Working Class Calendar

Sierra Leone Police Shoot Miners (2012)

Tue Dec 18, 2012

Image: Three workers sifting through water in Sierra Leone's Kono District

On this day in 2012, police shot and killed two miners in the Kono District of east Sierra Leone. Workers at the mine, acquired by Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz's Octea Diamond Group in 2003, had walked out against non-payment of bonuses, bad working conditions, and racist treatment.

Before the strike, Octea had promised a Christmas bonus the equivalent of three months wages, but withdrew the bonus at the minute, leading to the strike action. Following the two worker's deaths, miners stormed the hospital and carried their dead bodies through the streets, vowing revenge.

The labor strife took place in the context of a national period of unrest. On April 16th, a few months earlier, workers at African Minerals Limited (AML), a mining firm headquartered in London, went on strike in northern Sierra Leone after their demands to government officials went unanswered.

Marching protesters, the most heavily armed carrying rocks, were fired on by police in the town center, killing a 24-year-old woman and wounding eight others. Three officers were injured.

Police arrested at least 29 people who were held for a day before being released without charge; many alleged they were beaten during their arrest.

• Date: 2012-12-18
• Learn More: www.hrw.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953)

Wed Dec 18, 1878

Image: **

Joseph Stalin, born on this day in 1878, was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and politician who led the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s until his death in 1953. "Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished."

Born to a poor family in modern day Georgia, Stalin joined the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party as a youth. He edited the party's newspaper Pravda and raised funds for Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction via robberies, kidnappings, and protection rackets. After the Bolsheviks seized power during the 1917 October Revolution, Stalin joined its governing Politburo and assumed leadership over the country following Lenin's death in 1924.

Through the Five-Year Plans developed under his leadership, the Soviet Union collectivized its agricultural sector and rapidly industrialized, creating a centralized command economy. This rapid change caused disruptions in food production that were a factor in the famine of 1932 - 1933. Despite this setback, the first five-year plan greatly increased the country's productive capacity.

Although the Soviet Union under Stalin's leadership succeeded in rapidly industrializing Russia, helping end Russian monarchial rule, defeating fascist movements in Europe, and opposing American imperialism, Stalin's detractors hold him responsible for unjust political repression, suppression of labor movements, episodes of ethnic cleansing during the Great Purge of 1937-38, and the criminalization of homosexuality.

Shortly after Stalin's death, the Soviet Union went through a period of "de-Stalinization". His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, gave a series of remarks titled "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (also known as the "Secret Speech") to a closed session of the national congress, denouncing Stalin's political repression and the cult of personality that surrounded him.

Stalin remains popular in Russia, with 70% of Russians approving of Stalin’s role in Russian history, according to a poll published by the Levada Center in 2019. Sociologist Leonty Byzov stated: "Stalin begins to be perceived as a symbol of justice and an alternative to the current government, deemed unfair, cruel and not caring about people".

"It is difficult for me to imagine what 'personal liberty' is enjoyed by an unemployed person, who goes about hungry, and cannot find employment. Real liberty can exist only where exploitation has been abolished, where there is no oppression of some by others, where there is no unemployment and poverty, where a man is not haunted by the fear of being tomorrow deprived of work, of home and of bread. Only in such a society is real, and not paper, personal and every other liberty possible."

- Joseph Stalin

• Date: 1878-12-18
• Learn More: www.marxists.org, www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, www.themoscowtimes.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Chelsea Manning (1987 - )

Thu Dec 17, 1987

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning is an American activist and whistleblower who was born on this day in 1987. She is a former United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly 750,000 classified, or unclassified but sensitive, military and diplomatic documents.

Among the documents released was the infamous "Collateral Murder" video, which depicted two American helicopters firing on Reuters journalists and children. Manning was imprisoned from 2010 until 2017, when her sentence was commuted by Barack Obama.

"When I chose to disclose classified information, I did so out of a love for my country and a sense of duty to others."

- Chelsea Manning

• Date: 1987-12-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mohamed Bouazizi Self-Immolation (2010)

Fri Dec 17, 2010

Tarek el-Tayeb Mohamed Bouazizi (1984 - January 4th, 2011) was a Tunisian street vendor who set himself on fire on this day in 2010, an act which became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution and the Arab Spring more broadly.

Bouazizi's self-immolation was in response to the confiscation of his wares by police, mistreatment by city officials, and desperation of his own economic condition. Anti-government protests in Tunisia began within hours of his self-immolation. In 2011, Bouazizi was posthumously awarded the Sakharov Prize for his contribution to "historic changes in the Arab world"

• Date: 2010-12-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.aljazeera.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Zhanaozen Massacre (2011)

Fri Dec 16, 2011

Image: Saturday, December 17th, 2011, a Kazakh riot police officer patrols in the center of Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan [thediplomat.com]

On this day in 2011, police opened fire on striking oil workers and their families in Zhanaozen, Kazakhstan, killing at least 17 and wounding dozens more. Anti-communist organizations such as Radio Free Europe supported the labor strife.

In the months leading up to the massacre, strikes had been taking place for several months in cities along the oil-rich Caspian Sea coast of Kazakhstan. A strike by workers from the Ozenmunaigas oil field was declared illegal by local courts and the state oil company fired nearly 1000 employees.

Some of the sacked workers then started a round-the-clock occupation of the town square in protest. Ahead of planned public celebrations for Kazakhstan's Independence Day on December 16th, riot police assembled as authorities formulated plans to clear the area.

As police moved to evict the strikers on the 16th, they opened fire on civilians, killing at least 17 people and injuring dozens more. Other estimates, provided by Rob Jones of International Socialist Alternative (ISA), put the death toll as high as 50 - 150.

In an interview with openDemocracy, Galym Ageleuov, a reporter with the CIA-associated Radio Free Europe, claimed he received reports of agent provocateurs at the event who started disturbances while posing as workers. Radio Free Europe gave favorable coverage to striking workers, noting that protests expanded with "demonstrators furious over what they saw as a stranglehold on collective bargaining and labor rights by the government."

Following the violence of December 16th, dozens of protesters were arrested. President Nazarbayev also subjected Zhanaozen to a 20-day curfew and state of emergency. Ageleuov has stated that 37 demonstrators were put on trial, and 13 were sentenced. 19 of those on trial claimed to have experienced torture under detention.

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair provided public relations advice to the government of Kazakhstan in the wake of the massacre, and helped President Nazarbayev craft an official statement on the matter.

Ten years later, the city of Zhanaozen would mark the point of origin of an unsuccessful nationwide uprising in January 2022.

• Date: 2011-12-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, thediplomat.com, www.opendemocracy.net, internationalsocialist.net.
• Tags: #Labor, #Riots, #Massacre, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Kim Chwa-chin (1889 - 1930)

Mon Dec 16, 1889

Kim Chwa-chin (also written Kim Chwa-jin), born on this day in 1889, was a Korean general, independence activist, and anarchist who played an early role in the development of anarchism in Korea.

When Kim was 18, he released 50 families of slaves when he burned the slave registry and provided each family with enough land to live on, resulting in the first emancipation of slaves in modern Korea.

In 1918, Kim was one of 40 Korean representatives to sign the Korean Declaration of independence. He then joined the Korea Justice Corps, later becoming the general commander of the Northern Military Administration Office Army and playing a key role in the "Battle of Cheongsanri" against Japanese forces.

In 1928, the Korea Independence Party was formed, and the following year, when the Korean General Association was established as the successor of the new people, Chwa-chin was designated as the President. During this process, conflicts between the nationalist and communist independence activists intensified.

On January 24th, 1930, Kim was assassinated by Park Sang-sil, an agent of the Japanese colonial government.

• Date: 1889-12-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, web.archive.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mary Brooksbank (1897 - 1978)

Wed Dec 15, 1897

Mary Brooksbank, born on this day in 1897, was a Scottish mill worker, socialist, and musician. Inspired by John McLean, she was an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain between 1920 and 1933, and imprisoned three times as a result of her political activism. Later, Brooksbank became critical of Stalin and more sympathetic to Scottish nationalism.

Today, Brooksbank is today as a prominent figure in Dundee's labor movement. She founded the Working Women Guild to fight for better health and social services in Dundee, securing a membership of over 300, and was heavily involved in October 1934 with the National Unemployed Workers Movement county march to Forfar, to lobby the County Council. She was also a songwriter, writing "mill songs" about the working-class mill workers of Dundee.

• Date: 1897-12-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, mainlynorfolk.info.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Chico Mendes (1944 - 1988)

Fri Dec 15, 1944

Francisco Alves Mendes Filho, better known as Chico Mendes, was a Brazilian rubber tapper, trade union leader, and environmentalist born on this day in 1944.

Born into the Brazilian rubber industry, Chico was known as both a radical unionist and an activist by the mid-1980s, also running for several local political positions such as state deputy and city councilor. He fought to preserve the Amazon rainforest, and advocated for the human rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples.

In 1988, Mendes launched a campaign to stop a man named Darly Alves da Silva from logging the area that its inhabitants wanted demarcated as an extractive reserve. On the evening of December 22nd, 1988, Mendes was assassinated in his Xapuri home by Darci, the son of Darly Alves da Silva. He was the 90th rural activist murdered that year in Brazil.

• Date: 1944-12-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Daniel De Leon (1852 - 1914)

Tue Dec 14, 1852

Daniel De Leon, born on this day in 1852, was an American socialist newspaper editor, politician, Marxist theoretician, and trade union organizer. He is regarded as the forefather of the idea of revolutionary industrial unionism and was the leading figure in the Socialist Labor Party of America from 1890 until the time of his death.

De Leon is also notable for splitting with "Big Bill" Haywood on the matter of electoral politics. Haywood supported direct action - working outside the system - while De Leon supported political action via a socialist political party. Eventually, this disagreement caused De Leon to leave the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) entirely.

"We Socialists are not reformers; we are revolutionaries. We Socialists do not propose change forms. We care nothing for forms. We want a change of the inside of the mechanism of society, let the form take care of itself."

- Daniel De Leon

• Date: 1852-12-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Philip Foner (1910 - 1994)

Wed Dec 14, 1910

Philip Sheldon Foner, born on this day in 1910, was a Marxist American labor historian and teacher who was fired from the City College of New York for his political views.

Foner was a prolific author and editor of more than 100 books, and is considered a pioneer in his extensive works on the role of radicals, black people, and women in American labor and political history, which were generally neglected in mainstream academia at the time.

In 1941, Foner became a public figure as one among 26 persons fired from teaching and staff positions at City College of New York for political views, following an investigation of communist influence in education by a state legislative committee, known as the Rapp-Coudert Committee. Foner's three brothers were also fired, and he became blacklisted from working in academia.

Today, Foner is perhaps most strongly remembered for his works "A History of the Labor Movement of the United States" and "The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass", both completed while he was excluded from formal academic work.

• Date: 1910-12-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nytimes.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ella Baker (1903 - 1986)

Sun Dec 13, 1903

Ella Josephine Baker, born on this day in 1903, was a civil rights activist whose career spanned more than five decades, working with W.E.B. Du Bois, MLK Jr., and A. Philip Randolph. "My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders."

In New York City and the American South, Baker worked with many prominent civil rights leaders of the 20th century, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, A. Philip Randolph, and Martin Luther King Jr.

She also mentored many emerging activists, such as Diane Nash, Kwame Ture (formerly Stokely Carmichael), Rosa Parks, and Bob Moses.

Baker criticized professionalized, charismatic leadership; she promoted grassroots organizing, radical democracy, and the ability of the oppressed to understand their worlds and advocate for themselves.

"You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders."

- Ella Baker

• Date: 1903-12-13
• Learn More: docsouth.unc.edu, en.wikipedia.org, ellabakercenter.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lucía Sánchez Saornil (1895 - 1970)

Fri Dec 13, 1895

Image: Lucía Sánchez Saornil in 1933

Lucía Sánchez Saornil, born on this day in 1895, was a poet, anarchist, and feminist who fought in the Spanish Civil War and was one of the founders of Mujeres Libres.

Mujeres Libres was an anarchist women's organization in Spain from 1936 - 1939, associated with the anarcho-syndicalist labor union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT) and Solidaridad Internacional Antifascista (SIA).

In 1931, Saornil, who had been working as a telephone operator since 1916, participated in a strike by the CNT against Telefónica. The event was a turning point in her life, and from this point forward, Lucía dedicated herself to the struggle for anarchist social revolution.

With the defeat of the Second Republic, Lucía and her partner América were forced to flee to Paris, where Lucía continued her involvement in the SIA. Lucía was buried in Valencia, Spain, and her tombstone epitaph reads, "But is it true that hope has died?" ("¿Pero es verdad que la esperanza ha muerto?").

• Date: 1895-12-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lola Ridge (1873 - 1941)

Fri Dec 12, 1873

Lola Ridge, born on this day in 1873, was an Irish-American anarchist poet and an influential editor of avant-garde, feminist, and Marxist publications. Her collections include Firehead (1930), Red Flag (1927), Sun-up, and Other Poems (1920), and The Ghetto, and Other Poems (1918).

Dedicated to radical politics, Ridge's subject matter was often the stories of the working class. She was arrested while protesting against the executions of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in 1927.

"As for the common men apart, Who sweat to keep their common breath, And have no hour for books or art-- What dreams have these to hide from death!"

- Lola Ridge

• Date: 1873-12-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.poetryfoundation.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Oaks Colliery Explosion (1866)

Wed Dec 12, 1866

On this day in 1866, the Oaks Colliery explosion occurred in Yorkshire, England, killing 361 miners and rescuers, aged 10 to 67. The disaster was the second worst mining disaster in the United Kingdom (after the Senghenydd colliery disaster in Wales), and the worst in England itself. The deaths were caused by an explosion in the mines, so large it shook houses for three miles, trapping workers inside.

The Oaks was a notoriously dangerous mine, and ten years earlier the 400-strong workforce had gone on an unsuccessful ten-week strike because of management incompetence. On the day of the explosion, 340 people, adults and children, were underground.

Multiple rescue attempts were made over the following days, however they had to be abandoned because of continuing explosions within the mine. A 29-strong party led by mine engineer Parkin Jeffcock was killed during one of the rescue operations. No one was ever held accountable for the death of the workers or the dangerous work conditions of the Oaks Colliery.

• Date: 1866-12-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.bbc.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Society for Human Rights Founded (1924)

Wed Dec 10, 1924

The Society for Human Rights, founded by Henry Gerber in Illinois on this day in 1924, was the first gay rights organization in the United States. The Society for Human Rights also published the earliest-documented homosexual periodical, Friendship and Freedom. Although Gerber (shown) founded the group, a black clergyman named John T. Graves was its first president, with Gerber serving as a director.

Gerber set out to expand the Society's membership beyond the original seven but had difficulty interesting anyone other than poorer gays in joining. More affluent members of Chicago's gay community refused to join his society, not wanting to ruin their reputations by being associated with homosexuality.

The Society was only a chartered organization for a few months before police arrested Gerber and several other members. After their arrests, the Chicago Examiner reported the story under the headline "Strange Sex Cult Exposed".

Gerber was subjected to three highly publicized trials, and his defense, while ultimately successful, cost him his life savings. Unable to continue funding the Society, the group dismantled, and Gerber left for New York City, embittered that none of the wealthier gays of Chicago had come to his aid for a cause he believed was designed to advance the common good.

• Date: 1924-12-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nps.gov.
• Tags: #Queer.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Angola Liberation Movement (MPLA) Founded (1956)

Mon Dec 10, 1956

Image: An MPLA poster commemorating the organization's anniversary [digitalcommons.colum.edu]

On this day in 1956, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was founded in a merger between 2 smaller communist and anti-colonial parties. The MPLA was a major faction in the Angolan Civil War, which lasted until 2002.

The MPLA fought for liberation from Portuguese colonizers, alongside the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and CLSTP, forerunner of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe.

From 1961 to 1974, the MPLA waged a guerrilla war against the colonial government in Angola. Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, the newly-established Portuguese military government granted Angola independence, which was to be led by a coalition of different anti-colonial liberation armies.

The coalition quickly broke apart, erupting into a civil war between the MPLA, the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), and the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The MPLA won the war, and has ruled Angola since 1975.

At its first congress in 1977, the MPLA adopted Marxism-Leninism as its official ideology. Receiving military support from Cuba and the Soviet Union, they maintained control over most territory in Angola, despite extensive aid to the FNLA and UNITA from South Africa, Zaire, and the United States.

Both the MPLA and UNITA were complicit in war crimes; more than 500,000 civilians were killed during the civil war. UNITA soldiers kidnapped and abused children, using them as child soldiers.

After the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the MPLA renounced Marxism-Leninism in favor of social democracy. Though no longer a proxy war between the USA and the USSR, the Angolan Civil War lasted until 2002, when a peace agreement was finally reached in victory for the MPLA.

• Date: 1956-12-10
• Learn More: www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.sahistory.org.za, archive.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Marxism, #Colonialism, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Peter Kropotkin (1842 - 1921)

Fri Dec 09, 1842

Pyotr Kropotkin, born on this day in 1842, was a Russian scientist, historian, and anarchist theorist, known for his writings on mutual aid and advocacy of anarcho-communism.

Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, he attended a military school and later served as an officer in Siberia, where he participated in several geological expeditions. He was imprisoned for his activism in 1874 and managed to escape two years later. He spent the next 41 years in exile in Switzerland, France (where he was imprisoned for almost four years) and in England.

While in exile, Kropotkin gave lectures and published widely on anarchism and geography. He returned to Russia after the Russian Revolution in 1917 but was disappointed by the Bolshevik state. Kropotkin's funeral was one of the last public demonstrations of anarchists in the USSR, with funeral marchers carrying anti-Bolshevik slogans and Emma Goldman delivering a speech.

Kropotkin was a proponent of a decentralized communist society free from central government and based on voluntary associations of self-governing communities and worker-run enterprises. He wrote many books, pamphlets, and articles, the most prominent being "Fields, Factories and Workshops", "Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution", and "The Conquest of Bread".

"We must recognize, and loudly proclaim, that every one, whatever his grade in the old society, whether strong or weak, capable or incapable, as, before everything, THE RIGHT TO LIVE, and that society is bound to share amongst all, without exception, the means of existence at its disposal."

- Peter Kropotkin

• Date: 1842-12-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Impeachment of Park Geun-hye (2016)

Fri Dec 09, 2016

Image: Seoul where a million-scale protest demonstration took place Photo: Lee Jae-Won / Afro

On this day in 2017, following more than a month of anti-corruption protests involving millions of people, the South Korean National Assembly voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye, who was subsequently sentenced to 24 years in prison.

In October 2016, a political scandal erupted over President Park Geun-hye's undisclosed links to Choi Soon-sil, a woman with no security clearance and no official position, who was found to have been giving secret counsel to the president, access confidential state documents, and use her influence to embezzle funds and win favors for her family and businesses.

After Park, the daughter of former military dictator of South Korea Park Chung-hee, formally acknowledged her connection to Choi, her approval rating sank to a record low of 5% and the population organized en masse against her.

On October 29th, the first candlelight protest was held with about 20,000 participants (estimates range from 10,000 to 30,000). The numbers grew rapidly in the following weeks. On December 3rd, ~2.3 million people hit the streets in a further anti-Park rally, one of the largest in the country's history.

That same day, three opposition parties agreed to introduce a joint impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye. The motion passed with 234 out of 300 votes on December 9th, 2016. Park Geun-hye was finally impeached on March 10th, 2017, later sentenced to 24 years in prison.

The South Korean protests of 2016-2017 are sometimes dubbed the "The Candlelight Demonstrations" or "Candlelight Revolution" due to the use of candles during many of the protests, a practice that dates back to 1992 in the country.

• Date: 2016-12-09
• Learn More: time.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Thomas Mooney (1882 - 1942)

Fri Dec 08, 1882

Thomas Mooney, born on this day in 1882, was a socialist political activist and IWW labor leader who was falsely convicted of the San Francisco Preparedness Day Bombing of 1916, serving 22 years in prison before being pardoned in 1939.

Mooney was well-known as a socialist and labor radical - he assisted Eugene V. Debs's 1910 presidential campaign, published socialist literature, and was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). After the Preparedness Day Bombing, Mooney, his wife Rena, and two associates were arrested and subjected to a show trial.

Convicted on scant evidence, Mooney served 22 years in prison before finally being pardoned in 1939 by California Governor Culbert Olson.

Mooney then began campaigning for his associate Warren Billings's release, traveling around the country making speeches. During this tour, he drew a full house at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Billings was released in 1939 and pardoned in 1961.

• Date: 1882-12-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Norman Finkelstein (1953 - )

Tue Dec 08, 1953

Norman Finkelstein, born on this day in 1953, is a political scientist, activist, and author whose works include The Rise and Fall of Palestine (1996). Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University after a public feud with Alan Dershowitz.

As a young man, Finkelstein identified as a Maoist and worked for The Guardian, a Maoist newsweekly. After the 1981 trial of the Gang of Four, Finkelstein had a falling out with Maoist politics.

Following this experience, Finkelstein decided to develop his worldview with meticulous scholarship. Finkelstein recounts spending an entire summer in the New York Public Library comparing historical population records of Palestine to the claims made in the Joan Peters Zionist text "From Time Immemorial".

Finkelstein's work largely debunked the text, which was well-regarded at the time, winning the National Jewish Book Award in 1985. Finkelstein's skepticism of scholarship regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict would continue to characterize his academic career.

In 2003, Alan Dershowitz published "The Case for Israel", which Finkelstein called "a collection of fraud, falsification, plagiarism, and nonsense". Dershowitz began campaigning to block Finkelstein's tenure bid at DePaul University. In 2007, Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul University. In response, Finkelstein resigned, and students staged a sit-in and hunger strike in protest.

In 2008, Finkelstein was denied entry to Israel. In 2009, a documentary film about Finkelstein's life and career was published, titled "American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein".

"My parents often wondered why I would grow so indignant at the falsification and exploitation of the Nazi genocide. The most obvious answer is that it has been used to justify criminal policies of the Israeli state and US support for these policies."

- Norman Finkelstein

• Date: 1953-12-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.youtube.com, newrepublic.com, www.normanfinkelstein.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Noam Chomsky (1928 - )

Fri Dec 07, 1928

Avram Noam Chomsky, born on this day in 1928, is an American linguist and anarchist political thinker, notable for his critiques of American imperialism and capitalist media. "Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media."

Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science. He holds a joint appointment as Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Laureate Professor at the University of Arizona, and is the author of more than 100 books on topics such as linguistics, war, politics, and mass media.

Ideologically, Chomsky is a libertarian socialist. An outspoken opponent of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which he identified as an act of American imperialism, in 1967 Chomsky rose to national attention for his anti-war essay "The Responsibility of Intellectuals".

Associated with the New Left, he was arrested multiple times for his activism and placed on President Richard Nixon's Enemies List. Chomsky, along with Howard Zinn, was also on a list of American citizens that could be arrested without probable cause in the event of a national emergency.

In collaboration with Edward S. Herman, Chomsky later theorized a propaganda model of mass media in their work "Manufacturing Consent" (1988).

"Any dictator would admire the uniformity and obedience of the U.S. media."

- Noam Chomsky

• Date: 1928-12-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, chomsky.info.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Viktor Chernov (1873 - 1952)

Sun Dec 07, 1873

Image: Portrait of Minister VM Chernov in Petrograd, 1917. Projection print from the negative, black and white; 18x24 cm. - Portrait, breastplate, 1/3 to the right, in a suit. From the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents

Victor Chernov was born in Novouzensk, Russia. He studied law at Moscow University, where he led the illegal students' union. In 1901, with figures such as Catherine Breshkovskaya and Alexander Kerensky, Chernov co-founded the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

Chernov edited the SR journal, "Revolutionary Russia", where he argued against some Marxists who claimed that the peasants were an inherently reactionary social class. After multiple arrests and living in exile, Chernov returned to Russia after the Revolution of 1905, becoming a leader of the SR faction in the Second Duma.

In 1907, Chernov published "Philosophical and Sociological Studies", in which he identified with the philosophy of "empirio-criticism". As such, he was one of the Russian Machists criticised by Lenin in his text "Materialism and Empirio-criticism" (1909).

Under Alexander Kerensky's provisional government in 1917, Chernov served as Minister for Agriculture, and advocated for immediate land reform on behalf of the peasant class, leading the Union of Landowners to consider Viktor their chief enemy.

Chernov was the chair of the briefly existing Russian Constituent Assembly. After the Assembly was dissolved by the Bolsheviks, Chernov joined an anti-Bolshevik government based out of Samara, Russia before fleeing to Western Europe and, ultimately, the United States, where he died in 1952.

• Date: 1873-12-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Swadeshi Cotton Mill Massacre (1977)

Tue Dec 06, 1977

On this day in 1977, around 1,000 workers rioted outside the Swadeshi Cotton Mill in Kanpur, India due to deferred wages, battling with police forces; more than 300 workers disappeared in the aftermath.

The Swadeshi Cotton Mills were some of the oldest textile mills in India, and home to particularly brutal labor strife. A few months earlier, 8,000 workers held management hostage and placed gas cylinders on the roof of the building, threatening to blow the factory up if their wages were not paid.

The December 6th riots became violent when fights broke out between private security and the workers; police intervened by shooting into the crowd of workers. Although official numbers listed 11 dead workers, others have claimed more than 100 people died. 300 workers disappeared in the aftermath of the violence. Both sources provided below state that the government's figures are false, and that the police shooting was completely unjustified.

• Date: 1977-12-06
• Learn More: www.indiatoday.in, www.jstor.org.
• Tags: #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Grigoropoulos Killed, Greeks Riot (2008)

Sat Dec 06, 2008

On this day in 2008, the worst Greek riots in decades began after Alexandros Grigoropoulos, a 15-year-old student, was killed by police in central Athens.

The killing of the young student resulted in large protests within an hour of the shooting, which later escalated to widespread rioting, with numerous participants damaging property and engaging riot police with Molotov cocktails. The demonstrations and rioting soon spread to several other cities and lasted for several weeks, into January of 2009.

The protests went beyond the scope of just police brutality - on December 10th, the General Confederation of Greek Workers (ΓΣΕΕ) and the Civil Servants' Confederation (ΑΔΕΔΥ), together representing 2.5 million people, half of the total Greek workforce, called a one-day general strike in opposition to the government's economic policies.

• Date: 2008-12-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Riots, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Montgomery Bus Boycott Begins (1955)

Mon Dec 05, 1955

Image: Black residents walking, Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1955 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1955, the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a city-wide boycott of the white supremacist bus system in Montgomery, Alabama, began, just four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man.

The leader of the local NAACP chapter, E.D. Nixon, used Parks' arrest to launch a bus boycott to try and change the city's bus policies. Ula Taylor, a professor in the Department of African American Studies at UC Berkeley, has noted that organizing efforts by the Women’s Political Council, hundreds of professional class black women led by Jo Ann Robinson, would play an essential role in the boycott's success.

The boycott had widespread support in the black community, and black taxi drivers lowered their fares to match the cost of taking a bus in solidarity. In response, membership of the white supremacist "White Citizen's Council" increased dramatically.

Many acts of terrorism were committed by whites in response to the boycott - the homes of Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy were firebombed, boycotters were often physically attacked, and dozens of activists were arrested.

The boycott ended more than a year later, on December 20th, 1956, when the city passed an ordinance allowing black members to sit where they wanted. The campaign of white terrorism continued, however, and, within the month that followed the city ordinance, multiple churches were bombed, busses were subject to sniper fire, and at least one black man was lynched.

• Date: 1955-12-05
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, news.berkeley.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Terrorism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org