November 22 is the anniversary of The Battle of Wild Cat Creek in 1812. This day saw a brilliantly led ambush against the marauding US military that left 17 dead.

Tecumseh was a great Shawnee war chief and prophet who had sought to organise a confederacy of tribes in the great lake region. The previous year had seen a massive defeat for the tribes. But when war broke out between Britain and the US in the war of 1812, he sided with the British in the hopes that things would work out better this time around.

Tecumseh did quite well. He led successful attacks against several US forts and managed to take Detroit without a fight. This forced the US to divide their forces, and prevent them from successfully invading Canada.

The US of course couldn't tolerate being beaten by an Indian. So they acted as they normally do, by burning villages and killing women and children. Tecumseh scattered his people for safety, and came up with a plan for dealing with these marauders.

He killed a sentry over the night, and stuck his head on a pole a ways from their camp. He left a lone warrior to attempt to make them give chase. It worked, probably in no small part due to their belief of being racially superior. The soldiers were blinded by their bloodthirst and chased the warrior into a canyon. When they entered the canyon, the trap was sprung, and they were taking fire. In less than two minutes, 17 men were killed, and 3 more were wounded. The battle became known as "Spur's defeat" due to the American soldiers spurring their horses hard enough to draw blood in their eagerness to run away.

The general in charge of the operation was forced to retreat, and resigned in shame. The terror campaign was over for now. Of course, they would always be back. Tecumseh was killed the following year and the confederation collapsed. Eventually the tribes were forcibly relocated and scattered to the winds. The Shawnee were even lumped in with the Cherokee upon their removal to Indian Territory. Not regaining their tribal status until the year 2000.

November 21 is thought to be the anniversary of the start of The First Seminole War in 1817. For the Seminoles, this was considered to be a war already 5 years on, and would go on for another half century. But for the US regime, this was the start of a new war with the Seminoles.

It starts when the US built a fort near the Creek village of Fowltown. The American soldiers insisted that it was their land and that the Creeks had to relocate elsewhere due to a forced treaty with other Creek tribes. The chief of the village refused, saying he had nothing to do with the treaty. The US sent in soldiers, and were promptly attacked. They weathered two attacks before retreating into the Florida swamps.

Florida was controlled by Spain, and had granted freedom to everyone in Florida. This made it a safe haven for people fleeing the US regime be they slave or native resistance. But of course, the US regime would not tolerate these things. So incursions into Spanish territory began ramping up to attack the natives and re-enslave black people. Under the command of the infamous mass murderer Andrew Jackson, the Seminole were driven into Southern Florida. Two years later, Spain would cede Florida to the US, and things would only get worse, as Andrew Jackson first became governor, then president. The resulting ethnic cleansing would consume the lives of thousands.

November 20 is the anniversary of The Invasion of Canton in 1856. During the second Opium War, the US officially declared neutrality, but still managed to invade China and kill hundreds.

At the outbreak of the war, the US sent in a pair of navy ships loaded with marines to "protect Americans". In late October, they landed in Canton and started waving their flags and pointing guns. Miraculously, the peace was kept for weeks, and Commander Foote managed to get the flag waving to cease.

Trouble started on November 15th. While pulling out from Canton, the commander rowed his boat a little too close to one of the Chinese forts, and drew a few shots. Nobody was hurt, but Foote was very angry about the "gross insult to the flag", and vowed to destroy all four forts guarding the entrance to Canton.

He spent the next day shelling the forts and preparing for a ground invasion. The attacks finally came on November 20. After days of fighting, they were successful in taking all four forts, and destroying them as best they could. They once again waved their flag on Chinese land in blatant violation of the US' stated policy at the end of a completely needless battle that killed hundreds.

The Secretary of the Navy had this to say for the crime of committing an act of war against a neutral nation:

This trifling with our flag would probably have been repeated and led to still more serious consequences.…I approve, therefore, of the course pursued by you and those under your command. The brave and energetic manner in which the wrong was avenged is worthy of all praise. The gallantry, good order and intelligent subordination displayed by all engaged in the various conflicts with the enemy; the precision and admirable success with which the guns were managed, are highly creditable to the service.

The US would however, manage to stay out of the war for another 3 years, until they attacked another fort in support of the British. Still officially neutral.

November 19 is the anniversary of The Impeachment of Jack Walton in 1923. 100 years ago today. As the governor of Oklahoma, he issued a surprisingly fiery response to the Tulsa Massacre and the violence following it.

As mentioned previously Oklahoma was recently made into a US state, annexing Indian Territory, and making it a white ethnostate. The KKK was a very powerful force in the new state, and their presence was everywhere, including spread throughout the high ranks of the regime. Believable reports say that Walton himself had ties to the KKK.

The Tulsa Massacre was still very much in public memory at the time Walton took office. The KKK were emboldened, and violence was commonplace. A black police officer had his ear cut off, a Jewish man was beaten and had his genitals flayed. Walton felt he had to do something. History is unsure of whether morality had anything to do with it, as opposed to wanting to appeal to the anti-KKK people outside of Oklahoma for a national bid. But one thing is clear; he wanted to stop the KKK.

He declared martial law in Tulsa county following the incident with the Jewish man, much to the dismay of the white residents who argued that it was not appropriate for a sophisticated city like Tulsa. Ignoring the fact that they had recently destroyed an entire black district and lynched hundreds of residents, their complaints were of course sympathised with by the media and the government at large.

Walton called in the national guard and set up military tribunals. He censored the newspapers after one of them printed a KKK ad calling for people to oust him. Of course, that's what eventually happened. Most of the white residents considered him to be a dictator and far overreached his authority. The state legislature was eventually able to hold a session and voted for his removal. Despite promising to do something about the KKK after he was removed, they of course did very little. Walton was held up as a dictator and a crook.

It's doubted by the modern lens that Walton was truly as moral as he claimed. There's some hand wringing that he was colluding with wealthy capitalists and lining his own pockets. I would argue that punishment for such things is extremely selective, and is business as usual for most. I would further argue that his real crime was treating white people the way that minorities are treated in the US. It's more than a little hypocritical to complain about suspension of habeas corpus when you are literally kidnapping/beating/murdering black people in the streets. Where is the outrage against suspending habeas corpus and torturing brown people today?

Things aren't much better today. A rogue governor sending in the tanks against the fascists for once is at least entertaining though.

November 18 is the anniversary of the Invasion of Nicaragua in 1909. Warships were sent off the coast in preparations for an invasion to remove the elected leader of Nicaragua, José Zelaya.

Zelaya was a liberal president with big dreams. He sought to achieve economic independence from the US, and possibly even reunite the nation of Central America, which had broken up over 50 years earlier. These policies were of course not well received by the US. To make matters worse, rumours were spreading that Zelaya had intended to build a Nicaraguan Canal, which would compete with the American Panama Canal.

Clashes between Zelaya and American oligarchs had been occuring with regularity for years. The American capitalists would make grand deals with the government, but refuse to hold up their end of the bargain. Zelaya was beginning to crack down on them. The capitalists would invariably complain to the US state department, who would then react angrily towards Nicaragua.

Eventually, the US regime decided that something had to be done. They launched a propaganda campaign to drum up support for a war. Every time a misbehaving American oligarch was punished, the media would write over the top stories about Zelaya's "reign of terror". The US president said that the US "would no longer tolerate and deal with such a medieval despot".

So they began planning a coup. They provided funding to the conservative opposition leader and conspired to organise a coup against Zelaya. An army was quickly assembled, and set out to depose Zelaya. It was mired in mud and incompetence, and quickly collapsed. During the fighting, two American mercenaries were captured. They were executed for attempting to overthrow the government.

This provided the US with the flimsy excuse to invade that they so desperately wanted. Claiming that they needed to protect American lives, they invaded and installed a new leader of their choice. Two years later, the US fully occupied the country. They wouldn't leave until 1933, but of course they'll never stop meddling. Today Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas, and the political situation is a mess. Which of course was the goal.

November 17 is the anniversary of the first ship sailing through The Panama Canal in 1914. One of the clearest cuts of American imperialism, the canal bridging the Pacific and Atlantic oceans took the US 10 years to build, and remains in operation today (when climate change doesn't make it dry up).

Our story begins in 1903. France had thrown in the towel on constructing it after an 8 year attempt. Dangerous working conditions had drawn out the construction, and in the end over 20,000 workers had been killed, and the project was bankrupt. The US had an extreme interest in having such a canal, so decided to pick up where the French left off. They entered into negotiations with Colombia to lease the land on which the canal was to be built. But the Colombian government was stalling for time. The French canal company was scheduled to revert to Colombian ownership in 1904, and if they were able to draw the process out, they would get the payout for the French assets instead of the French shareholders.

But the US regime saw this as a great opportunity to get an even better deal for the canal's land. They knew that there was a Panamanian independence movement. On November 3 of 1903, they supported that movement, and sent their navy to prevent Colombia from responding. The US had formally recognised Panama as independent and had troops on the ground in Panama before Colombia could even finish mobilising. Four days later, Panama had signed the lease, literally at gunpoint. 10 years later, and at the cost of another 5,600 worker lives, the canal was finished.

Panamanians were never pleased with the deal. Eventually in 1964, Panamanians rose up against their oppressors. Although unsuccessful at removing them from their country, it opened up the door to serious talks about handing the canal back to Panama. It would be another 36 years, but eventually Panama would win the fight. US infrastructure improvements had rendered the canal largely unimportant to the regime, and their policy of keeping the tolls low in order to aid the rich was ending up costing them more than it was earning. In essence, they lost interest in owning the canal, and surrendered it back to Panama at the turn of the millenium.

November 16 is the anniversary of The Annexation of Indian Territory in 1907. Indian Territory was where all the tribes from the east coast were forcibly relocated to. This day marks the end of their sovereignty.

We all know the story of The Trail of Tears. 60,000 people were evicted from their homes to make room for white settlers. They were told to relocate to Indian Territory on the other side of the Mississippi. There they would be able to live life as they saw fit, away from the settlers. Of course this was a lie, but for a time, the survivors of the journey did enjoy some freedom and autonomy.

But eventually of course, the US came to claim the land back. First they took control over the tribal governments in 1898. Then they expanded the borders of nearby Oklahoma to include all of Indian Territory, and admitted it as a state. The tribes had wanted to be admitted as their own state (The state of Sequoia), but the US had long since bothered making any pretense of negotiations.

The land was taken and Jim Crow laws were quickly passed. Any equality that black people had felt under tribal rule was quickly swept away. The new state of Oklahoma would then become the racist cesspit that it is today. The tribes were relegated to their reservations and ceased to wield any political power. The US had won their fight for white "democracy".

November 15 is the anniversary of the 2nd event of The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam in 1969. The first one happened on October 15, and was the largest protest in US history, with over two million people demanding the end of the war. Although a smaller number of people showed up in Washington for the second protest at a "mere" 500,000 people, the second event was nationwide and drew even more attention.

While this protest was happening, the US president stayed safe in his palace, watching a football game. Earlier in the month, he had given a speech where he had implied that the "silent majority" of the population supported the war, and that "North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States".

Of course this was all lies. North Vietnam did indeed defeat and humiliate the US, and polls at the time showed the 68% of the population did not support the war. (Oddly, this is the same number that currently want a ceasefire in Gaza). The war continued for several more years before the US threw in the towel and went home.

I was going to write about how things got worse instead of better after this protest. If I might break tradition a bit... I try to stick to purely factual and/or liberal sources on this comm, but I came across this article by Daniel Bessner in the process of writing this post. I defer the remainder of my post to him.

November 14 is the anniversary of the start of The Battle of La Drang in 1965. This was the first major battle that the US took part in of the Vietnam War, and set the tone for the next 8 years.

The US was eager to get into the war, and to test their new tactics (air cavalry). So they had planned an attack on La Drang, which was a strategically important location that was being threatened by the North Vietnamese army. The fighting was intense.

The new American tactics involved transporting infantry to the battlefield using helicopters, and continuing to reinforce and supply using air power and artillery. This worked well, and would be a commonly used tactic throughout the war. But in this battle, North Vietnam realised that if they engaged the American units at close range, they would have the advantage, as the American forces would not be able to call in artillery or air support. This would also prove to be an effective strategy going forward.

In the end, the battle was basically a draw. North Vietnam had taken significantly more casualties, but they had withstood the full might of the US forces. The US president was reportedly shocked at the US military's casualties. Roughly half of their attacking force was destroyed. It was obvious that for all their proclaimed might, Vietnam would not be won easily.

A mere three years later, November 14 1968 became known as "National Turn in Your Draft Card Day". In the wake of a sea of bodies returning home, the American people had lost interest in fighting a war halfway around the world that wasn't any of their business. But the US being a beacon of democracy, kept the war going for as long as they could. Millions died, and they lost the war anyway.

November 13 is the anniversary of the opening of The Fort Snelling Concentration Camp in 1862. Of the 1700 Dakotas imprisoned there, one in six of them didn't make it out. Most of them were women and children.

Back in August, I wrote about the Dakota War. With the war still ongoing, the US regime felt it best to imprison all the Dakota, whether they were involved in the war or not. There were four concentration camps set up for the Dakota, but Fort Snelling was the largest.

The six day march to the camp claimed the lives of dozens. The white settlers were so interested in Indian blood that one woman was reported to have ripped a baby from their mother's hands and throw it to the ground killing the baby.

The Dakota imprisoned there endured harassment, rape, physical abuse, rampant disease and hunger, and generally terrible living conditions, all under the watch of Christian missionaries eager to convert them. Even the dead weren't spared. The Dakota were forced to bury their dead inside their teepees in order to keep their graves from being defiled.

Eventually, the US solution to the "Dakota problem" was to relocate them to a small reservation in South Dakota that was apparently a "drought stricken wasteland" by contemporary reports.

Today the Dakota still re-enact the march every two years and leave stakes in the ground with the names of their ancestors who were imprisoned there. They want the camp torn down, as it is a symbol for genocide. The US made it a National Historic Landmark.

November 12 is the anniversary of the closure of the Ellis Island Immigrant Detention Centre in 1954. It's last inmate was a Norwegian merchant seaman who had overstayed his shore leave.

Originally designed as an immigrant processing facility, it was opened in 1892 next to the statue of liberty. At the time the US was very interested in accepting new white settlers from Europe, and the optics of entering the country in sight of the statue of liberty was a great propaganda move.

But of course, when the US speaks of liberty, it should be noted that it was not meant for all. If immigrants failed a medical test due to physical disabilities or disease, they would be detained or deported. Women without escort would be detained or deported. People deemed "immoral" by the US regime would be detained or deported. Over 120,000 people were deported from this facility. One in five immigrants spent at least some time in detention. Half of those for political reasons.

By 1919, a mere 27 years after it was opened, all pretenses of it being a welcoming place were erased. Americans had become increasingly alarmed about the perceived ethnically inferior quality of immigrants, and were in the process of drafting laws to deal with the problem. That year saw the palmer raids begin mass deportation of the regime's political enemies. Detention and deportation of these people was done on Ellis Island.

The centre thus spent the last 35 years of its life as a prison. Today, it's been restored and re-opened as an Immigration Museum despite spending most of its life as a prison. The US currently has over 200 immigrant prisons which hold tens of thousands of racially undesirable people enslaved under terrible conditions. The optics of doing this in the shadow of the statue of liberty was probably deemed as undesirable as their skin colour.

November 11 is the anniversary of The Centralia Tragedy in 1919. Our friends at the International Workers of the World were under attack once again, slightly more than a year after the massacre in Everett.

Largely homeless, the IWW kept a hall in Centralia, WA, which was a very conservative lumber town. Being progressive and anti-war during the Great War did not mesh well with the townsfolk, who tried to run them out of town on several occasions. The largest of which was when their hall was burnt down during a red cross parade. Known for their tenacity however, they would always return.

It soon became apparent that another raid on their hall was planned by the American Legion for the first armistice day parade. The police were asked to help protect them, but of course refused. So the IWW bought guns and prepared themselves for the attack. As expected, it came.

The defence was successful. Four of the attackers were killed, and several more wounded. The townspeople were shocked. The story spread that the IWW had fired into a peaceful parade. IWW members were arrested. Mobs formed and lynched Wesley Everest, the IWW member who they suspected of being their leader. The mobs even managed to kill one of their own, who couldn't remember the countersign.

Of course, the resulting trial was an absolute farce. 8 IWW members were convicted of 2nd degree murder, and one of them declared insane. They got sentences of 25-40 years. Although the court of public opinion eventually realised that the men were innocent, the last man wasn't released until 1939. No legionnaire was ever prosecuted.

In a move heavily opposed by the American Legion, a mural dedicated to the lynched Wesley Everest was completed in 1997. Today the four men killed while attempting to attack the IWW are still memorialised by a statue in Centralia. The IWW was subject to even heavier persecution in the Palmer Raids.