ignored, but were ultimately forced out.

The NLRB held on March 14th, 1938, that Fansteel had to reinstate 90 of the workers because the company had violated the law first (precipitating the sit-down strike). Fansteel sued the government in response and won in the Supreme Court case NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp (1939).

• Date: 1939-02-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, repository.law.umich.edu.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869 - 1939)

Fri Feb 26, 1869

Image: A photo portrait of Nadezhda Krupskaya in the 1890s, unknown author [Wikipedia]

Nadezhda Krupskaya, born on this day in 1869, was a Bolshevik revolutionary, feminist, and librarian who helped develop the Soviet educational system. In 1926, she authored a memoir of her life and the life of her husband, Vladimir Lenin.

Krupskaya was born to an aristocratic, well-educated family, but grew up with a working class experience. From a young age, Krupskaya was committed to improving the lives of the poor, and was influenced by Leo Tolstoy's ideas and, later, Marxism.

Nadezhda met Lenin at an illegal Marxist discussion group (the works of Marx were banned) in February 1894. In October 1896, Krupskaya was arrested and sentenced to three years exile in Ufa. Before she was deported, Nadezhda received a "secret note" from Lenin, which suggested that she could take refuge in his village of exile if she became his fiancée. This offer was accepted.

Krupskaya was politically active in the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, a precursor to the Bolshevik movement, helping edit the party's newspaper, "Iskra" ("Spark"). After the 1917 Russian Revolution, she was appointed deputy to the People's Commissar for Education and later served as Deputy Education Commissar (government minister) from 1929 to 1939.

During this time, Krupskaya was fundamental in the development of the system of Soviet libraries, establishing formal training for librarians to make them good stewards for working class education and facilitators of the communist revolution.

According to American Soviet scholar Robert V. Daniels, in December 1922, after Lenin had suffered a second stroke, Krupskaya had a violent quarrel with Stalin after she denied him access to Lenin, who she claimed was too ill. On December 23rd, she wrote to Lev Kamenev complaining that the "vile invectives and threats" from Stalin were the worst abuse she had suffered from a fellow revolutionary in 30 years.

Krupskaya backed anti-Stalin opposition after Lenin's death in 1924. In 1930, she gave a speech defending the leaders of the right wing opposition against Stalin, Nikolai Bukharin and Alexei Rykov. Despite this, Nadezhda retained her post as Deputy Education Commissar until the year of her death in 1939.

In 1926, Krupskaya wrote a memoir of her life with Lenin, translated in 1930 as "Memories of Lenin" and in 1959 as "Reminiscences of Lenin." The text gives the most detailed account of Lenin's life before his coming to power, ending in 1919.

"Solidarity among the male and female workers, a general cause, general goals, a general path to that goal - that is the solution to the "woman" question in the working-class environment."

- Nadezhda Krupskaya

• Date: 1869-02-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Robert F. Williams (1925 - 1996)

Thu Feb 26, 1925

Image: Photo of Rob and Mabel Williams from the website for the PBS film "Negroes With Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power." [facingsouth.org]

Robert Franklin Williams, born on this day in 1925, was a civil rights leader known for serving as president of the Monroe, North Carolina chapter of the NAACP and advocating for armed self-defense in his book "Negroes With Guns".

Williams succeeded in integrating the local public library and swimming pool in Monroe, and helped gain support for gubernatorial pardons for two young black children who had received lengthy sentences in the "Kissing Case of 1958."

At a time of high racial tension, Williams promoted armed black self-defense in the U.S. Williams obtained a charter from the National Rifle Association and set up a rifle club to defend black people in Monroe from the Ku Klux Klan, once driving them out of his neighborhood with gunfire.

After allowing a white couple to take refuge in their home during a race riot, the local police indicted Williams for kidnapping the couple, forcing him to flee the country and take up residence in Cuba as a guest of Fidel Castro.

While there, Williams ran a radio program called "Radio Free Dixie" with Castro's support, playing contemporary jazz music and advocating for black insurrection against the U.S. government. The program was broadcast over the entire continental U.S.

In 1966, Williams moved to China, where he became a friend and advisor to Mao Zedong. In 1969, he returned to the U.S. and was immediately arrested for fleeing the kidnapping charge, however all charges were dropped.

Williams' book "Negroes with Guns" (1962) details his experience with violent racism and his disagreement with the non-violent wing of the civil rights movement. The text was widely influential; Black Panther Party founder Huey Newton was among those who cited it as an influence.

"I have asserted the right of Negroes to meet the violence of the Ku Klux Klan by armed self-defense — and have acted on it. It has always been an accepted right of Americans, as the history of our Western states proves, that where the law is unable, or unwilling, to enforce order, the citizens can, and must act in self-defense against lawless violence."

- Robert F. Williams

• Date: 1925-02-26
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

EDSA People Power Revolution (1986)

Tue Feb 25, 1986

Image: A mammoth protest rally against Marcos. The most prominent banner reads "JUSTICE FOR NINOY! JUSTICE FOR ALL VICTIMS OF POLITICAL REPRESSION & TERRORISM!!" [tatlerasia.com]

On this day in 1986, U.S.-backed Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos fled the country after days of millions protesting in the streets following rigged elections. The uprising is known as the EDSA, People Power, or Yellow Revolution.

Ferdinand Marcos had initially assumed power through a popular election in 1965. However, in 1972 he declared martial law during his second term, citing the threat posed by the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and other rebel groups, effectively gaining dictatorial powers.

Marcos and his allies embezzled billions of dollars in state assets while the government persecuted and killed dissidents throughout the 1970s and early 80s, enjoying support from the U.S. In 1981, then Vice President George Bush commended Marcos for his "adherence to democratic principles".

In 1983, exiled opposition leader Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino attempted to returned to the country, but was assassinated after landing at Manila International Airport. The shock of this event, alongside an economic crisis, compounded public anger, and civil resistance grew significantly in the following years.

In response to this pressure, Marcos announced that a snap presidential election would take place in February 1986. Ninoy Aquino's widow Corazon served as the main opposition candidate.

Official results from the election saw a victory for Marcos, but the vote saw widespread instances of fraud and intimidation, resulting in a walkout of workers at the national election monitor and a condemnation from the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines.

Both candidates claimed victory, and Aquino called for civil disobedience and boycott of media and companies which supported Marcos. The "Reform the Armed Forces Movement", a group of dissenting military officers, plotted a coup, but were arrested by authorities.

On February 22nd, the Archbishop of Manila urged civilians via the Catholic radio station Radio Veritas to gather on a stretch of the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, (commonly known as "EDSA") in order to help to supply and support rebel officers.

Over the next few days, crowds ballooned, with approximately 2 million participating in total. Marcos ultimately backed down from using lethal force to disperse the crowds, and, faced with growing military defections, fled the country on February 25th, 1986. Corazon Aquino was inaugurated President the same day.

Although Marcos' dictatorship was brought to an end and the Philippines has maintained liberal rule as the Fifth Philippine Republic, extrajudicial killings and rampant corruption continued through Aquino's rule and beyond. Less than a year later, 12 people were killed by state forces in the Mendiola Massacre, when police fired on a farmers' march in Manila.

Researcher Mark John Sanchez writes: "In the years since 1986, the legacy of the People Power Revolution has remained uncertain...The agricultural and economic reform that many Filipinos hoped for in a post-Marcos world did not come. Peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines dissolved and leftists continued to be maligned, attacked, and hunted."

• Date: 1986-02-25
• Learn More: www.tatlerasia.com, en.wikipedia.org, origins.osu.edu.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Khrushchev Denounces Stalin (1956)

Sat Feb 25, 1956

"On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" was an anti-Stalin speech delivered by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union on this day in 1956.

Khrushchev's speech was sharply critical of the reign of the deceased Joseph Stalin, particularly with respect to the purges which took place in the 1930s. The U.S. State Department received a copy of the speech from East European sources and quickly released it.

The speech marked a decisive turning point in not just Soviet history, but international communist history more broadly. It led, in part, to the Sino-Soviet Split (deterioration of relations between the USSR and communist China) and was an important milestone in the so-called "Khrushchev Thaw", a liberalization of social policies in the USSR.

Khrushchev's denunciation of Stalin caused political turmoil throughout the international communist movement. Historian Lewis Siegelbaum notes that, in Tbilisi, Georgia, students demonstrated against the removal of a monument to Stalin, while in Poland, demonstrations by workers in Poznan over declining wages and deep divisions between recalcitrant Stalinists and anti-Stalinists within the Polish Workers’ Party threatened to engulf the country in crisis. In the West, the Communist Party USA alone lost more than 30,000 members within weeks of its publication.

• Date: 1956-02-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, soviethistory.msu.edu, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Communism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tolpuddle Martyrs Arrested (1834)

Mon Feb 24, 1834

Image: A contemporary illustration of the Martyrs, 1838

On this day in 1834, six workers in the English village of Tolpuddle were arrested and sentenced to penal labor in Australia after forming a union. Their case became a cause célèbre for the working class, and the men were pardoned.

The "Tolpuddle Martyrs" - George and James Loveless; James Hammett; James Brine; Thomas and John Standfield - had previously formed the "Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers" to organize around their shared interest as farm workers. Their arrests took place in the context of a crackdown on protest and worker agitation by the British ruling class, following the Swing Riots of 1830.

The six men were charged with "taking an illegal oath" under the Mutiny Act of 1797, as they had sworn each other to secrecy in order to avoid repression by authorities. The prosecution was driven by their boss, local landowner James Frampton, who also sat on the jury during their trial.

All six men were sentenced to seven years in Australia in March 1834, sparking outcry from the labor movement. On April 21st, 1834, 30,000 people gathered in modern day King's Cross to present an 800,000-strong petition on the men's behalf. Home Secretary Lord Melbourne avoided workers by hiding behind a set of curtains.

After the government attempted to provide conditional pardons in June 1835, the unions continued to push further, compelling the state to give full, unconditional pardons to all six men on March 14th, 1836. The men finally returned home from Australia between 1837 and 1839.

The case of the Tolpuddle Martyrs became an important milestone and a success for the early English worker movement. Today, this working class victory is commemorated with a museum and annual July festival in the village of Tolpuddle.

• Date: 1834-02-24
• Learn More: www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk, tuc150.tuc.org.uk.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

William Bross Lloyd (1875 - 1946)

Wed Feb 24, 1875

William Bross Lloyd, born on this day in 1875, was a U.S. attorney and political activist who co-founded the Communist Labor Party of America. Lloyd would become one of twenty communists convicted in a major anti-communist Chicago trial.

The oldest son of the muckraking journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd and Jessie Bross, daughter of the founder of the Chicago Tribune, William is best remembered as a founding member and financial angel of the fledgling Communist Labor Party of America, forerunner of the Communist Party USA.

Lloyd would become one of twenty Communists indicted for conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government in a major Chicago trial, prosecuted by future Chicago judge Frank D. Comerford and defended by attorney Clarence Darrow. The trial, which ran from May 10th to August 2nd, 1920, resulted in convictions for all of the defendants.

Lloyd received a sentence of 1 to 5 years in prison but remained free on bail pending resolution of the appeal process. Though the appeals process was exhausted in 1922, Lloyd was no longer seen as a threatening advocate of communism by that date and his sentence was commuted accordingly.

• Date: 1875-02-24
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #Journalism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868 - 1963)

Sun Feb 23, 1868

W.E.B. Du Bois, born on this day in 1868, was a seminal American intellectual and socialist civil rights activist who co-founded both the Niagara Movement and the NAACP, also authoring texts such as "Black Reconstruction in America".

Du Bois grew up in the relatively tolerant and integrated community of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and, after completing graduate work at the University of Berlin and Harvard, he became a professor of history, sociology, and economics at Atlanta University in Georgia.

Among Du Bois's works are "The Souls of Black Folk", a collection of essays, and "Black Reconstruction in America", which challenged the prevailing orthodoxy that black people were responsible for the failures of the Reconstruction Era. Du Bois was also a Pan-Africanist and helped organize several Pan-African Congresses to fight for the independence of African colonies from European powers.

Later in life, Du Bois was openly sympathetic to communist movements. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began to keep a file on Du Bois in 1942, and, during the anti-communist hysteria of the McCarthy era, Du Bois was explicitly targeted by the state.

In 1951, Du Bois was indicted by the U.S. government for acting as an agent of a foreign state after he advocated for nuclear disarmament via the Peace Information Center (PIC). Although left-wing figures such as Langston Hughes and Albert Einstein came to his defense, the NAACP declined to support Du Bois during his trial, which ultimately failed to convict him.

Du Bois died on August 27th, 1963, in Accra, the capital of Ghana, at age 95.

"The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line."

- W.E.B. Du Bois

• Date: 1868-02-23
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, www.gutenberg.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Pan-Africanism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Collar Laundry Union Strike (1864)

Tue Feb 23, 1864

Image: Collar workers at Cluett Peabody & Co. circa 1890, in Troy, New York [timesunion.com]

On this day in 1864, the "Collar Laundry Union", the first female union in the U.S., went on strike for a 20-25% raise, winning their demands after just six days. The union continued to fight for worker rights for several years afterward.

The union was formed under the leadership of Kate Mullany, a 23-year old Irish immigrant. Kate was employed as a laundress in Troy, New York. Working conditions were particularly brutal - workers were expected to work 12 to 14 hours a day in dangerous conditions due to scalding hot water.

On February 23rd, 1864, shortly after forming the union, approximately 300 women went on strike from all fourteen commercial laundry establishments in Troy. That afternoon, Kate met with the women to discuss their demands for a 20-25% wage increase and concerns about the boiling water.

After just six days, workers won their demands. The female laundresses had been assisted by the male Iron Molders' Union No. 2, and the laundresses showed their appreciation in a picnic, attended by more than 4,000.

Kate Mullany and the Collar Laundry Union continued to agitate for better pay and working conditions, going on multiple strikes in the following years. The Collar Laundry Union also formed a cooperative to sidestep negotiating with capitalist employers, however their venture failed.

Mullany would go to become the first woman to hold a national labor position, serving as the assistant secretary of the National Labor Union.

• Date: 1864-02-23
• Learn More: www.katemullanynhs.org, www.womenofthehall.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

New England Shoemakers' Strike (1860)

Wed Feb 22, 1860

Image: Contemporay illustration of Lynn strike, 1860 [libcom.org]

The New England Shoemakers Strike began on this day in 1860 when 3,000 shoemakers walked off their jobs in Lynn, Massachusetts, leading to more than 20,000 workers going on strike all across New England.

In a few days, shoeworkers throughout New England joined the strike - in Natick, Newburyport, Haverhill, Marblehead, and other Massachusetts towns, as well as towns in New Hampshire and Maine. Within a week, strikes had begun in all the shoe towns of New England. Newspapers called it "The Revolution at the North" and the "Beginning of the Conflict Between Capital and labor."

Approximately 20,000 workers went on strike across New England which made it the largest mass walkout in American history prior to the Civil War. It ended in April with modest gains for shoemakers, including pay increases and owner recognition of some labor unions.

• Date: 1860-02-22
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lovejoy Topples Weather Tower (1974)

Fri Feb 22, 1974

Image: Sam Lovejoy at the 1979 No Nukes Concert at Madison Square Garden. Source: Montague Retreat Center.

On this day in 1974, Sam Lovejoy, an anti-nuclear activist, sabotaged a 500 foot weather tower near Montague, Massachusetts to protest a local nuclear power site. The tower had been built by Northeast Utilities to test wind direction so that authorities would know which way the radiation would blow from the plant in case of an accident.

Using a few simple farm tools to loosen the turnbuckles in the stays of the tower, Lovejoy left behind him 349 feet of twisted wreckage. At Lovejoy's trial, historian Howard Zinn was brought in as an expert witness on civil disobedience. Zinn testified that Lovejoy's act was in the best tradition of activists like Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau.

Lovejoy was found not guilty, and the destruction of the tower and trial brought national attention to the anti-nuclear cause.

• Date: 1974-02-22
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Augusto Sandino (1895 - 1934)

Wed Feb 21, 1934

Augusto C. Sandino, assassinated on this day in 1934, was a Nicaraguan revolutionary and leader of a rebellion between 1927 and 1933 against the U.S. military occupation of Nicaragua.

Although derisively called a "bandit" by the U.S. government, Sandino's guerilla style warfare against U.S. forces made him a hero throughout much of Latin America, where he became a symbol of resistance to U.S. imperialism.

On this day in 1934, Sandino attended a round of talks with Sacasa, the Nicaraguan President. On leaving Sacasa's Presidential Palace, Sandino and five others were stopped in their car at the main gate by local National Guardsmen and were ordered to leave their car.

On orders from National Guard leader Anastasio Somoza García, these men took Sandino, his brother Socrates, and his two generals to a crossroads section in Larreynaga and summarily executed them.

Sandino has been cited as an influence by many Latin American revolutionaries and organizations, including Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez, the Nicaraguan Sandinista National Liberation Front, and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in El Salvador.

"Come, morphine addicts, come and kill us in our own land. I await you before my patriotic soldiers, feet firmly set, not worried about how many of you there may be. But keep in mind that when this happens the Capitol Building in Washington will shake with the destruction of your greatness, and our blood will redden the white doom of your famous White House, the cavern where you concoct your crimes."

- August Sandino

• Date: 1934-02-21
• Learn More: jacobin.com, en.wikipedia.org, s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

John Lewis (1940 - 2020)

Wed Feb 21, 1940

John Robert Lewis, born on this day in 1940, was an American politician and civil rights leader. He was the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district, having served since 1987. His district included the northern three-fourths of Atlanta.

Lewis played a key role in the civil rights movement as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and as one of the "Big Six" leaders of groups who organized the 1963 March on Washington. He was also one of the first thirteen Freedom Riders, repeatedly beaten and jailed for his activism.

"When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something."

- John Lewis

• Date: 1940-02-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, johnlewis.house.gov.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Taking of Encarnación (1931)

Fri Feb 20, 1931

Image: Painting depicting a communist uprising, unknown author and date [https://canalabierto.com/]

On this day in 1931, anarchist workers and students in Paraguay seized control of the city of Encarnación and attempted to declare an anarchist community, holding the town for 16 hours before it was reclaimed by state forces.

The uprising took place amidst widespread a backdrop of widespread social discontent amongst the working classes of Paraguay, with a strong existing anarcho-syndicalist movement.

The rising in Encarnación had been planned in tandem with actions in Asunción and Villarrica, but the government had arrested and deported labor leaders there in the days preceding. Workers had planned to seize control of rail links between the cities, paralyzing the country's transport links.

Due to the lack of instantaneous communication at the time, revolutionaries were unaware that their compatriots in the other cities had been arrested before they crossed the Paraná River from Argentina into the city on February 20th.

Despite this setback, 150 revolutionaries, among them notable communists Oscar Creydt, Marcos Kanner, and Félix Cantalicio Aracuyú, successfully held the commune in Encarnación for sixteen hours before it was recaptured by the state.

Many rebels successfully managed to flee, using two seized steamboats to travel towards Brazil, attacking "yerba mate" plantations and burning records of indentured servitude along the way. Seventeen who were unable to flee were arrested and subject to torture and incarceration.

In 1985, Paraguayan researcher Fernando Quesada published a book about the uprising, titled "1931, la toma de Encarnación".

• Date: 1931-02-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, canalabierto.com.ar.
• Tags: #Communism, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Frank Wamsutta James Passes (1923 - 2001)

Tue Feb 20, 2001

Frank B. Wamsutta James was an Aquinnah Wampanoag elder and indigenous political activist who died on this day in 2001.

James was the first Native American graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music in 1948. While many of his classmates secured positions with top symphony orchestras, James was flatly told that, due to segregation and racism, no orchestra in the country would hire him as a trumpet player because of his dark skin.

James first came to national attention in 1970 when he, along with hundreds of other Native Americans and their supporters, went to Plymouth and declared Thanksgiving a National Day of Mourning for Native Americans.

James was initially invited to speak at this event, however the invitation was rescinded when the speech was read by organizers beforehand. Here is an excerpt of the speech he would have given:

"I speak to you as a man -- a Wampanoag Man. I am a proud man, proud of my ancestry, my accomplishments won by a strict parental direction ("You must succeed - your face is a different color in this small Cape Cod community!"). I am a product of poverty and discrimination from these two social and economic diseases.

...We, the Wampanoag, welcomed you, the white man, with open arms, little knowing that it was the beginning of the end; that before 50 years were to pass, the Wampanoag would no longer be a free people. What happened in those short 50 years? What has happened in the last 300 years?"

• Date: 2001-02-20
• Learn More: www.nativeweb.org, www.uaine.org.
• Tags: #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

"The Feminine Mystique" Published (1963)

Tue Feb 19, 1963

The Feminine Mystique, published on this day in 1963, is a book by Betty Friedan that is often credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States.

The next year, The Feminine Mystique was the number one non-fiction book in the U.S., selling over a million copies. The phrase "feminine mystique" was created by Friedan to illustrate the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children. Friedan sought to prove that housewives were unsatisfied but could not voice their feelings.

Despite the importance of the book in feminist history, it has faced numerous criticisms. According to Kirsten Fermaglich and Lisa Fine, "women of color - African American, Latina, Asian American and Native American women - were completely absent from Friedan's vision, as were white working-class and poor women."

Professor Lindsey Churchill wrote that bell hooks found Friedan’s manifesto both racist and classist, not at all applicable to African Americans and other working-class women who joined the labor force from necessity.

• Date: 1963-02-19
• Learn More: www.britannica.com, www.womenshistory.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.theatlantic.com.
• Tags: #Feminism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Executive Order 9066 (1942)

Thu Feb 19, 1942

On this day in 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the Secretary of War to classify certain areas "military zones", leading to the internment of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps. By declaring wide swaths of domestic territory as "military zones", the American government provided legal justification for forcibly removing people deemed a threat from them.

Using a broad interpretation of Executive Order 9066, Lieutenant General John L. DeWitt issued orders declaring areas of the western United States as zones of exclusion under the Executive Order. As a result, approximately 112,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were evicted from the West Coast of the United States and held in American concentration camps and other "confinement sites" across the country.

Americans of Italian and German ancestry were also targeted by these restrictions, including internment. 11,000 people of German ancestry were interned, as were 3,000 people of Italian ancestry, along with some Jewish refugees.

It wasn't until 1990 that surviving internees began to receive individual redress payments and a letter of apology.

• Date: 1942-02-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Joan Peiró (1887 - 1942)

Fri Feb 18, 1887

Joan Peiró i Belis, born on this day in 1887 (also known as Juan Peiró), was an anarchist activist and writer who became Minister of Industry of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. He was also editor of the anarchist newspaper Solidaridad Obrera and two-time Secretary General of the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).

Following the fall of the republic in 1939, Peiró fled to France, where he was turned over to Nazi Germany by the Vichy Regime. Peiró was executed after the Gestapo extradited him to the fascist Franco government in Spain.

• Date: 1887-02-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Audre Lorde (1934 - 1992)

Sun Feb 18, 1934

Image: Audre Lorde, unknown year. Photo credit to Jack Mitchell.

Audre Lorde, born on this day in 1934, was a queer feminist author and socialist activist. Among her works are "The Black Unicorn" and "Your Silence Will Not Protect You: Essays and Poems".

Lorde was born in New York City to Caribbean immigrants - a father from Barbados and Grenadian mother. She took an interest in poetry and reading at an early age; when asked how she was feeling, Lorde would often respond by reciting a memorized poem.

Lorde attended Hunter College in New York, graduating in 1959. While there, she worked as a librarian and became an active participant in the gay culture of Greenwich Village.

In 1961, Lorde earned a master's degree in library science from Columbia University. During this period, she worked as a public librarian in nearby Mount Vernon, New York, authored poetry, and participated in civil rights demonstrations.

In 1984, Lorde started a visiting professorship in West Berlin at the Free University of Berlin. During her time in Germany, Lorde became an influential part of the nascent Afro-German movement. Together with a group of black women activists in Berlin, Audre Lorde coined the term "Afro-German" and became a mentor to a number of women, including May Ayim, Ika Hügel-Marshall, and Helga Emde.

Lorde's thinking was emphatically intersectional, criticizing, in her words, "racism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over all others and thereby the right to dominance. Sexism, the belief in the inherent superiority of one sex over the other and thereby the right to dominance. Ageism. Heterosexism. Elitism. Classism."

Of non-intersectional feminism in the U.S., Lorde famously said "Those of us who stand outside the circle of this society's definition of acceptable women; those of us who have been forged in the crucibles of difference -- those of us who are poor, who are lesbians, who are Black, who are older -- know that survival is not an academic skill. It is learning how to take our differences and make them strengths. For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change. And this fact is only threatening to those women who still define the master's house as their only source of support."

"Without community, there is no liberation."

- Audre lorde

• Date: 1934-02-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.poetryfoundation.org, www.blackpast.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Queer.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Huey Newton (1942 - 1989)

Tue Feb 17, 1942

Huey Newton, born on this day in 1942, was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary who, along with fellow Merritt College student Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party (1966 - 1982). Together with Seale, Newton created a ten-point program which laid out guidelines for how the black community could achieve liberation.

In the 1960s, under Newton's leadership, the Black Panther Party founded over 60 community support programs (renamed survival programs in 1971) including food banks, medical clinics, sickle cell anemia tests, prison busing for families of inmates, legal advice seminars, clothing banks, housing co-ops, and their own ambulance service.

The most famous of these programs was the Free Breakfast for Children program which fed thousands of impoverished children daily during the early 1970s. Newton also co-founded the Black Panther newspaper service which became one of America's most widely distributed black newspapers.

In 1967, he was involved in a shootout which led to the death of the police officer John Frey. Although arrested for the murder of Frey, the charges were eventually dismissed, following a massive "Free Huey!" campaign.

Despite graduating from high school illiterate, he taught himself how to read by reading Plato's Republic, later earning a PhD. in social philosophy from the University of California at Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness program in 1980. In 1989, he was murdered in Oakland, California by Tyrone Robinson, a member of the Black Guerrilla Family.

"Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny."

- Huey Newton

• Date: 1942-02-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, digital.wustl.edu, abolitionnotes.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

KC Tenants Founded (2019)

Sun Feb 17, 2019

Image: A group of KC Tenants members shutting down eviction hearings in Kansas City by blocking the doors to the courthouse, January 2021 [krcgtv.com]

On this day in 2019, KC Tenants, a citywide tenant union, held their first meeting. KC Tenants has engaged in direct action to shut down eviction hearings and won the right to legal counsel for every tenant facing eviction in Kansas City.

KC Tenant's first meeting had just twelve people, including one landlord infiltrator. By the next week, the organization had tripled in size. Since 2019, KC Tenants has helped achieve a city-wide Tenant Bill of Rights, established a "People's Housing Trust Fund", shut down eviction hearings with direct action, and won a guaranteed right to legal counsel for all tenants facing eviction in Kansas City.

On its website (linked below), KC Tenants describes itself like this:

"KC Tenants is the citywide tenant union, an organization led by a multigenerational, multiracial, anti-racist base of poor and working class tenants in Kansas City. KC Tenants organizes to ensure that everyone in KC has a safe, accessible, and truly affordable home. KC Tenants organizes to ensure that everyone in KC has a safe, accessible, and truly affordable home.

We believe the people closest to the problem are closest to the solution. To us, organizing is fundamentally democratic; it relies on developing tenant leaders to learn their rights, tell their own stories, and determine their own liberation."

• Date: 2019-02-17
• Learn More: kctenants.org, www.kcur.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Tenant.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Leaked Pike Committee Report Published (1976)

Mon Feb 16, 1976

The Pike Committee was a House committee that investigated illegal activities by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the National Security Agency (NSA). The Pike Committee conducted much of its investigation while its Senate counterpart, the Church Committee, conducted its own investigation into the actions of the same groups.

Unlike the concluding report of the Church Committee, which was eventually released to the public in the face of Executive Branch opposition to its release, the Pike Committee report was intended to be kept secret from the American public. On this day in 1976, the newspaper Village Voice published excerpts of the Pike Committee Report under the headline "The CIA Report the President Doesn't Want You to Read".

A link to this Village Voice article is provided below.

• Date: 1976-02-16
• Learn More: www.villagevoice.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mildred Fish-Harnack Executed (1943)

Tue Feb 16, 1943

Mildred Fish-Harnack was an American historian and anti-fascist executed by the Nazi government on this day in 1943.

Together with her husband, Fish-Harnack brought together a discussion circle which debated political perspectives on the time after the National Socialists' expected downfall. From these meetings arose what the Gestapo called the "Red Orchestra" resistance group. Beginning in 1940, the group was in contact with Soviet agents, trying to thwart the forthcoming German attack upon the Soviet Union. Fish-Harnack even sent the Soviets information about the forthcoming Operation Barbarossa.

On September 7th, Arvid Harnack and Mildred Fish-Harnack were arrested while on a weekend outing. She was executed on this day in 1943 by beheading. Her last words were purported to have been: "Ich habe Deutschland auch so geliebt" ("I loved Germany so much as well").

Fish-Harnack is the only member of the Red Orchestra whose burial site is known, as well as the only American woman executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler.

• Date: 1943-02-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, news.wisc.edu.
• Tags: #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org