Working Class Calendar

Freedom Summer Murders (1964)

Sun Jun 21, 1964

Image: An FBI "Missing" poster, depicting (from left to right) Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner

On this day in 1964, civil rights activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were assassinated by white supremacists in Philadelphia, Mississippi. No one was held accountable for the Freedom Summer Murders until 2005.

All three activists were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register black people in Mississippi to vote.

The trio were arrested by Sheriff Cecil Price near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi while investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been the site of a CORE Freedom School.

The group was released that evening without being allowed to contact anyone. While traveling back to Meridian, Mississippi, they were stopped by patrol lights and two carloads of KKK members, kidnapped, tortured, and killed.

The sheriff, along with six others, were indicted and convicted for depriving the three men of their civil rights. No one was held accountable for their murders, however, until 2005, when outspoken white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter. Killen died in prison in 2018, at the age of 92.

• Date: 1964-06-21
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, mscivilrightsproject.org.
• Tags: [#Civil Rights](/search?q=%23Civil Rights&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New), #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Speckled Snake Speaks (1829)

Sat Jun 20, 1829

Image: "The Trail of Tears", by Robert Lindneux, a painting depicting the forced removal of indigenous peoples.

On this day in 1829, Speckled Snake, an indigenous man more than a century old, gave a speech to a council of chiefs on the genocidal nature of U.S. policy of indigenous removal, then led by President Andrew Jackson. Here is a short excerpt from his statement:

"...But when the white man had warmed himself before the Indians' fire and filled himself with their hominy, he became very large. With a step he bestrode the mountains, and his feet covered the plains and the valleys. His hand grasped the eastern and the western sea, and his head rested on the moon.

Then he became our Great Father. He loved his red children, and he said, 'Get a little further, lest I tread on thee.'

Brothers! I have listened to a great many talks from our great father. But they always began and ended in this - 'Get a little further; you are too near me.'"

• Date: 1829-06-20
• Learn More: www.historyisaweapon.com, peelersplace.weebly.com.
• Tags: #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ezeiza Massacre (1973)

Wed Jun 20, 1973

Image: An attempted lynching of Juan José Rincón, press secretary of the Peronist Youth of the Argentine Republic (JPRA) of Avellaneda [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1973, anti-communist snipers fired on a huge crowd of Peronists gathered at Ezeiza International Airport to witness the return of Juan Perón. At least thirteen were killed, and left-wing alliances to Peronism were severed.

Peronism is an Argentine political movement based on the ideas and legacy of Argentine military general and politician Juan Perón (1895 - 1974) and his wife Eva. Peronism was a popular third positionist political movement that had elements of left and right-wing political ideas.

On June 20th, 1973, Juan Perón was returning to Argentina after eighteen years of political exile in fascist Spain. A large crowd gathered to witness his return at Ezeiza International Airport; police estimated three and a half million people total were present.

At the time, an alliance of right-wing and left-wing movements existed within Peronism, with the Peronist Youth and the Montoneros exhibiting anti-capitalist politics. While the crowd was gathered at the airport, right-wing snipers began firing on the crowd, targeting the Peronist Youth and Montoneros, killing at least 13 people and injuring 365 more.

The Ezeiza massacre marked the end of the alliance of the left and right-wing Peronists which Perón had managed to forge. According to Hugo Moreno, "If [the general strike on] October 17th, 1945 may be considered as the founding act of Peronism...the June 20th, 1973 massacre marked the entrance on the scene of the late right-wing Peronism."

• Date: 1973-06-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.lanacion.com.ar.
• Tags: #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Juneteenth (1865)

Mon Jun 19, 1865

Image: Protesters march towards the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington on Friday, June 19th, 2020. A banner is displayed, reading "FREEDOM DAY MARCH 2020", another sign reads "ABOLISH THE POLICE" [CNN]

Juneteenth is a U.S. holiday commemorating black emanicipation and power that originates from Galveston, Texas, where, on this day in 1865, Union General Gordon Granger proclaimed all slaves in Texas, more than 250,000 people, to be free.

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of slave abolition in the United States.

• Date: 1865-06-19
• Learn More: nmaahc.si.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Adela Pankhurst (1885 - 1961)

Fri Jun 19, 1885

Image: A photo portrait of British-Australian communist Adela Pankhurst, unknown year. Photograph: Col Linley Blathwayt [theguardian.com]

Adela Pankhurst, born on this day in 1885, was a British suffragette and pacifist who advocated for class-conscious feminism. Pankhurst founded the Communist Party of Australia and, decades later, the fascist "Australia First" movement.

Adela was born into a left-wing family - her father was socialist Richard Pankhurst and her mother was militant suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Her sisters Sylvia and Christabel also became leaders of the British suffrage movement.

As a teenager, Adela became involved in the militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded by her mother and sisters. She was arrested after interrupting Winston Churchill during a protest and slapping a policeman who was trying to evict her from the building.

Both Sylvia and Adela were socialists, while Emmeline and Christabel were more focused on winning the vote for affluent women. After Sylvia was ejected from the WSPU, Christabel is quoted by author Jeff Sparrow as telling her "I would not care if you were multiplied by a hundred, but one of Adela is too many."

In 1914, Adela emigrated to Australia and advocated for peace during World War I. In 1920, Pankhurst co-founded the Australian Communist Party, although she was later expelled.

Despite organizing on behalf of working class women, Adela grew disillusioned with socialist movements and co-founded two nationalist, anti-communist organizations, the Australian Women's Guild of Empire and the fascist "Australia First" movement. Pankhurst also expressed sympathies for both fascist Germany and Japan during World War II, for which she was imprisoned.

In 1949, Pankhurst stated the following on her disillusionment with communism: "So long did I warn my supporters that co-operation with Russia, and all those who supported the Bolsheviks, was the way to disaster and I was ruined and interned for my pains...Communism has not brought home the bacon...Taken on achievement, Fascism did very much better while it lasted."

• Date: 1885-06-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Socialism, #Feminism, #Birthdays, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mariya Kislyak Executed (1943)

Fri Jun 18, 1943

Mariya Kislyak was a Soviet partisan and leader of a Kharkov underground Komsomol cell, where she seduced and killed Nazi officers, actions for which she was executed by the Gestapo on this day in 1943 at the age of seventeen.

Kislyak was born to a Ukrainian peasant family in the village of Lednoe. She graduated from medical training for paramedics and housewives the day before the German invasion of the Soviet Union. During fighting in her hometown, a wounded Soviet soldier she had been taking care of asked her why the city didn't have a strong partisan movement.

When the soldier recovered, Kislyak contacted several partisans hiding out in a nearby forest and asked if she could join their cause, recruiting several acquaintances into the movement. With this organization, she helped kill Nazi officers, sometimes flirting with them to lure them into an isolated area where they could be killed out of sight.

When she received word that a Gestapo agent nicknamed "the Butcher" would be coming to Kharkiv, she and her partisan unit spent two days planning his capture. Kislyak rented a room right next to his at the farm he was staying at.

After courting him for a few days she lured him to a riverbank, where her conspirators captured him. After interrogating the officer, the group summarily executed him with a crowbar.

In response, more than one hundred villagers, including Mariya, were collectively arrested by the Gestapo and told they would be killed by a firing squad if the SS man wasn't found alive soon. After the plot became known, Mariya and two others were brutally tortured and interrogated for weeks.

On June 18th, the group of three was hanged and their bodies put on public display. On May 8th, 1965 she was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

• Date: 1943-06-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.warheroes.ru.
• Tags: #Labor, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

George Thompson (1804 - 1878)

Mon Jun 18, 1804

George Donisthorpe Thompson, born on this day in 1804, was a prominent British anti-slavery orator and activist who gave lecturing tours and worked for abolitionist legislation while serving as a member of Parliament.

Thompson grew up in a household that directly profited from the slave trade. His father worked on ships that transported enslaved Africans to the Caribbean and the Americas, and stories connected to this experience convinced him slavery had to be abolished.

Thompson became one of the most prominent and influential abolitionists and human rights lecturers in the United Kingdom and the United States. He was friends with Frederick Douglass and met with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. On one visit to the United States, Thompson had to flee the country due to threats of violence from pro-slavery parties.

Thompson was also an advocate of free trade, Chartism, nonresistance, the peace movement, and East Indian reform, helping form the British India Society in 1839.

• Date: 1804-06-18
• Learn More: frederickdouglassinbritain.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Angelo Sbardellotto Executed (1932)

Fri Jun 17, 1932

Angelo Sbardellotto was an Italian anarchist executed by the state on this day in 1932 for plotting to assassinate Benito Mussolini. He refused to beg for clemency, instead telling the court he regretted not succeeding in his plan.

Sbardellotto was born into a poor family who was compelled to emigrate to find work. Angelo and his father left Italy in October 1924, living in France, Luxembourg, and Belgium, where Angelo worked as a miner and a machine hand.

While working as a miner, he joined the anarchist committee of Liege, and was active in the activities to bring about the general strike in Belgium in solidarity with framed Italian-American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti.

Already under surveillance as a suspected communist subversive, Sbardellotto was stopped by police in Piazza Venezia, Rome in 1932, found armed with two rudimentary bombs and a pistol, as well as possession of a Swiss passport.

Admitting to having entered Italy clandestinely with the intent of avenging socialist Michael Schirru by killing Mussolini (Schirru himself had attempted to assassinate Mussolini), Sbardellotto was interrogated and likely tortured by police before his trial a week later on June 11th.

When Sbardellotto's lawyer requested that he write to Mussolini directly to ask for his life to be spared, he refused, stating that he was only sorry that he had not carried out the attempt on Mussolini.

On June 17th, 1932, at twenty-four years old, he was put in front of the firing squad at the Bretta Fort. He refused last rites from a priest. Angelo's last words before being shot were "Long live anarchy!"

• Date: 1932-06-17
• Learn More: libcom.org, it.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Anarchism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Charleston Church Massacre (2015)

Wed Jun 17, 2015

Image: A photo showing the nine people killed in the Charleston Church Massacre: Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Ethel Lance, Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Rev. Daniel Simmons, Cynthia Hurd, Myra Thompson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Susan Jackson, and Tywanza Sanders

On this day in 2015, the Charleston Church Massacre took place in Charleston, South Carolina when a white supremacist entered Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and shot twelve people, killing nine (shown). The shooter targeted the church in part due to its stature; Emanuel AME is one of the oldest black churches in the United States and has long been a center for organizing events for civil rights campaigns.

In 2016, he was convicted of 33 federal hate crime and murder charges and later sentenced to death. The Charleston massacre was tied with a 1991 attack at a Buddhist temple in Waddell, Arizona for the deadliest mass shooting at a U.S. place of worship.

Since then, however, two deadlier shootings have occurred at places of worship: the Sutherland Springs church shooting in 2017 and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018.

• Date: 2015-06-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.npr.org.
• Tags: #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Espionage Act (1917)

Fri Jun 15, 1917

Image: A mugshot of Eugene V. Debs with his prisoner number in 1920. He was imprisoned in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary for speaking out against the draft during World War I. [npr.org]

The Espionage Act, passed on this day in 1917, is a federal U.S. law which has been used to suppress labor and political activism from American dissidents such as Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman, Daniel Ellsberg, and Edward Snowden.

Within a month of the law's passing, the Department of Justice used it as a justification to raid Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) headquarters, seizing property and arresting over one hundred members on various charges.

Among those charged with offenses under the Act are Victor L. Berger, Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, Daniel Ellsberg, Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden.

A 2015 study by the PEN American Center found that almost all of the non-government representatives they interviewed, including activists, lawyers, journalists and whistleblowers, "thought the Espionage Act had been used inappropriately in leak cases that have a public interest component."

PEN wrote "experts described it as 'too blunt an instrument,' 'aggressive, broad and suppressive,' a 'tool of intimidation,' 'chilling of free speech,' and a 'poor vehicle for prosecuting leakers and whistleblowers.'"

• Date: 1917-06-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, pen.org.
• Tags: #IWW, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

East German Uprising (1953)

Tue Jun 16, 1953

Image: Soviet T-34-85 in East Berlin on June 17th, 1953 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1953, in what became an uprising of more than one million people, 300 East German construction workers protested at government buildings, demanding the reversal of a 10% increase in work quotas.

Due to an economic slump, the East German government had increased worker quotas (called "norms") by 10% across all state-owned factories. At the same time, the prices of food, health care, and public transportation had all significantly increased, leading to an effective monthly wage cut of 33%, according to historian Corey Ross.

Although the government quickly conceded on the matter of work quotas, the protests took on an anti-government character and spread quickly throughout all of East Germany. News of the initial strike had spread both through word of mouth and the Western "Radio in the American Sector" (RIAS), which provided sympathetic coverage of the protests.

Soviet troops and tanks entered East Berlin on the morning of June 17th and violently clashed with the protesters, who had stormed government headquarters. The East German Stasi engaged in mass arrests of thousands of people.

According to historian Richard Millington, around 39 people were killed during the uprising, the vast majority of them demonstrators. Seven Berlin victims were given an official state funeral in West Berlin on June 23rd, 1953.

Following the uprising's successful repression, many workers lost faith in East Germany's socialist state. According to historian Gareth Pritchard, there was a widespread refusal by workers to pay their trade union dues and support the ruling party.

In response to the incident, the East German state expanded its surveillance of workers to more closely monitor discontent, creating what journalist Chris Hedges called "the most efficient security and surveillance state" of its time.

• Date: 1953-06-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Protests, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Michael Prysner (1983 - )

Wed Jun 15, 1983

Michael Prysner, born on this day in 1983, is an American veteran and anti-war activist who produces and co-writes The Empire Files with Abby Martin and co-hosted "Eyes Left" with Afghanistan War veteran Spenser Rapone.

Prysner served in Iraq as a corporal and cites his duties there, including ground surveillance, home raids, and the interrogation of prisoners, as leading him to take an anti-war stance.

Prysner has also co-founded "March Forward!", an organization of active-duty members of the U.S. military and veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that encourages current active-duty service personnel to resist deployment.

In 2011, Prysner gave a speech now known as the "Our Real Enemies" address, in which he argued that domestic enemies pose a greater threat to the average U.S. resident than foreign ones. An excerpt reads:

"We need to wake up and realize that our real enemies are not in some distant land...The enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable. The enemy is CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable. It's the insurance companies who deny us health care when it's profitable. It's the banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not five thousand miles away. They are right here at home."

• Date: 1983-06-15
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, soundcloud.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896)

Fri Jun 14, 1811

Image: **

Harriet Beecher Stowe, born on this day in 1811, was an American abolitionist and author, best known for her anti-slavery novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin", published in 1852.

Stowe was born in Litchfield, Connecticut to a large and deeply religious family that produced other notable theologians and abolitionists, such as Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, and Edward Beecher.

Harriet's own politics were influenced by direct experiences with black people terrorized by race riots in the 1820s and 1830s, as well as the Lane Debates on Slavery, which led to the founding of Oberlin College after a mass exodus of students from Lane Theological Seminary.

Later in life, she was an outspoken critic of slavery and supported the Underground Railroad, temporarily housing several fugitive slaves in her home. It was during this period, in the decade before the Civil War, that she authored "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Within a year of its publication, the book sold an unprecedented 300,000 copies and was widely read in both the United States and Great Britain.

Harriet Stowe was also an early feminist thinker, connecting the struggle for black liberation to the struggle for women's liberation more broadly, writing in 1869 that "the position of a married woman...is, in many respects, precisely similar to that of the negro slave. She can make no contract and hold no property; whatever she inherits or earns becomes at that moment the property of her husband...Though he acquired a fortune through her, or though she earned a fortune through her talents, he is the sole master of it, and she cannot draw a penny".

• Date: 1811-06-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.womenshistory.org.
• Tags: #Feminism, #Birthdays, #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

David Barsamian (1945 - )

Thu Jun 14, 1945

David Barsamian, born on this day in 1945, is an Armenian-American radio broadcaster, writer, and the founder of Alternative Radio, a Colorado-based syndicated weekly public affairs program heard on ~250 radio stations worldwide.

Barsamian has interviewed and edited the works of many important leftist thinkers, including Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Richard Wolff, Eqbal Ahmad, and Edward Said.

"I'm using dissonance in a musical sense...we're given this harmonic construction [by the media] 'The world is good; America is great.' I want to trouble that harmonic construction with some dissonant notes."

- David Barsamian

• Date: 1945-06-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.alternativeradio.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Walter Rodney Assassinated (1980)

Fri Jun 13, 1980

Image: **

Walter Rodney was a Guyanese historian, educator, public intellectual, and Pan-African Marxist who was assassinated by the state on this day in 1980, at 38 years old.

Rodney attended the University College of the West Indies in 1960 and was awarded a first class honors degree in History in 1963. He later earned a PhD in African History in 1966 at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, England, at the age of 24.

Rodney traveled extensively and became well-known as an activist, scholar, and formidable orator. He taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania from 1966-67 and 1969-1974, and in 1968 at his alma mater University of the West Indies.

On October 15th, 1968, the government of Jamaica declared Rodney a "persona non grata" and banned him from the country. Following his dismissal by the University of the West Indies, students and poor people in West Kingston protested, leading to the "Rodney Riots", which caused six deaths and millions of dollars in damages.

On June 13th, 1980, Rodney was killed in Georgetown, Guyana via a bomb given to him by Gregory Smith, a sergeant in the Guyana Defence Force, one month after returning Zimbabwe. In 2015, a "Commission of Inquiry" in Guyana that the country's then president, Linden Forbes Burnham, was complicit in his murder.

"If there is to be any proving of our humanity it must be through revolutionary means."

- Walter Rodney

• Date: 1980-06-13
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Pentagon Papers Released (1971)

Sun Jun 13, 1971

Image: Daniel Ellsberg, co-defendant in the Pentagon Papers case, talks to media outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on April 28th, 1973. Photo credit Wally Fong, AP [nbcnews.com]

On this day in 1971, the Pentagon Papers, leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, were published by the New York Times, detailing secret information about the history of and disinformation about U.S. involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. The Pentagon Papers were the result of a study conducted by the Department of Defense which Ellsberg had contributed to.

The study revealed that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scope of its actions in the Vietnam War with coastal raids on North Vietnam and Marine Corps attacks, and that the Johnson administration had routinely lied to both Congress and the American public about involvement in Vietnam.

For his disclosure of the Pentagon Papers, Ellsberg was initially charged with conspiracy, espionage, and theft of government property. These charges were later dismissed after prosecutors investigating the Watergate scandal discovered that the staff members in the Nixon White House had ordered the so-called "White House Plumbers" to engage in unlawful efforts to discredit Ellsberg.

On January 3rd, 1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, he was dismissed of all charges on May 11th, 1973.

The Pentagon Papers were only fully declassified in June 2011.

• Date: 1971-06-13
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.nytimes.com, www.washingtonpost.com.
• Tags: #Journalism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Medgar Evers Assassinated (1963)

Wed Jun 12, 1963

Image: **

Medgar Evers was an American civil rights leader who achieved national prominence for his efforts in fighting racial oppression in Mississippi, work for which he was assassinated by white supremacists on this day in 1963.

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

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

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

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

- Medgar Evers

• Date: 1963-06-12
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, web.archive.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: [#Civil Rights](/search?q=%23Civil Rights&type=Posts&listingType=All&page=1&sort=New), #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ratification of the Platt Amendment (1901)

Wed Jun 12, 1901

Image: **

On this day in 1901, under duress of occupation by the United States military, the newly independent Cuban government ratified the Platt Amendment, giving the U.S. legal control over the Cuban state and economy.

The occupying force had remained in Cuba following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War, and the U.S. government refused to withdraw occupying troops from Cuba until the seven conditions of the Platt Amendment were ratified in the new Cuban constitution.

These conditions defined the terms of Cuban-U.S. relations to be an unequal one of U.S. dominance over Cuba, both politically and economically. Among these provisions were the government of Cuba consenting to the right of the United States to "intervene for the preservation of Cuban independence, the maintenance of a government adequate for the protection of life, property, and individual liberty".

Following acceptance of the amendment, the United States ratified a tariff that gave Cuban sugar preference in the U.S. market and protection to select U.S. products in the Cuban market. Over $200 million was spent by American companies on Cuban sugar between 1903 and 1913, and this investment into sugar led to land being concentrated into the hands of the largest sugar mills, with estimates that 20% of all Cuban land was owned by these mills.

• Date: 1901-06-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Tags: #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Davis Day (1925)

Thu Jun 11, 1925

Image: Davis Day Ceremony, Stellarton 2012. Photo from Adam MacInnis, New Glasgow News. [museumofindustry.novascotia.ca]

Davis Day, also known as Miners' Memorial Day, is a day of remembrance observed annually on this day in Nova Scotia coal mining communities, recognizing all miners killed in the province's coal mines.

Davis Day was initiated by the United Mine Workers of America in memory of William Davis, a coal miner who was killed when company police hired by the British Empire Steel Corporation fired on a crowd of protesting coal miners during a long strike near the town of New Waterford.

When the strike began in March 1925, the corporation cut off credit at the company stores. Coal miners were able to survive on relief payments and donations from supporters as far away as Boston and Winnipeg. After three months of a work stoppage, the corporation planned to resume operations without any settlement with workers.

To maintain the shutdown, coal miners seized and shut down the power plant that served both the company's mines and the city of New Waterford in early June. The shortage of water and power affected New Waterford citizens, but the miners drew on local wells and set up a volunteer service to deliver water to the hospital.

On June 11th, a force of company police recaptured the power plant. Hundreds of coal miners, possibly more than 2,000 in number, marched to Waterford Lake in protest. It was there that the company police fired on the crowd, killing 38 year old William Davis.

This annual commemoration to all miners killed in labor struggle and industrial accidents became official in Nova Scotia in 2008, officially recognized as William Davis Miners' Memorial Day.

• Date: 1925-06-11
• Learn More: museumofindustry.novascotia.ca, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Gerrit van der Veen Assassinated (1944)

Sat Jun 10, 1944

Image: Gerrit Jan van der Veen. Photo in a series with his family, 1942 [Wikipedia]

Gerrit van der Veen (1902 - 1944) was a Dutch anti-fascist sculptor who was assassinated by the Nazis on this day in 1944, following a failed attempt to free his comrades from prison. Van der Veen helped forge more than 80,000 ethnic identity papers.

Dutch historian Robert-Jan van Pelt has written the following about van der Veen:

"In 1940, after the German occupation, van der Veen was one of the few who refused to sign the so-called "Arierverklaring", the Declaration of Aryan Ancestry. In the years that followed, he tried to help Jews both in practical and symbolic ways.

Together with the musician Jan van Gilse and the (openly homosexual) artist, art historian, and critic Willem Arondeus, van der Veen established the underground organization De Vrije Kunstenaar (The Free Artist).

Van der Veen and the other artists published a newsletter calling for resistance against the occupation. When the Germans introduced identity documents (Persoonsbewijzen) that distinguished between Jews and non-Jews, van der Veen, Arondeus and the printer Frans Duwaer produced some 80,000 false identity papers."

Van der Veen tried to escape his comrades from prison in May 1944, but the attempt failed and van der Veen was paralyzed after being shot. He was arrested a few weeks later and then executed on June 10th, 1944. In May 1946, he was awarded the Dutch Cross of Resistance.

• Date: 1944-06-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, gerritvdveen.nl.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Giacomo Matteotti Assassinated (1924)

Tue Jun 10, 1924

Image: **

Giacomo Matteotti was an anti-fascist Italian socialist politician. After publicly denouncing Mussolini in 1924, he said "now start composing your oration for my funeral" and was assassinated by fascists on this day in 1924.

As a young adult, Matteotti was active in the socialist movement and the Italian Socialist Party. He was imprisoned in Sicily for opposing Italy's entry into World War I (and was interned in Sicily during the conflict for this reason).

Matteotti spoke openly against Italian Fascism and Benito Mussolini, and for a time was leader of the opposition to the National Fascist Party (NFP). In 1921, he denounced fascist violence in a pamphlet titled "Inchiesta socialista sulle gesta dei fascisti in Italia" ("Socialist enquiry on the deeds of the fascists in Italy").

On May 30th, 1924, speaking in the Italian Parliament, he alleged that the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections and denounced the violence that they used to gain votes. On this day that year, Matteotti was kidnapped and killed by fascists.

After Matteotti's body was discovered, Mussolini took full responsibility for the murder as head of the Fascist party (although whether he gave a direct order for the murder remains uncertain) and dared his critics to prosecute him for the crime. This challenge went unaccepted.

After the Second World War ended, Italian fascists Amerigo Dumini, Giuseppe Viola, and Amleto Poveromo were sentenced to thirty years in prison for their involvement in Matteotti's murder.

• Date: 1924-06-10
• Learn More: primolevicenter.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Assassinations, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Johanna Kirchner Assassinated (1944)

Fri Jun 09, 1944

Image: **

Johanna Kirchner was a German anti-fascist and Social Democrat who was executed by the Nazis on this day in 1944 for having "treasonably rooted herself in the evilest Marxist high-treason propaganda".

Kirchner was born into a family with social-democratic traditions, and Kirchner herself joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at the age of eighteen.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Kirchner, a known anti-fascist and opponent of the Nazis, fled to France. While there, she collaborated with Eleonore Wolf, organizing the emigration of many officials of the workers' movement out of the Third Reich.

In 1942, Kirchner was arrested by the Vichy Régime and handed over to the Gestapo. Although she was initially sentenced to ten years' hard labor for treason, her case was brought back before the Volksgerichtshof in 1944, and she was sentenced to death for "treasonably rooted herself in the evilest Marxist high-treason propaganda" and "treasonably gathering cultural, economic, political, and military intelligence and communicating" Marxism.

On the day of her death, she wrote to her children in her diary: "Keep Goethe's words in mind, 'Die and become'. Don't cry for me. I believe in a better future for you."

• Date: 1944-06-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.gdw-berlin.de.
• Tags: #Labor, #Marxism, #Assassinations, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Menstad (1931)

Mon Jun 08, 1931

Image: Picture from Aftenposten on June 9th, 1931. Shown top right is a jet from one of the water hoses that the police used against protesters. [snl.no]

On this day in 1931, the Battle of Menstad began near Skien, Norway when 2,000 striking workers fought and overwhelmed a group of police officers protecting scabs at Norsk Hydro's Menstad plant. The battle took place in the context of drastic pay cuts during the Great Depression.

Historian Knut Dørum has written that Norway's biggest industrial disputes ever took place that year, beginning with a six month lock-out in the iron industry, involving up to 86,000 workers and causing a loss of 13 million working days.

At Menstad, Norsk Hydro and Union & Co hired strike-breakers to replace the striking workers. The workers responded by chasing away the strike-breakers in the days before the battle. The strikers returned on June 8th with police protection that was quickly overwhelmed by protesting workers. In response to the violence, the government deployed troops and ships from to the area.

Afterward, 28 strikers were arrested and put on trial, 20 of whom were sentenced to prison. Most of those arrested were members of the Norwegian Communist Party and the Norwegian Labour Party. Worker organization did not prevent mass unemployment during the Great Depression; in the winter of 1932–1933, up to 40% of the trade unionists were unemployed.

• Date: 1931-06-08
• Learn More: snl.no, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Freedom Riders Arrested (1961)

Thu Jun 08, 1961

Image: Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael), Gwendolyn Green, and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland. Source: "Breach of Peace" by Eric Etheridge. [zinnedproject.org]

On this day in 1961, Freedom Riders protesting segregation, including Kwame Ture, Gwendolyn Green, and Joan Trumpauer Mulholland (shown), were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi and taken to Parchman Prison. Others arrested included Jan Triggs, Rev. Robert Wesby, Helen Wilson, Teri Perlman, Jane Rosett, and Travis Britt.

The Freedom Rides were a series of protests in response to Boynton vs. Virginia, a Supreme Court ruling that declared that busses and trains should be desegregated. Despite segregation being illegal, many southern states still maintained segregated public transit systems. Protesters challenged this by joining together in multi-racial groups and traveling on the busses.

• Date: 1961-06-08
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, snccdigital.org.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Israeli West Bank Occupation Begins (1967)

Wed Jun 07, 1967

Image: A map showing the expansion of Israel's borders from 1967 to 2016 (marked "Today" in the photo) [rac.org]

On this day in 1967, the Israeli Army occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, claiming emergency powers with a military decree that greatly restricts the rights of the occupied. The ongoing occupation is the longest in the modern era.

The Israeli Army action took place in the context of the Six Day War, fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states. The status of the West Bank as a militarily occupied territory has been affirmed by the International Court of Justice and, with the exception of East Jerusalem, by the Israeli Supreme Court.

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the military proclamation issued by the Israeli Army on June 7th, 1967 permitted the application of the Defense (Emergency) Regulations of 1945.

These regulations empowered, and continue to empower, authorities to declare as an "unlawful association" groups that advocate for "bringing into hatred or contempt, or the exciting of disaffection against" the authorities, and criminalize membership in or possession of material belonging to or affiliated, even indirectly, with these groups.

HRW goes on to state that these and other broad restrictions on the occupied population violate international law: "The Israeli army has for over 50 years used broadly worded military orders to arrest Palestinian journalists, activists and others for their speech and activities - much of it non-violent - protesting, criticizing or opposing Israeli policies. These orders are written so broadly that they violate the obligation of states under international human rights law to clearly spell out conduct that could result in criminal sanction."

Following the military occupation of the West Bank, Israel began expropriating the land and facilitating Israeli settlements in the area, broadly considered a violation of international law. While Israelis in the West Bank are subject to Israeli law and given representation in the Israeli Knesset, Palestinian civilians, mostly confined to scattered enclaves, are subject to martial law and are not permitted to vote in Israel's national elections.

This two-tiered system has inspired comparisons to apartheid, likening the dense disconnected pockets that Palestinians are relegated to with the segregated Bantustans that previously existed in South Africa when the country was still under white supremacist rule.

• Date: 1967-06-07
• Learn More: www.hrw.org, en.wikipedia.org, rac.org.
• Tags: #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org