Working Class Calendar

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

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

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

Susan Brownmiller (1935 - )

Fri Feb 15, 1935

Susan Brownmiller, born on this day in 1935, is an American feminist author, journalist, and civil rights activist best known for her 1975 book "Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape."

In the book, Brownmiller argues that rape had been previously defined by men rather than women, and that men use it as a means of perpetuating male dominance by keeping all women in a state of fear. The New York Public Library selected "Against Our Will" as one of 100 most important books of the 20th century.

Brownmiller was also a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the 1960s, and volunteered for Freedom Summer in 1964, wherein she worked on voter registration in Meridian, Mississippi.

• Date: 1935-02-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, time.com.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Baldemar Velásquez (1947 - )

Sat Feb 15, 1947

Baldemar Velásquez, born on this day in 1947, is an American labor organizer who founded, and is currently President of, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), a union that organizes farm workers. Velásquez led his first strike at age 12.

When he was just four years old, Velásquez began assisting his parents, migrant farm workers, in the fields. They rode with other migrant workers in a pickup truck with a canvas-covered bed, huddling around a can of hot ashes and covering themselves in blankets to stay warm. Velásquez led his first strike at the age of 12, helping pickers at his summer job win better wages.

In September 1967, Baldemar co-founded FLOC with his father to help migrant workers collectively bargain for better conditions. Through FLOC, Velásquez helped organize strikes and a boycott against the Campbell Soup Company, as well as leading migrant workers on a 560 mile protest march from the union headquarters in Toledo, Ohio to Campbell's headquarters in Camden, New Jersey.

After winning a collective bargaining agreement with Campbell's, growers began complaining that they could not compete with inexpensive Mexican produce. Velásquez personally traveled to Mexico and successfully lobbied the Mexican unions to raise their wages and benefits, closing the gap in prices.

In 1994, Velásquez was awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor Mexico can bestow on a non-citizen.

"We can just lay down and let matters overwhelm us and whine and complain about how bad things are, or get up and do something and start speaking to those things that are upon you and those things that are evil...Just do it and don’t stop, and whatever happens happens… As Emiliano Zapata said, it’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."

- Baldemar Velásquez

• Date: 1947-02-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.floc.com, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Akron Rubber Strike (1936)

Fri Feb 14, 1936

On this day in 1936, the Akron Rubber Strike began after Goodyear laid off 700 people, leading to 10,000 picketing around the factory. Goodyear funded a right-wing militia to attack strikers, but workers won after a month of protest.

During the strike, police were unable to enforce an injunction against mass picketing because of the size of the crowd. A private force of about 5,200, known as the "Law and Order League" and funded by Goodyear, was prepared to attack workers during the strike.

The Summit County Central Labor Council was able to convince the Law and Order League against initiating violence, threatening a general strike if there were attacks on picketing workers. After a month of picketing, the workers won their terms.

The event took place during a period of intense labor organization among auto factory workers in Akron, Ohio from 1933 - 1936. This group of workers were among the earliest in U.S. history to implement the "sit-down" strike, occupying their workplace as a bargaining measure.

• Date: 1936-02-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

T-Bone Slim (1880)

Sat Feb 14, 1880

Image: Photograph of T-Bone Slim, rediscovered in 2019 [Working Class History, via Newberry Library]

T-Bone Slim, born on this day in 1880, was an IWW member, working class songwriter, and author. Due to his popular, labor themed tunes, Slim was dubbed the "laureate of the logging camps".

Born Matti Valentin Huhta to Finnish immigrant parents in Ashtabula, Ohio, Slim became an itinerant worker after leaving his wife and family in 1912. It isn't known when Slim became a Wobbly, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), but he first appeared in the IWW's press in the 1920 edition of the IWW Songbook.

Slim became one of the IWW's most famous writers during the 1920s and 30s, and many people would buy the "Industrial Worker" just to read his articles - one ad from the paper read "there's a lot more in Industrial Solidarity and Industrial Worker than T-Bone Slim's columns".

Slim did not presume his working-class readership to be unintelligent people, making use of complex wordplay and experimental writing techniques, playing with ambiguity, satire and surrealism.

Slim was also well-known for his songs, such as the "Lumberjack's Prayer", a parody of the Lord's Prayer about the poor quality of food available for the working class, and "The Popular Wobbly", which experienced a revival among civil rights activists during the 1960s.

In spite of his renown in radical circles during his lifetime, many details of Slim's life remain unclear. During the mid-1930s, he settled in New York City, where he worked as a barge captain on the docks.

In May 1942, Slim's body was found in the East River. His cause of death remains unknown and has been subject to speculation. Following his death, Slim largely faded into obscurity, especially compared to more famous IWW-associated writers such as Joe Hill.

Slim's songs have been preserved, however, re-published in editions of the Little Red Songbook and covered by musicians such as Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and his own great-grandnephew, John Westmoreland.

Until recently, there was thought to be no surviving photographs of Slim, however, in 2019 two photos were discovered and published by Working Class History in a Newberry Library collection.

• Date: 1880-02-14
• Learn More: archive.iww.org, workingclasshistory.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Aung San (1915 - 1947)

Sat Feb 13, 1915

Image: Aung San, 1947 [Encyclopedia Britannica]

Aung San, born on this day in 1915, was a Burmese revolutionary nationalist who was instrumental in helping Burma achieve independence from British imperialists, however he was assassinated six months before independence was formalized.

Aung San was born to a family distinguished in the resistance movement after the British annexation of 1886. He enrolled in Rangoon University in 1933 and became secretary of the university's student union and and editor of its newspaper.

In 1936, Aung San was expelled for refusing to reveal the name of an author for the paper who had criticized a university official. In response, students went on strike, leading to his reinstatement. The incident garnered nationwide publicity and recognition for Aung San.

In 1938, Aung San joined the Thakins, a movement of nationalist intellectuals who rejected British rule. In 1939, he became a founding member and the first Secretary-General of the Communist Party of Burma, however he had a unsteady relationship with the Party, joining and leaving it twice.

In 1940, Aung San was contacted by Japanese agents, who offered assistance to help him raise an army to fight against British rule. On December 28th, 1941, Aung San, as part of the "Thirty Comrades", formally inaugurated the Burma Independence Army (BIA) in Bangkok.

The BIA initially collaborated with Japanese forces following their invasion of the country in 1942 and establishment of a puppet government. However, relations between the BIA and Japan soon deteriorated, and Aung San grew suspicious of Japan's true intentions in the region.

Aung San began to secretly organize against the Japanese occupation, founding the "Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League" (AFPL) in 1944. On March 27th, 1945, Aung San led a surprise attack against Japanese forces, continuing to fight them for the remainder of World War II.

Following the end of war and official alignment with Allied forces, British forces sought to integrate the Burma National Army into the colonial armed forces. Aung San, who was not personally invited to negotiate by the British, reorganized former soldiers as the paramilitary "People's Volunteer Organization" in an attempt to preserve an armed, nationalist formation.

Clement Attlee's newly-elected Labour Party government in the United Kingdom decided to start moving towards a withdrawal, and, beginning in September 1946, Aung San served as Premier of the Crown Colony of Burma, a move criticized by the Communist Party. On January 27th, 1947, Aung and Attlee signed an agreement on the terms of independence within the year.

On July 19th, before the transition to independence had been completed, Aung San was assassinated along with seven other members of the interim government under unclear circumstances.

U Saw, a political rival, was later executed for his role in the killings, although there have been allegations made regarding British complicity in the incident.

"If you're feeling helpless, help someone."

- Aung San

• Date: 1915-02-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #Colonialism, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Nashville Sit-ins Begin (1960)

Sat Feb 13, 1960

The Nashville Sit-ins began on this day in 1960 when 124 students protesting segregation walked into downtown Nashville stores and were refused service at their lunch counters.

The Nashville Sit-ins were part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The first group sat in the stores for two hours and then left without incident, but the act kicked off months of civil rights protests in Nashville.

The sit-in campaign was coordinated by the Nashville Student Movement and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council, and was notable for its early success and its emphasis on disciplined non-violence in the face of harassment and assault by counter-protesters.

The Nashville Sit-ins, along with the Greensboro Sit-ins, became part of a broader, national movement of civil disobedience against discriminatory policies. The Nashville Sit-ins ended in victory on May 10th, when six downtown stores began serving black customers for the first time.

• Date: 1960-02-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

John L. Lewis (1880 - 1969)

Thu Feb 12, 1880

John Llewellyn Lewis, born on this day in 1880, was a significant American labor leader who served as President of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) from 1920 to 1960, also becoming influential within the CIO and AFL.

A major player in the history of coal mining, he was the driving force behind the founding of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which established the United Steel Workers of America and helped organize millions of other industrial workers in the 1930s.

After resigning as head of the CIO in 1941, he took the Mine Workers out of the CIO in 1942 and in 1944 took the union into the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

For forty years, many coal miners hailed him as their leader, whom they credited with bringing high wages, pensions and medical benefits.

Lewis marketed unionism to his capitalist contemporaries as a way of preventing more revolutionary change:

"The organized workers of America, free in their industrial life, conscious partners in production, secure in their homes and enjoying a decent standard of living, will prove the finest bulwark against the intrusion of alien doctrines of government."

J. B. McLachlan, a prominent Canadian communist trade unionist, characterized Lewis as a "traitor to the working class".

• Date: 1880-02-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, aflcio.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

David Graeber (1961 - 2020)

Sun Feb 12, 1961

David Graeber, born on this day in this 1961, was an American anthropologist, anarchist activist and author known for his books "Debt: The First 5000 Years", "The Utopia of Rules", and "Bullshit Jobs: A Theory". He was a professor of anthropology at the London School of Economics.

Graeber's parents were self-taught working-class intellectuals in New York. His father was a member of the Youth Communist League, and fought in the Spanish Civil War. Graeber stated that he had been an anarchist since at least the age of 16.

Aside from his scholarship, Graeber was active in the Global Justice movement, also playing an early and influential role in the Occupy Wall Street protests. Graeber is sometimes attributed to coining the phrase "We are the 99%", however he credited the slogan to on-scene collaboration.

"Most of all, anarchism is just a matter of having the courage to take the simple principles of common decency that we all live by, and to follow them through to their logical conclusions."

- David Graeber

• Date: 1961-02-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Virgilia D'Andrea (1888 - 1933)

Sat Feb 11, 1888

Virgilia D'Andrea, born on this day in 1888, was an anarchist activist and poet whose writings were suppressed by the fascist regime of Benito Mussolini.

D'Andrea was politicized by the bloodshed of World War I and left teaching to join the movement against Italian participation in the war. By 1917, the state had deemed her an effective and dangerous radical anti-war agitator. Following Italy's entry into the war, both D'Andrea and her partner Armando Borghi were subjected to house arrest and legally confined for the duration of the war.

In 1922, she published her first book of poetry, "Tormento", which included a forward by Italian anarchist Errico Malatesta. A prominent free love advocate and noted anti-fascist, she fled Italy with the rise of fascism and emigrated to the United States.

In 1929, a second edition of "Tormento" was published, however the prints were immediately seized by the Italian government. Citing her outspoken advocacy of free love, Italian authorities charged D'Andrea with "reprehensible moral behavior" and asserted that she was committed to violence, with her verses "carefully composed to instigate lawbreaking, to incite class hatred, and to vilify the army."

D'Andrea died of breast cancer in New York City on May 12th, 1933, aged 45. A collection of writings "Torce nella Notte" (English: "Torches in the Night") was published in New York shortly after D'Andrea's death.

• Date: 1888-02-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Slovak Unemployment Riots Begin (2004)

Wed Feb 11, 2004

On this day in 2004, the first store was looted in a series of riots and protests by unemployed people in Slovakia. Although the protests were brutally suppressed by police, the government subsequently increased activation benefits by 50%.

The protests were in response to welfare cuts by the Slovakian government. Many Roma people participated in the protests. At the time, 51% of Roma women and 72% of Roma men were unemployed, a trend which can be traced back to liberalization policies after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In February 2004, unemployed workers all over Slovakia received official notices from the government informing them of steep cuts to welfare benefits, and demonstrations broke out in the eastern parts of the country.

The reaction was a mix of peaceful demonstrations and outright rioting. Signs from protests read "We want work, not food stamps" and "We've had enough of capitalism", and were attended by some of the white ethnic majority.

In the largest police and military operation since 1989, over 2,000 troops were mobilized and sent to the affected regions. On February 23rd, in Trebišov (southeastern Slovakia), police attacked a Roma demonstration with teargas and, in the freezing February cold, water cannons.

Early the next morning, around 240 policemen attacked a settlement the protesters were suspected to live in by about 80 people in the historical town of Levoča.

Although the protests failed to develop into a more substantive political movement, they had a lasting impact. Soon afterward, the government made important concessions, increasing activation benefits by 50%, introducing scholarships and various subsidies for pupils and students from poor families, and increasing funding for placement opportunities for the unemployed.

• Date: 2004-02-11
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.errc.org.
• Tags: #Riots, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Yên Bái Mutiny (1930)

Mon Feb 10, 1930

Image: 1930 photo of Nguyen Thai Hoc, leader of the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDD), imprisoned for his role in the Yên Bái Mutiny [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1930, 50 Vietnamese soldiers of the French colonial army mutinied, attempting to take control of the Yên Bái garrison and begin a war of independence against the French. The uprising failed and many of its leaders were executed.

The revolt was planned in advance by the Việt Nam Quốc Dân Đảng (VNQDD), a socialist party founded by Nguyễn Thái Học (shown) that sought independence from France. The VNQDD had previously attempted to engage in clandestine activities to undermine French rule, but increasing state scrutiny on their activities led to their leadership risking a large scale military attack in the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam.

Multiple uprisings were planned throughout the region, with VNQDD members taking command of forces with specific strategic missions. The uprisings were supposed to be simultaneous, but matters were complicated when a messenger carrying an order from Học to delay the uprising until the 15th was arrested.

Early in the morning of February 10th, 1930, ~50 Vietnamese soldiers stationed at Yên Bái attacked their 29 French officers, aided by 60 civilian members of the VNQDD. Although the French were caught off guard and several officers were killed, the majority of the soldiers present remained loyal to the colonial army and helped suppress the uprising. Three Vietnamese sergeants were awarded the Médaille militaire for their efforts.

Later than evening, another planned VNQDD revolt in the rural district of Sơn Dương was also suppressed. Although insurgents initially succeeded, raising the VNQDD flag over the town, at sunrise they were routed by the colonial army.

The French retaliation was swift and brutal. When VNQDD forces fled into the village of Co Am, the French bombed the entire settlement, killing 200 people, mostly civilians. This was the first time that military air power had been used in Indochina.

In France, the severity of the sentences led to a campaign of solidarity by the French Communist Party and various demonstrations by Vietnamese expatriates. On May 22nd, 1930, more than 1,000 demonstrated outside Élysée Palace against the French reaction to Yên Bái. The police arrested 47 people, deporting 17 back to Vietnam, where most of them engaged in communist anti-colonial activities.

In total, 547 individuals, both soldiers and civilians, were prosecuted for their role in the uprising. Thirty-nine of the surviving leaders of the VNQDD were sentenced to death, although some of these were later granted clemency. Học, along with twelve others, was guillotined on June 17th, 1930. The thirteen shouted "Vietnam!" in unison before being executed.

• Date: 1930-02-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, ink.library.smu.edu.sg.
• Tags: #Communism, #Colonialism, #Mutinies, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Hiratsuka Raichō (1886 - 1971)

Wed Feb 10, 1886

Hiratsuka Raichō, born on this day in 1886, was an anarchist writer, journalist, political activist, and pioneering Japanese feminist. Her efforts helped legalize Japanese women joining political organizations in 1922.

Upon graduating from university, Hiratsuka founded Japan's first all-women literary magazine, Seitō (青鞜, literally "Bluestocking"), in 1911.

Hiratsuka began the first issue with the words, "In the beginning, woman was the sun", a reference to the Shinto goddess Amaterasu, and to the spiritual independence which women had lost. Adopting the pen name "Raichō" ("Thunderbird"), she began to call for a women's spiritual revolution.

Hiratsuka also founded the New Women's Association with fellow women's rights activist Ichikawa Fusae. It was largely through this group's efforts that the Article 5 of the Police Security Regulations, which barred women from joining political organizations and holding or attending political meetings, was overturned in 1922.

• Date: 1886-02-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, unseenjapan.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Boeing Employees Strike (2000)

Wed Feb 09, 2000

On this day in 2000, 19,000 of Boeing Company engineering and technical employees walked off the job in what historian Howard Zinn called "the biggest white-collar strike in the [U.S.] history".

The strike was the result of a breakdown in negotiations between Boeing and the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEAA). Striking workers said the protest wasn't just about asking for more money, it was also to "improve the culture of the company and chart a new course for organized labor".

When asked if he thought the strike had a lasting impact on the legacy of labor unions, Charlie Bofferding, Executive Director of SPEAA, stated "I'd have to say certainly less than we would have liked...At that time, what SPEEA was going for was an attempt to rebrand the labor movement from the people who beat up bad management to the people who made working in America better for everyone. I don't know that that message stuck."

• Date: 2000-02-09
• Learn More: www.knkx.org, money.cnn.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org