Working Class Calendar

Vesey's Uprising (1822)

Sun Jul 14, 1822

On this day in 1822, revolutionary Denmark Vesey planned a slave revolt to take place in South Carolina, intending for thousands of slaves to kill their masters and sail to Haiti; instead, he was betrayed by slaves and executed.

Denmark Vesey (c. 1767 - 1822) was a literate, skilled carpenter and community leader among in Charleston, South Carolina. Likely born into slavery in St. Thomas, Vesey was enslaved by Captain Joseph Vesey in Bermuda.

At the age of 32, he won a lottery and bought his freedom, but was unable to buy the freedom of his wife and children. In 1818 he co-founded an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) congregation in the city, which enjoyed the support of local white clergy. The church attracted 1,848 members, making it the second-largest AME congregation in the nation.

Vesey reportedly began planning the insurrection to take place on Bastille Day, July 14th, 1822, a date notable for its association with the French Revolution, whose victors had abolished slavery in Saint-Domingue.

News of the plan was said to be spread among thousands of black people throughout Charleston and for tens of miles through plantations along the Carolina coast. Two slaves opposed to Vesey's scheme, George Wilson and Joe LaRoche, gave the first specific testimony about a coming uprising to Charleston officials, saying an uprising was planned for July 14th.

In June, Vesey was formally accused of being the leader in "the rising". He was convicted and quickly executed on July 2nd.

In the aftermath of Vesey's and others' convictions, authorities blamed "black religion" for contributing to the uprising, noting Vesey's role in the AME church.

The reverend of the church was driven out of the state. Charleston officials ordered the large congregation to be dispersed and the church building to be razed. No black church officially met in Charleston until after the Civil War.

• Date: 1822-07-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theatlantic.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Van Spronsen Attacks ICE Compound (2019)

Sat Jul 13, 2019

On this day in 2019, anarchist anti-fascist Willem van Spronsen was shot dead by police after firebombing a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) compound in Tacoma, Washington.

Willem van Spronsen, who sometimes went by the pseudonym "Emma Durutti", a combination of the names of Emma Goldman and Buenaventura Durruti, was a Dutch immigrant, musician, member of the Puget Sound John Brown Gun Club, and father of two.

In 2018, Van Spronsen was one of ten people arrested at a protest outside the detention center, according to the New Tribune. While there, he allegedly fought a police officer while attempting to free a 17-year-old activist who was being detained.

On July 13th, 2019, after authoring a manifesto justifying his attack and farewell letters to his friends, Van Spronsen entered the ICE compound in Tacoma, Washington. Armed with molotov cocktails, he set his car on fire and began trying to ignite a propane tank. He was quickly shot dead by police.

"detention camps are an abomination. i'm not standing by. i really shouldn't have to say any more than this."

- Willem Van Spronsen

• Date: 2019-07-13
• Learn More: www.npr.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Vale Miners' Strike (2009-10)

Mon Jul 13, 2009

On this day in 2009, one of the longest strikes in Canadian history began when miners at the Brazilian company Vale went on strike, beginning a bitter, year-long labor action marked by the use of scabs, surveillance, and illegal firings. The strike took place at the nickel mine in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, which accounts for a large share of the world's nickel supply.

After the miners walked out, the United Steelworkers (USW) permitted 56 skilled members from the USW Local 2020 to scab on the strike, allowing Vale to restart minimal mine operations.

Vale also hired a "security firm", AFI, to spy on and harass striking workers. This included the deployment of cameras and parabolic listening devices around picket shacks.

Information gathered in this eavesdropping operation was used to illegally fire nine workers, who had to wait two years before they were exonerated.

The strike ended just short of a year later, on July 8th, 2010. Workers won significant raises and a back-to-work bonus, but also received less desirable pension plans. As part of the agreement, Vale received permission to fire 113 employees.

The strike was the longest such labor action in Canadian history, beating the previous record, set at the same nickel mine (then owned by Inco) in 1978. Workers at Vale again went out on strike in June 2021. One of those strikers, Mark Lambovitch, had participated in the 2009-10 strike, and had this to say:

"I don't want to do that again, and I'm sure no one does, but we have to stand up for ourselves. Otherwise, we will just keep losing. This company makes billions of dollars, and they just can't give us a fair deal? If you come underground, do the work we do and see the conditions, we're not being greedy."

• Date: 2009-07-13
• Learn More: www.wsws.org, www.cbc.ca.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Bisbee Deportation (1917)

Thu Jul 12, 1917

Image: Striking miners and others being deported from Bisbee on the morning of July 12th, 1917. The men are boarding cattle cars provided by the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1917, a deputized posse in Bisbee, Arizona kidnapped more than 1,300 striking miners, their supporters, and bystanders, deporting them to New Mexico, more than 200 miles away. The miners were organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and had been on strike since June 26th.

The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and others who were to be arrested to the Cochise County sheriff, Harry C. Wheeler.

The 16-hour journey was through desert without food and with little water. Once unloaded, the deportees, most without money or transportation, were warned against returning to Bisbee. The U.S. government soon brought in members of the US Army to assist with relocating the deportees to Columbus, New Mexico.

Phelps Dodge, in collusion with the sheriff, had closed down access to outside communications, so the story was not well reported at the time.

Although a federal commission concluded the kidnapping was done "wholly illegal and without authority in law, either State or Federal" and the U.S. Department of Justice ordered the arrest of 21 Phelps Dodge executives, no individual, company, or agency was ever convicted in connection with the deportations.

• Date: 1917-07-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, azlibrary.gov.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Cantonal Rebellion (1873)

Sat Jul 12, 1873

Image: Coat of arms for the federal Canton of Valencia [Wikipedia]

The Cantonal Rebellion was a Spanish insurrection that began on this day in 1873, initiated by Republicans who wanted to establish a federation from the bottom up, without waiting for the national legislature to draft a constitution.

The rebellion began in Cartagena, Spain under the First Spanish Republic, and spread in the following days through the regions of Valencia, Murcia and Andalusia. In these areas, cantons were formed, whose federation would constitute the base of the Spanish Federal Republic. Although the federalists defied the authority of the Cortes, some historians do not consider the movement separatist in character.

The Cantonal Rebellion was put down by force from the First Spanish Republic, which justified its actions as maintaining the rule of law. When the last canton, Cartagena, surrendered, thousands of people were deported to the Philippines, Cuba, and the Marianas Islands on charges of being a federalist.

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

Massacre at Summit Springs (1869)

Sun Jul 11, 1869

Image: An indigenous man with a modern Dog Soldier headdress at the Indian Summer festival, Henry Maier Festival Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1869, the U.S. Army, aided by fifty Pawnee Scouts, attacked an encampment of Cheyenne people in retaliation for raids by their Dog Soldiers (modern version shown), indiscriminately slaughtering men, women, and children. The conflict happened south of Sterling, Colorado.

The U.S. Army attacked the Cheyenne encampment from three sides at once, aided by scouts from the Pawnee tribe, hired by the United States to facilitate their suppression of Cheyenne and Sioux resistance to colonization.

Armed only with bows and arrows, the Cheyenne kept their attackers at bay until their arrows ran out. Approximately three dozen Cheyenne were killed, including some elderly, women, and children.

One U.S. soldier later recalled the murder of a fifteen year old boy, who died fighting the colonizers while the women and children attempted to escape.

The attack was a decisive victory for the United States and effectively put an end to the Dog Soldier raids. For their part, the Pawnee Scouts would later go on to play role in the Great Sioux War, fighting again as mercenaries for the U.S. The Scouts permanently disbanded after that war's conclusion.

• Date: 1869-07-11
• Learn More: plainshumanities.unl.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Indigenous, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (1985)

Wed Jul 10, 1985

Image: The Rainbow Warrior in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents. © Greenpeace / John Miller [greenpeace.org]

On this day in 1985, the French government, in an act of state-sponsored terror, bombed the Greenpeace-operated boat Rainbow Warrior, which was en route to protest a nuclear weapons test planned by the French state. The bombing, later found to be personally ordered by French President François Mitterrand, killed a freelance photographer on board named Fernando Pereira.

France had been testing nuclear weapons on the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia since 1966. In 1985 eight South Pacific countries, including New Zealand and Australia, signed a treaty declaring the region a nuclear-free zone.

Since being acquired by Greenpeace in 1977, Rainbow Warrior was active in supporting a number of anti-nuclear testing campaigns during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including relocating 300 Marshall Islanders from Rongelap Atoll, which had been polluted by radioactive fallout by past American nuclear tests.

For the 1985 tests, Greenpeace intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to observe the blasts. Three undercover French agents were on board, however, and they attached two limpet mines to Rainbow Warrior and detonated them ten minutes apart, sinking the ship.

France initially denied responsibility, but two of the French agents were captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder.

The resulting scandal led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, while the two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They spent a little over two years confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by the French government.

In 1987, after international pressure, France paid $8.16m to Greenpeace in damages, which helped finance another ship. It also paid compensation to the Pereira family, making reparation payments of 650,000 francs to Pereira's wife, 1.5 million francs to his two children, and 75,000 francs to each of his parents.

• Date: 1985-07-10
• Learn More: www.greenpeace.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Terrorism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Coeur d'Alene Strike (1892)

Mon Jul 11, 1892

Image: Coeur d'Alene Mining District Idaho. Federal troop encampment in Wallace, Idaho in 1892. [zinnedproject.org]

On this day in 1892, violence broke out between strikers and scabs during the Coeur d'Alene Strike when union leaders discovered they had been infiltrated by a Pinkerton agent who had been providing information to the mine owners.

The miners had gone on strike to demand that a living wage of $3.50 per day be paid to every man working underground, both skilled and unskilled. This solidarity between unskilled and skilled labor (a principle known as industrial unionism) was notable for the era.

On the morning of July 11th, gunfire erupted between striking workers and scabs working in the mines. The "battle" was won by the striking miners after they dynamited one of the mills, destroying the building and crushing one non-union worker inside. The rest of the strikebreakers promptly surrendered and were taken prisoner.

Later that evening, striking workers placed explosives beneath an ore mill and gave its manager the choice between firing the strikebreakers or having his mill destroyed. He chose the former. Before the day was over, six people were killed and dozens were wounded.

Following this violence, martial law was declared in Coeur d'Alene and the town was under military rule by the Idaho National Guard for four months.

Hundreds of miners were illegally detained without hearings or formal charges. The event was disastrous for the local miners' union. In an effort to reorganize the workforce, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was founded the following year.

• Date: 1892-07-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Stuart Christie (1946 - 2020)

Wed Jul 10, 1946

Image: **

Stuart Christie, born on this day in 1946, was a Scottish anarchist activist, writer, and publisher. At the age of eighteen, Christie attempted to assassinate Spanish fascist Francisco Franco, serving three years in prison before being released.

Encouraged by local radicals in the United Kingdom, Christie left for Spain at the age of eighteen to assassinate Franco. Upon arriving, Christie was arrested while carrying explosives. Charged with "banditry and terrorism", he served three years of a twenty year sentence before international pressure won him an early release.

Christie would go on to found the Cienfuegos Press publishing house, serve as the first editor of the anarchist newspaper Black Flag, and establish the online Anarchist Film Channel, which hosts films and documentaries with anarchist and libertarian socialist themes. In 2004, an updated Christie autobiography was released, titled "Granny Made Me an Anarchist".

• Date: 1946-07-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, tahriricn.wordpress.com, theanarchistlibrary.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

DRUM Wildcat Strike (1968)

Mon Jul 08, 1968

Image: Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement Flier, 1969. Its text reads "strike your blow against racism do your part no work today blackworkers strike Only Racist Honkies & Uncle Toms Traitors Work Today Rally to be Held Today 13305 Dexter at Davison up stairs refreshments". From Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University. [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1968, in defiance of union leadership, thousands of black workers from the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement (DRUM) initiated a three-day wildcat strike to protest racist policies from both Chrysler and the UAW.

Founded just nine weeks prior to this strike, DRUM was a radical black labor organization formed in Chrysler Corporation's Dodge Main assembly plant in Detroit, Michigan. DRUM had sister organizations at other auto companies - FRUM (Ford Revolutionary Union Movement) and ELRUM (Eldon Avenue Revolutionary Union Movement). In June 1969, these came together in the League of Revolutionary Black Workers.

Before the wildcat strike began, DRUM had circulated a newsletter with fifteen demands, including a major increase of black representation in skilled plant positions, for all Black workers to immediately stop paying union dues, and an end to racial pay discrimination inside Chrysler's South African plants.

On July 7th, 1968, DRUM held a rally outside the Chrysler plant and marched, with a conga band in tow, to the UAW Local 3 headquarters two blocks away.

There, DRUM's leaders confronted the executive board of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, issued their demands, and, dissatisfied with the response of union leadership, stated they would shut down the Dodge Main plant in defiance of union contract.

The following morning, July 8th, 3,000 DRUM workers began picketing the plant. Despite the majority of white workers crossing the picket line, plant production almost entirely stopped, costing the company the production of 1,900 cars over the duration of the strike.

Police, equipped with gas masks, broke up the picket as well as a subsequent protest at Chrysler headquarters in Highland Park. The wildcat lasted for three days and no one was fired. According to author A. Muhammad Ahmad, DRUM leadership considered the strike in overwhelming success.

• Date: 1968-07-08
• Learn More: www.historyisaweapon.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Phoenix Program Founded (1967)

Sun Jul 09, 1967

The Phoenix Program, founded on this day in 1967 via the MACV Directive, was a CIA program implemented to destroy the Viet Cong (VC) via infiltration, torture, interrogation, and assassination, explicitly targeting non-combatants. These non-combatants were described as "political infrastructure" for the VC.

The Phoenix Program "neutralized" 81,740 people suspected of VC membership, of whom 26,369 were killed, the rest either surrendered or captured. The program was controversial even with the U.S. security state, with one former U.S. military intelligence officer describing it as a "sterile depersonalized murder program".

There were widespread reports of torture and murder of prisoners and, because the program targeted apparent civilians, many innocent people were killed. In some cases, Vietnamese people would report their enemies as Viet Cong in order to get U.S. troops to kill them.

After the program's abuses began receiving negative publicity, it was officially shut down in 1971, although the program continued under the name "Plan F-6", with the government of South Vietnam placed in control.

• Date: 1967-07-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.hoosier84.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

C. E. Ruthenberg (1882 - 1927)

Sun Jul 09, 1882

Image: **

Charles E. Ruthenberg, born on this day in 1882, was an American Marxist politician and co-founder of the Communist Party USA, an influential exponent of communism in the early 20th century United States.

Ruthenberg also contributed material to the official organ of the Socialist Party of Ohio, The Ohio Socialist, and edited various socialist newspapers. During the 1910s, Ruthenberg traveled to many cities throughout the American Northeast and Midwest, speaking to labor groups, trade union organizations, and anti-war groups, building a network of contacts.

After the U.S. entered World War I, Ruthenberg publicly condemned the war as imperialist, as well as America's participation in it. In connection with a speech he gave at a May 17th, 1917 rally, Ruthenberg was accused of obstructing the draft and sentenced to time in prison under the Espionage Act.

Shortly after his release from prison, he participated in the 1919 Cleveland May Day march, attended by over 20,000 people. The police attacked the protesters, killing two and injuring hundreds.

"Bolshevism — what fear and anger the word arouses in the minds of the rulers of society!"

- C. E. Ruthenberg

• Date: 1882-07-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.peoplesworld.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Socialism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Freedom House Bombing (1964)

Wed Jul 08, 1964

Image: The bombed ruins of Society Hill Missionary Baptist Church, McComb, Mississippi, site of a Freedom School. [crmvet.org]

On this day in 1964, a Freedom House, buildings used by civil rights activists as organizing hubs, in McComb, Mississippi was bombed, the fourth one to be bombed in the city since Freedom Summer volunteers had arrived two weeks earlier.

The building shown is the Society Hill Missionary Baptist Church in McComb, bombed and destroyed on September 20th of the same year.

No one was injured by the blast on July 8th. Undeterred, the SNCC moved the Freedom School classes outdoors.

• Date: 1964-07-08
• Learn More: cdm15932.contentdm.oclc.org, www.crmvet.org.
• Tags: [#Civil Rights](/search?q=%23Civil Rights&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New), #Terrorism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Norwegian Workers Association Raid (1851)

Mon Jul 07, 1851

Image: Marcus Thrane photographed in Chicago in the 1870s [nbl.snl.no]

On this day in 1851, police raided the Norwegian Workers Association, seizing documents, suppressing their newspaper, and arresting five board members, including founder Marcus Thrane, who served seven years in prison. Between this and other anti-labor crackdowns, approximately 200 members were arrested.

This suppression took place in the context of a broader political struggle against the state which was spearheaded by the union. A year earlier, the Norwegian Workers Association had delivered a petition, signed by more than 13,000 people, to King Oscar II of Sweden, demanding equality before the law, military conscription to be extended to property owners, and universal suffrage. When the government dismissed the petition, the union began agitating for revolution.

The Workers Association was one of the first major labor movements in Norway. It was founded by Marcus Thrane in 1848, who was inspired by the ongoing revolution in France. The association grew rapidly through 1849 and 1850.

At its peak, the group boasted 273 chapters and 25,000-30,000 members. Following the crackdown and Thrane's imprisonment, the movement collapsed.

• Date: 1851-07-07
• Learn More: nbl.snl.no, en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Grabow Riot (1912)

Sun Jul 07, 1912

Image: Imprisoned union workers following the Grabow Riot of 7th July, 1912. [libcom.org]

On this day in 1912, a riot broke out in Grabow, Louisiana when gunfire was exchanged between organizing lumber workers and private gunmen hired by the Galloway Lumber Company, just one event in the Louisiana-Texas Lumber War. The clash left three union workers and one company gunman dead, wounding an estimated fifty more.

The event took place in the context of workers in the sawmill town of Grabow joining the Brotherhood of Timber Workers (shown), a branch of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU), itself affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

On July 7th, 1912, the union workers held a series of rallies at several different company towns, including Bon Ami and Carson, alongside Grabow.

The group that went to Grabow, around 200 people, spontaneously decided to hold a rally with several speeches - labor leader Arthur L. Emerson spoke on top of a wagon to roughly 25 non-union men, plus the additional union men who had come with him.

Shots began between these workers and a group of four others, including Galloway Lumber owner John Galloway, in the local mill office, all of whom had later been found to be drinking before the incident. It is not known for certain which group fired first. Three union men were killed alongside one member of the private company security force. Approximately 50 more were wounded.

Over the next few days, more than more than 60 workers were taken into custody by police. Although the mill owner himself was arrested, he was released without charges soon afterward. Sixty-five of the timber workers' group were brought up on charges ranging from inciting a riot to murder.

The IWW worked to aid the incarcerated workers, with "Big Bill" Haywood fundraising for their legal fund. The trial lasted until November 8th, and its jury returned a not guilty verdict for all of the union men. All of those arrested were set free.

Although they had limited success in Louisiana, the LWIU successfully organized later, winning an eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest after a 1917 strike. Today, there is a historical marker at the site of the riot, located on what is now the property of DeRidder Airport, Louisiana.

• Date: 1912-07-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.jstor.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW, #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Wagner Act (1935)

Sat Jul 06, 1935

The National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) is a U.S. labor law that became effective on this day in 1935, guaranteeing the right of private sector employees to organize trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike.

The Act also set up a permanent three-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with the power to hear and resolve labor disputes through quasi-judicial proceedings and banned employers from refusing to negotiate with any union ratified by this board.

The Act does not apply to certain workers, including agricultural employees, domestic workers, government employees, and independent contractors. Despite demands by the NAACP and National Urban League, the Act was written without the inclusion of an anti-discrimination clause, allowing both employers and racist labor unions such as the AFL and CIO to maintain white supremacist labor practices.

Corporate interest was heavily against the NLRA, and, when it was challenged in court, the U.S. Supreme Court was compelled to uphold (5-4) the constitutionality of the Wagner Act in "National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp".

The Wagner Act would later be partially repealed and amended with the strongly anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, granting states the power to pass so-called "right-to-work" laws.

• Date: 1935-07-06
• Learn More: www.nlrb.gov, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

Sat Jul 06, 1907

Frida Kahlo, born on this day in 1907, was a Mexican artist and revolutionary communist known for her folk-art inspired style paintings, touching on themes on gender, race, class, self-perception, indigenous culture, and chronic pain.

Although she had always sketched as a hobby, she did not consider visual art as a career until a severe bus accident at the age of eighteen left her bedridden for three months and with a lifetime of chronic pain. Confined to her bed, Kahlo's mother provided her with a specially-made easel, which enabled her to paint while lying down.

With a mirror placed such so that she could see herself, Kahlo began to paint self-portraits, stating "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best".

Inspired by Mexico's popular culture, she employed an accessible, folk art style. In 1943, Kahlo accepted a teaching position at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, the "La Esmeralda." She encouraged her students to treat her in an informal and non-hierarchical way and taught them to appreciate Mexican popular culture and folk art, and to derive their subjects from the street.

Frida Kahlo was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and committed to radical anti-capitalism throughout her entire adult life. In 1951, she stated:

"I have a great restlessness about my paintings. Mainly because I want to make it useful to the revolutionary communist movement...until now I have managed simply an honest expression of my own self...I must struggle with all my strength to ensure that the little positive my health allows me to do also benefits the Revolution, the only real reason to live."

• Date: 1907-07-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.fridakahlo.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Clara Zetkin (1857 - 1933)

Sun Jul 05, 1857

Clara Zetkin, born on this day in 1857, was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and feminist, active in the revolutionary Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

Clara Zetkin was born in Wiederau, a peasant village in Saxony, now part of the municipality Königshain-Wiederau. Because of the ban placed on socialist activity in Germany by Bismarck in 1878, Zetkin left for Zurich in 1882 then went into exile in Paris, where she studied to be a journalist and a translator.

Zetkin was very interested in women's politics, including the fight for equal opportunities and women's suffrage, though always through a socialist paradigm. She helped to develop the social-democratic women's movement in Germany; from 1891 to 1917 she edited the Social Democratic Party (SPD) women's newspaper Die Gleichheit (Equality). She also contributed to International Women's Day (IWD).

Around 1898, Zetkin formed a friendship with the younger Rosa Luxemburg that lasted 20 years. Despite Luxemburg's indifference to the women's movement, they became staunch political allies on the far left of the SPD. Luxemburg once suggested that their joint epitaph would be "Here lie the last two men of German Social Democracy."

In August 1932, despite having recently fallen gravely ill in Moscow, she returned to Berlin to preside over the opening of the newly elected Reichstag. There, she gave a speech urging Germany to reject fascism, stating "all those who feel themselves threatened, all those who suffer and all those who long for liberation must belong to the United Front against fascism and its representatives in government".

When Hitler seized power the following year, Zetkin once again fled Germany, dying in Moscow in 1933 at the age of 76.

"The working women, who aspire to social equality, expect nothing for their emancipation from the bourgeois women's movement, which allegedly fights for the rights of women. That edifice is built on sand and has no real basis. Working women are absolutely convinced that the question of the emancipation of women is not an isolated question which exists in itself, but part of the great social question."

- Clara Zetkin

• Date: 1857-07-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Marxism, #Feminism, #Birthdays, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Immigration Act of 1864

Mon Jul 04, 1864

Image: An artist's depiction of immigrants arriving in New York City, undergoing health inspection in 1866

Passed on this day in 1864, the Immigration Act legalized wage-based indentured servitude to encourage immigration to the United States, allowing immigrants to forgo a year's wages to pay for their passage into the country.

Employers, such as railroad and mining companies, would contract an immigrant workers to come to the United States under guidelines established by the federal government and withhold their wages accordingly.

This law provided corporations with cheap labor that could and would be used to break strikes by domestic workers. After years of rigorous opposition by labor organizations, Congress repealed the law in 1868.

• Date: 1864-07-04
• Learn More: immigrationhistory.org, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anti-Rent Movement Begins (1839)

Thu Jul 04, 1839

Image: A poster supporting the Anti-Rent Movement, aimed to end the patroon system in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. Its headline reads "ATTENTION! ANTI-RENTERS! AWAKE! AROUSE!" [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1839, tenant farmers on New York's oldest estate assembled in Albany County to adopt a declaration of independence from their landlord, initiating the longest rent strike in U.S. history, the "Anti-Rent War".

Their previous landlord, Stephen van Rensselaer III, who owned all 726,000 acres of the effectively feudal estate of Rensselaerwyck, had passed away a few months prior.

In their declaration of independence, the farmers stated "We will take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it and roll it to the final consummation of freedom and independence of the masses."

This began a six year rebellion known as the Anti-Rent War, the longest rent strike in U.S. history.

In those six years, the farmers fought off attempts to collect rent by force, repelling a 500-man posse led by the Albany County sheriff in December 1839.

In 1844, the movement formed a prominent political party, known as the "Antirenter" party. In 1846, provisions for tenants' rights - abolishing feudal tenures and outlawing leases lasting longer than twelve years - were added to the New York Constitution.

• Date: 1839-07-04
• Learn More: alloveralbany.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Tenant, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Paterson Textile Strike (1835)

Fri Jul 03, 1835

Image: Workers with rolls of finished silk in a Paterson silk factory in 1914. Image: Library of Congress

On this day in 1835, 2,000 workers, most of them children, from more than twenty textile mills in Paterson, New Jersey went on strike to demand working hours be reduced from their standard six day, seventy-eight hour work week.

In response to the strike, employers reduced hours to twelve on weekdays and nine on Saturday. This reduction broke the strike, and most of the workers returned to the mills.

Despite this concession, strike leaders and their families were permanently barred from employment in Paterson, blacklisted by the mill owners.

• Date: 1835-07-03
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 - 1935)

Tue Jul 03, 1860

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born on this day in 1860, was a prominent American humanist, author, socialist, and feminist, probably best known today for her loosely autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper".

Gilman served as a role model for future generations of feminists due to her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle, such as leaving her husband (rare for the era) and living with another woman in what was possibly, though unconfirmed, a romantic relationship.

Gilman is possibly best known today for her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", authored after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis. The story depicts the way in which sick women are maligned in a sexist society.

She was also an advocate for assisted suicide for the chronically ill, and died from a self-inflicted chloroform overdose in 1935 after a struggle with breast cancer.

"To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must do something."

- Charlotte Gilman

• Date: 1860-07-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.gutenberg.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Patrice Lumumba (1925 - 1961)

Thu Jul 02, 1925

Patrice Lumumba, born on this day in 1925, was a Congolese anti-colonial revolutionary who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until shortly before his assassination in 1961.

Lumumba played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination on January 17th, 1961 in a coup by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, backed by Belgian colonizers.

Lumumba did not express a pro-capitalist or pro-communist ideology, attempting to remain neutral in Cold War politics. He sought assistance in stabilizing the new Congolese Republic from both the United States and the Soviet Union, accepting military aid from the latter after the U.S. refused to help him.

On Lumumba's legacy, his friend and colleague Thomas Kanza wrote "he lived as a free man, and an independent thinker. Everything he wrote, said and did was the product of someone who knew his vocation to be that of a liberator, and he represents for the Congo what Castro does for Cuba, Nasser for Egypt, Nkrumah for Ghana, Mao Tse-tung for China, and Lenin for Russia."

• Date: 1925-07-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.sahistory.org.za.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Medgar Evers (1925 - 1963)

Thu Jul 02, 1925

Medgar Evers, born on this day in 1925, was an American civil rights leader who achieved national prominence for his efforts in fighting racial oppression in Mississippi, work for which he assassinated by white supremacists.

Evers led boycotts against businesses that discriminated against black people, worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, and fought for fair enforcement of the right to vote. He also played a key role in securing the involvement of the NAACP in the murder of Emmett Till, helping publicize the events and secretly secure witnesses for the case.

Evers was assassinated on June 12th, 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council in Jackson, Mississippi. His murder and the resulting trials inspired a wave of civil rights protests; his life inspired numerous works of art, music, and film.

All-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the first two trials of Beckwith in the 1960s. He was convicted in 1994 in a state trial based on new evidence.

"I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them."

- Medgar Evers

• Date: 1925-07-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, web.archive.org.
• Tags: [#Civil Rights](/search?q=%23Civil Rights&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New), #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org