Working Class Calendar

Occupy Wall Street Begins (2011)

Sat Sep 17, 2011

Image: Two protesters, both holding signs. One says "I CAN'T AFFORD LOBBYISTS", the other reads "NO MORE CORRUPTION" [occupy.com]

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a protest movement against economic inequality that began on this day in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, in 2011. It gave rise to the wider Occupy movement in the United States and other countries.

The OWS slogan, "We are the 99%", refers to income and wealth inequality in the U.S. between the wealthiest 1% and the rest of the population. To achieve their goals, protesters acted on consensus-based decisions made in general assemblies which emphasized redress through direct action.

• Date: 2011-09-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.rferl.org, www.occupy.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Teachers Strike in Philippines (1988)

Sat Sep 17, 1988

On this day in 1988, thousands of school teachers in the Philippines went on strike, leading to mass firings and suspensions by the government.

The following account of the strike is quoted verbatim from a history of trade unionism by the International Communist Current, a left communist organization headquartered in Paris, France:

"In September 17-21, 1988 thousands of school teachers led by Association of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) went on strike due to unpaid allowances. Classes were completely paralyzed, prompting Education Secretary Cariño to dismiss and suspend 3,000 teachers. This struggle was "led" by the CPP [Communist Party of the Philippines]. Instead of generalizing the struggle of the teachers, CPP isolated it, leading to its failure. This took place as the workers' movement in general was on the wane.

...The years 1987-1988 were the last expression of the generalization of workers' struggles. Attempts of the militant workers to generalize their struggles were marred by union sabotage of sectoral and industry by industry struggles of the unions."

• Date: 1988-09-17
• Learn More: libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Teachers Strike in Philippines (1988)

Sat Sep 17, 1988

On this day in 1988, thousands of school teachers in the Philippines went on strike, leading to mass firings and suspensions by the government.

The following account of the strike is quoted verbatim from a history of trade unionism by the International Communist Current, a left communist organization headquartered in Paris, France:

"In September 17-21, 1988 thousands of school teachers led by Association of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) went on strike due to unpaid allowances. Classes were completely paralyzed, prompting Education Secretary Cariño to dismiss and suspend 3,000 teachers. This struggle was "led" by the CPP [Communist Party of the Philippines]. Instead of generalizing the struggle of the teachers, CPP isolated it, leading to its failure. This took place as the workers' movement in general was on the wane.

...The years 1987-1988 were the last expression of the generalization of workers' struggles. Attempts of the militant workers to generalize their struggles were marred by union sabotage of sectoral and industry by industry struggles of the unions."

• Date: 1988-09-17
• Learn More: libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Teachers Strike in Philippines (1988)

Sat Sep 17, 1988

On this day in 1988, thousands of school teachers in the Philippines went on strike, leading to mass firings and suspensions by the government.

The following account of the strike is quoted verbatim from a history of trade unionism by the International Communist Current, a left communist organization headquartered in Paris, France:

"In September 17-21, 1988 thousands of school teachers led by Association of Concerned Teachers (ACT) and Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) went on strike due to unpaid allowances. Classes were completely paralyzed, prompting Education Secretary Cariño to dismiss and suspend 3,000 teachers. This struggle was "led" by the CPP [Communist Party of the Philippines]. Instead of generalizing the struggle of the teachers, CPP isolated it, leading to its failure. This took place as the workers' movement in general was on the wane.

...The years 1987-1988 were the last expression of the generalization of workers' struggles. Attempts of the militant workers to generalize their struggles were marred by union sabotage of sectoral and industry by industry struggles of the unions."

• Date: 1988-09-17
• Learn More: libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ricardo Flores Magón (1873 - 1922)

Tue Sep 16, 1873

✱sources provide conflicting birth years - the one listed is provided by Encyclopedia Britannica

Ricardo Flores Magón, born on this day in 1873, was a noted Mexican anarchist and social reform activist. Followers of the Flores Magón brothers (including Enrique and Jesus) were known as Magonistas. In 1911, the Magonistas controlled Tijuana and Mexicali for about six months as part of the "Magonista Uprising" against the state.

Drawing upon the influences of early anarchist writers, such as Kropotkin, Bakunin, Goldman, and others, Ricardo was one of the major thinkers of the Mexican Revolution and the Mexican revolutionary movement in the Partido Liberal Mexicano.

Flores Magón organized with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and edited the Mexican anarchist newspaper "Regeneración". He has been considered an important participant in the social movement that sparked the Mexican Revolution.

After his works were banned in Mexico, Ricardo fled to the United States, where he would remain for the rest of his life. Arrested multiple times, his final arrest came he was charged and convicted with sedition under the Espionage Act of 1917, and he was sentenced to twenty years for "obstructing the war effort", a violation of the Act.

Magón died at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas, and speculation remains today about whether he died of natural causes or was murdered by prison guards.

• Date: 1873-09-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, www.marxists.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #IWW, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Max Hoelz Drowns (1933)

Fri Sep 15, 1933

On this day in 1933, Max Hoelz, known for his role as a "Communist Bandit" in the Vogtland region during a period of right-wing German rule, died in a boating accident, which at least one historian has claimed was an NKVD assassination.

Max Hoelz (1889 - 1933) became politically radicalized by the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and by contact with Georg Schumann, a member of the socialist Spartakusbund. Schumann was later to be executed by the Nazis in 1945.

In 1920, after the right-wing Kapp Putsch, Hoelz organized workers from Falkenstein and Oelsnitz in a Red Guard, leading armed bands against the police, the army, and the far-right paramilitary Freikorps. In this role, he became Robin Hood-like figure, raising money from employers under threat of reprisals, liberating prisoners, destroying property deeds and police archives, and burning villas of the rich.

Later in life, after the Nazis began to come into power, Hoelz moved to Soviet Russia, however he became a dissident, critical of bad working conditions. On September 15th, 1933, he died in a boating accident, which anarchist historian Nick Heath claimed was actually an NKVD assassination.

• Date: 1933-09-15
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anne Moody (1940 - 2015)

Sun Sep 15, 1940

Anne Moody, born on this day in 1940, was an American civil rights activist who participated in the NAACP, Congress of Racial Equality, and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Her 1968 memoirs are titled "Coming of Age in Mississippi".

After graduating from Tougaloo College, Moody became a full-time worker in the civil rights movement, participating in a variety of different protests such as marches and sit-ins. Moody was attacked by a mob while participating in a sit-in at a Woolworth's lunch counter in Jackson, Mississippi.

Moody was also arrested in Jackson for attempting to protest inside of a post office with 13 other protesters, including Joan Trumpauer, Doris Erskine, Jeanette King, and Lois Chaffee.

Shortly after this, Moody moved to New York and wrote her autobiography, "Coming of Age in Mississippi", published in 1968.

"'We shall overcome, We shall overcome / We shall overcome some day.' I WONDER. I really WONDER."

- Anne Moody

• Date: 1940-09-15
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.wnyc.org, nationalhumanitiescenter.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Jacobo Árbenz (1913 - 1971)

Sun Sep 14, 1913

Jacobo Árbenz, born on this day in 1913, was a Guatemalan President who earned the ire of the United Fruit Company, the largest private landowner in the country, by instituting widespread land reforms. He was ousted in a U.S-backed coup in 1954.

Árbenz served as the Minister of National Defense from 1944 to 1951 and the second democratically elected President of Guatemala from 1951 to 1954. He was a major figure in the ten-year Guatemalan Revolution, which represented some of the few years of representative democracy in Guatemalan history.

Árbenz instituted many popular reforms, including an expanded right to vote, the right of workers to organize, legitimizing political parties, and allowing public debate.

The centerpiece of Árbenz' policy was an agrarian reform law, under which uncultivated portions of large land-holdings were expropriated in return for compensation and redistributed to poverty-stricken agricultural laborers. Approximately 500,000 people benefited from the decree, the majority of them indigenous people whose forebears had been dispossessed after the Spanish invasion.

Opposition to these policies led the United Fruit Company to lobby the U.S. government to have him overthrown. The U.S. was also concerned by the presence of communists in the Guatemalan government, and Árbenz was ousted in a coup d'état engineered by the U.S. government on June 27th, 1954.

"Our only crime consisted of decreeing our own laws and applying them to all without exception. Our crime is having enacted an agrarian reform which effected the interests of the United Fruit Company. Our crime is wanting to have our own route to the Atlantic, our own electric power and our own docks and ports. Our crime is our patriotic wish to advance, to progress, to win economic independence to match our political independence. We are condemned because we have given our peasant population land and rights."

- Jacobo Árbenz

• Date: 1913-09-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, ufcguatemala.voices.wooster.edu.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Margaret Sanger (1879 - 1966)

Sun Sep 14, 1879

Image: A studio portrait of Margaret Sanger, c. 1915 [time.com]

Margaret Sanger, born on this day in 1879, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control", opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, and established organizations that evolved into the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

Sanger also worked with African-American leaders who saw a need for birth control in their communities. In 1930, she opened a clinic in Harlem, staffed with black doctors, by securing funding from the Julius Rosenwald Fund.

Sanger did not tolerate bigotry among her staff, nor would she tolerate any refusal to work within interracial projects. The clinic was publicized in the African-American press and churches, and it received approval from W.E.B. Du Bois. Sanger's efforts were also later lauded by MLK Jr.

Although Sanger rejected racist bigotry, she did endorse the ableism of the then-popular eugenics movement, writing in 1921 that "the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective".

"Birth control is the first important step woman must take toward the goal of her freedom. It is the first step she must take to be man's equal. It is the first step they must both take toward human emancipation."

- Margaret Sanger

• Date: 1879-09-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org, time.com, www.plannedparenthood.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tavis Smiley (1964 - )

Sun Sep 13, 1964

Tavis Smiley, born on this day in 1964, is an American talk show host and author. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. From 2010 to 2013, Smiley and Cornel West worked together to host their own radio talk show, Smiley & West.

In 2012, Smiley participated in a "Poverty Tour" with Princeton University professor Cornel West to promote their book "The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto". The stated aim of the tour was to highlight the plight of the impoverished population of the United States prior to the 2012 presidential election, whose candidates Smiley and West stated had ignored the plight of the poor.

In 2017, PBS indefinitely suspended Smiley after a law firm "uncovered multiple, credible allegations of conduct that is inconsistent with the values and standards of PBS." The publication Variety reported that Smiley was let go due to multiple sexual relationships with subordinates, some of whom felt the relationship was connected to their employment.

Smiley has stated "To be clear, I have never groped, coerced or exposed myself inappropriately to any workplace colleague in my entire broadcast career, covering six networks over 30 years".

"All he could think of was how all people require attention. All people require respect. All people require acknowledgment. All people require love."

- Tavis Smiley

• Date: 1964-09-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, pnhp.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Geronimo Pratt (1947 - 2011)

Sat Sep 13, 1947

Elmer "Geronimo" Pratt, born on this day in 1947, was a decorated military veteran and a high-ranking associate of the Black Panther Party in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In Los Angeles, Pratt studied at UCLA under the GI Bill and began working with the Black Panther Party. Pratt was also a target of the FBI's COINTEL program, which sought to subvert black power movements.

In 1972, Pratt was wrongfully convicted for murder and served 27 years in prison, eight of which were in solitary confinement. Pratt was freed in 1997 when his conviction was vacated due to the prosecution concealing wiretaps that proved he was not at the scene of the murder.

"I considered myself chopped off the game plan when I was arrested. But it was incumbent upon me to free myself and continue to struggle again. You can't look back twenty-seven years and say it was [lost time]. I'm still living. I run about five miles every morning, and I can still bench press 300 pounds ten times. I can give you ten reps. Also I hope I'm a little more intelligent and I'm not crazy. It's a hell of a gain that I survived."

- Geronimo Pratt

• Date: 1947-09-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

First Gay Liberation Front Protest (1969)

Fri Sep 12, 1969

Image: Gay Liberation Front members marching on Times Square, Fall 1969. Photograph by Diana Davies.

On this day in 1969, the U.S. Gay Liberation Front held their first protest, demanding a meeting with Village Voice publishers who refused to publish their ads, claiming the word "gay" was profane. After being confronted, the ads were ran.

The U.S. Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was formed in the aftermath of the Stonewall Uprising, a landmark event in the American queer liberation struggle. The Stonewall Uprising received homophobic coverage from the Village Voice, whose authors referred to the protesters with language like "blatant queens", "limp wristed", and dubbing the event "the Great removed Rebellion".

A little over two months after the riot, the newly formed GLF tried to place two small ads in the Voice, however the Voice refused to run them, and claimed the word "gay" was profane. On September 12th, 1969, the GLF held their first protest, demanding a meeting with publisher Ed Fancher. The protest went on all day as Fancher stubbornly refused to meet with the group, however he eventually conceded to meet.

In the meeting, Fancher conceded the matter of the ads, and allowed the words "homosexual" and "gay" to appear in the paper - the activists won.

• Date: 1969-09-12
• Learn More: www.back2stonewall.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Queer, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Hull Student Strike (1911)

Tue Sep 12, 1911

Image: School children in Hull on strike in 1911 for "shorter hours and no stick"

On this day in 1911, a student strike in Hull, England began when a dozen older boys at St. Mary's Roman Catholic school walked out during morning lessons. By that afternoon, the whole school was outside on strike.

Striking students formed a crowd at the school gates, denouncing "too much work" and shouting "blackleg" at pupils still in class.

The Hull Daily News reported the following day that "for weeks there has been a feeling of anxiety...first the sailors and dockers; then the millers, cement workers, timber workers, railway men, news boys, factory girls and now the school-boys".

The strike soon spread to schools nearby which, according to the Hull Daily News, made local tradesmen "anxious about the whereabouts of their errand boys".

According to historian Clive Bloom, most of these children had to go to work after school to help feed their families. A lone policeman riding through the poor dock area of Hull made at least one attempt to cow the crowd into submission when he charged at them on his bicycle.

• Date: 1911-09-12
• Learn More: www.historyextra.com, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Vinoba Bhave (1895 - 1982)

Wed Sep 11, 1895

Vinayak "Vinoba" Bhave, born on this day in 1895, was an Indian advocate of non-violence and human rights. Often called "Acharya" (Sanskrit for "teacher"), he is best known for initiating the Bhoodan Movement, which attempted to persuade wealthy landowners to voluntarily give a percentage of their land to landless people.

The initial objective of the movement was to secure voluntary donations and distribute it to the landless, but it soon came to demand 1/6 of all private land.

It was also a part of a comprehensive movement for the establishment of a Sarvodaya Society (Sarvodaya is a Sanskrit term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all'), both in and outside India.

"All revolutions are spiritual at the source. All my activities have the sole purpose of achieving a union of hearts."

- Vinoba Bhave

• Date: 1895-09-11
• Learn More: www.culturalindia.net, en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mary Elizabeth Lease (1850 - 1933)

Wed Sep 11, 1850

Mary Elizabeth Lease, born on this day in 1850, was an orator, author, and activist associated with the "People's Party". Of the government, she said "Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags".

Lease was also a Georgist and an advocate of the suffrage movement, but was perhaps best known for her work with the People's Party (Populists, associated with the Farmers' Alliance).

Lease was a renowned speaker within the Populist movement and a polarizing political figure. While popular with the working class, she was slandered with misogynist rhetoric in the press. One newspaper described her "a miserable character of womanhood and hideously ugly of features and foul of tongue" and another called her "an old harpy".

One of Lease's most famous speeches began like this:

"Wall Street owns the country. It is no longer a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but a government of Wall Street, by Wall Street, and for Wall Street...Our laws are the output of a system which clothes rascals in robes and honesty in rags..."

• Date: 1850-09-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.historyisaweapon.com, www.kshs.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dublin McDonald's Strike Wins (1979)

Mon Sep 10, 1979

Image: A McDonald's strike rally in Dublin, 1979 [libcom.org]

On this day in 1979, McDonald's workers on strike in Dublin, Ireland won, achieving a 24% pay increase and an agreement to follow Labour Court recommendations, which ultimately resulted in a recognized union in their store.

On March 16th, 1979, workers at two McDonald's locations in Dublin, Ireland walked off the job after management failed to recognize the union that they had formed, demanding higher pay and formal union recognition.

The workers had joined up with ITGWU (Irish Transport and General Workers' Union) in their attempts to organize a few weeks prior to the walk-out. McDonald's responded to the strike by offering free fries for customers who crossed the picket line and raising the hourly rate from 85p to £1.

On September 10th, 1979, the strike succeeded, with a 24% pay increase and an agreement to follow Labour Court recommendations, which ultimately resulted in a recognized union for McDonald's workers. The victory was not perfect however - hours were cut back from 40 to 35 hours a week, at least one striker was not allowed to return to work, and union members were harassed on the job.

• Date: 1979-09-10
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.mcspotlight.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lattimer Massacre (1897)

Fri Sep 10, 1897

On this day in 1897, the Lattimer Massacre occurred near Hazelton, Pennsylvania when a Sheriff's posse fired into a crowd of unarmed, striking miners, killing 19. Miners, mostly Eastern European immigrants, had been protesting for better pay and union recognition.

A week prior, over 3,000 miners had gone on strike, demanding better pay and an end to the forced use of the company store. On the morning of September 10th, approximately 400 miners peacefully marched to a newly opened coal mine in Lattimer to support a new United Mine Workers (UMW) union there.

After refusing an order to disperse by a Luzerne County sheriff's posse, the posse fired into the crowd. Nineteen miners were killed and several dozen were wounded.

Despite the fact that sheriffs had been overhead joking about how many strikers they would kill that morning, as well as medical evidence that demonstrated miners were mostly shot in the back, the sheriff and seventy-three deputies were acquitted at trial, insisting that they were charged by the crowd.

The massacre was a turning point in the history of the United Mine Workers (UMW), who received more than 10,000 new members in the aftermath of the massacre.

• Date: 1897-09-10
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org, explorepahistory.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Stono Slave Rebellion (1739)

Wed Sep 09, 1739

Image: The Stono rebellion sign on a stretch of US Highway 17 in South Carolina. Photograph: Adam Gabbatt, via The Guardian

On this day in 1739, the largest slave uprising in the British mainland colonies began in South Carolina when 22 enslaved Africans looted a store at the Stono River Bridge, killing two storekeepers and seizing weapons and ammunition. In total, 25 colonists and 35 to 50 Africans were killed.

After seizing weapons and ammunition, the self-liberators marched south, to Spanish Florida, a well-known refuge for the enslaved.

As the group made their way south, they recruited others into their cause, burning plantations and killing white people as they went, approximately two dozen in total.

The rebellion was defeated when the group was confronted by a well-armed colonial militia. Around 50 slaves and 25 militiamen were killed in the fighting.

The Stono Rebellion was directly responsible for the "Negro Act of 1740", which required a ratio of one white person to ten black on any plantation, also prohibiting slaves from growing their own food, assembling in groups, earning money, and learning to read.

• Date: 1739-09-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Elena Quinteros (1945 - 1976)

Sun Sep 09, 1945

Elena Quinteros, born on this day in 1945, was an anarchist Uruguayan school teacher arrested and killed in 1976, during the rule of a U.S.-backed military dictatorship. Her death led to Venezuela severing diplomatic relations with the country.

After receiving training to become a teacher, Quinteros joined the Uruguayan Anarchist Federation (FAU), as well as the Student-worker Resistance (ROE), becoming active in the latter. Her activities were in the trade union field and she was part of the Socio-pedagogical Missions, an initiative launched by the lecturers from the Co-operative Rural Education Institute.

In 1976, Quinteros was arrested by the military dictatorship. While being escorted by her captors, Quinteros suddenly jumped over the wall of the Venezuelan Embassy, calling out her name and asking for sanctuary. The embassy staff attempted to help her, but her captors managed to thwart the escape.

A few days later, she was tortured and killed. Her kidnapping and murder grew into a major diplomatic incident that eventually culminated in Venezuela cutting off diplomatic relations with Uruguay.

In October 2002, Judge Eduardo Cavalli found former minister Juan Carlos Blanco primarily responsible for the disappearance of Elena Quinteros and had him arraigned on charges of deprivation of liberty.

• Date: 1945-09-09
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.memoria.org.uy, es.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Norwegian Milk Strike Begins (1941)

Mon Sep 08, 1941

Image: Executed union leaders Viggo Hansteen (left) and Rolf Wickstrøm (right)

On this day in 1941, a spontaneous, anti-fascist general strike broke out in Norway, initially from shipyard workers in protest of milk rationing. Involving ~30,000 workers, Nazis declared martial law, arresting and executing its leaders.

The uprising, known as the Norwegian Milk Strike, began at the shipyard Akers mekaniske verksted and the industry site Christiania Spigerverk.

Following the loss of milk rations, protests quickly spread to other companies. By the following day between 20,000 - 30,000 workers from multiple industries were on strike.

On September 10th, the would-be second day of a general strike, the German Reichskommissar Josef Terboven declared martial law in Oslo and the neighboring municipality Aker and executed two union leaders, Viggo Hansteen (shown left) and Rolf Wickstrøm (shown right).

Three others, Ludvik Buland, Harry Vestli and Josef Larsson were also sentenced to death, but their convictions were changed to imprisonment for life in German jails. According to one eye-witness account, nearly three hundred were arrested.

After the milk strike, the Norwegian Confederation of Unions underwent "Nazification", with members of the Fascist party "Nasjonal Samling" installed as leaders. The Nazification also applied to other parts of a civil society - the Oslo police chief, the future Prime Minister, and many university staff were also arrested in the aftermath of the strike.

The executions of Hansteen and Wickstrøm became lasting symbols of the Norwegian anti-fascist resistance.

• Date: 1941-09-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.workersliberty.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes, #Fascism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Benjamin J. Davis (1903 - 1964)

Tue Sep 08, 1903

Benjamin J. Davis, born on this day in 1903, was American lawyer and communist who was elected in 1943 to the New York City Council, representing Harlem. Davis was persecuted by the state via the anti-communist Smith and McCarran Acts.

Davis became radicalized through his role as defense attorney in the 1933 trial of Angelo Herndon, a 19-year-old black communist who had been charged "attempting to incite insurrection" because he tried to organize a farm workers' union.

In 1949, Davis was among a number of communist leaders prosecuted for violating the Smith Act. He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. In 1962 Davis was charged with violating the Internal Security Act (also known as the McCarran Act), but died before the case could come to trial.

"Whether one agrees with the Communist Party or not, one must at least know the truth about it. One must not permit his ideas to be shaped by the hysteria which now passes as a 'crusade against Communism'... For example, the canard that every Communist has his pockets lined with 'Moscow gold.' If that were true, one could be sure that there would scarcely be any room in our party for workers. The capitalists, to whom gold is god of the universe, would crowd them out."

- Benjamin J. Davis

• Date: 1903-09-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.cpusa.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Arvid and Mildred Fish-Harnack Arrested (1942)

Mon Sep 07, 1942

Image: A photo of Arvid and Mildred Harnack

Mildred Elizabeth Fish-Harnack was an American literary historian, translator, and Resistance fighter in Nazi Germany. Her husband, Arvid Fish-Harnack, was a German jurist and Marxist economist.

Together, they formed a discussion circle which debated political perspectives on the time after the expected downfall of the National Socialists. 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.

The Gestapo broke the code of the group's messages and, on this day in 1942, Arvid Harnack and Mildred Fish-Harnack were arrested while on a weekend outing. Arvid was executed that December and Mildred was executed February the following year.

Mildred's last words were purported to have been: "Ich habe Deutschland auch so geliebt" ("I loved Germany so much as well"). Mildred is the only member of the Red Orchestra whose burial site is known, as well as the only American woman executed on the direct orders of Adolf Hitler.

• Date: 1942-09-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, news.wisc.edu, www.pbs.org.
• Tags: #Marxism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Michael Imoudu (1902 - 2005)

Sun Sep 07, 1902

Michael Athokhamien Imoudu, born on this day in 1902, was a militant Nigerian labor union leader who led a historically important general strike in the country in 1945.

Imoudu started labor union activities as a member of the Railway Workers Union (RWU), which became one of the most militant unions in the country during the colonial period. The union was formed in 1931 at a time where many trade organizations were more similar to social undertakings than an industrial movement.

Imoudu was released from prison by the government in 1945, presumably as a means to de-escalate labor tensions. A large rally was held to welcome him back to Lagos, however, and, on the 21st and 22nd of June 1945, Imoudu led a radical wing of the RWU to organize a general strike that became a historically important in Nigeria.

• Date: 1902-09-07
• Learn More: guardian.ng, libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

President McKinley Assassinated (1901)

Fri Sep 06, 1901

Image: Leon Czolgosz shoots President McKinley with a revolver concealed under a cloth rag. Clipping of a wash drawing by artist T. Dart Walker. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1901, President William McKinley was shot on the grounds of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York by anarchist Leon Czolgosz.

Czolgosz became an anarchist after losing his job during the Panic of 1893. He regarded McKinley as a symbol of oppression and was convinced that it was his duty as an anarchist to kill him.

McKinley died eight days later of gangrene caused by the wounds, succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt in office. Czolgosz was tried and found guilty just over a month later. Before his execution, Czolgosz explained "I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people - the good working people...I am not sorry for my crime".

The aftermath of the assassination saw a backlash against anarchist movements. Several anarchists, including Emma Goldman, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attack, and vigilantes attacked anarchist colonies and newspapers.

Fear of the movement also led to government surveillance programs of anarchists, which were eventually consolidated on a federal level when the Bureau of Investigation (BOI, later to become the FBI) was formed in 1908.

• Date: 1901-09-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Nada Dimić (1923 - 1942)

Thu Sep 06, 1923

Nada Dimić, born on this day in 1923, was a Yugoslav communist who was tortured by the Ustaša and killed in the Stara Gradiška concentration camp, posthumously proclaimed a People's Hero of Yugoslavia.

When Yugoslavia was invaded in June 1941, she joined the 1st Sisak Partisan Detachment, the first Partisan unit in Croatia. The same year, the Ustasha police arrested her in Sisak, but as they transferred her to the prison in Zagreb, she swallowed poison in order to avoid interrogation.

Dimić survived the poisoning and was later rescued. She was eventually caught working as a spy by the Italians, who surrendered her to the Ustaša police on December 3rd, 1941, who then tortured her.

She refused to give them any information and was sent to the Stara Gradiška concentration camp in February 1942. Nada Dimić was murdered there a month later, aged eighteen.

• Date: 1923-09-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, snv.hr.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org