Camilo Cienfuegos (1932 - 1959)

Sat Feb 06, 1932

Image: Camilo Cienfuegos, in Cuba in the 1950s [Wikipedia]

Camilo Cienfuegos, born on this day in 1932, was a Cuban revolutionary who served as one of Fidel Castro's top guerilla commanders, known as the "Hero of Yaguajay" after winning a key battle of the Cuban Revolution.

In 1954, Cienfuegos became an active member of the underground student movement against U.S.-aligned dictator Fulgencio Batista. On December 5th, 1955, the eve of the anniversary of the death of 19th-century Cuban independence figure Antonio Maceo, soldiers opened fire on Cienfuegos and other students who were returning to Havana university after placing a wreath on Maceo's monument.

Cienfuegos credited this incident with his political awakening and decision to dedicate his life to freeing Cuba from Batista's government. Along with Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Juan Almeida Bosque, and Raúl Castro, he was a member of the 1956 Granma expedition, which launched Fidel Castro's armed insurgency to establish Cuban independence.

On the evening of October 28th, 1959, Cienfuegos' Cessna 310 ('FAR-53') disappeared over the Straits of Florida during a night flight, returning from Camagüey to Havana. Despite several days of searching, his plane was not found. By mid-November, Cienfuegos was presumed lost at sea. In 1979, the Cuban government established the "Order of Cienfuegos" in his honor.

In October 1958, when a Cuban Masonic organization expressed concern that someone captured by the rebels might be tortured and killed, Cienfuegos replied:

"Your petition is unnecessary, because under no condition would we put ourselves at the same moral level as those we are fighting...We cannot torture and assassinate prisoners in the manner of our opponents; we cannot as men of honor and as dignified Cubans use the low and undignified procedures that our opponents use against us."

• Date: 1932-02-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.cndh.org.mx.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rosa Parks (1913 - 2005)

Tue Feb 04, 1913

Rosa Parks, born on this day in 1913, was an American activist in the civil rights movement best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. U.S. Congress has called her "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement".

Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation in Montgomery, but the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) believed that she was the best candidate for seeing through a court challenge after her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her bus seat for a white person.

According to historian Dr. Casey Nichols, following this arrest, Parks immediately contacted local NAACP president E.D. Nixon and informed him of her arrest. Within hours, the Women’s Political Council (WPC), formed in 1946 to address the grievances of black bus patrons in Montgomery, sprang into action, printing flyers, phoning potential supporters, and organizing carpools.

The boycott succeeded in 1957 after the Supreme Court declared bus segregation unconstitutional. Parks' act of defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott became important symbols of the movement, and she became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

After the boycott's conclusion, Parks moved to Detroit, Michigan and began working as an assistant to Detroit Congressman John Conyers. She has received numerous honors, including over 40 honorary degrees, the Medal of Freedom, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, and two NAACP image awards. In 2002, Parks produced a biographical film titled “The Rosa Parks Story.”

"The only tired I was was tired of giving in."

• Rosa Parks

• Date: 1913-02-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, teacher.scholastic.com, repository.wustl.edu.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC School Boycott (1964)

Mon Feb 03, 1964

Image: A propaganda poster showing a black child looking through a broken window, urging the viewer to participate in the boycott. From the Queens College Civil Rights Archives [zinnedproject.org]

On this day in 1964, 464,000 New York City school children, about half of the city's student body, boycotted the segregated school system, one of the largest civil rights demonstrations in U.S. history.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, a newspaper at the time, "Though segregation in New York was not codified like the Jim Crow laws in the South, a de facto segregation was evident in the city's school system." The NY Times reported that more than a third of the schools were picketed by parents, students, teachers, and activists.

Bayard Rustin, a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the Freedom Rides, directed the boycott. A flier explaining the reason for the boycott stated the following:

"We have found that one of the quickest ways to destroy inequality and segregation is to hit it in the pocketbook. Financial aid to the school system is based upon pupil attendance. No pupils — no money. It's as simple as that."

• Date: 1964-02-03
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org, crdl.usg.edu.
• Tags: #CivilRights.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Cinderloo (1821)

Fri Feb 02, 1821

Image: An unknown artist's impression of the uprising [shropshirestar.com]

On this day in 1821, 3,000 striking workers in present-day Telford, England clashed with Yeomanry, who fired into the crowd after workers refused an order to disperse. Two workers were killed, two were sentenced to death, and nine were arrested.

Colliers across the Coalbrookdale Coalfields had gone on strike the previous day in response to the lowering of their wages, and production across the area came to a halt. A large body of men marched to ironworks at Madeley Wood and Dawley, blowing out all the furnaces, damaging machinery, and inciting non-striking workers to join in.

By mid-afternoon the next day, a crowd of 3,000 had gathered at Old Park, near two industrial spoil heaps known as the 'Cinders Hills'. Yeomanry were sent out to disperse the crowd, and they were read the Riot Act and ordered go home. When Yeomanry moved forward to arrest the ringleaders of the strike, they were assaulted by the crowd. After further attempts to control the protesters were frustrated, the Yeomanry fired onto the crowd, killing two.

Nine strikers were arrested - two were sentenced to death and the other seven served nine months of hard labor. The initial dispute which had caused the riot was resolved soon after, with some ironmasters agreeing to reduce the daily pay of the workers by 4d instead of 6d.

• Date: 1821-02-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.dawleyheritage.co.uk.
• Tags: #Labor, #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Farabundo Martí Executed (1932)

Mon Feb 01, 1932

Farabundo Martí was a Salvadoran labor organizer and Marxist-Leninist revolutionary executed by the state on this day in 1932 after he helped lead a peasant uprising against President Maximiliano Hernandez Martínez.

Martí was born in Teotepeque, El Salvador on May 5th, 1893. He abandoned studying in university in favor of more directly participating in revolutionary working class organizing. He was a member of a number anti-capitalist organizations throughout the region, and became a founder of the Central American Communist Party in 1925.

In 1928, Martí fought alongside Augusto Sandino in Nicaragua in opposition to the country's occupation by the U.S. military. In 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador to help initiate a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers.

The uprising against dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, fomented by collapsing coffee prices, enjoyed some initial success, but was soon drowned in a bloodbath, crushed by the Salvadoran military just ten days after it had begun. Over 30,000 indigenous people were killed at what was to be a "peaceful meeting" in 1932; this became known as "La Matanza" ("The Slaughter").

For his role in the uprising, Martí was executed on orders from Salvadoran President Martínez on February 1st, 1932.

• Date: 1932-02-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org, www.telesurenglish.net.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Greensboro Sit-ins Begin (1960)

Mon Feb 01, 1960

Image: Sitting from left: Joseph McNeil, Billy Smith and Clarence Henderson on second day of sit-ins, Woolworth, Greensboro, February 2nd, 1960 [blackpast.org]

On this day in 1960, the "Greensboro Four" sat down at F. W. Woolworth Company Store's lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina to protest segregation.

The four men had purchased toothpaste and other products from a desegregated counter at the store with no problems, but were then refused service at the store's lunch counter when they each asked for a cup of coffee.

The four students returned the next day, and within a few days the protest included hundreds of students. The Greensboro Sit-in sparked a movement of sit-in protests against segregation across the country, continuing into the summer and expanding to other places of discrimination, such as swimming pools, parks, and art galleries.

On July 25th, after months of harassment, including a bomb threat, and nearly $200,000 in losses ($1.7 million in 2020 dollars) the Greensboro Woolworth's finally ended its discriminatory policies. Four years later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mandated desegregation in public accommodations.

• Date: 1960-02-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Louis Allen Murdered (1964)

Fri Jan 31, 1964

Louis Allen was a civil rights activist in Liberty, Mississippi who was assassinated by white supremacists on this day in 1964. When Allen told the U.S. government that he feared for his life, the Justice Department refused to protect him.

Allen had previously tried to register to vote and had allegedly talked to federal officials after witnessing the 1961 murder of Herbert Lee, an NAACP member and volunteer with the SNCC, by E. H. Hurst (1908 - 1990), a white Mississippi state legislator.

Allen watched as Hurst assassinated Lee with a single gunshot to the head and was forced by local police to testify in court that Hurst acted in self-defense (Hurst falsely claimed Lee attacked him a tire iron).

After giving this coerced testimony, Allen talked to the FBI and the United States Commission on Civil Rights in Jackson, asking for protection if he testified about how his testimony was made under duress. The Justice Department said they could not offer him protection, and so Allen declined to speak out.

When Allen reported receiving death threats, the FBI referred the matter to the office of Amite County Sheriff Daniel Jones. The FBI did so despite an agent acknowledging in a 1961 memo that "the local sheriff was involved in the plot to kill him". FBI documentation also noted that Jones was a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Following the murder of Herbert Lee, Sheriff Jones began a campaign of harassment against Allen, arresting him on false charges multiple times and breaking his jaw with a flashlight. When Allen filed formal complaints about Jones' behavior, they were ignored.

On January 31st, 1964, the day before Allen had planned to move out of the state entirely, he was assassinated on his own property. In 2011, the CBS program "60 Minutes" conducted a special on his assassination which suggested that Allen was killed by Sheriff Jones. No one has been arrested or prosecuted for his murder.

• Date: 1964-01-31
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, snccdigital.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of George Square (1919)

Fri Jan 31, 1919

Image: David Kirkwood being detained by police during 1919 Battle of George Square on January 31st 1919 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1919, the Battle of George Square took place in Glasgow, Scotland, a conflict between Glasgow police and the British Army against 25,000 striking Glasgow workers who were demanding a 40-hour work week.

The strike began a few days earlier, on January 27th, after a meeting of around 3,000 workers gathered in St. Andrew's Halls. The movement for the 40 hour week grew quickly; by the 30th, more than 40,000 workers from local engineering and shipping industries had joined in, and sympathy strikes broke out among power station workers and local miners.

On January 31st, approximately 20,000-25,000 workers gathered in George Square. Fighting broke out between city police and workers, and labor leaders David Kirkwood and William Gallacher were beaten and taken into custody. During the riot, the sheriff of Lanarkshire called for military aid, and British troops, supported by six tanks, were moved to key points in Glasgow.

Kirkwood was found innocent after a photo surfaced of him being struck with a baton from behind by a policeman, however Gallacher served five months in prison. The strike ended on February 12th in defeat for the workers, who did not win a 40-hour work week.

• Date: 1919-01-31
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.glasgowlive.co.uk, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ecuador Fuel Strike (1994)

Sun Jan 30, 1994

Image: Protesters in Quito, taking to the streets in 2019 after the government ended fuel subsidies, causing price increases

On this day in 1994, approximately half a million workers staged a 24-hour strike in Ecuador to protest a government increase in fuel prices, blocking roads and burning tires.

Fuel prices would again cause widespread strikes and civil unrest in 2019, when President Lenín Moreno issued a decree on October 1st, ending subsidies for diesel and extra gasoline with ethanol to comply with International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions.

Leaders of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE) and the United Workers Front (FUT) announced a national strike to protest the resultant fuel increases on October 9th, 2019.

• Date: 1994-01-30
• Learn More: www.latimes.com, www.workers.org, www.dw.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Samuel Gompers (1850 - 1924)

Sun Jan 27, 1850

Samuel Gompers, born on this day in 1850, was a founder of the American Federation of Labor, serving as its president for 38 years. Gompers expelled radicals from the AFL, promoted trade unionism, and advocated for racist immigration policies.

Although Gompers began his career sympathetic to socialist and Georgist thought, he became increasingly conservative throughout his career, making "peace" with capitalist labor relations rather than seeking to abolish them. This led to a split in the labor movement, with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) representing the more radical advocacy of labor interests via industrial unionism.

As AFL President, Gompers promoted collaboration among the different craft unions that comprised the AFL and supported collective bargaining to secure shorter hours and higher wages for laborers.

Gompers also successfully promoted anti-immigrant and anti-socialist politics using the influence of the AFL, endorsing the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and supporting the U.S. government and its entry into World War I as the state arrested anti-war union leaders.

Gompers was particularly critical of the IWW, stating "the IWWs...are exactly what the Bolsheviki are in Russia, and we have seen what the IWW Bolsheviki in Russia have done for the working people."

• Date: 1850-01-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, aflcio.org, gompers.umd.edu, depts.washington.edu.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Auschwitz Liberated (1945)

Sat Jan 27, 1945

Image: Prisoners being led out of the Auschwitz gates, possibly a re-enactment taken a few weeks after January 27th. The motto "Arbeit macht frei" (English: "Work sets you free") can be seen above the gate. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland, the largest such complex during the Holocaust. In 2005, the United Nations named today as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

As Soviet forces approached the camp, Nazis attempted to evacuate prisoners from the camp and to destroy evidence of their atrocities. Approximately 56,000 inmates were forced on a "death march" west away from the camp through the Polish winter.

Around 15,000 prisoners (about 1 in 4) perished during their forced march, and, by the time the Soviets had arrived, only 9,000 remained on-site, monitored by a handful of remaining SS guards and staff.

The buildings themselves were left largely intact, along with large amounts of clothing, seized items, and human hair, alongside the dying prisoners left behind.

One Red Army general, Vasily Petrenko, is quoted as saying, "I who saw people dying every day was shocked by the Nazis' indescribable hatred toward the inmates who had turned into living skeletons. I read about the Nazis' treatment of Jews in various leaflets, but there was nothing about the Nazis' treatment of women, children, and old men".

Efforts were made to document the atrocities, and to hospitalize the remaining inmates. Auschwitz remained in use as an ad hoc facility for German POWs until the end of the war in Europe later that year.

Since 2005, the day has been marked annually by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, commemorating all those targeted and killed by the Third Reich, including around six million Jews and five million others.

• Date: 1945-01-27
• Learn More: www.smithsonianmag.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.ushmm.org.
• Tags: #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Angela Davis (1944 - )

Wed Jan 26, 1944

Image: **

Angela Davis, born on this day in 1944, is a Marxist and feminist activist, prison abolitionist, philosopher, and educator.

Ideologically a Marxist, Davis was a member of the Communist Party USA until 1991, after which she joined the breakaway "Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism". She is the author of over ten books, covering topics such as class, feminism, and the U.S. prison system.

Born to an African-American family in Birmingham, Alabama, Davis studied French at Brandeis University and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany. Back in the U.S., she joined the Communist Party and, as a Marxist feminist, involved herself in a range of radical movements, including second-wave feminism, the Black Panther Party, and the campaign against the Vietnam War.

In 1969, Davis was hired as an acting assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). In 1970 UCLA's governing Board of Regents fired her due to her Communist Party membership; after a court ruled this illegal, the university fired her again, this time for her alleged use of "inflammatory language".

Praised by Marxists and others on the left, Davis has received numerous awards, including the Lenin Peace Prize in 1980. Davis has also been inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame, and was Time magazine's "Woman of the Year" for 1971 in its 2020 "100 Women of the Year" edition.

"I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept."

- Angela Davis

• Date: 1944-01-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com, www.marxists.org, www.marxists.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fumiko Kaneko (1903 - 1926)

Sun Jan 25, 1903

Image: Fumiko Kaneko sits on her knees wearing a striped kimono with her hands clasped in front of her, staring intently ahead. c. 1925, author unknown [Wikipedia]

Fumiko Kaneko, born on this day in 1903, was a Japanese anarchist, nihilist, and opponent to Japanese imperialism in Korea. Fumiko is perhaps best remembered for her "The Prison Memoirs Of A Japanese Woman", written while imprisoned after being convicted of high treason against the Japanese government.

Together, Fumiko and her Korean partner Pak Yol published two magazines which highlighted the problems Koreans faced under Japanese imperialism and showed influences of their radical politics. Sometime between 1922 and 1923, they also established a group called "F"utei-sha (Society of Malcontents)", which Fumiko identified as a group for direct action against the government.

These activities soon brought Pak and Fumiko under government scrutiny. In September 1923, the Japanese government therefore made a number of arrests, mostly Koreans, on limited evidence, and among those arrested were Pak and Fumiko.

After lengthy judicial proceedings, Fumiko and Pak were convicted of high treason for attempting to obtain bombs with the intention of killing the emperor or his son. They were both sentenced to life in prison, however Fumiko allegedly committed suicide in her cell in 1926.

Here is a short excerpt from one of Fumiko's interrogations while imprisoned (text by Max Res from theanarchistlibrary.org):

Q: Your class?

A: A divine commoner.

Q: How are you employed?

A: My job is tearing down everything that currently exists.

• Date: 1903-01-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Russian Revolution (1905)

Sun Jan 22, 1905

Image: An engraving from an unknown author, depicting a crowd confronting soldiers outside the Narva Gates on the morning of January 22nd [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1905, troops at the Russian Winter Palace fired upon a huge procession of working class demonstrators, killing hundreds. The massacre, known as "Bloody Sunday", led to widespread uprisings and sweeping reforms in what is known as the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The revolt took place amidst widespread discontent with conditions under the Tsarist absolute monarchy, and a growing proliferation of political radicalism. Although mass strikes broke out weeks earlier in St. Petersburg, the beginning of the revolution is typically marked by the "Bloody Sunday" massacre on January 22nd, when unarmed protesters marching towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas were fired upon by soldiers, killing hundreds.

In response to the massacre, mass worker resistance exploded across the Russian empire. Half of European Russia's industrial workers went on strike in 1905, 93.2% in Poland. The Tsar's uncle was assassinated on February 17th.

On March 2nd, the Tsar agreed to the establishment of a legislature, the State Duma. However, with the body's powers remaining limited (initially only given consultative powers), the rebels were emboldened to push harder.

Summer saw peasant rebellion and mutinies (Russia being at war with Japan at the time), most famously the mutiny on the battleship Potemkin, triggered when sailors refused to eat borscht made from maggot-infested meat.

As strikes continued, the government announced a Manifesto on October 17th, enacting emergency civil reform to placate the masses, and successfully crushed remaining resistance in the following months, such as the Moscow Uprising in December.

The uprising is considered the predecessor to the Russian Revolution of 1917 which led to the establishment of the Soviet Union; Vladimir Lenin called it "The Great Dress Rehearsal", without which the "victory of the October Revolution in 1917 would have been impossible".

• Date: 1905-01-22
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.bolshevik.info, www.thoughtco.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Assassinations, #Massacre, #Mutinies, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Baburova and Markelov Assassinated (2009)

Mon Jan 19, 2009

On this day in 2009, anarchist journalist Anastasia Baburova (1983 - 2009) and human rights lawyer Stanislav Markelov (1974 - 2009) were assassinated by Russian neo-Nazis.

Baburova was a member of the Russian anarchist group "Autonomous Action" and a student of journalism at Moscow State University. Markelov was a lawyer who defended left-wing political activists, anti-fascists, journalists, and victims of police violence.

On January 19th, 2009, Markelov gave a press conference where he fiercely denounced the early prison release of a Russian army officer, convicted for the abduction and murder of a Chechen girl. After finishing, a masked assailant shot him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Baburova, who was covering the press conference, was shot and killed after trying to stop the shooter.

In May 2011, the shooter Nikita Tikhonov was sentenced to life imprisonment, and his partner Eugenia Khasis was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer has speculated that the Russian government was involved, noting that Tikhonov's use of a pistol fitted with a silencer was atypical for the neo-Nazi movement, which usually used knives and homemade explosives to commit violence.

• Date: 2009-01-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.frontlinedefenders.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Anarchism, #Journalism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Philip Agee (1935 - 2008)

Sat Jan 19, 1935

Philip Agee, born on this day in 1935, was an ex-CIA officer who became a prominent critic of CIA policies, detailing his experiences in the text "Inside the Company: CIA Diary". Agee ultimately defected to Cuba, dying there in 2008.

Philip Agee (1935 - 2008) served as a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer for eight years, joining the organization in 1960. He was assigned posts in Montevideo, Mexico City, and Quito, Ecuador.

Agee resigned from the CIA in 1968 following the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, in which the U.S.-supported government engaged in mass shootings and arrests of a crowd of more than ten thousand protesters. The same massacre also played a role in the political radicalization of Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas.

Agee moved to London and published "Inside the Company", a tell-all text that, among other things, detailed his work in spying on diplomats, engaging in illegal activity to force a diplomatic break between Ecuador and Cuba, naming President José Figueres Ferrer of Costa Rica, President Luis Echeverría Álvarez of Mexico, and President Alfonso López Michelsen of Colombia as CIA collaborators, and exposing the identities of dozens of CIA agents.

For the exposure of agents, Agee was expelled from the United Kingdom. Agee was also eventually expelled from the Netherlands, France, West Germany and Italy, and was compelled to live under a series of socialist governments - Grenada under Maurice Bishop, then Nicaragua under the Sandinistas, and finally Cuba under Castro. Agee died in Cuba in January 2008.

"I don't think we have ever had real democracy in this country. Anyone who studies adoption of the constitution will understand quite clearly that; democracy - as we understand that on today; was the last thing the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the constitution....it was: to establish strong central authority responding the elitist interests in United States.

That's private property. And those men who wrote the constitution were representatives of the elites. They were the lawyers, bankers, merchants, the land owners, slave owners and so forth. And they write the constitution for their own private interest$. That is how government has served ever since. And that is why we have so little democracy in United States."

• Philip Agee

• Date: 1935-01-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, archive.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Hayes Pond (1958)

Sat Jan 18, 1958

Image: Lumbee men Simon Oxedine and Charlie Warriax, both veterans, with captured KKK flag at VFW convention. Image published in Life Magazine, 1958. Page 26-28. [progressive.org]

On this day in 1958, armed Lumbee Native Americans broke up a KKK rally near Maxton, North Carolina, driving the white supremacists away and confiscating their flag. Four Klansmen were injured in the "Battle of Hayes Pond".

Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole was the organizer of the Klan rally. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were Lumbee leaders who attacked the Klansmen and successfully disrupted the rally.

The year prior, Cole had initiated a campaign of harassment designed to intimidate the Lumbee Tribe to help organize the local Klan. He called a rally on January 18th, and 100 Klansmen arrived at the private field near Hayes Pond which Cole had leased from a sympathetic farmer. Cole managed to erect the cross, but before he could finish the ceremony, over 500 Lumbee men appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.

Four Klansmen were injured in the subsequent exchange of gunfire. Cole was later found guilty of inciting a riot and sentenced to two years in prison.

• Date: 1958-01-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, progressive.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Hawaiian Kingdom Overthrown (1893)

Tue Jan 17, 1893

On this day in 1893, a U.S.-backed coup d'état against Queen Lili'uokalani took place, establishing the Republic of Hawaii and beginning the process of U.S. annexation. The U.S. apologized for this in 1993, but did not give the islands back.

The majority of the insurgents were non-natives, and they successfully requested assistance from the U.S. government, who sent 162 sailors to occupy Oahu.

Although the coup forces established an independent republic, they did so with the ultimate goal of the United States annexing the islands, which occurred in 1898.

This revolution and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii signaled an expansion of U.S. imperialist interests. The same year, the U.S. fought and won the Spanish-American War, acquiring Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and establishing economic control of Cuba via the Platt Amendment.

In 1993, the U.S. government issued an "Apology Resolution", acknowledging that "the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands".

Hawaiian scholar Dr. Keanu Sai has written about the illegality of the U.S. occupation and annexation, citing an 1893 Executive Agreement between President Grover Cleveland and Queen Lili'uokalani. On June 1st, 2010, Sai filed a lawsuit against President Obama on this basis, demanding the restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom government.

• Date: 1893-01-17
• Learn More: www.nea.org, hawaiiankingdom.org, hawaiiankingdom.org, en.wikipedia.org, learning.blogs.nytimes.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Herndon Addresses the Court (1933)

Mon Jan 16, 1933

Angelo Herndon (1913 - 1997) was a communist labor leader convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black and white workers in Atlanta, Georgia. He addressed the court on this day in 1933, stating "You cannot kill the working class".

After nearly 1,000 unemployed workers, both black and white, demonstrated at the Atlanta federal courthouse on June 30th, 1932, local officials began to monitor known and suspected radicals. On July 11th, Herndon, an active labor organizer in the area, was arrested while checking on his mail. A few days later his hotel room was searched, and Communist Party publications were found.

Herndon was charged with insurrection under a Georgia Reconstruction era law. His case went to the Supreme Court twice, and Herndon was freed when the insurrection charge was finally ruled unconstitutional in 1937.

Here is an excerpt of what Herndon said to the court on January 16th, 1933, at 19 years of age:

"You may do what you will with Angelo Herndon. You may indict him. You may put him in jail. But there will come thousands of Angelo Herndons. If you really want to do anything about the case, you must go out and indict the social system. But this you will not do, for your role is to defend the system under which the toiling masses are robbed and oppressed...

You may succeed in killing one, two, even a score of working-class organizers. But you cannot kill the working class."

• Date: 1933-01-16
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.georgiaencyclopedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht (1919)

Wed Jan 15, 1919

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were prominent German communists who were assassinated on this day in 1919 by the German Freikorps, a group of government-sponsored paramilitary forces, after the Spartacist Uprising.

Luxemburg and Liebknecht had co-founded the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), groups that had been engaging in revolutionary political activity.

In 1919, Luxemburg and Liebknecht participated in the "Spartacist Uprising", an armed rebellion against the German state. The uprising was forcibly put down by the Freikorps and, for their role in it, both Luxemburg and Liebknecht were tortured and summarily executed by the government forces on this day that year.

Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg have since become celebrated martyrs of the German left. Since 1919, an annual Liebknecht-Luxemburg Demonstration has been held in Berlin, the world's largest funerary parade and the biggest meeting of the German left. The annual "L-L Demo" is held on the second Sunday in January. In 2016, 14,000 people attended the rally in Liebknecht's and Luxemburg's honor.

Epitaphs composed by German playwright Bertolt Brecht read as follows:

Epitaph for Karl Liebknecht Here lies Karl Liebknecht The fighter against war When he was struck down Our city still continued to stand.

Epitaph for Rosa Luxemburg Here lies buried Rosa Luxemburg A Jewess from Poland Champion of the German workers Murdered on the orders of The German oppressors. Oppressed; Bury your differences!

"Marxism is a revolutionary worldview that must always struggle for new revelations. Marxism must abhor nothing so much as the possibility that it becomes congealed in its current form. It is at its best when butting heads in self-criticism, and in historical thunder and lightning, it retains its strength."

- Rosa Luxemburg

• Date: 1919-01-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.versobooks.com, revolutionarydemocracy.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dundalli Executed (1855)

Fri Jan 05, 1855

Image: 1855 sketch of Dundalli by Silvester Diggles [Wikipedia]

Dundalli, executed by the state on this day in 1855, was an Aboriginal lawman who mediated conflict between European settlers and indigenous aboriginal peoples in the area of Brisbane in South East Queensland.

Characterized by colonial authorities as a criminal, Dundalli was an indigenous leader who coordinated decade-long resistance to the process of colonization.

As tensions escalated between indigenous people and settlers around Brisbane, Dundalli's role as a tribal leader led to widespread speculation that he instigated various violent conflicts. Despite this perception, modern historians note his restraint - he had not exacted revenge for his brother's murder at the hands of a settler and rival tribe and had saved at least one settler's life in a raid.

In 1854, Dundalli entered Brisbane to be paid for removing a felled tree and was arrested by the police. Tried and convicted for murder on flimsy evidence, he was hanged a few months later on this day in 1855. Historian Libby Connors writes that, from the gallows, Dundalli gave a speech addressed to his wife and Turrbal, Ningy Ningy, and Djindubari people gathered nearby, calling on them to avenge his death.

Connors states "In the end, the theatre of his own execution and gallows speech provides further evidence that a parallel system of justice was operating in the region which the colonial authorities refused to acknowledge."

• Date: 1855-01-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, eprints.usq.edu.au.
• Tags: #Colonialism, #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Eisenhower Doctrine Declared (1957)

Sat Jan 05, 1957

Image: American Marine in a foxhole outside Beirut

On this day in 1957, President Eisenhower declared the "Eisenhower Doctrine", authorizing commitment of U.S. forces to any nation threatened by "international communism".

In 1958, 14,000 U.S. troops occupied Lebanon during a political crisis. On this basis,14,000 U.S. troops would occupy Lebanon to intervene in the 1958 Lebanon Crisis, an action named "Operation Blue Bat". Following the Lebanese intervention, some U.S. Senators accused Eisenhower of exaggerating the threat of communism to the region. Eisenhower later privately admitted that the real goal behind the policy was combating Arab nationalism.

• Date: 1957-01-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, millercenter.org.
• Tags: #Communism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Lucretia Mott (1793 - 1880)

Thu Jan 03, 1793

Lucretia Mott, born on this day in 1793, was an American Quaker, abolitionist, women's rights activist, pacifist, and social reformer. She had formed the idea of reforming the position of women in society when she was amongst the women excluded from the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840.

In 1848, Mott was invited by Jane Hunt to a meeting that led to the first public gathering about women's rights, the Seneca Falls Convention, during which Mott co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments.

When slavery was outlawed in 1865, Mott advocated giving former slaves who had been bound to slavery laws within the U.S., whether male or female, the right to vote. She remained a central figure in the abolition and suffrage movement until her death in 1880.

• Date: 1793-01-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org.
• Tags: #Feminism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anton Pannekoek (1873 - 1960)

Thu Jan 02, 1873

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

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

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

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

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

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

- Antonie Pannekoek

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

Zapatista Uprising (1994)

Sat Jan 01, 1994

Image: Photo credit: Pedro Valtierra, Antonio Turok

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

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

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