Working Class Calendar

Eduardo Mondlane (1920 - 1969)

Sun Jun 20, 1920

Eduardo Mondlane, born on this day in 1920, was a Mozambican anthropologist and professor at Syracuse University who resigned his post to serve as the President of the Mozambican Liberation Front from 1962 until his assassination in 1969.

Mondlane was born in "N'wajahani", a district of Mandlakazi in the province of Gaza, Portuguese East Africa (modern day Mozambique). In 1948, he enrolled in Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, South Africa but was expelled after one year there, following the rise of the Apartheid government.

Mondlane eventually came to the United States, enrolling at Oberlin College in Ohio at the age of 31 under a Phelps Stokes scholarship, graduating in 1953 with a degree in anthropology and sociology.

Mondlane later became an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University and helped develop the East African Studies Program there. In 1963, he resigned from his post at Syracuse to move to Tanzania, co-founding the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) to fully engage in armed liberation struggle, receiving aid from both the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

In 1969, Mondlane was assassinated by a bomb planted in a book, sent to him at the FRELIMO Headquarters in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The killing remains unsolved to this day, although former Portuguese agent Oscar Cardoso claims that fellow agent Casimiro Monteiro planted the bomb.

FRELIMO went on to successfully win power and an independent Mozambique in 1975.

• Date: 1920-06-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, isis2.cc.oberlin.edu.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Harriette Moore (1902 - 1951)

Thu Jun 19, 1902

Harriette Moore, born on this day in 1902, was a school teacher and civil rights activist who, along with her husband, was murdered by white supremacists after their home was bombed on their 25th wedding anniversary, December 25th, 1951.

Harriette's husband, Harry Moore, was also a civil rights activist, and together they founded the Florida state chapter of the NAACP. In 1946, they were both fired by the Brevard County public school system and blacklisted due to their political activities.

On their 25th wedding anniversary (December 25th, 1951), the Moore home in Mims, Florida was bombed by white supremacists. The local hospital would not treat black people, and Harry died on the way to the nearest one that would, 30 miles away in Sanford, Florida.

Harriette died from her wounds nine days later, on January 3rd, 1952, at the same hospital. Their deaths were two of the earliest assassinations in the civil rights movement.

Although the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated their murders, no one was ever prosecuted. A state investigation and forensic work in 2005 identified four Ku Klux Klan members who likely committed the bombing, however they had all been dead for many years.

• Date: 1902-06-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.naacp.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Subcomandante Marcos (1957 - )

Wed Jun 19, 1957

Image: Subcomandante Marcos smoking a pipe atop a horse in Chiapas, Mexico, 1996. Photo by Jose Villa. [Wikipedia]

Rafael Vicente, also known as "Subcomandante Marcos", is a Mexican insurgent, former military leader, and spokesman for the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) who was born on this day in 1957. Before joining the EZLN, Vicente was a college professor at the Metropolitan Autonomous University in Mexico.

The EZLN was founded in the Lacandon Jungle in 1983, initially functioning as a self-defense unit dedicated to protecting Chiapas' Mayan people from evictions and capitalist encroachment on their land. While not Mayan himself, Marcos has often served as the group's spokesman.

Marcos led the EZLN during the 1994 revolt and the subsequent peace negotiations, during a counter-offensive by the Mexican Army in 1995, and throughout the decades that followed. In 2001, he led a group of Zapatista leaders into Mexico City to meet with President Vicente Fox, attracting widespread public and media attention.

"In the cabaret of globalization, the state shows itself as a table dancer that strips off everything until it is left with only the minimum indispensable garments: the repressive force."

- Subcomandante Marcos

• Date: 1957-06-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, books.google.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• 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

Battle of Orgreave (1984)

Mon Jun 18, 1984

Image: Police officers charge striking miners, mass picket of the Orgreave coking plant, miners' strike, Yorkshire. Photo by John Harris. [theguardian.com]

On this day in 1984, the Battle of Orgreave took place in Rotherham, England when 6,000 cops attacked 5,000 picketing miners during the UK Miners' Strike (1984-85), leading to one of the most violent clashes in British industrial history.

Media reports at the time depicted the battle as "an act of self-defence by police who had come under attack", however the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) had to pay £425,000 in compensation to 39 miners for assault, wrongful arrest, unlawful detention, and malicious prosecution in 1991.

While the striking workers were dressed casually in t-shirts and not armed, the police came dressed in riot gear and were well-armed: they brought 42 horses, whose mounted officers wore helmets and carried staves twice as long as truncheons, and police with dogs were stationed at the side of the long field in front of the plant.

Mounted police charged and attacked the picketers, and footage of the event contradicted the official police narrative regarding the level of force involved. 95 people were arrested and more than 100 were injured.

Journalist Alastair Stewart characterized the Battle of Orgreave as "a defining and ghastly moment" that "changed, forever, the conduct of industrial relations and how this country functions as an economy and as a democracy".

• Date: 1984-06-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• 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

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

Justice for Janitors Strikers Attacked (1990)

Fri Jun 15, 1990

Image: Los Angeles police officers beating a striking worker in a Justice for Janitors shirt with billy clubs, 1990

Justice for Janitors (JfJ) is a social movement that fights for the rights of janitors (caretakers and cleaners) across the US and Canada. Justice for Janitors includes more than 225,000 janitors in at least 29 cities in the United States and at least four cities in Canada. Members fight for better wages, better conditions, improved health-care, and full-time opportunities.

On this day in 1990, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) attacked immigrant janitors who were striking for the right to organize in Century City, making two women miscarry, hospitalizing dozens, and jailing sixty more. Police initially claimed to be defending themselves, however TV footage was aired that undermined this claim.

Despite the violence, workers voted unanimously to return to the scene of the attack and continue their protest. Janitors eventually won the right to form a union, doubling their pay and benefits. This victory gave significant momentum to the JfJ movement and led to successful protests by and organizing of janitors around the country.

• Date: 1990-06-15
• Learn More: www.thenation.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Protests.
• 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

Grenfell Tower Fire (2017)

Wed Jun 14, 2017

Image: The Grenfell Tower Fire, 4:33 am on June 14th, 2017. Photo by Natalie Oxford [Wikipedia]

On this day in 2017, the deadliest UK residential fire since WWII began in Grenfell Tower, West London. 72 people, including children as young as six months old, were killed. As of 2022, no one has been charged for the residents' deaths. More than 70 others were injured and 223 people escaped.

The high rise apartment complex, managed by Kensington and Chelsea TMO (KCTMO) was home to working class residents, many of them immigrants. Grenfell Tower was 24 stories tall and 120 flats in total.

In the years leading up to the fire, residents and neighborhood groups made multiple complaints about the unsafe state of the complex. In 2016, Grenfell Action Group (GAG) warned that people might be trapped in the building if a fire broke out. Later that year, they stated "only a catastrophic event will expose the ineptitude and incompetence of [KCTMO]...They can't say that they haven't been warned!"

Two women living in Grenfell Tower, Mariem Elgwahry and Nadia Choucair, were threatened with legal action by KCTMO after they campaigned for improved fire safety. Both later died in the fire, at the ages of 27 and 33, respectively.

Early on June 14th, 2017, the Grenfell Tower Fire began with a malfunctioning freezer on the fourth floor. Because the building did not meet safety regulations, fire spread rapidly up the building's exterior, bringing fire and smoke to all residential floors.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing some people jumping to their deaths. Some of these deaths were classed as suicides despite being a direct consequence of the fire. Frequent explosions from gas lines (which residents claimed were unsafely exposed just months earlier) in the building were reported.

A public inquiry, ordered by then Prime Minister Theresa May, is ongoing as of June 14th, 2022. Despite a 2017 statement from British police stating that they had "reasonable grounds" to suspect corporate manslaughter "may have been committed", no criminal charges have been filed.

While justice for Grenfell Tower residents has been delayed, the British government has found the means to charge at least twenty-one people with fraud relating to damage claims regarding the fire.

Edward Daffam, a member of GAG, has stated: "They didn't give a stuff about us. We were the carcass and they were the vultures. North Kensington was like a goldmine, only they didn't have to dig for the gold. All they had to do was to marginalise the people who were living here, and that's what they were doing."

• Date: 2017-06-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialistworker.co.uk.
• Tags: #Tenant.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Che Guevara (1928 - 1967)

Thu Jun 14, 1928

Image: Ernesto Guevara, Argentinian politician, Minister of Industry for Cuba (1961-1965) during an exclusive interview in his office in 1963. Photo credit to Renee Burri [magnumphotos.com]

Ernesto "Che" Guevara, born on this day in 1928, was an Argentine communist revolutionary, physician, military leader, and author who fought in the guerilla war against Fulgencio Batista and helped lead the new communist government.

Ernesto was born to an upper-class Argentine family of pre-independence Spanish (i.e. Basque and Cantabrian) and Irish ancestry. Referring to Che's restless nature, his father noted "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels".

In 1950 and 1951, he embarked on two continent-wide motorcycle journeys throughout South and Central America, observing poverty and poor working conditions that left a deep impression on his worldview. He later published a memoir of these experiences called "The Motorcycle Diaries", dubbed by Verso Books as "Das Kapital meets Easy Rider".

In 1956, Che Guevara sailed to Cuba to aid in the struggle against Batista, narrowly surviving an attack by Batista's forces after they landed on the island. He became a major figure of the Cuban Revolution, promoted by Fidel Castro to Comandante of a second army column.

Following the Cuban Revolution's success, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian land reform, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism.

Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.

"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality."

- Che Guevara

• Date: 1928-06-14
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays.
• 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

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

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, #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC Anti-Nuclear Protests (1982)

Sat Jun 12, 1982

On this day in 1982, hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators held a huge rally and parade in Central Park and midtown Manhattan to oppose nuclear armament, one of the largest political demonstrations in U.S. history.

The parade and rally was a multi-racial and political coalition across a wide demographic, bringing together liberal pacifists, anarchists, children and Buddhist monks, Roman Catholic bishops and Communist Party leaders, university students, and union members, all together in the name of nuclear disarmament. The parade was over three miles long and had signs in dozens of languages.

The event was very peaceful, with no mention of violence or arrests reported by the New York Times. Despite the show of force, U.S. nuclear weapons programs were not limited until after the end of the Cold War, several years later.

• Date: 1982-06-12
• Learn More: www.nytimes.com, www.wnyc.org.
• Tags: #Protests.
• 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

Women Ford Machinists Strike (1968)

Fri Jun 07, 1968

Image: A group of women Ford employees with a large banner that reads "FORD MACHINISTS SAY WE WANT RECOGNITION FOR OUR SKILL" [workersliberty.org]

On this day in 1968, all 187 women employees working at a Ford factory in Dagenham, East London went on strike to demand equal pay for equal work, eventually leading to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

At the factory, female workers were classified as unskilled workers (Category B), paid both less than "skilled" (Category C) workers and Category B male workers. Even teenage boys sweeping the floors were paid more than the women working there.

In response to this, all 187 women went on strike on June 7th, demanding equal pay for equal work. Despite their labor being classified as unskilled, car production halted within a week. The factory was forced to come to a complete standstill, eventually costing the company over $8 million. Despite this, Ford refused to negotiate.

The strike ended after Barbara Castle, the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity, intervened, beginning a set of negotiations at which men were not allowed. The strike ended with an immediate increase of their rate of pay to 8% below that of men, rising to the full Category B rate the following year. In 1984, following an additional strike, the women were categorized as Category C.

The labor action is considered key to the passing of the Equal Pay Act 1970 prohibited inequality of treatment between men and women in Britain in terms of pay and conditions of employment. In 1978, despite its passage, women's relative position in the UK was still worse than in Italy, France, Germany, or the Benelux countries in 1972.

• Date: 1968-06-07
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• 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

Philadelphia General Strike (1835)

Sat Jun 06, 1835

Image: Journeyman House Carpenters' Association of Philadelphia banner promoting the ten-hour day, 1835. A carpenter points to the clock indicating to his co-worker that it is time to quit work. Created by V.A. Van Schoik of the Journeymen House Carpenters' Association of Philadelphia [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1835, the first recorded general strike in North America broke out in Philadelphia when striking Irish dock workers were joined by city workers. A wave of successful strikes followed, standardizing the 10 hour day.

The strike involved around 20,000 workers, demanding a ten-hour workday and increased wages. The strike ended in complete victory for the workers.

Influenced by labor agitation in Boston, the Philadelphia General Strike began with unskilled Irish workers on the Schuylkill River coal wharves going out on strike for a ten-hour day. The dock workers patrolled the picket line with swords, threatening any scab who attempted to unload coal from the 75 vessels waiting in the water.

The coal heavers were soon joined by workers from many other trades, including leather dressers, printers, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, house painters, bakers, and city employees.

On June 6th, a mass meeting of workers, lawyers, doctors, and a few businessmen, was held in the State House courtyard. The meeting unanimously adopted a set of resolutions giving full support to the workers' demand for wage increases and a shorter workday, as well as increased wages for women workers and a boycott of any coal merchant who worked his men more than ten hours.

The strike quickly came to a close after city public works employees joined the labor action. The Philadelphia city government announced that the "hours of labor of the working men employed under the authority of the city corporation would be from 'six to six' during the summers season, allowing one hour for breakfast, and one for dinner."

On June 22nd, three weeks after the coal heavers initially struck, the ten-hour system and an increase in wages for piece-workers was adopted in the city. A wave of successful strikes across the United States followed this victory. By the end of 1835, the ten-hour day had become the standard for most day city laborers.

• Date: 1835-06-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, journals.psu.edu.
• Tags: #Labor, #General Strikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org