Malcolm X (1925 - 1965)

Tue May 19, 1925

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Malcolm X, born on this day in 1925, was a revolutionary civil rights leader who advocated for black liberation by "any means necessary".

Born Malcolm Little, he spent his youth living in a series of foster homes and engaging in petty crime, eventually serving six years in prison for larceny and breaking and entering.

While in prison, Malcolm joined the Nation of Islam (NOI) and adopted the surname "X" to acknowledge his unknown African ancestral name. Malcolm quickly became a leader with the NOI and was paroled in 1952, beginning a period of radical advocacy for black liberation.

In the 1960s, Malcolm X broke with the Nation of Islam, growing disillusioned with its leader Elijah Muhammed. During his 1964 pilgrimage to Mecca, he witnessed Muslims of "all colors, from blue-eyed blonds to black-skinned Africans" treat each other as equals in worship. Because of this, Malcolm X became convinced that Islam could be used as a means to achieve racial equality.

On February 21st, 1965, Malcolm was assassinated in New York City. Three Nation members were charged with the murder and given indeterminate life sentences. Two of these men, Muhammed Abdul Aziz and Khalil Islam, were exonerated in 2021 after a 22-month investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney found that evidence of their innocence, including FBI documents, was withheld at trial.

The Shabazz family are among those who have accused Louis Farrakhan of involvement in Malcolm X's assassination. In 1994, Betty Shabazz was asked if she thought Farrakhan had anything to do with her late husband's death. She replied "Of course, yes. Nobody kept it a secret. It was a badge of honor. Everybody talked about it, yes."

In the wake of his assassination, capitalist press vilified Malcolm X, while media in Africa, China, and Cuba lauded him as a hero and a martyr. The New York Times wrote that Malcolm X was "an extraordinary and twisted man" who "turn[ed] many true gifts to evil purpose", while Time magazine condemned him "an unashamed demagogue" whose "creed was violence."

In contrast, The Ghanaian Times identified Malcolm X as among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause." In China, the People's Daily described him as a martyr killed by "ruling circles and racists" whose death illustrated that "in dealing with imperialist oppressors, violence must be met with violence."

In 2023, The Guardian reported that the Shabazz family announced their plans to sue the FBI, New York Police, and other agencies over Malcom X's death. Ilyasah Shabazz, the third daughter of Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz, announced that new information indicates federal and state agencies “conspired to and executed their plan to assassinate”. Ilyasah added "For years, our family has fought for the truth to come to light concerning his murder and we’d like our father to receive the justice that he deserves."

"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."

- Malcolm X

• Date: 1925-05-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.cnn.com, www.theguardian.com, edisciplinas.usp.br, antilogicalism.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Cincinnati Time Store Opens (1827)

Fri May 18, 1827

Image: A sample labor for labor note for the Cincinnati Time Store. Scanned from Equitable Commerce by Josiah Warren (1846) [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1827, anarchist polymath Josiah Warren opened the Cincinnati Time Store, a store whose products could be purchased directly with labor power, one of the first practical applications of mutualist economic concepts.

Josiah Warren (1798 - 1874) was an American individualist anarchist, inventor, musician, printer, and author. Although he never used the term anarchism himself, Warren is sometimes credited as being the first American anarchist.

Warren's Cincinnati Time Store used "labor notes", where the customer purchased a good by agreeing to reproduce the amount of labor time it took to create it, plus a small increase to accommodate the overhead of the store.

Although the store was successful, Warren closed it after three years to create two communities based on the same mutualist foundation: Utopia, Ohio, and Modern Times, New York. Warren's concepts were influential on later anarchists, such as Benjamin Tucker and Émile Armand.

• Date: 1827-05-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.scribd.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Theresa Garnett (1888 - 1966)

Thu May 17, 1888

Theresa Garnett, born on this day in 1888, was a militant British suffragette whose acts of feminist rebellion included assaulting Winston Churchill with a whip, shouting "Take that in the name of the insulted women of England!"

Garnett was born in Leeds on May 17th, 1888. In 1907, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after being inspired by a speech given by the feminist and later co-founder of the Australian Communist Party Adela Pankhurst.

The WSPU fought for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom and was noted for its use of direct action. Its members heckled politicians, held demonstrations and marches, broke the law to force arrests, broke windows in prominent buildings, set fire to post boxes, committed night-time arson of unoccupied houses and churches, and, when imprisoned, went on hunger strike and endured physically traumatizing force-feeding.

Garnett participated in several of these actions as a young adult, chaining herself in 1909, along with four other activists, to a statue in Parliament in protest of a law meant to prohibit disorderly conduct while Parliament was in session.

On November 14th, 1909, Garnett assaulted Winston Churchill, who instituted policies of force feeding suffragettes in prison, with a whip, striking him several times while shouting "Take that in the name of the insulted women of England!"

• Date: 1888-05-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Feminism, #Birthdays, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Catonsville Nine (1968)

Fri May 17, 1968

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The Catonsville Nine were a group of Catholic activists who, on this day in 1968, seized 378 draft files from a local draft board, dumped them in the parking lot, burned them with homemade napalm, and were promptly arrested by police.

They were found guilty of destruction of U.S. property, destruction of Selective Service files, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. The group was sentenced to a collective 18 years in jail and a fine of $22,000.

Several of the nine - Mary Moylan, Phil Berrigan, Dan Berrigan and George Mische - fled before their prison sentence, forcing the FBI to hunt them down.

• Date: 1968-05-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.catonsville9.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Adrienne Rich (1929 - 2012)

Thu May 16, 1929

Image: Black and white photograph of Adrienne Rich sitting at a desk, surrounded by piles of books. Photo by Neal Boenzi [poetryfoundation.org]

Adrienne Cecile Rich, born on this day in 1929, was a queer American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of America's foremost public intellectuals" by the Poetry Foundation and is credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse" by the New York Times.

Rich criticized rigid forms of feminist identities, and valorized what she coined the "lesbian continuum", which is a female continuum of solidarity and creativity that impacts and fills women's lives. Notable works by Rich include "On Lies, Secrets, and Silence" (1979), "Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose" (1986), and "The Dream of a Common Language" (1978).

"False history gets made all day, any day, the truth of the new is never on the news."

- Adrienne Rich

• Date: 1929-05-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Queer.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Nakba Day (1948)

Sat May 15, 1948

Image: Palestinian civilians forced to flee from an unidentified village in Galilee some five months after the creation of the state of Israel [Reuters]

The Nakba, commemorated annually on this day as "Nakba Day", was the destruction of Palestinian society and homeland in 1948 following Israel's creation. Nakba Day protests take place around the world and have been attacked by Israel.

The foundational events of the Nakba took place during and shortly after the 1947-1949 Palestine war, including 78% of Mandatory Palestine being declared as Israel, the exodus of 700,000 Palestinians, the depopulation and destruction of over 500 Palestinian villages and subsequent geographical erasure, the denial of the Palestinian right of return, and the creation of permanent, stateless Palestinian refugees.

Although May 15th had been used as an unofficial commemoration of the Nakba since 1949, Nakba Day was formalized in 1998 after Yasser Arafat proposed that Palestinians should mark the 50th anniversary of the Nakba during the First Intifada.

The Nakba was a key event in the development of Palestinian culture and is a foundational symbol of Palestinian identity, along with "Handala", a ten-year old cartoon character developed by Naji al-Ali; the keffiyeh, a checkered black and white scarf worn around the head; and the "symbolic key" (many Palestinian refugees have kept the keys to the homes they were forced to flee).

On Nakba Day 2011, Palestinians and other Arabs from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Syria marched towards their respective borders, or ceasefire lines and checkpoints in Israeli-occupied territories, to mark the event. At least twelve Palestinians and supporters were killed and hundreds wounded as a result of shootings by the Israeli Army.

"In resisting the Nakba, the Palestinians have struck at the heart of the Zionist project that insists that the Nakba be seen as a past event. In resisting Israel, Palestinians have forced the world to witness the Nakba as present action; one that, contrary to Zionist wisdom, is indeed reversible." - Palestinian scholar Joseph Massad

• Date: 1948-05-15
• Learn More: www.palquest.org, www.aljazeera.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Jackson State Killings (1970)

Thu May 14, 1970

Image: Two students at Jackson State peer from a window that was shot out by police on campus in May 1970. Jack Thornell/AP [npr.org]

On this day in 1970, a confrontation began between Jackson State University students and local police, leading to the police opening fire on the crowd, firing more than 460 shots, killing two youths and wounding a dozen more. The murders took place just ten days after the Kent State Massacre.

On the evening of May 14th, over 100 students had gathered on Lynch Street (named after Reconstruction era legislator John Lynch) and were reportedly pelting rocks at white motorists. Tensions increased when a false rumor spread that Charles Evers, older brother of Medgar Evers and a civil rights activist in his own right, had been killed.

The police responded in force; at least 75 Jackson police units from the city of Jackson and the Mississippi Highway Patrol attempted to control the crowd, while firemen extinguished fires that had been set. After the firefighters had left the scene, the police moved to disperse the crowd that had gathered in front of Alexander Hall, a women's dormitory.

Just after midnight, the police opened fire on the building. The gunfire lasted for 30 seconds and more than 460 shots were fired. Every window on the narrow side of the building facing Lynch Street was shattered and two people were killed, one a seventeen year old at a nearby high school. Twelve more were wounded.

• Date: 1970-05-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.npr.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

MOVE Bombing (1985)

Mon May 13, 1985

Image: The police bombing of the MOVE collective in West Philadelphia killed eleven people and left city blocks in ashes. Photograph from Bettmann / Getty [newyorker.com]

On this day in 1985, Philadelphia police bombed a home occupied by the black liberation group MOVE and let the fire burn out of control - "let the fire burn" - killing five children and six adults, and destroying 65 homes. No charges were filed.

The standoff with MOVE, a black liberation organization, was initiated by the police in an attempt to serve an eviction notice. Eleven people, including five children, died in the fire.

Eyewitnesses claimed that the victims were prevented from fleeing the fire by police gunfire upon escape. Police Commissioner Sambor infamously ordered the fire department to "let the fire burn", destroying 65 nearby homes comprising two city blocks.

Although an investigation found that the law enforcement and fire department actions were negligent, no criminal charges were filed.

In October 2013, a documentary about the stand-off and bombing titled "Let the Fire Burn" was released by Zeitgeist Films.

• Date: 1985-05-13
• Learn More: www.theguardian.com, en.wikipedia.org, picturingblackhistory.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Terrorism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ruth First (1925 - 1982)

Sun May 04, 1952

Image: Ruth First, in 1966, in a promotional image for a film about her detention in South Africa

Ruth First, born on this day in 1925, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar who was assassinated by the South African police while living in exile in Mozambique.

As an anti-apartheid activist, First had been harassed for years by the South African government. In 1956, First, alongside 155 other activists, were all charged and acquitted of treason in the country's infamous "Treason Trial".

After the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, First was banned from political participation. She could not attend meetings, publish, or even be quoted in print. In 1963, she was imprisoned and held in isolation without charge for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law, the first white woman to be detained under this law.

In August of 1982, First was assassinated by South African police in Mozambique, where she was working in exile. South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" later granted amnesty to Craig Williamson and Roger Raven, two of the men responsible for her death.

"Poverty and the rule of race that is called apartheid drive the Transkeian migrant from security on the land to work in the cities, and then back again."

- Ruth First

• Date: 1952-05-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.sahistory.org.za.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

May Day Mass Arrests (1971)

Mon May 03, 1971

Image: Riot squads sweep aggressively through D.C. neighborhoods. Photo by Douglas Chevalier/Washington Post

On this day in 1971, President Nixon executed "Operation Garden Plot", deploying 10,000 federal troops in Washington D.C. to suppress Vietnam War protests, leading to the largest mass arrest in U.S. history - 12,614 people in total.

The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington D.C. in protest against the Vietnam War. They began on May Day of that year and continued with similar intensity into the morning of May 3rd.

The protest began when 35,000 people camped out in West Potomac Park near the Washington Monument park to plan for the coming protest. The next day, the Nixon administration canceled the protesters' permit and police, dressed in riot gear, raided the encampment, firing tear gas and knocking down tents.

On May 3rd, President Nixon executed "Operation Garden Plot" (a plan developed during the 1960s to combat major civil disorders), deploying 10,000 federal troops to various locations in the Washington D.C. area.

While the troops secured the major intersections and bridges, police roamed through the city, making massive arrest sweeps and using tear gas. By eight in the morning, police had detained over 7,000 people, arresting anyone who looked like a demonstrator, including construction workers who had come out to support the government.

Over the course of several days, the city arrested 12,614 people, making it the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Members of the Nixon administration would come to view the events as damaging, because the government's mass arrests of protesters were perceived by the public as violating citizens' civil rights.

• Date: 1971-05-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
• Tags: #Imperialism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Coeur d'Alene Uprising (1899)

Sat Apr 29, 1899

Image: A photo showing the interior of a "bull pen", with imprisoned workers eating their food off the ground.

On this day in 1899, 1,000 striking miners seized a train in Burke, Idaho, drove it to the Bunker Hill Mine in Wardner, destroyed the mine with dynamite, and burned down both the company office and the home of the mine manager.

In April of 1899, in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) was launching an organizing drive of the few mines in the area that had not yet unionized. The superintendent Albert Burch declared that the company would rather "shut down and remain closed twenty years" than to recognize the union. He then fired seventeen workers he believed to be union members and demanded that all other union men collect their back pay and quit.

On this day in 1899, 250 union members seized a train in Burke, northeast of Wallace, and began making their way to the Bunker Hill mine in Wardner, valued around $250,000. At each stop through Burke Canyon, more miners climbed aboard, eventually numbering over 1,000 strong.

Upon arriving at the mine, the men carried 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of dynamite into the mill and detonated it, completely destroying the mill. The group also burned down the company office, the boarding house, and the home of the mine manager. The miners re-boarded the "Dynamite Express" and returned the way they came.

State authorities used federal troops to commit mass arrests - over 1,000 men were rounded up and put into a "bullpen", including some elected officials and at least one sheriff. Most were released within two weeks, although some were held until December.

• Date: 1899-04-29
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Benito Mussolini Executed (1945)

Sat Apr 28, 1945

On this day in 1945, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini was summarily executed, likely by communist partisan Walter Audisio, and then his corpse was hung upside down in the Piazzale Loreto, where it was beaten and shot by angry crowds.

Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945) was the founder and leader of the National Fascist Party who inspired numerous fascist leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, Francisco Franco, and António de Oliveira Salazar, ruling Italy as "Il Duce" since 1925.

Mussolini's grip on power had begun slipping as the Allies pressed into Italian territory during World War II. On April 25th, 1945, Mussolini attempted to flee Milan for Switzerland after the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale Alta Italia (Committee of National Liberation for Northern Italy) seized control of the city. Two days later, Mussolini, along with other fascist leaders, were arrested traveling in a German convoy near the village of Dongo.

Accounts vary on how exactly Mussolini was killed, but the most commonly accepted version of the events suggest communist partisan Walter Audisio was the person who pulled the trigger. Following World War II, Audisio would be elected to serve in the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

In any case, the evening of April 28th, 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, his mistress, and other executed fascists were loaded onto a van and dumped in Piazzale Loreto, a town square where fifteen partisans had previously been executed by fascists and their bodies left on public display.

• Date: 1945-04-28
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.history.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Operation Red Dog (1981)

Mon Apr 27, 1981

Image: Weapons confiscated from the "Bayou of Pigs" conspirators

On this day in 1981, nine white supremacists, including Stormfront founder Don Black and Canadian neo-nazi Wolfgang Droege, were arrested by federal agents as they attempted to initiate an armed coup on the island country Dominica.

The plan was to restore former Dominican Prime Minister Patrick John back to power and profit from capitalist enterprise in the country. The conspirators were arrested in New Orleans as they prepared to board a boat with automatic weapons, shotguns, rifles, handguns, dynamite, ammunition, and a black and white Nazi flag.

The plan was titled "Operation Red Dog", however the incident was mocked in the press as the "Bayou of Pigs". Mike Perdue and six other men pled guilty to violation of the Neutrality Act while two others were found guilty by a jury. The men received three-year prison sentences.

• Date: 1981-04-27
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, web.archive.org.
• Tags: #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Easter Rising (1916)

Mon Apr 24, 1916

Image: Crowds in Sackville Street (now O'Connell Street) can be seen next to the General Post Office showing damage from shelling following the Easter Uprising [bbc.com]

On this day in 1916, revolutionary Irish Republicans initiated the Easter Rising, proclaiming an Irish Republic independent of British rule and battling with the British Army for six days. Sixteen Rising leaders were executed.

The rebellion was a collaboration of multiple militant Irish organizations, including the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army (ICA), and Cumann na mBan, and an Irish women's paramilitary force. Notable leaders include schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse and socialist James Connolly, who served as head of the ICA.

Together, this coalition seized strategically important buildings in Dublin. Britain responded militarily, sending thousands of troops and artillery to clash with the Irish revolutionaries.

The resistance lasted six days before surrendering to the better equipped British Army, and artillery shelling and street fighting left many parts of Dublin in ruin. 3,500 people were captured, 1,800 of them sent to internment camps. 485 people were killed, and more than 2,600 were wounded. Pearse and Connolly, along with 14 others, were executed for their role in the rebellion.

The Rising was the first armed conflict of a revolutionary period of unrest that began in the early 20th century. In the "Proclamation of the Irish Republic", the revolutionaries linked their cause to centuries of struggle:

"We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies, to be sovereign and indefeasible. The long usurpation of that right by a foreign people and government has not extinguished the right, nor can it ever be extinguished except by the destruction of the Irish people.

In every generation the Irish people have asserted their right to national freedom and sovereignty; six times during the past three hundred years they have asserted it in arms. Standing on that fundamental right and again asserting it in arms in the face of the world, we hereby proclaim the Irish Republic as a Sovereign Independent State, and we pledge our lives and the lives of our comrades in arms to the cause of its freedom, of its welfare, and of its exaltation among the nations."

• Date: 1916-04-24
• Learn More: www.easter1916.net, www.theirishstory.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.bbc.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anaconda Road Massacre (1920)

Wed Apr 21, 1920

Image: One of Butte’s most famous byways was the Anaconda Road, which remains near the Irish neighborhood of Dublin Gulch. On April 21st, 1920, the road was the site of the anti-labor Anaconda Road Massacre.

On this day in 1920, an anti-labor posse, deputized by police, gunned down striking miners in Butte, Montana, shooting 15-16 men in the back, killing one. Workers had gone on strike to demand higher wages and an end to anti-union discrimination.

Author Richard Gibson writes that, in a Sunday night meeting, April 18th, 1920, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Metal Mine Workers Union called for a strike to improve wages and end the hated rustling card system, a process whereby employers could blacklist union organizers and members.

Pickets spread along the Anaconda Road on April 19th to enforce the strike, and some trolley cars were attacked, with strikers turning men bound for work away from the mines.

On April 21st, the Silver Bow County Sheriff deputized Anaconda mine guards to suppress workers. As nearly 400 unarmed miners marched up the Anaconda Road, they were confronted near the Neversweat Mine by the sheriff, Anaconda Copper Mining (ACM) Company officials, and armed guards. Shots rang out, and armed Company agents shot 15 or 16 unarmed miners, all in the back. One, Tom Manning, a 25-year-old Irish immigrant, died four days later.

Anti-labor press claimed, without evidence, that workers shot first. Despite a massive inquest, no one was ever charged with the murder of Tom Manning. The inquest report included the complete Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, entered as evidence against IWW members and others involved in the events of April 21st.

In the wake of the Anaconda Road shootings, federal troops were called to Butte, arriving on April 22-25 as Tom Manning died. Troops were billeted at the Florence Hotel in the 200 block of East Broadway and elsewhere. They did not depart from Butte until the following January.

The strike and massacre were the last major labor conflict in the area until the 1934 passage of the National Recovery Act allowed outside support to help rebuild the weakened Butte Miners Union.

"The overlords of Butte will not permit their right to exploit to be challenged. Drunk with unbridled power and the countless millions profiteered during the war, with lying phrases of 'law and order' on their lips, the blood of workingmen dripping from their hands, and the gold of the government bursting their coffers, they face the nation unreprimanded and unashamed — reaction militant, capitalism at its worst. The copper trust can murder its slaves in broad daylight on any occasion and under any pretext. There is no law to call a halt. In the confines of this greed-ruled city, the gunman has replaced the Constitution. Butte is a law unto itself."

- Ralph Chaplin, poet and member of the IWW

• Date: 1920-04-21
• Learn More: mtstandard.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #IWW, #Labor, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Spanish-American War Begins (1898)

Thu Apr 21, 1898

On this day in 1898, the Spanish-American War began, greatly expanding the scope of American imperialism, granting the U.S. sovereignty over the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico, as well as de facto control of the Cuban economy.

The war began with an American naval blockade of Cuba, which was fighting a war for independence from Spain, and only lasted three months. The U.S. intervened in the Cuban War of Independence after the internal explosion of the U.S.S. Maine, despite there being no evidence of Spanish involvement in the explosion.

The outcome of the war resulted in U.S. acquisition of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines, and signaled a new era of American expansionism and colonialism in the 20th century.

From 1899-1901, the U.S. had to brutally suppress the Filipino movement for independence, killing between 200,000 and 1,000,000 civilians in the Philippine-American War. In 1901, the American government also refused to withdraw troops from Cuba unless their Constitutional Convention signed the Platt Amendment, which gave the U.S. government and capitalists de facto hegemony over the newly "independent" Cuba.

• Date: 1898-04-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.thenation.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Maria Silva Cruz (1915 - 1936)

Mon Apr 20, 1936

Image: Maria Silva Cruz, also known as La Libertaria

Maria Silva Cruz, born on this day in 1915, was a Spanish anarchist and hero of the Casas Viejas Uprising, executed by fascists at age 21. Despite the efforts of her son, who was 1 year old at the time her death, Cruz's remains were never identified.

Maria Silva Cruz was born to day laborers on April 20th, 1915, and her father and uncle were members of the anarchist union Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT).

In January 1933, the CNT initiated the anti-government Casas Viejas Uprising, which Silva Cruz and her friends participated in. When Civil Guard troops were sent to put down the uprising, many of the villagers fled.

Some anarchists attempted to hide in the house of Silva Cruz's grandfather, which was set on fire by the guard, killing all but Cruz and her young cousin, who she carried outside the burning building to safety. Cruz was later arrested.

When the fascists occupied the town of Ronda in July 1936, her husband Perez Cordon fled to the mountains, while Silva Cruz stayed with her one year old son at home. She was arrested by the Civil Guard and her son was taken from her.

On August 23rd, 1936, she was executed at dawn. Silva Cruz's remains were never identified despite the efforts of her son, who grew up with Silva Cruz's aunt. He sought to find his mother's remains in order to bury them and plant flowers for her.

• Date: 1936-04-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, dbe.rah.es.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Walter Reuther Assassination Attempt (1948)

Tue Apr 20, 1948

Image: Walter Reuther and his wife in Detroit Hospital after an assassination attempt on 20th April, 1948. Source: Spartacus-Educational

On this day in 1948, social democratic labor organizer Walter Reuther was shot and nearly killed in his home. This was the second attempt to assassinate Reuther, who was a politically outspoken leader of the UAW.

Walter Reuther was an American labor leader and civil rights activist who helped turn the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in U.S. history. Reuther saw labor movements not as narrow special interest groups but as political vehicles to advance social justice and human rights.

Reuther leveraged the UAW's resources and influence to advocate for workers' rights, civil rights, women's rights, universal health care, public education, affordable housing, environmental stewardship, and nuclear nonproliferation around the world.

Reuther survived two attempted assassinations and at least one beating from anti-union forces at Henry Ford's factory. On April 20th, 1948, Reuther was struck by a 12-gauge shotgun blast fired through his kitchen window, which nearly killed him. While being treated by his neighbor, he cried "Those dirty sons of bitches! They have to shoot a man in the back. They won't come out in the open and fight.'"

Reuther's right arm was shattered into 150 bones, and a slug pierced his stomach. Upon receiving blood transfusions, he came down with both malaria and hepatitis. When Attorney General Tom Clark requested J. Edgar Hoover to get the FBI to investigate the shooting, Hoover refused, stating "I'm not going to send in the FBI every time some removed woman gets raped."

Thirteen months later, Walter's brother Victor was shot and nearly killed, losing his right eye in a similar attack. Neither shooting was ever solved.

• Date: 1948-04-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #CivilRights, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Operation Dewey Canyon III (1971)

Mon Apr 19, 1971

On this day in 1971, Operation Dewey Canyon III was initiated by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, who dubbed the planned protests "a limited incursion into the country of Congress", mocking similar rhetoric from the U.S. government.

The protest began with more than 1,100 veterans led by Gold Star Mothers (mothers of soldiers killed in war) marching to the Arlington Cemetery gate, just beneath the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Reverend Jackson H. Day, who had a few days earlier resigned his military chaplainship, conducted a memorial service for their fellows.

Over the next four days, fifty soldiers attempted to turn themselves in as war criminals at the Pentagon, police defied orders to arrest protesters camping on the National Mall, and more than 800 soldiers threw their medals, ribbons, discharge papers, and other war mementos on the steps of the U.S. Capitol as a symbolic rejection of the war.

• Date: 1971-04-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, publish.illinois.edu.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Compensated Emancipation Act (1862)

Wed Apr 16, 1862

Passed on this day in 1862, the Compensated Emancipation Act ended slavery in the District of Columbia. The law offered slavers $300 per enslaved person forfeited, while offering freedmen $100 on condition they move to Haiti or Liberia.

The Act was signed into law by President Abraham Lincoln, who was keen on offering slave owners compensation for forfeiting their "property" as a means to not alienate border states in the Civil War. Although it was the only time the U.S. federal government gave direct aid to slaveowners, many state governments took the initiative to do so as well.

The law offered $300 per slave forfeited and $100 to any freed slave, on condition that they move to Haiti or Liberia. Later Lincoln signed a second compensation act into law that allowed former slaves to petition for reimbursement for their own value, but only if their former masters had not already been compensated.

Dr. John Rock, a black physician in Boston, said this of the law's passage:

"Why talk about compensating masters? Compensate them for what? What do you owe them? What does the slave owe them? What does society owe them? Compensate the master?...It is the slave who ought to be compensated. The property of the South is by right the property of the slave..."

3,185 slaves were freed as a direct result of the Compensated Emancipation Act, and the anniversary of its passing is still recognized as the holiday "Emancipation Day" in Washington D.C.

• Date: 1862-04-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nytimes.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (1967)

Sat Apr 15, 1967

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), founded on this day in 1967, is an American non-profit organization whose goal is to oppose U.S. policy and participation in the Vietnam War.

Today, the VVAW is a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans. The VVAW is considered to be among the most influential anti-war organizations of the American Vietnam War era.

In January 1971, the VVAW sponsored the Winter Soldier Investigation to gather and present testimony from soldiers about war crimes being committed in Southeast Asia, intending to demonstrate that these resulted from American war policies.

The event was boycotted by most mainstream media, although the Detroit Free Press covered it daily. Later, the VVAW released "Winter Soldier", a 16mm black-and-white documentary film showing participants giving testimony at the 1971 hearing.

• Date: 1967-04-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.vvaw.org.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

First U.S. Abolitionist Organization (1775)

Fri Apr 14, 1775

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On this day in 1775, Philadelphia Quakers formed the first abolitionist organization in the U.S., the "Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage". Although they won reforms, they never succeeded in abolishing slavery.

Although there are records of Quakers condemning the "traffic of Men-body" as early 1688, this group (predominantly but not exclusively Quaker) was the first official organization to work for the abolition of slavery.

The organization was re-formed in 1784, renamed the "Pennsylvania Abolition Society" (PAS). This version of the group began to grow more influential, broadening its membership to prominent figures as Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, who both helped write the Society's new constitution.

In 1787, the PAS unsuccessfully petitioned the Constitutional Convention to institute a ban on slavery. The following year, they successfully lobbied the Pennsylvania legislature to amend the gradual abolition act of 1780, winning reforms like the banning of transporting enslaved children and pregnant women out of Pennsylvania and the sending of slave ships from the city.

The amended act also imposed heavier fines for kidnapping the enslaved, and made it illegal to separate enslaved families by more than ten miles.

The group's influence waned in the decades leading up the Civil War amid economic crises and an increasing anti-black sentiment in the region. Despite their efforts at gradual abolition, chattel slavery was not abolished in the United States until 1865.

• Date: 1775-04-14
• Learn More: www.pbs.org, www.history.com.
• Tags: #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Limerick Soviet Forms (1919)

Mon Apr 14, 1919

On this day in 1919, the Limerick Soviet (Irish: Sóibhéid Luimnigh) formed during a general strike, one of a number of self-declared Irish workers' soviets that were formed between 1919 and 1923.

The soviet was formed in the context of the Irish War of Independence, fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British government, and was sustained for a period of about two weeks.

The workers' rebellion began in response to British Army Brigadier Griffin declaring the city to be a "Special Military Area", with permits required for all wanting to enter and leave the city and British Army troops and armored vehicles deployed to the area. On April 11th, a meeting of the United Trades and Labour Council took place where a representative from the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU), Sean Dowling, proposed that the trade unions take over Town Hall and have meetings there.

After a twelve-hour discussion and lobbying of the delegates by workers, a general strike was called on April 13th, by the city's United Trades and Labour Council. A special strike committee was set up to print their own money, control food prices, and publish newspapers, and these actions had support from many workers outside the city.

After two weeks, the Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Limerick and the Catholic Bishop Denis Hallinan called for the strike to end. The Strike Committee capitulated, issuing a proclamation on April 27th, stating that the strike was over.

• Date: 1919-04-14
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Amy Goodman (1957 - )

Sat Apr 13, 1957

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Amy Goodman, born on this day in 1957, is an American journalist, investigative reporter, and author who co-founded the news program Democracy Now!, which does not accept corporate funding.

Goodman's investigative journalism work is international in scope, including coverage of the East Timor independence movement and Chevron Corporation's complicity in violence in Nigeria; Chevron assisted the Nigerian Army in a violent conflict with villagers who had seized oil rigs to protest environmental pollution.

Goodman has also been arrested when covering anti-war protests at the RNC and charged with rioting for her coverage on attacks of Dakota Pipeline Access protesters. Goodman and her team captured footage that showed security personnel pepper-spraying and siccing attack dogs on demonstrators.

After the footage aired, North Dakota state prosecutor Ladd Erickson charged her with criminal trespass and, later, rioting. Both charges were dismissed in court.

Since 1996, Goodman has been the main host of Democracy Now!, a progressive global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Thomas Merton Award in 2004, a Right Livelihood Award in 2008, and an Izzy Award in 2009 for "special achievement in independent media".

"Go to where the silence is and say something."

- Amy Goodman

• Date: 1957-04-13
• Learn More: www.britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.democracynow.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Riots, #Journalism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Project MKUltra Begins (1953)

Mon Apr 13, 1953

Image: From 1955, artist William Millarc takes part in an LSD experiment alleged to have been part of the MK-ULTRA program. [whyy.org]

On this day in 1953, the CIA's Project MKUltra began. MKUltra is the code name given to a secret CIA program of mind control experiments, sometimes involuntary and involving the unethical use of hallucinogens, on test subjects.

These experiments were intended to identify and develop drugs and procedures to be used in interrogations in order to weaken the individual and force confessions through mind control, and often ran without the test subject's consent or knowledge.

Under MKUltra, the CIA created secret detention camps in international areas under American control so experiments could be done on prisoners without being prosecuted, hired British psychiatrist Donald Ewen Cameron to conduct experiments on patient, including dosing them with LSD and putting them in drug induced comas for weeks at a time, and secretly dosed Dr. Frank Olson with LSD after he asked to resign from the CIA, resulting in his suicide.

In 1973, amid a government-wide panic caused by Watergate, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered all MKUltra files destroyed. Most CIA documentation of the project was destroyed, however 20,000 documents survived because they had been incorrectly stored in a financial records building.

We only know about MKUltra today because of this misplaced cache and a Freedom of Information Request filed in 1977.

• Date: 1953-04-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.smithsonianmag.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org