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Haymarket Anarchists Executed (1887)

Fri Nov 11, 1887

The Haymarket Affair is the name given to the bloody aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4th, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day and turned into a massacre after an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police.

In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were convicted of conspiracy. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to terms of life in prison; another committed suicide in jail rather than face the gallows.

On this day in 1887, the remaining four defendants, George Engel, Adolph Fischer, Albert Parsons, and August Spies, were hanged. At the gallows, they sang the "Marseillaise", then the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. Family members who attempted to see them for the last time, including notable anarchist Lucy Parsons, were arrested.

According to witnesses, in the moments before the men were hanged, Spies shouted, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today." Parsons then requested to speak, but he was cut off when the signal was given to open the trap door.

• Date: 1887-11-11
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.illinoislaborhistory.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Gestapo Executes Ehrenfeld Anti-Fascists (1944)

Fri Nov 10, 1944

On this day in 1944, the Gestapo publicly hanged 13 members of the anti-Nazi Ehrenfeld Group without trial, near Cologne, Germany.

The Ehrenfeld Group consisted of over one hundred people, some of whom also participated in the local Edelweiss Pirates organization, was led by Hans Steinbrück, an escaped concentration camp prisoner. They engaged in many acts of rebellion against the Nazi regime, including petty theft, escaping prisoners, and stealing and hiding weapons.

After a botched attempt at stealing explosives, on October 8th, 1944, the Gestapo began arresting members of the group, eventually capturing 63 people, including Steinbrück himself. Of those, thirteen Germans, including several teenagers, were executed without trial in a public hanging next to the Ehrenfeld train station on November 10th, 1944.

• Date: 1944-11-10
• Learn More: www.executedtoday.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Estado Novo (1937)

Wed Nov 10, 1937

Image: Advertising poster for the Estado Novo, showing Vargas's face looming over a rally of workers

On this day in 1937, a coup took place in Brazil when President Getúlio Vargas gave a national address declaring a state of emergency and abolishing the constitution. Vargas announced a new state - the "Estado Novo" - based on contemporary fascist governments in Italy and Poland, effectively giving himself autocratic powers.

The coup took place a few months before the end of Vargas's legal term in office and impending elections in 1938. A false rumor of a communist plot to take over the government, known as the "Cohen Plan", was also circulated through the media, although Vargas himself didn't acknowledge it.

The new government greatly expanded the power of police, persecuted political dissidents, de facto banned union activity, and allowed Vargas to rule for the next eight years under what amounted to martial law. Vargas was eventually deposed by the military in a coup launched from his own War Ministry on October 29th, 1945, after the conclusion of World War II.

• Date: 1937-11-10
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Striking CSN Workers Killed (1988)

Wed Nov 09, 1988

On this day in 1988, a conflict between soldiers and metallurgists on strike at Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil led to the deaths of three workers, with at least thirty-one more injured.

According to author Andrew Costa, the city of Volta Redonda was engaged in a general strike for the implementation of a six-hour shift and the reinstatement of workers dismissed in an earlier 1987 strike. Women in the local neighborhoods prevented CSN vans from picking up their husbands to work with pickets on the street, and the Residents Associations carried out barricades so that CSN busses and other transport could not run while the company was refusing to negotiate with workers.

The conflict on November 9th began when about 600 state soldiers descended on Avenida Independência, in front of CSN, throwing tear gas bombs at a crowd of workers. The crowd responded with by attacking sticks and stones. Three people were killed, and thirty-one were wounded. A monument dedicated to the victims of the violence was later partially destroyed with bombs.

In spite of this violence, workers eventually prevailed, winning their right to six-hour shifts.

• Date: 1988-11-09
• Learn More: almanaque.folha.uol.com.br, subverta.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Kristallnacht (1938)

Wed Nov 09, 1938

Kristallnacht, also known as the Night of Broken Glass, was an anti-Semitic pogrom against Jewish people that began on this day in 1938, carried out by the Sturmabteilung, Nazi paramilitary forces, and civilians.

The name Kristallnacht ("Crystal Night") comes from the shards of broken glass that littered the streets after the windows of Jewish-owned stores, buildings and synagogues were smashed.

The official pretext for the attacks was the assassination of the German diplomat Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan, a 17-year-old German-born Polish Jew, after Grynszpan learned that his parents had been deported to the Polish frontier. Within hours of Rath's death, the Kristallnacht was launched against Jewish communities in Germany.

Jewish homes, hospitals, and schools were ransacked as attackers demolished buildings with sledgehammers. Rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Over 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed, and 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and incarcerated in concentration camps.

Estimates of the amount of people killed vary from 91 to as high as 638. Historians view Kristallnacht as a prelude to the Final Solution and the murder of six million Jews during the Holocaust.

• Date: 1938-11-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, encyclopedia.ushmm.org.
• Tags: #Assassinations, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

New Orleans General Strike (1892)

Tue Nov 08, 1892

Image: Photograph of tracking cotton from steamboat taken in 1891 in New Orleans, Levee. Photo shows dockworkers moving cotton from steamboat to the distribution area.

On this day in 1892, a general strike across racial lines broke out in New Orleans, a city-wide action of solidarity with three unions on strike. After white workers refused racial bribes, workers won their demands in just three days.

The general strike grew out of a strike by three unions who had joined forces to go on strike the two weeks prior. The three unions, collectively known as the "Triple Alliance", were an alliance of black and white workers. The New Orleans Board of Trade announced it would sign contracts agreeing to the terms - but only with the white unions, however this offer was steadfastly refused.

Eventually, other union leaders in the city began calling for a strike in support of the Triple Alliance, and, on this day in 1892, a multi-racial coalition of 25,000 workers across the entire city went on strike. Efforts by the city to find strikebreaking workers, both from within and outside of New Orleans, failed.

After just three days, the Board of Trade agreed to binding arbitration to settle the strike, with employers agreeing to sit down with both white and black union leaders. After 48 hours of negotiations, the employers agreed to the 10-hour day and overtime pay for the Triple Alliance workers. Members of other unions also won reduced hours and higher pay.

• Date: 1892-11-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, neworleanshistorical.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #General Strikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ed Boyce (1862 - 1941)

Sat Nov 08, 1862

Ed Boyce, born on this day in 1862, was a radical labor organizer who served as President of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM) and as a socialist Idaho State Representative. After just one term, Boyce resigned in disgust.

Boyce was arrested for his role in the 1892 Coeur d'Alene labor strike and inspired "Big Bill" Haywood (co-founder of the IWW) to join his first union.

In 1894, Boyce was elected to the Idaho state senate. There, he battled for the eight-hour day for miners, the establishment of an arbitration board to settle labor disputes, an investigation of the 1892 mining war, and the banning of "yellow-dog" contracts (contracts prohibiting workers from joining the union).

Boyce was so disillusioned by the political process that he resigned after one term.

• Date: 1862-11-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, scholarworks.umt.edu.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

October Revolution (1917)

Wed Nov 07, 1917

Image: Vladimir Lenin giving a speech to Vsevobuch servicemen on the first anniversary of the foundation of the Soviet armed forces, Red Square, Moscow, 25th May 1919. This photo, brought from Russia by Dr. W.A. Wovschin, shows a view of a mass meeting, when the Soviet leader made an appeal for the men to keep together for the glory and safety of Russia.

On this day in 1917, the October Revolution began in Russia when the Bolsheviks initiated an armed insurrection in Petrograd, seizing the Winter Palace and dissolving the Provisional Government in a coup with minimal violence. The name "October Revolution" comes from the fact that the revolution began on October 25th in the dating convention of the time.

Led by the Bolshevik Party, the revolution took place through an armed insurrection in Petrograd and was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917 - 1923. By November 8th, the Winter Palace, the seat of the Provisional government located in Petrograd, then capital of Russia, had been captured.

Elections were held on November 12th. In contrast to their majority in the soviets (local council governments), the Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary Party, which won 370 seats.

On its first and only day in session, the Constituent Assembly came into conflict with the soviets, and it rejected soviet decrees on peace and land, resulting in the Constituent Assembly being dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January.

The political situation devolved into a civil war between the Bolsheviks, Whites (counter-revolutionaries), Makhnovists, independence movements, and other socialist factions.

The Bolsheviks eventually defeated all rival parties and formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922. Their victory marked the beginning of Marxism-Leninism as a global force.

• Date: 1917-11-07
• Learn More: www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Marxism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Canada Limits War Industry Strikes (1939)

Tue Nov 07, 1939

Image: Asbestos Strike in Canada, from Centre d'archives de la région de Thetford - Fonds Famille Gérard Chamberland

On this day in 1939, Canada extended the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act (IDIA) to cover disputes between employers and employees engaged in "war work", severely limiting the contexts in which a strike was legal to initiate.

The IDIA, first passed in 1907, forbade strikes and lockouts in mines and certain public utility industries until a dispute had first been dealt with by a board of conciliation. Before 1939, only forty-one of one thousand applications actually made it to the strike stage.

War work was defined as including "the construction, execution, production, repair, manufacture, transportation, storage or delivery of munitions of war or supplies" and "the construction, remodelling, repair or demolition of defense projects." After the extension of the IDIA, the applications to strike increased six-fold, however only seven strikes (4% of the total) were allowed in the following year and a half.

• Date: 1939-11-07
• Learn More: archive.macleans.ca.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Michael Schwerner (1939 - 1964)

Mon Nov 06, 1939

Image: Photograph of Michael Scwerner with light hair and a goatee, facing the camera

Michael Schwerner, born on this day in 1939, was one of three Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) field/social workers killed in Philadelphia, Mississippi by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

In the early 1960s Schwerner became active in working for civil rights for black people; he led a local Congress of Racial Equality group on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, called "Downtown CORE." He participated in a 1963 effort to desegregate Gwynn Oak Amusement Park in Maryland. As activism increased in the South, Schwerner and his wife Rita Schwerner Bender volunteered to work for National CORE in Mississippi, helping black people exercise their right to vote.

Michael Scwerner and fellow civil rights workers James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were killed near the town of Philadelphia, Mississippi while investigating the burning of Mt. Zion Methodist Church, which had been a site for a CORE Freedom School.

Arrested by the local sheriff, the trio was released that evening without being allowed to contact anyone. On the road, 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 until 2005, when outspoken white supremacist Edgar Ray Killen was convicted on three counts of manslaughter.

• Date: 1939-11-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, mscivilrightsproject.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Hilde Radusch (1903 - 1994)

Fri Nov 06, 1903

Hilde Radusch, born on this day in 1903, was a German communist, anti-fascist, and queer feminist author. Imprisoned by the Nazis, Radusch survived World War II and became a prominent lesbian writer and activist.

In 1924, Radusch became a member of the Communist Party, and from 1929 until 1932 Radusch served as a Communist Party city councilor in Berlin.

Radusch was arrested by the Nazi government on April 6th, 1933, less than a month after returning from a political trip to the Soviet Union. After refusing to sign a contrived confession, she ended up in the Barnim Street women's prison, along with around two hundred other "politicals", those identified by the Nazi government as political prisoners (distinct from "criminals").

Released in September 1933, she went on to run a restaurant with her partner Else "Eddy" Klopsch, which served as a refuge for people wanted by the Nazi regime. After the war, she became the head of the Schöneberg office dedicated to "Victims of Fascism", however she lost the job after being denounced as "lesbian".

Radusch was the editor of "Our Little Newspaper" ("Unserer Kleinen Zeitung"), described by historian Ilona Scheidle as the first lesbian newspaper after World War II. In the 1970s, Radusch co-founded "L74", a Berlin group of older lesbians.

• Date: 1903-11-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.spd-fraktion-tempelhof-schoeneberg.de.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays, #Queer, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ida Tarbell (1857 - 1944)

Thu Nov 05, 1857

Image: **

Ida Tarbell, born on this day in 1857, was an American investigative journalist and feminist. "The quest of the truth had been born in me - the most tragic and incomplete, as well as the most essential, of man's quests."

Born in Pennsylvania at the onset of the oil boom, Tarbell is possibly best known for her 1904 book, "The History of the Standard Oil Company". Her expose on the practices of Rockefeller's Standard Oil was called a "masterpiece of investigative journalism", by historian J. North Conway, as well as "the single most influential book on business ever published in the United States" by historian Daniel Yergin.

The work would contribute to the dissolution of the Standard Oil monopoly and helped usher in multiple pieces of anti-trust reform, including the Clayton Antitrust Act and the creation of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

"The quest of the truth had been born in me - the most tragic and incomplete, as well as the most essential, of man's quests."

- Ida Tarbell

• Date: 1857-11-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.smithsonianmag.com, connecticuthistory.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Journalism, #Feminism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org