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Upton Sinclair (1878 - 1968)

Fri Sep 20, 1878

Upton Sinclair Jr., born on this day in 1878, was an American writer and journalist who wrote nearly 100 books across multiple genres, most notably "The Jungle", which exposed brutal working conditions in the Chicago meatpacking industry.

Sinclair was an outspoken socialist, and his books depicted difficult working conditions of the laboring class, scandalizing them with the broader public.

Sinclair was inspired to write "The Jungle" after spending six months researching the Chicago meatpacking industry. His descriptions of the unsanitary and inhumane conditions that workers suffered shocked and galvanized its readers to such a degree that domestic and foreign purchases of American meat to fall by half and federal regulations of the meat industry increased.

Sinclair also discriminated against people of color and Jewish people. With income from "The Jungle", he founded a utopian community called "Helicon Home Colony" in Englewood, New Jersey, explicitly excluding both black and Jewish people. The colony burned down under suspicious circumstances within a year.

In the 1920s, Sinclair moved to Monrovia, California (near Los Angeles), where he founded the state's chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). In 1934, Sinclair ran in the California gubernatorial election as a Democrat.

Sinclair's platform, known as the End Poverty in California movement (EPIC), galvanized the support of the Democratic Party. Sinclair gained its nomination, but was defeated by the incumbent Frank Merriam.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

- Upton Sinclair

• Date: 1878-09-20
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758 - 1806)

Wed Sep 20, 1758

Image: A portrait of Jean-Jacques Dessalines by Louis Rigaud [Wikipedia]

Jean-Jacques Dessalines, born on this day in 1758, was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1805 constitution. Dessalines was assassinated by rebels in 1806, leading directly to civil war.

Dessalines was born to an enslaved Congolese family in 1758. He adopted the name Dessalines after escaping from a free black landowner who had purchased him.

In 1794, Dessalines's military skill and leadership were vital to L'Overture's success in capturing the Spanish-controlled eastern half of the island, and in return, L'Overture made him governor of the south.

After L'Overture's betrayal and death in 1802-03, Dessalines became a key leader of the Haitian Revolution, helping the colony achieve the new nation's independence in 1804.

In 1804, Dessalines appointed himself emperor for life and ordered mass killings of all the French colonizers remaining on the island, leading to the deaths of 3000-5000 French people of all ages and sexes. He declared "I have saved my country. I have avenged America."

The 1805 Constitution established by Dessalines' government made Haiti the first country in history to abolish slavery. The Constitution also guaranteed equality under the law, freedom of religion, and protected property rights, with an exception - "No whiteman of whatever nation he may be, shall put his foot on this territory with the title of master or proprietor, neither shall he in future acquire any property therein".

In 1806, Dessalines was assassinated by rebels outside Port-au-Prince, leading directly to civil war on the island.

• Date: 1758-09-20
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, haitidoi.com, www.haitilibre.com, faculty.webster.edu, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

New Zealand Women's Suffrage (1893)

Tue Sep 19, 1893

On this day in 1893, New Zealand became the first country with a Western-style parliament that allowed women to vote in its elections. Women's suffrage was granted after about two decades of campaigning throughout New Zealand, led by women such as Kate Sheppard (shown) and Mary Ann Müller.

The activists delivered a series of petitions to Parliament - over 9,000 signatures were delivered in 1891, followed by a petition of almost 20,000 signatures in 1892, and finally in 1893 nearly 32,000 signatures were presented, almost a quarter of the adult European female population of New Zealand. Through this popular pressure, a bill was passed that granted women the right to vote.

Some historians have noted that colonialism was regressive for women's rights in New Zealand. Writing for The Guardian, Emma Espiner stated:

"The settler scholars who transmuted our oral language into a written one reframed our myths and legends so that our female deities were subservient to the male. These same 'historians' assumed that our chiefs were all men and wrote them into the histories as such.

Our pronouns and many of our names were gender-neutral long before the concept became a source of anxiety for conservative columnists, so it was straightforward for ethnographers to assign a male gender to the chiefs named in our oral tradition. Māori women leaders simply disappeared."

• Date: 1893-09-19
• Learn More: nzhistory.govt.nz, en.wikipedia.org, www.waikato.ac.nz, www.theguardian.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Solidarity Day March (1981)

Sat Sep 19, 1981

On this day in 1981, a large rally known as the "Solidarity Day March" took place in Washington D.C. in support of striking air traffic controller workers fired by President Ronald Reagan.

The March was organized and sponsored by the AFL-CIO, and came a few weeks into the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) strike.

It was the first major demonstration organized in decades by the AFL-CIO. Ultimately, the rally's show of support was ineffectual; PATCO was de-certified as a union and the striking ATC workers did not get their jobs back.

A 2nd Solidarity March was held near the 10 year anniversary of the original Solidary Day March. Union members, in the wake of the Gulf War, called on the federal government to turn its attention away from foreign affairs and to focus on domestic issues like improving health care and education and supporting workers' rights. Approximately 250,000-500,000 people took part in either event.

• Date: 1981-09-19
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.washingtonpost.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Chris Hedges (1956 - )

Tue Sep 18, 1956

Chris Hedges, born on this day in 1956, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist, activist, and visiting Princeton University lecturer.

Among Hedge's works are "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning" (2002), "Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle" (2009), "Death of the Liberal Class" (2010), "Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt" (2012), "Wages of Rebellion: The Moral Imperative of Revolt" (2015), and "America: The Farewell Tour (2018)".

Hedges was an early critic of the Iraq War. In May 2003, he delivered a commencement address at Rockford College in Rockford, Illinois, saying: "We are embarking on an occupation that, if history is any guide, will be as damaging to our souls as it will be to our prestige and power and security."

These remarks were booed and Hedges' microphone was shut off three minutes after he began speaking. The New York Times, his then-employer, criticized his statements and issued him a formal reprimand for "public remarks that could undermine public trust in the paper's impartiality".

Shortly after the incident, Hedges left The New York Times to become a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and a columnist at Truthdig, in addition to writing books and teaching inmates at a New Jersey correctional institution.

Hedges has taught college credit courses for several years in New Jersey prisons. He teaches a course through Princeton University in which the class is composed of half prisoners and half Princeton undergraduates. He has described himself as a socialist identifying with Catholic activist Dorothy Day in particular.

"I do not fight fascists because I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists."

- Chris Hedges

• Date: 1956-09-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.lausti.com.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fugitive Slave Act (1850)

Wed Sep 18, 1850

On this day in 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the U.S. Congress as part of the Compromise of 1850, compelling all in free states to return fugitive slaves to their would-be masters and banning suspected slaves from legal appeal.

The Compromise of 1850 was brokered between Southern slavers and Northern Free-Soilers. This law greatly expanded on the racialized terror of the previous Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, written with the intent to enforce Article 4, Section 2, Clause 3 of the Constitution, which required the return of runaway enslaved people.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 compelled all authorities in free states to return fugitives of enslavement to their masters, penalizing officials who did not arrest an alleged runaway slave, prevented suspected slaves from asking for a jury trial or testifying on their own behalf, and subjected any person aiding a fugitive slave by providing food or shelter with six months' imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

The Act was one of the most controversial elements of the 1850 compromise; abolitionists nicknamed it the "Bloodhound Bill". The political fallout from its passage is considered by some historians to be one of the causes of the Civil War.

• Date: 1850-09-18
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu, www.britannica.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Agostinho Neto (1922 - 1979)

Sun Sep 17, 1922

Agostinho Neto, born on this day in 1922, was an Angolan poet, revolutionary, and Marxist politician, elected President of the newly independent People's Republic of Angola in 1975.

During his youth, Neto was active in several anti-colonial movements in Angola, then a Portuguese colony. In 1947, he moved to Portugal to study, where he would be arrested for participating in political demonstrations. Following protests demanding his release, he was placed under house arrest, which he escaped.

From 1962 to 1974, Neto would move across the world, covertly directing the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola's (MPLA) guerilla war against the Portuguese colonizers. Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, Angola was granted independence, to be led by a coalition of different anti-colonial groups. This coalition quickly fell apart, with Angola erupting into a civil war in 1975.

Declaring a Marxist-Leninist state, Neto was elected President of the People's Republic of Angola at the MPLA's first party congress in 1975. He died while undergoing surgery for liver cancer in 1979 at the age of 57.

"Our contribution has to be given not only for the liquidation of the colonial system but also for the liquidation of ignorance, disease and primitive forms of social organization."

- Agostinho Neto

• Date: 1922-09-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Víctor Jara Assassinated (1973)

Sun Sep 16, 1973

Víctor Jara was a Chilean teacher, theater director, poet, singer-songwriter, and communist political activist murdered by fascist forces on this day in 1973, following the U.S.-backed coup that established Pinochet's military dictatorship.

Jara developed Chilean theater by directing a broad array of works, ranging from locally produced plays to world classics, as well as the experimental work of playwrights such as Ann Jellicoe.

Jara also played a pivotal role among neo-folkloric musicians who established the Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement. This led to an uprising of new sounds in popular music during the administration of President Salvador Allende.

Just a few days after the U.S.-backed coup that ousted Allende from power, Jara was arrested, tortured, and killed by the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Guards smashed his fingers and mockingly asked him to play guitar; Jara responded by singing "Venceremos", which begins:

From the deep crucible of the homeland

The people's voice rises up

The new day comes over the horizon

All Chile breaks out in song.

Jara is one of many "desaparecidos" - people who vanished under the Pinochet government and were most likely tortured and killed.

Thirty-six years after his first burial, Jara received a full funeral on December 3rd, 2009 in Santiago. On July 3rd, 2018, eight retired Chilean military officers were sentenced to 15 years in prison for Jara's murder, as well as the killing of his communist associate and former Chilean prison director Littre Quiroga Carvajal.

In 1969, Jara stated: "The cultural invasion is like a leafy tree which prevents us from seeing our own sun, sky and stars. Therefore in order to be able to see the sky above our heads, our task is to cut this tree off at the roots. US imperialism understands very well the magic of communication through music and persists in filling our young people with all sorts of commercial tripe. With professional expertise they have taken certain measures: first, the commercialization of the so-called 'protest music'; second, the creation of 'idols' of protest music who obey the same rules and suffer from the same constraints as the other idols of the consumer music industry – they last a little while and then disappear. Meanwhile they are useful in neutralizing the innate spirit of rebellion of young people. The term 'protest song' is no longer valid because it is ambiguous and has been misused. I prefer the term 'revolutionary song'."

• Date: 1973-09-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, socialistworker.org, www.britannica.com, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Assassinations, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Maria Nikiforova Executed (1919)

Tue Sep 16, 1919

Maria Nikiforova was a Ukrainian anarchist partisan leader who, alongside her husband, was court martialed and executed by the White Army on this day in 1919.

A self-described terrorist from the age of 16, Nikiforova was known widely by her nickname "Marusya".

Through her revolutionary efforts, Nikiforova became a renowned figure in the anarchist movement of 1918–1919 in Ukraine during Russian Civil War. She was allied with and influenced Nestor Makhno, and they worked together, pooling resources to fight off other forces in the civil war.

On August 11th, 1919, Marusya was recognized on the street in Sevastopol and she and her husband were arrested by the Whites. Marusya's arrest was a great victory for White counter-intelligence, and a month was spent gathering evidence for the case against her.

Nikiforova's "trial", actually a field court-martial, was held September 16th, 1919. Nikiforova and her husband were both found guilty of various acts of violence against counter-revolutionary forces in Ukraine (her husband just by association), and they were both swiftly executed.

• Date: 1919-09-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Morgan Testifies to SACB (1954)

Wed Sep 15, 1954

On this day in 1954, Crawford Morgan, a member of Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, a group of American volunteers that fought against Francoist fascists, testified before the anti-communist "Subversive Activities Control Board".

In September 1954, the VALB were brought before the Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB), a United States government committee to investigate Communist infiltration of American society during the 1950s Red Scare, founded after the passage of the McCarran Act.

On September 15th, 1954, Crawford Morgan, a black member of VALB, testified before the SACB. Here is an excerpt of his testimony:

SACB: "Did you have any understanding, Mr. Morgan, before you went to Spain, of what the issues were connected to that war?"

Morgan: "I felt that I had a pretty good idea of what fascism was and most of its ramifications. Being aware of what the Fascist Italian government did to the Ethiopians, and also the way that I and all the rest of the Negroes in this country have been treated ever since slavery, I figured I had a pretty good idea of what fascism was..."

SACB: "Mr. Morgan, were those thoughts in your mind before you went to Spain?"

Morgan: "Ever since I have been big enough to understand things I have rebelled. As a small child of three or four years old I would rebel at human injustice in the way I understood it at that age. And as long as I have been able to remember, up until now, the government and a lot of people have treated me as a second-class citizen. I am 43 years old, and all my life I have been treated as a second-class citizen, and naturally if you always have been treated like one you start feeling it at a very tender age.

With Hitler on the march, and fascism starting the fight in Spain, I felt that it could serve two purposes: I felt that if we cold lick the Fascists in Spain, I felt that in the trend of things it would offset a bloodbath later. I felt that if we didn't lick Franco and stop fascism there, it would spread over lots of the world. And it is bad enough for white people to live under fascism, those of the white people that like freedom and democracy. But Negroes couldn't live under it. They would be wiped out."

• Date: 1954-09-15
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing (1963)

Sun Sep 15, 1963

Image: A grieving relative is led away from the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15th, 1963

On this day in 1963, white supremacists bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing 4 girls, aged 11-14, wounding 20 more. Charges were not brought against any of the perpetrators until more than a decade later.

The terrorist attack was committed by four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter who had planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.

At 10:22 am, the dynamite was detonated, blowing a hole measuring seven feet (2.1 m) in diameter in the church's rear wall, blowing a passing motorist out of his car, and destroying several cars nearby. Four girls, Addie Mae Collins (age 14); Carol Denise McNair (age 11); Carole Robertson (age 14); and Cynthia Wesley (age 14), were killed in the attack. Approximately 20 more people were wounded.

On May 13th, 1965, local investigators and the FBI formally named Blanton, Cash, Chambliss, and Cherry as the perpetrators of the bombing, with Robert Chambliss the likely ringleader of the four, however, they did not bring charges against any of them.

Chambliss was the first to be charged for murder, finally convicted of first degree murder in 1977. In 2001 and 2002, respectively, Blanton and Cherry were sentenced to life in prison.

• Date: 1963-09-15
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Terrorism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Detroit Teachers Strike (1982)

Tue Sep 14, 1982

On this day in 1982, 10,000 teachers in Detroit walked off the job over a Board of Education demand for pay cuts of 8%, leaving 201,000 schoolchildren with the prospect of several days off. The teachers did this despite a Michigan law prohibiting public employees from striking.

The Detroit teacher's strike was the largest of a number of school labor disputes marring the back-to-school season around the country that year, when social spending cuts were hitting schools and teachers particularly hard.

Around the same time, more than 7,500 other teachers were on strike elsewhere in Michigan and in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio.

• Date: 1982-09-14
• Learn More: www.nytimes.com, www.historyisaweapon.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org