roig

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

West Coast Longshore Strike (1923)

Mon Oct 08, 1923

On this day in 1923, the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) in Vancouver struck for higher wages. With a force of 350 company guards protecting the dock and scabs, work continued until the strike's defeat in December.

The Shipping Federation imported strikebreakers, housed in the CPR ship Empress of Japan, while an armed group of 350 men guarded the waterfront from potential interference from striking workers.

The longshoremen gave up on December 10th, and the Shipping Federation took over the dispatch of the work force, formerly controlled by the union, and set up a company union, the "Vancouver and District Waterfront Workers Association".

This union would go on to lead the more well-known West Coast Longshore Strike of 1935.

• Date: 1923-10-08
• Learn More: www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Antonio Soto (1897 - 1963)

Fri Oct 08, 1897

Antonio Soto Canalejo (also known as "El Gallego Soto"), born on this day in 1897, was one of the principal anarcho-syndicalist leaders in the 1921 rural strikes of Argentine Patagonia.

In early 1921, Patagonic landowners were refusing to make concessions to an increasingly discontented working class, continuing with layoffs, holding back pay, and maintaining of poor working conditions. In response to this, a general strike was declared on March 25th.

Soto and his comrades traveled along farms of the cordillera of the Andes recruiting rural workers of several large farms, driving the southeast of Santa Cruz into an uprising. They requisitioned arms and food for the campaign, granting vouchers promising to eventually return the goods and occasionally taking the landowners and managers hostage.

In the aftermath of the strike, Soto fled the country and settled in Puntas Aras, Chile. There, he managed a small hotel which served as a meeting place of libertarians, intellectuals, and free-thinkers and founded the "Centro Republicano Español". His tombstone can be found in the Cementerio Municipal de Punta Arenas.

• Date: 1897-10-08
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Chilean Protests and Strikes (2019-20)

Mon Oct 07, 2019

Image: Demonstrators display flags and banners during a protest against President Sebastian Piñera on October 21st, 2019 in Santiago, Chile [time.com]

On this day in 2019, protests and riots began throughout Chile in response to a raise in the Santiago Metro's subway fare, the increased cost of living, privatization, and inequality prevalent in the country.

The protests have been called the "worst civil unrest" in Chile since the end of Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship due to the scale of damage to public infrastructure, the number of protesters, and the measures taken by the government to put down the rebellion.

On the 25th of October, over a million people took to the streets throughout Chile to protest against President Piñera, demanding his resignation. As of December 29th, 2019, 29 people have died, nearly 2,500 have been injured, and 2,840 have been arrested.

Human rights organizations have received several reports of violations conducted against protesters by security forces, including torture, sexual abuse and sexual assault.

• Date: 2019-10-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.bbc.com, www.marxist.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Joe Hill (1879 - 1915)

Tue Oct 07, 1879

Joe Hill, born on this day in 1879, was a Swedish-American labor organizer, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In 1915, he was convicted of murder in a controversial trial and executed by the state.

Hill, an immigrant worker frequently facing unemployment and underemployment, became a popular songwriter and cartoonist for the union. His most famous songs include "The Preacher and the Slave", "There Is Power in a Union", and "Casey Jones - the Union Scab", which describes the harsh lives of itinerant workers and calls for them to organize to improve their working conditions.

In 1914, John G. Morrison, a Salt Lake City area grocer and former policeman, and his son were shot and killed by two men. The same evening, Hill arrived at a doctor's office with a gunshot wound, and briefly mentioned a fight over a woman. He refused to explain further, even after he was accused of the grocery store murders on the basis of his injury.

Hill was convicted of the murders in a controversial trial and executed on November 19th, despite widespread calls for clemency, including from President Woodrow Wilson and Helen Keller.

"I will die like a true-blue rebel. Don't waste any time in mourning - organize."

- Joe Hill

• Date: 1879-10-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org, aflcio.org, www.youtube.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

"Smiling Joe" Ettor (1885 - 1948)

Tue Oct 06, 1885

"Smiling Joe" Ettor, born on this day in 1885, was an Italian-American union organizer who, in the middle-1910s, was one of the leading public faces of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Although Ettor is best remembered for his role in the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, he had been active in several strikes in the years leading up to it. Ettor also served on the governing General Executive Board of the IWW from 1908 to 1914.

Ettor was particularly useful for organizing immigrant workers because he could speak five languages, and he used these skills as a leader of the Lawrence Textile Strike. During the strike, a worker was shot and killed, and he and another IWW leader present, Arturo Giovannitti, were arrested on scarce evidence.

Both were eventually acquitted of charges of having been an accessory to the murder. Ettor was one of the leaders of the Waiters Strike of 1912 in New York City, and the Brooklyn Barbers Strike of 1913.

"If the workers of the world want to win, all they have to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists."

- Joe Ettor

• Date: 1885-10-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org, archive.iww.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917 - 1977)

Sat Oct 06, 1917

Fannie Lou Hamer, born on this day in 1917, was a community organizer and leader within the civil rights movement. "I'm gonna be moving forward, and if they shoot me, I'm not going to fall back, I'm going to fall 5 feet 4 inches forward."

Hamer was the co-founder and vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.

While having surgery in 1961 to remove a tumor, a 44-year-old Hamer was also given a hysterectomy without consent by a white doctor. Known as a "Mississippi appendectomy", this was a frequent occurrence under Mississippi's compulsory, white supremacist sterilization plan to reduce the number of poor black people in the state.

Hamer was threatened, harassed, shot at, and assaulted by white supremacists and police while trying to register for and exercise her right to vote.

During a voter registration drive Hamer participated in, police fined the group because their bus was "too yellow". When she returned home, her family's landlord told her that, if didn’t withdraw her voter registration, she would be fired from her job and forced to leave.

On her way back from a SNCC organizing meeting, Hamer was arrested and beaten in custody. She sustained lifelong injuries from the assault, including a blood clot in her eye that left her partially blind.

Hamer later helped and encouraged thousands of African-Americans in Mississippi to become registered voters, and helped hundreds of disenfranchised people in her area through her work in programs like the Freedom Farm Cooperative, formed to subvert state oppression of poor black workers in the agricultural industry.

"Nobody's free until everybody's free."

- Fannie Lou Hamer

• Date: 1917-10-06
• Learn More: americanarchive.org, www.rightsanddissent.org, ccrjustice.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of the Thames (1813)

Tue Oct 05, 1813

On this day in 1813, Tecumseh was killed in the "Battle of the Thames", fought during the War of 1812 between America and Tecumseh's Confederacy. Tecumseh's death led to the dissolution of the alliances he forged.

Tecumseh (1768 - 1813) was a Shawnee warrior and chief who became the primary leader of a large, multi-tribal confederacy in the early 19th century.

Growing up during the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War, Tecumseh was exposed to warfare and envisioned the establishment of an independent Native American nation east of the Mississippi River under British protection, and established a confederacy of tribes to fight off colonization efforts.

On October 5th, 1813, Tecumseh and his second in command Roundhead were killed in the "Battle of the Thames", fought as part of the War of 1812 between America and Tecumseh's Confederacy and British allies.

Tecumseh's death resulted in the dissolution of his tribal alliances, and led many indigenous peoples to begin moving west to escape colonization, across the Mississippi River.

• Date: 1813-10-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Indigenous.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Philip Berrigan (1923 - 2002)

Fri Oct 05, 1923

Philip Berrigan, born on this day in 1923, was a radical Christian peace activist who was ex-communicated by the Catholic Church and frequently arrested for his acts of civil disobedience during the Vietnam War.

Berrigan engaged in nonviolent civil disobedience for the cause of peace and nuclear disarmament, and was frequently arrested or on the run from police. He married a former nun who was also an activist, Elizabeth McAlister, in 1972. Both were both excommunicated by the Catholic church, and eleven years of their twenty-nine year marriage were separated by one or both serving time in prison.

Berrigan frequently engaged in civil disobedience to protest the Vietnam War. On May 17th, while out on bail from a similar act six months prior, Berrigan and eight other radical Christians walked into the offices of the local draft board in Catonsville, Maryland, removed 600 draft records, doused them in napalm, and burnt them in a lot outside of the building.

The group issued a statement, saying "We confront the Roman Catholic Church, other Christian bodies, and the synagogues of America with their silence and cowardice in the face of our country's crimes. We are convinced that the religious bureaucracy in this country is racist, is an accomplice in this war, and is hostile to the poor." All nine were sentenced to three years in prison.

"The poor tell us who we are, the prophets tell us who we could be, so we hide the poor and kill the prophets."

- Philip Berrigan

• Date: 1923-10-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.americanswhotellthetruth.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Imperialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Battle of Cable Street (1936)

Sun Oct 04, 1936

Image: Battle of Cable Street, with police clearing the way for a car carrying fascists (1936) [jewishmuseum.org.uk]

On this day in 1936, 20,000 anti-fascists turned out in East London to drive out a rally of 2,000-3,000 fascists organized by Oswald Mosley, forcing them to flee through Hyde Park in what is now known as "The Battle of Cable Street".

The fight included the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by members of the British Union of Fascists led by Oswald Mosley, and various anti-fascist demonstrators, including local anarchist, communist, Jewish and socialist groups.

After it became known that the British Union of Fascists (BUF) were organizing a march to take place through the heart of the East End (an area which then had a large Jewish population), an estimated 100,000 residents of the area petitioned then Home Secretary John Simon to ban the march because of the strong likelihood of violence. He refused, and sent a police escort in an attempt to prevent anti-fascist protesters from disrupting the march.

Anti-fascists built roadblocks in an attempt to prevent the march from happening, and on Oct. 4th an estimated 20,000 anti-fascist demonstrators turned out, met by 6,000–7,000 policemen (including mounted police) and 2,000–3,000 fascists. Demonstrators fought police with sticks, rocks, chair legs and other improvised weapons. Rubbish, rotten vegetables and the contents of chamber pots were thrown at the police by women in houses along the street.

The leader of the BUF, Oswald Mosley, decided to abandon the march, and fascists fled through Hyde Park while the anti-fascists rioted with police. More than 150 demonstrators were arrested and approximately 175 people, including police, women, and children, were injured in the violence.

• Date: 1936-10-04
• Learn More: www.marxist.com, jewishmuseum.org.uk, en.wikipedia.org, www.aljazeera.com.
• Tags: #Labor, #Fascism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

General Levee Strike (1907)

Fri Oct 04, 1907

Image: A 1900 postcard published showing steamboats on the Mississippi River, goods in sacks and barrels stacked on the levee, and groups of stevedores and horse carts. The view is looking downriver from the foot of Canal Street, New Orleans. Photo by Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

On this day in 1907, shipping lines in New Orleans locked out screwmen, skilled dock workers, for failing to meet employer bale quotas, beginning a multi-racial, industry-wide strike that shut down the port for three weeks.

On October 4th, 1907, all of the shipping lines locked out the screwmen, black and white alike, for failing to meet employer bale quotas. 9,000 dockworkers, also both black and white, then struck the New Orleans port that evening in a show of solidarity with the screwmen. Freight handlers from the Southern Pacific line also struck, ending any work on the port.

During the second week of the strike, employers attempted to break worker solidarity by intimidating black workers To this end, they revived the "White League", a white supremacist paramilitary organization.

Despite the attempts to break worker solidarity, strikers remained united, with some unions noting that if the employers successfully played one racial group against the other, they would all face starvation wages.

The strike lasted twenty days, ending on October 24th, with striking workers winning most of their demands.

• Date: 1907-10-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, nolaworkers.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Filipino Army Strike (1983)

Mon Oct 03, 1983

Image: An aerial view of Clark Air Base, Luzon, Philippines, on 1 December 1989. Several U.S. Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4E & F-4G Phantom II aircraft from the 3rd Tactical Fighter Wing are parked in their dispersal areas

On this day in 1983, 22,000 Filipino workers, paid less and given worse work than their American counterparts, walked off the job in a strike against the U.S.'s two largest foreign military bases, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base. The military bases were the home of the U.S. 13th Air Force and logistics center for the U.S. Seventh Fleet, respectively.

Filipinos were solely employed in maintenance and lower level positions, paid in pesos, and generally made less than their American counterparts. Striking workers demanded a 10% pay raise, and refused a counter-offer from the American government of a 4.6% increase.

• Date: 1983-10-03
• Learn More: www.upi.com, www.washingtonpost.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org