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

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

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

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

Fred Hampton Assassinated (1969)

Thu Dec 04, 1969

On this day in 1969, the Chicago Police Department assassinated revolutionary socialist and Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark. "You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the revolution."

Hampton also served deputy chairman for the national Panther party. In this capacity, he founded the Rainbow Coalition, a multi-racial class-conscious organization that included the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots, and the Young Lords, as well as an alliance among major Chicago street gangs to help them work for social change rather than fight amongst each other.

In 1967, Hampton was identified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a threat. The FBI attempted to subvert his activities in Chicago, sowing disinformation among activist and placing a counterintelligence operative in the local Panthers organization.

On December 4th, 1969, Hampton was assassinated in his bed during a predawn raid at his Chicago apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County State's Attorney's Office, in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department and the FBI. During the raid, another Panther, Mark Clark, was killed and several more were seriously wounded.

At a press conference the next day, police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers, and had defended themselves accordingly.

In a second press conference on December 8th, police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all Panthers present.

Photographic evidence was presented of bullet holes allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but this was soon challenged by reporters. It was later found that all but one of nearly 100 shots were fired by police.

Hampton's death was ruled a justified homicide at the time, although a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of the survivors and the relatives of Hampton and Clark won $1.85 million dollars in damages in 1982.

"You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the revolution."

- Fred Hampton

• Date: 1969-12-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org, www.youtube.com, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: [www.apeoplescalendar.org](https://www.apeoplescalendar.org/calendar/events/fred-hampton-assassinated -1969)

1st North Star Edition (1847)

Fri Dec 03, 1847

Image: A photo of the North Star paper

On this day in 1847, Frederick Douglass published the 1st edition of his abolitionist paper The North Star; its slogan was "Right is of no Sex—Truth is of no Color—God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren."

Frederick Douglass (1817 - 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining fame and political clout for his oratory and incisive abolitionist writing.

• Date: 1847-12-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com, www.loc.gov.
• Tags: #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

John Brown Executed (1859)

Fri Dec 02, 1859

On this day in 1859, the U.S. government executed John Brown for his failed raid on a federal armory in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. For attempting to liberate enslaved people, Brown became the first American to be executed for treason.

Brown first gained national prominence when he led small groups of volunteers during the Bleeding Kansas crisis of 1856. He was dissatisfied with the pacifism of the organized abolitionist movement: "These men are all talk. What we need is action - action!"

In October 1859, Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today West Virginia), intending to start a slave liberation movement that would spread south through the mountainous regions of Virginia and North Carolina. Although Brown seized the armory, his raid was beaten militarily. Seven people were killed and at least ten were injured.

Brown had intended to arm slaves with weapons from the armory, but only a small number of local slaves were willing to join him, possibly due to an unfamiliarity with firearms. Within 36 hours, those of Brown's men who had not fled were killed or captured by local farmers, militiamen, and U.S. Marines, the latter led by Robert E. Lee.

Brown was hastily tried for treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the murder of five men, and inciting a slave insurrection; he was found guilty on all counts and was hanged. Brown was the first person executed for treason in the history of the United States.

"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land can never be purged away but with blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed, it might be done."

- John Brown

• Date: 1859-12-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, territorialkansasonline.ku.edu.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sergei Kirov Assassinated (1934)

Sat Dec 01, 1934

Image: A photo portrait of Sergei Kirov, unknown date and location [Spartacus-Educational]

On this day in 1934, Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician Sergei Kirov was assassinated by Leonid Nikolaev, an expelled ex-Party member. Kirov's murder became the catalyst for a wave of purges and state repression led by Stalin, sometimes called the "Great Purge".

Sergei Mironovich Kirov (1886 - 1934) began his career as an engineer, becoming after in politics after moving to the Siberian city Tomsk, where he became a Marxist and joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) in 1904.

After the RSDLP split, Kirov followed the Bolshevik faction. During the Russian Civil War, he became commander of the Bolshevik military administration in Astrakhan, and fought for the Red Army until 1920.

In 1921, Kirov became First Secretary of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, the Bolshevik party organization in Azerbaijan. Kirov was a loyal supporter of Joseph Stalin, the successor of Vladimir Lenin, and in 1926 he was rewarded with command of the Leningrad party organization.

On December 1st, 1934, Kirov was shot dead in his office by Leonid Nikolaev, a disaffected and expelled ex-Party member. Kirov was buried in the Kremlin Wall necropolis in a state funeral, with Stalin and other prominent members of the CPSU personally carrying his coffin.

Stalin called for swift punishment of the traitors and those found negligent in Kirov's death, announcing that Nikolaev had been put up to the job by "Zinovievites" (supporters of Grigorii Zinoviev, who had been ousted as Leningrad party boss in 1926).

The assassination became the catalyst for a wave of purges and state repression led by Joseph Stalin, sometimes called the "Great Purge". Nikolayev was swiftly found guilty and executed on December 29th, 1934. Arrests of Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev and many of their associates followed, as did summary executions of alleged White conspirators.

The circumstances of Kirov's death have been the source of great speculation and conspiracy, particularly by Soviet dissidents. One conspiracy, alleged by Nikita Khrushchev and anti-Soviet defectors Alexander Orlov and Alexander Barmine, is that Stalin himself secretly ordered the assassination, fearing Kirov as a political rival and requiring a justification to begin mass purges.

Despite these claims, at least two official investigations, one in the 1960s and another in 1989, failed to establish Stalin's or the NKVD's complicity in Kirov's assassination.

Many towns, streets, and factories were named or renamed after Kirov in his honor, including the city of Kirov (formerly Vyatka).

"Whenever there is a conflict between precept and example, the latter wins because deeds speak louder than our words."

- Sergei Kirov

• Date: 1934-12-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, soviethistory.msu.edu.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Assassinations.
• Source: [www.apeoplescalendar.org](https://www.apeoplescalendar.org/calendar/events/sergei-kirov-assassinated -1934)

Harlem Rent Strike (1963)

Sun Dec 01, 1963

On this day in 1963, residents of 34 Harlem tenements (585 families in total) began a rent strike against inhumane living conditions. Their eviction cases were dismissed after tenants brought live rats from their homes to trial.

At the time of the strike, only 12 percent of the city's welfare recipients lived in public housing. The rest occupied the city's most dilapidated and dangerous buildings, many of which had long since been declared unlivable. Many tenants lived without consistent heat, electricity, and plumbing, as well as dealing with terrible pest infestations.

On December 30th, 1963, these tenants were expected to appear in Manhattan Civil Court to defend themselves against the landlords who ordered their evictions. With news media looking on, they brought rats, both dead and alive, to the court, along with evidence that the heat, electricity, working plumbing, and rodent extermination were routinely denied them. Their cases were dismissed.

• Date: 1963-12-01
• Learn More: journals.ku.edu, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Tenant.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Seattle WTO Protests (1999)

Tue Nov 30, 1999

The Seattle WTO protests, sometimes referred to as the "Battle of Seattle", were a series of large anti-globalization protests that began on this day in 1999. Protesters surrounded the WTO Ministerial Conference, which was to be the launch of a new millennial round of trade negotiations. The negotiations were quickly overshadowed by the massive street protests outside the hotels and the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, estimated to have more than 40,000 participants.

The protests were a mix of permitted rallies and marches (involving the AFL-CIO) and direct action from anarchists and other political radicals. By noon, the opening ceremony of the conference had been canceled due to protest control and vandalism of intersections downtown, and that night the Mayor declared a state of emergency. Police began gassing and arresting people indiscriminately, sometimes targeting bystanders who weren't participating in the protests. By December 1st, 500 people had been jailed.

To many in North American anarchist and radical circles, the Seattle WTO riots, protests, and demonstrations were viewed as a success - prior to the "Battle of Seattle", almost no mention was made of "anti-globalization" in the U.S. media, while the protests were seen as having forced the media to report on 'why' anybody would oppose the WTO. Controversy over the city's response to the protests resulted in the resignation of the police chief of Seattle, Norm Stamper.

• Date: 1999-11-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theatlantic.com.
• Tags: #Anarchism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Abbie Hoffman (1936 - 1989)

Mon Nov 30, 1936

Abbot "Abbie" Howard Hoffman, born on this day in 1936, was an American political activist, anarchist, socialist, and revolutionary who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). His FBI file was 13,262 pages long.

Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in anti-Vietnam War protests, which were met by a violent police riot during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He was among the group that came to be known as the Chicago Eight, which included future California state senator Tom Hayden and Black Panther Party co-founder Bobby Seale.

As a prominent left-wing dissident and leader of the counter-culture movement, Hoffman's personal life drew a great deal of surveillance from the Federal Bureau of Investigation - its file on him was 13,262 pages long. He committed suicide in 1989.

MR. WEINGLASS: "Between the date of your birth, November 30th, 1936, and May 1st, 1960, what if anything occurred in your life?"

HOFFMAN: "Nothing. I believe it is called an American education."

• Abbie Hoffman, from the Chicago 7 trial

• Date: 1936-11-30
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com, archive.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Riots.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Harvey Milk Assassinated (1978)

Mon Nov 27, 1978

Harvey Bernard Milk (1930 - 1978) was the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and was assassinated on this day in 1978. Although he achieved national renown as one of the most pro-LGBT politicians in the United States at the time, politics was something Milk came to later in life, after his experiences with the counterculture movement of the 1960s.

In 1972, Milk moved from New York City to the Castro District of San Francisco and took advantage of the growing political and economic power of the neighborhood to promote his activism. Milk unsuccessfully ran for office three times, but finally won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977.

Milk was assassinated on this day in 1978, after only eleven months in office. He was killed by Dan White, a disgruntled former city supervisor.

During Milk's short time in office, he sponsored a bill banning discrimination in public accommodations, housing, and employment on the basis of sexual orientation. After his death, Milk became an icon in San Francisco and a martyr for the gay community.

In 2021, the U.S. Navy launched a ship named after Harvey Milk, who had been discharged from the Navy during the Korean War after being questioned about his sexual orientation.

• Date: 1978-11-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, milkfoundation.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Free Territory of Ukraine (1917)

Tue Nov 27, 1917

Image: Two soldiers next to a Makhnovian flag, reading "Death to all who stand in the way of freedom for working people" in Cyrillic. Unknown date and location [Wikicommons]

Makhnovia, also known as the Free Territory of Ukraine, was an anarchist society established on this day in 1917 with the capture of the Ukrainian city of Huliaipole.

The Free Territory was an attempt to form a stateless anarchist society during the Ukrainian Revolution of 1917 to 1921, during which time "free soviets" and libertarian communes operated under the protection of Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army (flag shown above).

As Makhnovia self-organized along anarchist principles, references to "control" and "government" were highly contentious. For example, the Makhnovists, often cited as a form of government (with Nestor Makhno as their "leader"), were ostensibly organized to serve in a purely military role, with Makhno himself functioning as more of a strategist than commander.

The economy of Makhnovia varied by region, from "market socialism" to anarcho-communism in character. Where money was used, production was often organized in the form of worker cooperatives.

The Bolsheviks were openly hostile to the Free Territory. On November 26th, 1920, less than two weeks after the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army assisted Bolshevik forces in defeating the White Army, Makhno's headquarters staff and many of his subordinate commanders were arrested at a Red Army planning conference to which they had been invited by Moscow, and executed.

Makhno himself fled the region several months later, settling in Paris, France.

• Date: 1917-11-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Herman Gorter (1864 - 1927)

Sat Nov 26, 1864

Herman Gorter, born on this day in 1864, was a prominent Dutch poet and council communist. He was a leading member of the "Tachtigers", a highly influential group of Dutch writers who worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s.

Gorter's first book, a 4,000 verse epic poem called "Mei" (May), helped establish his reputation as a great writer upon its publication in 1889, and is regarded by critics as the pinnacle of Dutch Impressionist literature.

Gorter was also an outspoken advocate of revolutionary communism and Marxist theory. In 1917, he hailed the Russian Revolution as the beginning of that global revolution and had correspondence with Lenin on multiple occasions, wishing him well and asking for his support in condemning Dutch social democrats for not condemning American imperialism.

Lenin sent Gorter a copy of "State and Revolution" in response, which Gorter then offered to translate.

"Your words will be an incentive to me, once again, and to an even greater extent than before, to base my judgement in all matters of tactics, also in the revolution, exclusively on reality, on the actual class-relations, as they manifest themselves politically and economically."

- Herman Gorter, in "Open Letter to Comrade Lenin"

• Date: 1864-11-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sarah Grimké (1792 - 1873)

Mon Nov 26, 1792

Sarah Moore Grimké, born on this day in 1792, was an American abolitionist, also widely held to be one of the mothers of the women's suffrage movement.

Born and raised in South Carolina to a prominent, slave-owning planter family, she moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 1820s and became a Quaker. She and her sister Angelina Grimké are two of the very few white Southern women who became prominent abolitionists.

Here is an excerpt from a series of articles she wrote, titled "Letters on the Condition of Women and the Equality of the Sexes" (1838):

"I ask no favors for my sex, I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed us to occupy...To me, it is perfectly clear that whatsoever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do."

• Date: 1792-11-26
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mirabal Sisters Assassinated (1960)

Fri Nov 25, 1960

On this day in 1960, three of the Mirabal Sisters, four revolutionary Dominican women who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, were assassinated by his government, their deaths framed as suicides.

One the four sisters - Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and Dedé - only Dedé survived, dying of natural causes in 2014.

To organize against the state, Minerva, María Teresa, and Patria began distributing pamphlets about the many people whom Trujillo had killed, also obtaining materials for guns and bombs for use when they eventually openly revolted.

The sisters called themselves "Las Mariposas" ("The Butterflies"), after Minerva's underground name. For their acts of subversion, María, Minerva, both of their husbands, and Patria's husband were all imprisoned.

After being freed, Patria, Minerva, María Teresa, and their driver, Rufino de la Cruz, were attacked after visiting María's and Minerva's incarcerated husbands. On the way home, the sisters and de la Cruz were separated, strangled, and clubbed to death by state forces.

The bodies were then gathered and put in their Jeep, which was run off the mountain road in an attempt to make their deaths look like an accident.

The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into "symbols of both popular and feminist resistance", according to the New York Times. In their honor, the United Nations General Assembly designated the 25th of November as "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women" in 1999.

• Date: 1960-11-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, daily.jstor.org, time.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Juliet Stuart Poyntz (1886 - 1937)

Thu Nov 25, 1886

Image: Juliet Stuart Poyntz circa 1918 [Wikicommons]

Juliet Stuart Poyntz, born on this day in 1886, was an American suffragist, trade unionist, and co-founder of the Communist Party United States of America (CPUSA). Later, she worked as an intelligence agent for the USSR, but disappeared in 1937.

Juliet Poyntz was born in Omaha, Nebraska and later attended Barnard College in New York City. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). As a student and university teacher, Poyntz espoused many radical causes and went on to become a co-founder of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).

During the 1910s, Poyntz worked with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU), becoming education director of the ILGWU's Worker's University. In the 1920s, Poyntz was on the staff of the Friends of the Soviet Union and International Labor Defense.

Poyntz also served as an intelligence agent for the Soviet Union. In 1936, Poyntz secretly traveled to Moscow to receive further instructions from Soviet authorities, and was seen there in the company of George Mink (alias Minkoff), an American later implicated in the disappearance of several Trotkskyists during the Spanish Civil War.

On June 3rd, 1937, Poyntz disappeared after leaving the American Woman's Association Clubhouse at 353 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City. Multiple colleagues of Poyntz, including Benjamin Gitlow, co-founder of the CPUSA later turned reactionary, and Carlo Tresca, Italian-American anarchist, claimed Poyntz returned from her trip a critic of Stalin, having witnessed the purges from that period.

In 1938, Tresca formally accused the Soviet Union of having assassinated Poyntz, claims that were published by the New York Times. Various Soviet defectors and ex-communists also claimed that she was assassinated by the USSR, including Whittaker Chambers, Walter Krivitsky, Benjamin Gitlow, and Elizabeth Bentley. Her body was never found.

"I am still a woman's suffragist or worse still a Feminist and also a Socialist (also of the worst brand)."

- Juliet Stuart Poyntz

• Date: 1886-11-25
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

New York Shirtwaist Strike (1909)

Wed Nov 24, 1909

Image: Two women strikers on picket line during the "Uprising of the 20,000", garment workers strike, New York City [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1909, the New York Shirtwaist Strike began when 15,000 shirtwaist factory workers (mostly Jewish women) walked off the job in New York City to demand higher wages and better working conditions.

The strike was the largest by female American workers up to that date, and was led by Clara Lemlich and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, also supported by the National Women's Trade Union League of America (NWTUL).

The industry working conditions preceding the strike were atrocious - work weeks of 65 hours were normal, and in season they might expand to as many as 75 hours. Despite low wages, workers were often required to buy their own materials, including needles, thread, and sewing machines.

In February of 1910, the NWTUL settled with the factory owners, gaining improved wages, working conditions, and hours. The end of the strike was followed just a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which exposed the plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions and boosted participation in the garment unions.

• Date: 1909-11-24
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, projects.leadr.msu.edu.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Theodore Weld (1803 - 1895)

Wed Nov 23, 1803

Theodore Dwight Weld, born on this day in 1803, was one of the architects of the American abolitionist movement during its formative years from 1830 through 1844, playing a role as a writer, editor, speaker, and organizer.

Weld is best known for his co-authorship of the authoritative compendium "American Slavery As It Is: Testimony of a Thousand Witnesses", published in 1839. Harriet Beecher Stowe partly based her work "Uncle Tom's Cabin" on Weld's text, and it is regarded as second only to that work in its influence on the anti-slavery movement.

Weld married fellow abolitionist lecturer Angelina Grimké, Sarah, at the home of her sister in Philadelphia and explicitly rejected the legal power of husband over wife.

Their wedding was the opening event in a week-long abolitionist celebration. Long excluded from churches and meetings halls for fear of mob violence, Philadelphia abolitionists had raised $40,000 to build their own (in Weld's words) "Temple of Freedom." Just four days after the building opened, a mob burned it to the ground.

Weld continued his abolitionist work after the act of arson, temporarily moving to Washington D.C. to help anti-slavery efforts there. In 1848, Theodore, Angelina, and Sarah also started a progressive, racially integrated school in Belleville, New Jersey.

"Every man knows that slavery is a curse. Whoever denies this, his lips libel his heart."

- Theodore Weld

• Date: 1803-11-23
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nationalabolitionhalloffameandmuseum.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Thibodaux Massacre (1887)

Wed Nov 23, 1887

Image: Workers cutting sugar cane in Louisiana, sometime between 1880 and 1897 [Wikipedia]

The Thibodaux Massacre was an incident of violent suppression by white paramilitary forces of the unionizing efforts of 10,000 black sugar cane workers that took place on this day in 1887, in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

The sugar cane workers, determined to unionize for a living wage, had chosen to strike during the crucial harvest season, during which there was a narrow window of time to harvest the cane and the planters would be unlikely to find strikebreakers.

Judge Taylor Beattie, an ex-Confederate soldier and slaveowner, declared martial law and gathered up hundreds of white men to form a paramilitary group to suppress the strikers, close the borders to the city, and monitor all movement of black people in the area. Not wanting to be boxed in, black strikers fired on the city border guards. In retaliation, the paramilitary forces initiated three days of violence against mostly unarmed black workers and their families.

Estimates of the total number of dead range from 35-60, making it one of the deadliest strikes in American labor history. Despite the women and children killed, the Southern press heralded the white perpetrators of the violence.

One participant, Andrew Price, went on to be elected to Congress. Black farmworkers in the region did not make another large effort to unionize until the 1940s.

• Date: 1887-11-23
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Bogalusa Sawmill Killings (1919)

Sat Nov 22, 1919

The Bogalusa Sawmill Killings was a massacre of labor organizers by the white paramilitary group "Self-Preservation and Loyalty League" (SPLL) on this day in 1919, in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

The Bogalusa Sawmill employed both white and black workers, and they had been attempting to form an interracial union for years. To offset labor demands for better wages, local police would arrest black men nightly for minor crimes and force them to work in the mill at gunpoint.

In response to the attempted unionizing efforts, the company organized racist whites into the SPLL. Company gunmen and the SPLL assaulted union members, evicted them from company housing, burned private homes, and kidnapped and tortured organizers.

On November 21st, they shot up black labor organizer Sol Dacus's home. In a show of force the next day, Dacus marched through the town accompanied by white supporters and allies in the labor movement. The SPLL then murdered four of those white allies, including one American Federation of Labor (AFL) district representative. Dacus and his family were able to escape to New Orleans.

This incident was part of a larger period of civil unrest known as the "American Red Summer of 1919", including massacres and riots in Elaine, Arkansas, Chicago, Washington D.C., Knoxville, Tennessee, Wilmington, Delaware, and other cities.

• Date: 1919-11-22
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Antonio Guiteras (1906 - 1935)

Thu Nov 22, 1906

Antonio Guiteras y Holmes, born on this day in 1906, was a revolutionary socialist in Cuba during the 1930s.

Born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, USA, he participated in the radical government installed after the overthrow of the autocratic right wing Cuban President Gerardo Machado y Morales in 1933. He first became widely known as a student leader and associate of Julio Antonio Mella, a Cuban Communist revolutionary.

In his book "Cuba: A New History", the leftist historian Richard Gott wrote the following about Guiteras:

"Guiteras's views reflected an eclectic mix of revolutionary influences, from Auguste Blanqui to Jean Jacques Jaurès. He drew inspiration from the Mexican and the Russian revolutions, the struggle in Ireland and Sandino's guerrilla movement in Nicaragua. He shared the anti-imperialist politics of the age and, drawing on anarchist roots, advocated rural and urban armed struggle, assaults on army barracks and the assassination of policemen and members of the government.

He was a firm believer in direct action, the propaganda of the deed, derived from Blanqui and the Spanish anarchists, and was much criticised by the Communists for his voluntarism and his predilection for violence."

According to the New York Times, Guiteras died in a firefight while trying to flee the country.

• Date: 1906-11-22
• Learn More: www.latinamericanstudies.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Alexander Berkman (1870 - 1936)

Mon Nov 21, 1870

Alexander Berkman, born on this day in 1870, was a leading member of the anarchist movement in the early 20th century, famous for both his political activism and his writing. He was the lover and lifelong friend of anarchist Emma Goldman. In 1892, undertaking an act of propaganda of the deed, Berkman made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate businessman Henry Clay Frick, for which he served 14 years in prison.

Berkman and Goldman were later arrested for conspiring against the draft during World War I, deported to Russia upon their release. Initially supportive of the Bolshevik revolution, they soon became disillusioned, voicing their opposition to the Soviets' use of terror after seizing power and their repression of fellow revolutionaries.

Among Berkman's most notable works are "Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist" (1912), an account of his 14 years in prison after attempting to assassinate Frick; "The Bolshevik Myth" (1925), describing his experiences in Bolshevist Russia from 1920 to 1922; "Now and After: The ABC of Communist Anarchism" (1929), which anarchist Stuart Christie called "among the best introductions to the ideas of anarchism in the English language".

"No intelligent radical can fail to realize the need of the rational education of the young."

- Alexander Berkman

• Date: 1870-11-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, theanarchistlibrary.org, www.gutenberg.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Columbine Massacre (1927)

Mon Nov 21, 1927

On this day in 1927, the Columbine Massacre took place when a crowd of more than 500 miners and their supporters in Serene, Colorado was fired on by a militia of ex-police officers, killing six workers.

On October 18th, 1927, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) called a strike of all mine workers, a call which was quickly heeded in Colorado. Nearly all the mines in Colorado were closed, and the dozen still open did so using imported scab labor.

For the still-operating Columbine mine, scab workers were housed in Serene, which was fortified with barbed wire on the fences and armed guards.

Mass rallies had been held by miners outside the Columbine mine in Serene for several weeks and, on November 21st, 1927, a crowd of more than five hundred workers was fired on by an ex-cop militia. The militia was armed with machine pistols, rifles, riot guns and tear gas grenades.

The workers were fired upon after a dispute on whether or not they could enter the town of Serene. The event is known as the Columbine Massacre. Six people were killed, all miners. No member of the militia was ever held accountable for the violence of that day.

• Date: 1927-11-21
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #IWW, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org