Working Class Calendar

2nd Palmer Raids Begin (1920)

Fri Jan 02, 1920

On this day in 1920, the Department of Justice launched a series of attacks against leftists and labor organizers across more than 23 states, arresting more than 3,000. President Hoover later admitted that there were "clear cases of brutality".

The Palmer Raids were a series of raids conducted in November 1919 and January 1920 during the First Red Scare by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), under the administration of President Woodrow Wilson. The raids targeted suspected leftists and labor activists, mostly Italian and Eastern European immigrants, especially if they were anarchists or communists, and generally sought to deport them from the United States.

The arrests occurred under the leadership of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, with more than 3,000 arrested. Though 556 people were deported, including prominent anti-capitalist thinkers like Emma Goldman, Palmer's efforts were largely frustrated by officials at the U.S. Department of Labor, which had authority for deportations and objected to DOJ methods.

Although the DOJ initially claimed to have taken possession of several bombs, no evidence of the bombs was produced. In their entirety, all of the raids confiscated just four pistols.

• Date: 1920-01-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.jacobinmag.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anton Pannekoek (1873 - 1960)

Thu Jan 02, 1873

Antonie Pannekoek, born on this day in 1873, was a Dutch astronomer, philosopher, Marxist theorist, and socialist revolutionary.

A respected Marxist theorist, Pannekoek was one of the founders of council communism and a main figure in the radical left in the Netherlands and Germany, active in the Communist Party of the Netherlands, the Communist Workers' Party of the Netherlands and the Communist Workers' Party of Germany.

Pannekoek is perhaps best known for his writing on workers' councils. He regarded these as a new form of organization capable of overcoming the limitations of the old institutions of the labor movement, the trade unions and social democratic parties.

Pannekoek was a sharp critic of anarchism, social democracy, and Leninism. During the early years of the Russian revolution, Pannekoek gave critical support to the Bolsheviks. In later analysis, however, Pannekoek argued that the Bolsheviks crippled the workers' soviets, and formed a new ruling class of their own party.

Unlike other progressive thinkers of his time, Pannekoek was also highly critical of Social Darwinism, derisively calling it "bourgeois darwinism".

"Public ownership is a middle-class program of a modernized and disguised form of capitalism. Common ownership by the producers can be the only goal of the working class."

- Antonie Pannekoek

• Date: 1873-01-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org, www.workerscontrol.net.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Haitian Independence (1804)

Sun Jan 01, 1804

Image: The painting "Attack and take of the Crête-à-Pierrot" (March 24th, 1802), by Auguste Raffet [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1804, the Haitian Republic was established by self-liberated slaves, the culmination of years of violent revolt against French colonizers. More than 200,000 Haitians died in the struggle for liberation.

The Haitian Revolution was the only uprising of enslaved people that led to the founding of a state which was both free from slavery, and ruled by non-whites and former captives.

The revolt began on August 21st, 1791, in what was then the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Thousands of people began to kill their masters, plunge the colony into civil war.

Within the next ten days, slaves had taken control of the entire Northern Province in an uprising of unprecedented scale. The fighting was particularly brutal, and more than 200,000 black people died in the years between the initial uprising and formal independence.

Although Toussaint Louverture established himself as a military leader of the revolution by 1801, he died shortly before independence was won. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, his former lieutenant, became the first leader of Haiti.

• Date: 1804-01-01
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org, eji.org.
• Tags: #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Zapatista Uprising (1994)

Sat Jan 01, 1994

Image: Photo credit: Pedro Valtierra, Antonio Turok

On this day in 1994, the same day that NAFTA took effect, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation declared war on the Mexican state, demanding "work, land, housing, food, health, education, independence, liberty, democracy, justice and peace."

Following this war declaration, armed indigenous rebels seized four towns in Chiapas, Mexico, releasing nearly 200 predominantly indigenous prisoners and destroying land records. The fighting lasted eleven days and estimates of those killed range from 300-400. The EZLN remains active to this day.

• Date: 1994-01-01
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.internationalaffairs.org.au.
• Tags: #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Black Cat Tavern Raid (1966)

Sat Dec 31, 1966

Image: Outside the Black Cat on February 11th, 1967

On this day in 1966, undercover L.A. police raided the Black Cat Tavern when celebrating queer patrons kissed each other at midnight. A campaign of protest, fundraising, and legal appeals on behalf of the arrested was launched, but lost when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case and convictions were sustained.

The Black Cat Tavern is an LGBT historic site located in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, established just two months prior to the raid. PRIDE, short for "Personal Rights in Defense and Education", was a recently esbalished LGBT rights organization that also played a key role in the conflict.

On New Year's Eve in 1966, undercover police staked out the Black Cat Tavern, waiting for the moment that queer patrons would kiss each other at midnight. Cops poured into the bar, assaulting patrons and employees, smashing furniture, and arresting six people. The raid took place two years before the infamous conflict at Stonewall Inn.

PRIDE quickly responded with a campaign of protest, fundraising, and legal appeals for the six arrested that night. On February 11th, 1967, PRIDE organized a peaceful demonstration protesting the LAPD's raid of the Black Cat Tavern, one of the first U.S. demonstrations protesting police brutality against LGBT people.

Two of the men arrested for kissing were later convicted under California Penal Code Section 647 and registered as sex offenders. The men appealed, asserting their right of equal protection under the law, but the U.S. Supreme Court did not accept their case and their convictions were upheld.

On November 7th, 2008, the Black Cat site was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

• Date: 1966-12-31
• Learn More: news.usc.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Queer, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Idaho Governor Assassinated (1905)

Sat Dec 30, 1905

On this day in 1905, Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg, who had arrested striking workers en masse and detained them without trial, was assassinated by a bomb outside his home.

The event took place in the context of militant labor disputes in Idaho, in which the U.S. government crushed organizing by the Western Federation of Miners (WFM). Steunenberg took a hard line against these labor organizers, declaring martial law and asking President McKinley to send federal troops to assist him in crushing the union movement.

The unions, many of which had supported Steunenberg, felt betrayed. The unions, many of which had supported Steunenberg, felt betrayed. On the matter of labor, Steunenberg stated "We have taken the monster by the throat and we are going to choke the life out of it. No halfway measures will be adopted. It is a plain case of the state or the union winning, and we do not propose that the state shall be defeated."

Notable Pinkerton Agent James McParland was called in to investigate the murder. McParland arrested Harry Orchard, a stranger who had been staying at a local hotel, and helped him draft a confession, assuring Orchard that providing evidence against the WFM would prevent him from being executed. Orchard complied, naming William Hayward (general secretary of WFM), Charles Moyer (WFM president), and union member George Pettibone as accomplices.

During the three month trial, the prosecutor was unable to present any information against Hayward, Moyer and Pettibone except for the testimony of Orchard. All three were acquitted. Harry Orchard, because he had provided evidence against the other men, received life imprisonment rather than the death penalty.

• Date: 1905-12-30
• Learn More: spartacus-educational.com, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dupont Plaza Hotel Fire (1986)

Wed Dec 31, 1986

On this day in 1986, striking hotel workers set fire to the Dupont Plaza Hotel in Puerto Rico in an attempt to scare off tourists. The fires burned out of control and killed more than 96 people.

In the weeks leading up to the fire, there was significant labor strife at the Dupont Plaza Hotel. The tension was so great that locals were advising tourists to stay away from the hotel and its casino.

On December 31st, hotel workers voted to go on strike, and three of the labor organizers used chafing fuel to set a storage room on the ground floor on fire.

Although their intent was to merely pressure management into agreeing to union demands, it quickly burned out of control, spreading to the adjacent ballroom and then casino. To prevent theft, hotel managers had locked emergency exits from the casino, and most of the deaths occurred there.

The fire claimed between 96 and 98 lives and caused 140 injuries, becoming the most catastrophic hotel fire in Puerto Rican history and the second deadliest in the history of the United States. The three labor organizers were convicted of murder and sentenced to varying prison terms.

• Date: 1986-12-31
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nfpa.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Flint Sit-Down Strike (1936)

Wed Dec 30, 1936

Image: Sit-down strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher body plant number three. Photo by Sheldon Dick, 1937.

On this day in 1936, auto workers at the GM Fisher Number One Plant in Flint, Michigan began a highly organized 44-day occupation of their factory, winning a 5% wage increase.

The victory was an extremely successful recruitment tool for the just-formed United Automobile Workers (UAW), with approximately half a million workers signing up with the union over the next few years.

The UAW had formed in 1935 and decided to adjust its organizing strategy to target the most valuable auto factories and employers. They decided to target GM factories in Flint, which were essential to multiple lines of GM cars, and to the cars of GM's subsidiary companies like Chevrolet and Buick.

As Wyndham Mortimer, the first UAW officer put in charge of organizing the campaign in Flint, entered the town, he was surveilled by men from GM. The company had also infiltrated local union shops (which had very few of the local auto workers) with spies. The UAW was thus forced to organize in secret.

On December 30th, the union learned that GM was planning to move dies essential to the Fisher #1 plant's strategic value out of the factory. UAW lead organizer Bob Travis immediately called a lunchtime meeting at the union hall across the street from the plant, explained the situation, then sent the members across the street to occupy the plant, beginning the Flint Sit-Down Strike.

The state government refused to get involved, so GM attempted to break the occupation by cutting power and water, and interfering with food deliveries. Workers organized committees dedicated to defense, cleaning, organized recreation, and postal service.

On January 11th, 1937, the police, armed with guns and tear gas, attempted to enter the plant. They were successfully repelled by the workers, who pelted the cops with hinges, bottles, and bolts. Fourteen strikers were injured by gunfire during the battle.

GM obtained two injunctions against the strike, however these were ignored by the workers. One injunction was issued by a judge who owned over three thousand shares of GM, leading him to getting disbarred after the UAW discovered this information.

On February 11th, 1937, GM signed a one-page agreement that formally recognized the UAW as a bargaining representative. The UAW gained significant credibility - in the following year, its membership grew from 30,000 to 500,000 members. Employees of other car manufacturers such as Ford joined the organization, and the entire industry rapidly unionized.

• Date: 1936-12-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Guy Debord (1931 - 1994)

Mon Dec 28, 1931

Guy Debord, born on this day in 1931, was a Marxist philosopher and filmmaker who co-founded the Situationist International and authored "The Society of the Spectacle" (1967).

Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931 and began his career as a writer after dropping out of the University of Paris, where he was studying law. Debord joined the Letterist International, a group of avant-garde French artists and intellectuals, when he was 18.

Debord was first to propose the concept of the "Spectacle", referring to the role of media, culture and advertising in post-World War II consumerist society, and the way it is able to commercially co-opt and repackage counter-cultural ideas and movements.

On the nature of media and the new-found emphasis on appearance, Debord stated "Just as early industrial capitalism moved the focus of existence from being to having, post-industrial culture has moved that focus from having to appearing."

The concept of "Spectacle" became central to the ideas of the Situationist International, which Debord co-founded in 1957. Ideas from the Situationists proved influential on protesters during the May 68 uprising in France, where quotes and slogans from Situationist work would appear on graffiti and posters.

Debord himself would disband the Situationist International in 1972, following internal tensions amongst its members, and would focus on creating experimental film and tabletop war games, publishing "A Game of War" in 1987.

Suffering from depression and alcoholism in his later years, Debord committed suicide at his home in 1994.

"The more powerful the class, the more it claims not to exist."

- Guy Debord

• Date: 1931-12-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, hazlitt.net, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Knights of Labor Founded (1869)

Tue Dec 28, 1869

Image: **

The Knights of Labor was an American labor federation founded on this day in 1869. At its height, K of L organized 1/5th of the U.S. labor force in the late 1800s. K of L was an important predecessor to labor unions such as the AFL and IWW.

The Knights of Labor operated in the U.S. as well in Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. K of L demanded an eight hour work day, an end to child and convict labor, and supported worker cooperatives. In some cases it acted directly as a labor union, negotiating with employers.

Jonathan Garlock of the Mapping American Social Movements Project states that, between 1869 and 1896, the Knights of Labor spanned the North American continent with 15,000 Local Assemblies. In the U.S., assemblies were organized in communities of every type, from mining camps and country crossroads to rural county seats; from small industrial towns to cities and metropolitan centers.

Of the three and a half thousand places in America with populations over 1,000 in the decade 1880-1890, half had at least one Local Assembly of the Knights of Labor sometime between 1869 and 1896. Of the communities with populations over 8,000, all but a dozen had Knights Assemblies. Many towns had several Assemblies, while important cities had more than one hundred.

K of L was notable in its ambition to organize across lines of gender and race and in the inclusion of both skilled and unskilled labor. Garlock describes numerous Assemblies as entirely formed of black, women workers, or workers of distinct ethnic origins, while in others, Assemblies membership cut across racial, gender, and ethnic lines.

An exception to this inclusiveness was discrimination against Chinese immigrant workers. The Knights strongly supported the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and violently targeted Chinese workers, such as in the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, when white miners organized with the K of L killed scores of Chinese workers, hired as strikebreakers by their bosses, and drove the rest out of Wyoming.

After a rapid expansion in the mid-1880s, K of L went into decline, primarily losing members to the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

• Date: 1869-12-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.history.com, depts.washington.edu, www.lawcha.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Joseph Déjacque (1821 - 1864)

Thu Dec 27, 1821

Image: A photo of "La Question Revolutionnaire" by Joseph Déjacque

Joseph Déjacque, born on this day in 1821, was a French anarcho-communist poet and philosopher who coined the term "libertarian" in reference to his own anti-capitalist politics. He utilized the term in an 1857 letter written to Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, criticizing his sexist views and support of individual ownership of the product of labor and a market economy.

Déjacque was sentenced to two years of prison for his collection of poems "Les Lazaréennes, Fables et Poésies Sociales", but escaped to London around the time of the December 2nd, 1851 coup d'état. There, he joined a small community of outlaws gathered in Jersey and published "La question révolutionnaire", an exposition of the philosophy of anarchism.

Later, Déjacque moved to the United States, where he publicly condemned the hanging of John Brown and promoted the abolitionist cause. As the American Civil War began, Déjacque published the last issue of his paper "Libertaire" with an urgent appeal in which he urges the American people, whom he would like to be "less religious and more socialist", to defend freedom and the Republic against the "Jesuits, slavers, absolutists and authoritarians" who were at their door.

Déjacque then returned to France, living his remaining years in poverty and passing away in 1864.

"Choose then: —Property is the negation of liberty. —Liberty is the negation of property. —Social slavery and individual property, this is what authority affirms. —Individual liberty and social property, that is the affirmation of anarchy.

People of progress, martyred by authority, choose anarchy!"

• Joseph Déjacque

• Date: 1821-12-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, drc.libraries.uc.edu, robertgraham.wordpress.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Toranomon Incident (1923)

Thu Dec 27, 1923

Image: Daisuke Namba, the attempted assassin of Crown Prince Regent Hirohito, displaying facial injuries sustained under police custody

The Toranomon Incident (虎ノ門事件) was an assassination attempt on the Prince Regent Hirohito of Japan by communist dissident Daisuke Nanba that took place at the Toranomon intersection in downtown Tokyo, Japan on this day in 1923. Nanba was sentenced to death and executed on November 15th, 1924.

Nanba was motivated both by anti-capitalist ideology and a desire to avenge the execution of Shūsui Kōtoku, who was executed for his alleged role in the High Treason Incident of 1910. Hirohito was on his way to the opening of the 48th Session of the Imperial Diet when Namba fired a small pistol into his carriage, shattering a window and injuring a chamberlain, but leaving Hirohito unharmed.

After being arrested, Nanba explained that he was a communist and was seeking to avenge the death of Kōtoku. Despite court records affirming his sound state of mind, Namba was presented as insane to the public.

• Date: 1923-12-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mao Zedong (1893 - 1976)

Tue Dec 26, 1893

Image: Mao Zedong 1963 [Wikipedia]

Mao Zedong, born on this day in 1893, was a communist revolutionary and a founder of the People's Republic of China, which he governed as Chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1949 until his death in 1976. Making his own innovations on Marxism-Leninism, his theories, military strategies, and political policies are collectively known as Maoism.

The son of a peasant farmer, Mao Zedong was born on December 26th, 1893 in the village of Shao Shan, Hunan province. At age 27, Mao attended the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in Shanghai, in July 1921. Two years later, he was elected to the Central Committee of the party at the Third Congress.

From 1931 to 1934, Mao helped established the Chinese Soviet Republic in Southeast China, and was elected as the chairman. Starting in October 1934, "The Long March" began, an arduous military retreat from southeast to northwest China. The Long March took place over 9,000 kilometers (5,600 miles) in 370 days. Following the conclusion of the Second Sino-Japanese War, a civil war broke out in which the Communists defeated the Kuomintang and established the People’s Republic of China in October 1949.

Several monumental events in Chinese history occurred during Mao's administration, such as the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Chinese involvement in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War, the Sino-Soviet split, and Richard Nixon's 1972 diplomatic visit to Beijing.

In 1946, Mao gave an interview to American journalist Anna Louise Strong. Here is a short excerpt:

Strong: Do you think there is hope for a political, a peaceful settlement of China's problems in the near future?

Mao: That depends on the attitude of the U.S. government. If the American people stay the hands of the American reactionaries who are helping Chiang Kai-shek fight the civil war, there is hope for peace.

...

Strong: Suppose the United States uses the atom bomb? Suppose the United States bombs the Soviet Union from its bases in Iceland, Okinawa and China?

Mao: The atom bomb is a paper tiger which the U.S. reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atom bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon.

Mao: All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are really powerful. In Russia, before the February Revolution in 1917, which side was really strong? On the surface the tsar was strong but he was swept away by a single gust of wind in the February Revolution. In the final analysis, the strength in Russia was on the side of the Soviets of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers. The tsar was just a paper tiger. Wasn't Hitler once considered very strong? But history proved that he was a paper tiger. So was Mussolini, so was Japanese imperialism. On the contrary, the strength of the Soviet Union and of the people in all countries who loved democracy and freedom proved much greater than had been foreseen.

Mao: Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters, the U.S. reactionaries, are all paper tigers too. Speaking of U.S. imperialism, people seem to feel that it is terrifically strong. Chinese reactionaries are using the "strength" of the United States to frighten the Chinese people. But it will be proved that the U.S. reactionaries, like all the reactionaries in history, do not have much strength. In the United States there are others who are really strong -- the American people.

Mao: ...Although the Chinese people still face many difficulties and will long suffer hardships from the joint attacks of U.S. imperialism and the Chinese reactionaries, the day will come when these reactionaries are defeated and we are victorious. The reason is simply this: the reactionaries represent reaction, we represent progress.

"A revolution is not a dinner party, nor a literary composition, nor painting nor embroidering. It cannot be done so delicately, so leisurely, so gentlemanly and gently, kindly, politely and modestly. Revolution is insurrection, the violent action of one class overthrowing the power of another. An agrarian revolution is a revolution by the peasantry to overthrow the power of the feudal landlord class. If the peasants do not apply great force, the power of the landlords, built up over thousands of years, can never be uprooted."

- Mao Zedong

• Date: 1893-12-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org, www.marxists.org, www.marxists.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

South Korean General Strike (1996-97)

Thu Dec 26, 1996

Image: A Time magazine cover from January 1997 with the headline "Showdown in Seoul South Korea Gets Tough on Labor"

On this day in 1996, more than 700,000 South Korean workers initiated a four-week general strike in response to a new anti-labor law passed quietly by the government. Workers won some amendments to the law the following February.

Earlier that year, the South Korean government had claimed changes to the economy were necessary to make the country more competitive. After failing to pass a new labor bill following six months of hearings, the ruling New Korea Party (NKP) went about passing their reforms in an underhanded fashion.

The NKP created a secret committee to create the new set of labor laws on December 3rd and then, very early in the morning of December 26th, members of the party passed eleven bills in twenty minutes.

The passed laws made it easier and legal for companies to lay off workers, increased the legal workweek by 12 hours, made the use of scab labor during strikes legal, and outlawed strike pay.

This caused widespread outrage not just among labor organizations, but among other parties as well, who had been kept in the dark about the proceedings. Following the bills' passage, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) called on their 1.2 million members to strike, the first call for a general strike in their history.

After a single day, the strikes started spreading to other sectors including hospitals. On December 28th, South Korean riot police used methods such as tear gas against the strikers in order to dispel crowds. Strikers responded by throwing bricks.

The government threatened to arrest union leaders in January, as large-scale clashes continued with authorities. In late January and February of 1997, the strike ended after the labor laws were amended by the government, however many of the anti-labor reforms were kept in place.

• Date: 1996-12-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, edition.cnn.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Seminole Nation Defeats U.S. Army (1837)

Mon Dec 25, 1837

On this day in 1837, Africans and Native Americans who had formed Florida's Seminole Nation decisively defeated an invading U.S. force more than twice their size, led by slaveowner and future U.S. president Zachary Taylor.

Since the founding of the U.S., escaped African slaves had settled in modern-day Florida. At the same time, Seminoles suffering under Creek rule in Alabama and Georgia were fleeing south to seek independence. There, the two groups formed an alliance, sharing cultivation techniques and putting up armed resistance against colonization and slaver forces.

The U.S. repeatedly invaded territory controlled by this alliance, and, on Christmas Day in 1837, 380 to 480 Seminole fighters gathered on the northeast corner of Florida's Lake Okeechobee ready to halt the armies of Colonel Zachary Taylor, a Louisiana slaveholder and future U.S. president.

Seminole riflemen waited for the soldiers in trees, firing on them from above. The battle was a decisive defeat for U.S. forces, however Taylor falsely claimed a victory when returning to Fort Gardner.

• Date: 1837-12-25
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, libcom.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Bloody Christmas (1951)

Tue Dec 25, 1951

Image: A still from the movie L.A. Confidential, showing a Los Angeles Times front-page story with the headline "BLOODY CHRISTMAS Police Assault Prisoners in Jailhouse Melee"

On this day in 1951, LAPD officers beat 7 imprisoned civilians, an event known as "Bloody Christmas". Police leadership covered up the abuse, but, after an investigation, 8 officers were indicted, 54 were transferred, and 39 were suspended. The event was fictionalized in the 1990 novel "L.A. Confidential" by James Ellroy, later made into the film of the same name.

On Christmas Eve 1951, LAPD officers Julius Trojanowski and Nelson Brownson responded to a report that minors were drinking alcohol. Officers accosted seven men - five Mexican, two white - at the scene, and ordered them to leave despite the fact that they had identification proving they were old enough to drink.

When the men refused to leave, officers used force. In the ensuing scuffle, both cops were injured. Seven hours after the fight, LAPD officers arrested all seven men at their own homes.

Six were taken straight to the Los Angeles Central City Jail, however one was dragged to a squad car by his hair and driven to the city's Elysian Park, where he was beaten so badly that he required two blood transfusions due to the extent of his injuries.

The remaining six prisoners were taken from their cells in the Central City Jail and lined up by dozens of cops, many of them drunk. Approximately 50 officers then participated in a beating that lasted for 95 minutes, giving the men severe injuries that included punctured organs and broken facial bones.

Senior LAPD management kept the attack on the prisoners out of the mainstream news for almost three months. Media coverage ignored the beatings on Christmas Day and focused on the brawl the night before.

Members of the Mexican-American community pushed for a focus on police brutality and, as more reports of violence flooded in, the media began to turn against the LAPD, running stories condemning police tactics. Despite initiating an internal investigation, LAPD Police Chief William Parker was dismissive, suggesting that criminals were alleging police brutality to get him fired so that the L.A. underworld could re-establish its illegal activities.

The internal investigation's report uncovered a widespread culture of police brutality, leading to grand jury hearings against the LAPD. Officers who had previously given detailed information to internal affairs investigators could remember very little in court.

Despite police attempts to obstruct the hearings, they resulted in eight officers being indicted for assault. Five of them were convicted, but only one received a sentence of more than a year in prison. A further 54 officers were transferred, and 39 were temporarily suspended without pay.

• Date: 1951-12-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.latimes.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Stormé DeLarverie (1920 - 2014)

Fri Dec 24, 1920

Stormé DeLarverie, born on this day in 1920, was a biracial queer icon whose reported scuffle with police was the spark that ignited the Stonewall Riots in 1969. She is sometimes referred to as the "Rosa Parks of the gay community" or "Rosa Parks of Stonewall".

DeLarverie was born in New Orleans to a black mother and a white father, and spent the 50s and 60s as a "male impersonator" in the Jewel Box Revue, the period's only racially integrated drag troupe. Her gender-bending style of zoot suits and black ties was groundbreaking for the era.

On June 28th, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York City, a scuffle broke out when a woman, believed to be Stormé, was roughly escorted from the door of the bar to the waiting police wagon. The woman fought with at least four of the police, swearing and shouting, for about ten minutes. When she shouted to the bystanders "Why don't you guys do something?", the crowd began rioting and clashed with police.

"It was a rebellion, it was an uprising, it was a civil rights disobedience - it wasn’t no damn riot."

- Stormé DeLarverie

• Date: 1920-12-24
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.gq.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mungyeong Massacre (1949)

Sat Dec 24, 1949

Image: A map of Korea with the North Gyeongsang province highlighted

On this day in 1949, the South Korean Army slaughtered 86-88 unarmed civilians, including 32 children, in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang while disguised as communist guerillas. The government blamed the massacre on communists for decades.

The South Korean government had designated the village as communist-aligned after residents there did not welcome state presence. On December 24th, 1949, the South Korean Army went on a shooting rampage throughout the village, killing between 86-88 unarmed civilians, 32 of whom were children.

Soldiers disguised themselves as communist guerillas, and the South Korean government denied any role in the violence, blaming the massacre on communist forces for decades.

On June 26th, 2006, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Korea concluded that the massacre was committed by the South Korean Army. In July 2008, the victims' families filed for compensation from the government, however these claims were initially rejected by Korean courts on the basis that too much time had passed.

In June 2011, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled in favor of the victims' families, stating "It is difficult for people to claim compensation for the infringement of basic rights through the usual legal process when the infringement was systematically committed directly by the state or under the state's tacit rule. The plaintiffs had reason enough not to have exercised their rights to claim compensation".

• Date: 1949-12-24
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.koreatimes.co.kr.
• Tags: #Communism, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Luigi Fabbri (1877 - 1935)

Sun Dec 23, 1877

Luigi Fabbri, born on this day in 1877, was an anarchist writer, theorist, and educator from Italy. Starting from the age of sixteen, Fabbri spent many years in prison for his anarchist activism.

Fabbri was a prolific contributor to the anarchist press in Europe and later South America, including co-editing, along with Errico Malatesta, the paper "L'Agitazione". In 1936, he published "Dictatorship and Revolution", an anarchist response to Vladimir Lenin's work "The State and Revolution". In his work "Marxism and Anarchism", Fabbri makes distinct the political philosophies of anarchism and Marxism.

In 1929, Fabbri fled Europe to Uruguay with his family before settling in Buenos Aires and continuing his writing with the anarchist newspaper "The Protest". He was also a journalist in the Rio Plata region, where he dealt with the political and trade union problems of the local workers' movement, in which there was a strong anarchist presence.

"But in politics, the winner is in the right, even if he is wrong: and whoever leaves the field comes off worse."

- Luigi Fabbri

• Date: 1877-12-23
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Disgruntled Employee Takes Citibank Offline (2013)

Mon Dec 23, 2013

Image: A Citibank location with a woman carrying an umbrella walking in front of it

On this day in 2013, disgruntled Citibank employee Lennon Brown took down 90% of their North American servers before leaving work that day.

Earlier that day, Brown's supervisor had had a conversation with him regarding his performance at work. Two minutes before leaving the office, Brown transmitted a command to ten Citibank Global Control Center routers, erasing their running configuration files and resulting in a loss of connectivity to ~90% of all Citibank networks across North America.

Brown pleaded guilty in February 2016 to an indictment charging one count of intentional damage to a protected computer. A text sent by Brown, read during his sentencing hearing, said the following:

"They was firing me. I just beat them to it. Nothing personal, the upper management need to see what the guys on the floor is capable of doing when they keep getting mistreated. I took one for the team. Sorry if I made my peers look bad, but sometimes it take something like what I did to wake the upper management up."

• Date: 2013-12-23
• Learn More: www.justice.gov, www.tripwire.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Kenneth Rexroth (1905 - 1982)

Fri Dec 22, 1905

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, anarchist, and Wobbly born on this day in 1905. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.

Rexroth was born in Indianna to a family familiar with radical politics; his dad used to drink with Eugene V. Debs. Rexroth was almost completely self-educated, with only five years of formal schooling, and taught himself several languages. He became skeptical of the Soviet Union after the failed Kronstadt rebellion in 1921, which solidified his anarchist leanings.

Here is a poem composed by Rexroth on the subject of anarchists Bartomeleo Vanzetti and Nicola Sacco who were executed by the state:

"I saw you both marching in an army

You with the red and black flag, Sacco with the

rattlesnake banner.

I kicked steps up the last snow bank and came

To the indescribably blue and fragrant

Polemonium and the dead sky and the sterile

Crystalline granite and final monolith of the summit.

These are the things that will last a long time,

Vanzetti,

I am glad that once on your day I have stood among them.

Some day mountains will be named after you and Sacco.

They will be here and your name with them,

When these days are but a dim remembering of the time

When man was wolf to man.

I think men will be remembering you a long time

Standing on the mountains

Many men, a long time, comrade."

• Date: 1905-12-22
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Kuwasi Balagoon (1946 - 1986)

Sun Dec 22, 1946

Kuwasi Balagoon was a queer New Afrikan anarchist and a member of the Black Liberation Army born on this day in 1946. A veteran of the U.S. Army, the racism he experienced in the military led him to begin tenant organizing in New York City, where he joined the Black Panther Party. He was one of the defendants in the Panther 21 case.

Balagoon later escaped from Rahway State Prison in New Jersey and went underground with the Black Liberation Army (BLA) in 1978. On October 20th, 1981, he was captured while participating in an armored truck robbery (known as the Brinks Robbery of 1981) which killed two cops and a money courier. Balagoon was subsequently sentenced to life in prison.

Balagoon authored several texts while in prison, writings that have become influential among anarchists since first being published and distributed by anarchist prisoner support networks in the 1980s and 1990s. He died in prison of an AIDS-related illness on December 13th, 1986, aged 39.

• Date: 1946-12-22
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Santa María School Massacre (1907)

Sat Dec 21, 1907

Image: A Communist Party mural that commemorates Santa Maria school massacre on the right, photo Rodrigo Fernandez/CC

On this day in 1907, a massacre took place at the Santa María School in Iquique, Chile when the Chilean Army fired on a crowd of striking workers, mostly nitrate miners, and their families, killing approximately 2,000 people.

Preceding the massacre, on December 10th, 1907, a general strike had broken out in Tarapacá Province. This was the start of the "18 Pence Strike" (Spanish: "la huelga de los 18 peniques"). A large contingent of strikers traveled to the provincial capital, the port city of Iquique, carrying the flags of Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, and issued a set of pro-worker demands.

The site of the massacre was the Domingo Santa María School, where thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's far north had been camping for a week after converging on Iquique, the regional capital, to appeal for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions.

Rafael Sotomayor Gaete, the minister of the interior, decided to crush the strike, with violence if necessary. On December 21st, 1907, General Roberto Silva Renard, gave the strikers and their families one hour to leave or be fired upon.

After the mass of workers refused to leave, General Silva Renard gave his troops the order to fire, killing an estimated 2,000 people, including women and children present. Among the dead was Spanish worker Manuel Vaca, half-brother of the anarchist Antonio Ramón.

Ramón traveled to Iquique to find out what happened to his sibling. On December 14th, 1914, he approached General Renard on the street and stabbed him several times in the head. Renard survived the attack, but suffered severe injuries, losing his sight and all movement in half of his face, remaining an invalid until he died in 1920. Ramón was released from prison in 1919.

For decades after the massacre, the government repressed official acknowledgement of the incident. In 2007, the government conducted a highly publicized commemoration of its centenary, including an official national day of mourning and the reinternment of the victims' remains.

• Date: 1907-12-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.socialistparty.org.uk.
• Tags: #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Thomas Sankara (1949 - 1987)

Wed Dec 21, 1949

Thomas Sankara, born on this day in 1949, was a Burkinabé revolutionary who was President of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. A Marxist-Leninist and pan-Africanist, he was viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure of revolution and is sometimes referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara".

Sankara came into power when allies instigated a coup on his behalf in 1983. He immediately launched programs for social, ecological, and economic change, as well as renaming the country from the French colonial "Upper Volta" to Burkina Faso ("Land of Incorruptible People"), with its people being called Burkinabé ("upright people").

His administration was known for refusing foreign aid to remain politically independent, nationalizing the country's land and mineral wealth, and promoting literacy, women's rights, and public health. Among the achievements of his administration was vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles.

On October 15th, 1987, Sankara was assassinated by troops led by Blaise Compaoré, who assumed leadership of the state shortly after having him killed. A week before his assassination, Sankara declared: "While revolutionaries as individuals can be murdered, you cannot kill ideas."

• Date: 1949-12-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.thomassankara.net.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Marta Russell (1951 - 2013)

Thu Dec 20, 1951

Marta Russell was an American writer and disability rights activist born on this day in 1951. Her book, "Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract published in 1998" analyzes the relationship between disability, social Darwinism, and economic austerity under capitalism.

Her political views, which she described as "left, not liberal", informed her writing on topics such as healthcare, the prison-industrial complex, physician-assisted suicide, poverty, ableism, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

"There is no Death with Dignity when people choose to die because health care economics and the social services system prevent life with dignity."

- Marta Russell

• Date: 1951-12-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, solidarity-us.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org