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Max Hoelz (1889 - 1933)

Mon Oct 14, 1889

Max Hoelz, born on this day in 1889, was a German Communist most known for his role as a "Communist Bandit" in the 1920s, leading raids against police, releasing prisoners, and destroying property deeds.

Hoelz was politically radicalized by the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and by contact with Georg Schumann, a member of the socialist Spartakusbund (Schumann was later to be executed by the Nazis in 1945).

In 1920, after the right-wing Kapp Putsch, Hoelz organized workers from Falkenstein and Oelsnitz in a Red Guard, leading armed bands against the police, the army, and the far-right paramilitary Freikorps. In this role, he became a kind of "Robin Hood", raising money from employers under threat of reprisals, liberating prisoners, destroying property deeds and police archives, and burning villas of the rich.

Later in life, after the Nazis began to come into power, he moved to Soviet Russia. There, however, he became a dissident, criticizing bad working conditions in the country. On September 15th, 1933, he died in a "boating accident", which is speculated by anarchist historian Nick Heath to actually have been an NKVD assassination.

• Date: 1889-10-14
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays, #Fascism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Marcus Thrane (1817 - 1890)

Tue Oct 14, 1817

Image: Portrait of Marcus Thrane for business cards. Chicago circa 1875 [snl.no]

Marcus Thrane, born on this day in 1817, was a socialist labor activist who founded the first organized workers' movement in Norway. After a union he founded petitioned the King for universal suffrage and legal equality, Thrane was imprisoned.

Born into a bourgeois family, Thrane was orphaned at the early age of 15 and spent the rest of his youth studying abroad in Europe. He returned to Norway, working as an educator.

In 1848, Thrane began working as the editor of the local newspaper Drammens Adresse. Inspired by the February Revolution in France, Thrane expressed radical political opinions and was dismissed from the position after less than a year.

Around this time, Thrane founded the Drammens arbeiderforening (Drammen Labour Union) and began publishing the union's paper. Between 1849-50, the trade union movement (also called the Thranite Movement) grew very quickly, to approximately 30,000 members.

Members of the Thranite Movement were both urban and rural - both small farmers in the countryside and urban craftsmen participated.

This trade union movement is often associated with a petition presented to King Oscar I on May 19th, 1850. The petition, backed by nearly 13,000 signatures, demanded universal suffrage, abolition of protective tariffs, reform of the public school, and improvement of householders ' conditions.

Over the following years, this growing labor movement was repressed by the state - its leadership, including Thrane, were surveilled, arrested on false charges, and imprisoned. These tactics successfully broke the Thranite Movement, and Thrane himself left Norway for the U.S. in 1863.

In 1890, Thrane died in Wisconsin. His remains were returned to Norway in 1949, and he is buried in the Æreslunden at Vår Frelser's cemetery in Oslo.

• Date: 1817-10-14
• Learn More: snl.no, en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sid Mills Fish-in Arrest (1968)

Sun Oct 13, 1968

Image: Photo from the Facebook page "We the Indigenous"

On this day in 1968, while conducting a "Fish-in" protest on the Nisqually River in Washington state, activist Sid Mills was arrested. This was just one action from Mills' campaign of civil disobedience in demand of lawful fishing rights.

The Fish Wars were a series of protests in the 1960s and '70s in which Native American tribes around the Puget Sound pressured the U.S. government to recognize fishing rights granted by the Point No Point Treaty. The acts of protest often involved participants fishing "illegally" on rivers that previous treaties, then ignored, had granted them rights to.

On this day in 1968, while conducting a Fish-in protest at Frank's Landing on the Nisqually River, activist Sid Mills was arrested. He issued a statement:

"I am a Yakima and Cherokee Indian, and a man...I served in combat in Vietnam-until critically wounded...I hereby renounce further obligation in service or duty to the United States Army.

My first obligation now lies with the Indian People fighting for the lawful Treaty to fish in usual and accustomed water of the Nisqualiy, Columbia and other rivers of the Pacific Northwest, and in serving them in this fight in any way possible.

...My decision is influenced by the fact that we have already buried Indian fishermen returned dead from Vietnam, while Indian fishermen live here without protection and under steady attack..."

• Date: 1968-10-13
• Learn More: www.historyisaweapon.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Indigenous, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Dorothy Bolden (1923 - 2005)

Sat Oct 13, 1923

Dorothy Lee Bolden, born on this day in 1923, was the founder of the National Domestic Worker's Union of America and civil rights activist who fought for women's rights and an end to segregation.

Bolden began working as a domestic worker at the age of nine and would eventually utilize her past experiences to form the Domestic Worker's Union in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Domestic Worker's Union had over 13,000 women members throughout the United States and won better pay and working conditions for them. Bolden was also responsible for registering thousands of black Americans to vote.

"I would say to [young people] that you have got to show yourself that you can be independent on your own. You don't have to follow. Why do we have to follow Tom, Dick and Harry to anything when we have the strength to be ourselves and be what we ought to be. What do you want to be? Ask yourself. Get in the mirror and look at yourself and say, 'So what do I want to be, what do I want to do? Where do I want to go and how do I get there?"

- Dorothy Bolden

• Date: 1923-10-13
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, webapps.library.gsu.edu.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ding Ling (1904 - 1986)

Wed Oct 12, 1904

Ding Ling, born on this day in 1904, was a prominent Chinese Marxist and feminist author. Despite being a member of the Communist Party, she was imprisoned and sentenced to manual labor during the Cultural Revolution.

In her early career, Ding Ling wrote highly successful short stories centering on young, unconventional Chinese women. Around 1930, she became a major literary figure of the leftist literature.

In 1931, her husband, communist poet Hu Yepin, was executed in Shanghai by the right-wing Kuomintang government for his association with the Communists. Shortly thereafter, Ding joined the Chinese Communist Party and her work reflected communist values.

According to authors Glenn Kucha and Jennifer Llewellyn, in 1957 Ding was denounced as a "rightist", purged from the party, imprisoned, and her fiction and essays were banned.

Ding and her husband were then sent to the countryside and compelled to do manual labor for more than a decade. She was rehabilitated sometime in the years following Mao Zedong's death in 1976.

"Happiness is to take up the struggle in the midst of the raging storm and not to pluck the lute in the moonlight or recite poetry among the blossoms."

- Ding Ling

• Date: 1904-10-12
• Learn More: alphahistory.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Marxism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Virden (1898)

Wed Oct 12, 1898

Image: Miners gathered on the train tracks in Virden, Illinois, the day before the Battle of Virden. October 11th, 1898. From the Mother Jones Museum.

On this day in 1898, the Battle of Virden began when armed members of the United Mine Workers of America (UMW) surrounded a train full of strikebreakers and exchanged fire with company guards. 13 people were killed, dozens more wounded.

After a local chapter of the UMW began striking at a mine in Virden, Illinois, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company hired black strikebreakers from Birmingham, Alabama and shipped them to Virden by train.

The company hired armed detectives or security guards to accompany the strikebreakers, and an armed conflict broke out when armed miners surrounded the train as it arrived in town. A total of four detectives and seven striking mine workers were killed, with five guards, thirty miners, and an unrecorded number of strikebreakers wounded.

After this incident, Illinois Governor John Tanner ordered the National Guard to prevent any more strikebreakers from coming into the state by force. The next month, the Chicago-Virden Coal Company relented and allowed the unionization of its workers.

"When the last call comes for me to take my final rest, will the miners see that I get a resting place in the same clay that shelters the miners who gave up their lives on the hills of Virden, Illinois...They are responsible for Illinois being the best organized labor state in America."

- Mother Jones

• Date: 1898-10-12
• Learn More: sangamoncountyhistory.org, www.motherjonesmuseummtolive.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

El Centro de la Raza Founded (1972)

Wed Oct 11, 1972

Image: Group in classroom at occupied Beacon Hill School, Seattle, October 11th, 1972. Photo by Phil H. Webber [historylink.org]

On this day in 1972, ESL staff from South Seattle Community College, students, and families occupied a vacant school building in the Beacon Hill neighborhood, founding El Centro de la Raza ("The Center for the People of All Races").

After three months of occupying the building and numerous rallies, petitions and letters, the Seattle City Council finally agreed to hear the case of the occupiers. Although City Council approved the lease, Mayor Wes Uhlman vetoed the action, causing supporters to occupy the mayor's office. A five-year lease signed January 20th, 1973, at $1 rent annually.

According to author David Wilma, in 1997 the school district insisted on fair market rates, causing rent for the property to rise to $12,000 a month. By 1999, El Centro owed $150,000 in back rent. Grants from the City of Seattle and from Washington state totaling $1 million finally allowed El Centro to buy the site from the school district.

Today, El Centro de la Raza continues to function as an educational, cultural, and social service agency. It is considered a significant part of civil rights history in the Pacific Northwest.

In 2015, El Centro de la Raza built more than one hundred moderately-priced apartments south of its main building. The apartments are designed for families making 30-60% of the average median annual income in Seattle, or $24,000 to $49,000.

• Date: 1972-10-11
• Learn More: www.elcentrodelaraza.org, www.historylink.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

D.C. Jail Uprising (1972)

Wed Oct 11, 1972

Image: Inmates shouting to reporters and others gathered outside the D.C. jail. Source: Washington Area Spark and DC Public Library, Star Collection

On this day in 1972, inmates at a Washington, D.C. jail seized control of part of their prison, taking hostages and demanding to be released.

The uprising began when an inmate pretending to have a seizure drew a loaded .38 pistol on the two officers that came to check on him. After subduing the officers, they freed 50 other inmates and took control of the cellblock, capturing several other guards as hostages in the process.

The inmates demanded to speak to a prison reporter, Washington Claiborne. Inmates issued varying statements to him that indicated a revolutionary fervor among prisoners:

"We don't want nothin' but the sidewalk. What do you think we want, better food? Bullshit. We want the sidewalk, man."

"We want you to understand one thing very clearly. This is not a riot, it's a revolution."

"We ain't bitches, man. We don't mind dying for the fucking cause."

Prison negotiators eventually got the inmates to back off of demanding release, but only in exchange for the opportunity to go before a federal judge to air their grievances about the jail and the promise of no reprisals for their actions. The inmates got their hearing, and a new facility was built.

Despite the promise of no reprisals, all nine inmates who participated in the uprising were prosecuted and convicted on various charges.

• Date: 1972-10-11
• Learn More: boundarystones.weta.org, dccrimeandpunishment.wordpress.com.
• Tags: #Journalism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

West African Railway Strike (1947)

Fri Oct 10, 1947

Image: A train traveling along the Dakar–Niger Railway, c. 1908 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1947, the longest strike in African history at the time began, stretching across all branches of railway in French West Africa, the wharfs in Dahomey, and the Ivory Coast.

For more than six months, 17,000 railway workers and 2,000 workers in the wharfs refused to work. The timing of the strike was crucial, undermining new French economic goals for the railway.

The strike was organized by Ibrahima Sarr, the Federal Secretary of the Railway Union. Workers demanded housing, rights for temporary workers, wages to follow regional differences in the cost of living, and clearer standards for promotions.

The government did not respond for three months, assuming the strike would collapse due to economic pressure. Workers had prepared for this, however, taking up community collections, the community exiling strikebreaking workers, and women of the household economically sustaining families while workers were on strike.

On March 19th, the workers' union accepted a set of proposals favorable to their demands and returned to work. The strike ended with a long, celebratory march into Thiès, followed by meetings and dancing.

• Date: 1947-10-10
• Learn More: nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu, libcom.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Panama City Tenants' Revolt (1925)

Sat Oct 10, 1925

Image: American troops patrolling the streets of Panama City during the latter days of the tenant revolt [panamaviejaescuela.com]

On this day in 1925, striking tenants in Panama City held a massive, illegal rally to protest high rent and bad living conditions. Riots began after police killed four demonstrators, prompting a U.S. occupation that lasted until October 23rd.

In the months preceding the uprising, the "Liga de Inquilinos y Subsistencia" (English: Tenants' Subsistence League) had been organizing against rent increases and poor living conditions. On the last day of September, in response to the government of Panama repressing this organizing, the League announced a rent strike to begin October 1st.

On Saturday, October 10th, 1925, the League organized a massive rally in Panama City to protest increased rents and poor living conditions. This was held in defiance of a state ban on such a gathering.

Panama City Mayor Mario Galindo had permitted the National Police to respond to any large gatherings with violent force. Accordingly, at the October 10th rally, four tenants were shot dead by police following a confrontation at Parque de Santa Ana, and many more were injured.

Riots broke out following this violence. By Sunday, October 11th, the city district of Santa Ana had come almost entirely under the control of the Tenants' League. With the police ineffectual in stopping the revolt, the government of President Rodolfo Chiari requested the military intervention of the United States.

Within a few days (sources differ on the exact day, ranging from October 12th to October 15th), approximately 600 United States soldiers entered Panama City. Stationing themselves at Parque de Santa Ana and Parque de Lesseps, they conducted raids on the offices and apartments of Tenants' League leaders, quickly crushing the uprising by arresting its prime organizers.

While the uprising was ongoing, government officials met with tenant and landlord representatives in Panama City. According to the Academy of American Franciscan History, the government promised more public works projects, a shake-up of the national police force, and to establish a rent claims commission that met daily to hear tenant grievances.

The U.S. troops continued to occupy Panama City until October 24th, by which point the protests had subsided. On October 30th, the League and landlords signed an agreement to end the strike.

"With rhythmic heels that oppressed the heart and clouded the eyes, an army of soldiers in battle dress, with helmets of the kind used in the European war, entered with a fixed bayonet, sweaty, their backpacks on their shoulders, and their revolvers on their belts."

- Revista Lotería, October-November 1973 issue, describing the American military presence

• Date: 1925-10-10
• Learn More: www.academia.edu, publicandohistoria.com, www.panamaviejaescuela.com.
• Tags: #Riots, #Tenant, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Nikolai Bukharin (1888 - 1938)

Tue Oct 09, 1888

Nikolai Bukharin, born on this day in 1888, was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Marxist theorist who, with Stalin, helped oust Leon Trotsky in 1927. His controversial trial and execution in 1938 alienated communist sympathizers in the West.

As a young man, Bukharin joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1906, becoming a member of the Bolshevik faction. He served on a committee that was infiltrated by the Tsarist secret police, the Okhrana, and was imprisoned and exiled in 1911.

In 1911, Bukharin escaped exile, fleeing to Germany. During this period, he met Vladimir Lenin for the first time and authored "Imperialism and World Economy", a work that predated and influenced Lenin's "Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism".

After Lenin's death in 1924, Bukharin became a full member of the Politburo, allying himself with Stalin in the power struggles of that period. Bukharin formulated the thesis of "Socialism in One Country" put forth by Stalin in 1924, which argued that socialism could be developed in a single country, even one as underdeveloped as Russia.

Bukharin was aligned with the forces that defeated Leon Trotsky, Lev Kamenev, and Grigory Zinoviev in various power struggles within the Communist Party. A supporter of the market-based New Economic Policy (NEP), Bukharin opposed Stalin's support of collectivization policies in the late 1920s. On this basis, he was criticized and began politically conspiring against Stalin.

After the trial and execution of Zinoviev, Kamenev, and other "Old Bolsheviks" in 1936, Bukharin was arrested in 1937 and charged with conspiring to overthrow the Soviet state. The following trial was controversial and drew international criticism, alienating some communist sympathizers abroad.

French author Romain Rolland wrote to Stalin directly, arguing that "an intellect like that of Bukharin is a treasure for his country" and drawing comparisons to the execution of chemist Antoine Lavoisier, guillotined during the French Revolution: "We in France, the most ardent revolutionaries...still profoundly grieve and regret what we did...I beg you to show clemency." Bukharin was executed by gunshot on March 15th, 1938, at the Kommunarka shooting ground.

"We see now that infringement of freedom is necessary with regard to the opponents of the revolution. At a time of revolution we cannot allow freedom for the enemies of the people and of the revolution. That is a surely clear, irrefutable conclusion."

- Nikolai Bukharin

• Date: 1888-10-09
• Learn More: www.marxists.org, en.wikipedia.org, spartacus-educational.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Socialism, #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Che Guevara Executed (1967)

Mon Oct 09, 1967

Image: **

On this day in 1967, communist revolutionary Che Guevara was executed by CIA-assisted forces in Bolivia, where he had been attempting to foment revolution. His last words were "Shoot, you are only going to kill a man."

Ernesto "Che" Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.

After serving in Castro's government, Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia. While agitating for communist revolution in Bolivia, Guevara was captured by CIA-assisted state forces and summarily executed on this day in 1967.

On November 3rd, 1966, Guevara had secretly arrived in La Paz on a flight from Montevideo under the false name Adolfo Mena González, posing as a middle-aged Uruguayan businessman working for the Organization of American States (OAS). Once there, Guevara had difficulty getting cooperation from both local dissidents and the Bolivian Communist Party, despite besting the Bolivian military in several skirmishes.

To help crush the resistance movement, the Bolivian government and U.S. military relied on the expertise of fugitive Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie, who had undermined the French Resistance and was responsible for the torture and murder of its leader, Jean Moulin.

Some of the inhabitants willingly informed the Bolivian authorities and military about the guerrillas and their movements in the area, which contributed to Guevara's capture on October 7th, 1967. He famously shouted "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and I am worth more to you alive than dead!", however he remained defiant in captivity.

On October 9th, on orders from the Bolivian President René Barrientos, Guevara was executed. In the documentary "My Enemy's Enemy", German journalist Kai Hermann alleged that Barbie devised the strategy that led to Guevara's capture.

"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: 1967-10-09
• Learn More: nsarchive2.gwu.edu, en.wikipedia.org, www.thenation.com, www.marxists.org, www.theguardian.com.
• Tags: #Communism, #Marxism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org