ACLU Expels Elizabeth Flynn (1940)

Wed May 08, 1940

Image: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn addressing strikers in Paterson, N.J. (1913) [socialistworker.org]

On this day in 1940, the leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), voted to expel labor radical and founding member Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for her Communist Party membership.

Flynn was a radical labor activist who prominently organized with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). She had a long history of labor organizing, playing a leading role in the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913 and a free speech fight in Spokane, Washington, where she chained herself to a lamppost to delay her inevitable arrest. She was also a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America, joining in 1936.

In February 1940, the ACLU board adopted a controversial resolution that effectively barred communists from serving. For her part, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn refused to leave, forcing the organization to vote to remove her.

Later, the ACLU would also fail to come to the defense of W.E.B. Du Bois, a prominent communist activist and co-founder of the NAACP, while he was facing trial for gathering signatures for a global nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 1951.

• Date: 1940-05-08
• Learn More: jacobinmag.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sétif and Guelma Massacres (1945)

Tue May 08, 1945

Image: Flag of the Algerian Nationalists in 1945, by Reda Kerbouche [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1945, French colonial authorities in the Algerian city of Sétif fired on marchers celebrating the surrender of Nazi Germany. In response, Algerians initiated an uprising against the colonizers that was brutally suppressed.

Anti-colonial Algerians attacked French settlements in rural Sétif, killing approximately 100 people of European origin. There were also attacks in the district of Guelma that lasted until June 1945.

In response, French colonial forces slaughtered slaughtered many thousands of Algerians (the total number is unknown, estimates vary from 6,000 to 30,000). The French summarily executed Muslim civilians, and there were mass graves. Villages were bombed and shelled by French aircraft and ships.

The Sétif uprising and the repression that followed marked a turning point in relations between France and the Muslim population, which had been subjugated since 1830. Nine years later, a general uprising began in Algeria, leading to independence from France in March 1962 with the signing of the Évian Accords.

• Date: 1945-05-08
• Learn More: jacobinmag.com, www.sciencespo.fr.
• Tags: #Colonialism, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

NYC Waiters' Strike (1912)

Tue May 07, 1912

Image: New York City waiters' strike outside of Sherry's restaurant in Manhattan, 1912 [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1912, the first industry-wide strike of restaurant and hotel workers in New York City history began when 150 hotel workers, organized by the IWW, walked out to protest their poor working conditions.

At the height of the strike, there were 54 hotels and 30 restaurants and other establishments without their staff, amounting to approximately 2,500 waiters, 1,000 cooks, and 3,000 other striking hotel workers.

The strike was organized directly by Joe Ettor and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Before the IWW, the only union in place for hotel workers only had about 2,000 members and prohibitively high membership dues.

The workers demanded at least one day off a week, a higher minimum wage, and a prohibition of discrimination for being in a union. The strike continued through the rest of May but faced repression from the police. The strike officially ended on June 25th, 1912 without legal recognition for the IWW created Hotel Workers' International Union. Despite this failure, hotel workers would go on strike again in 1913, 1918, 1929, and 1934.

• Date: 1912-05-07
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, hotelworkers.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Théophile Ferré (1845 - 1871)

Tue May 06, 1845

Image: Théophile Ferré in 1871, photographed by Eugène Appert. From the Musée de l'histoire vivante. [Wikipedia]

Théophile Ferré, born on this day in 1845, was a revolutionary leader of the Paris Commune. Ferré personally authorized the execution of the archbishop of Paris and was later sentenced to death, the first of 25 Communards to be executed.

Little is known about Ferré's early life, before his participation in the Paris Commune. After Paris was seized by revolutionaries in March 1871, Ferré served on the Commune's Committee of Public Safety, a body given extensive powers to hunt down enemies of the Commune.

On April 5th, the Commune passed a decree that authorized the arrest of any person thought to be loyal to the French government in Versailles, to be held as hostages. Prominent figures arrested included a Catholic priest Georges Darboy and the archbishop of Paris. The Commune hoped to exchange their hostages for Louis-Auguste Blanqui, a revolutionary and honorary President of the Commune, imprisoned by the state.

Following the events of the "Bloody Week", in which the French government summarily executed many suspected Communards, Ferré authorized the execution of several hostages, including Darboy and the archbishop.

After the resistance of the Commune collapsed, Ferré was captured by the army, tried by a military court, and sentenced to death. On November 28th, 1871, he was shot at Satory, an army camp southwest of Versailles. He was the first of twenty-five Communards to be executed for their role in the Paris Commune.

• Date: 1845-05-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Angelo Herndon (1913 - 1997)

Tue May 06, 1913

Image: Angelo Herndon, imprisoned and in chains

Angelo Herndon, born on this day in 1913, was a black labor organizer arrested and convicted of insurrection after attempting to organize black and white industrial workers in 1932 in Atlanta, Georgia. The prosecution case rested heavily on Herndon's possession of "communist literature", which police found in his hotel room.

Herndon was defended by the International Labor Defense, the legal arm of the Communist Party. Over a five-year period, Herndon's case twice reached the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that Georgia's insurrection law was unconstitutional, as it violated First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly.

Herndon became nationally prominent because of his case and his defense attorney, Benjamin Davis, was radicalized because of it. He is also remembered for his essay entitled "You Cannot Kill the Working Class". By the end of the 1940s, he left the Communist Party and moved to the Midwest, living there in peace.

"You may succeed in killing one, two, even a score of working-class organizers. But you cannot kill the working class."

- Angelo Herndon

• Date: 1913-05-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Farabundo Martí (1893 - 1931)

Fri May 05, 1893

Image: A photo of Farabundo Marti, unknown year [telesurenglish.net]

Farabundo Martí, born on this day in 1893, was a communist revolutionary who led a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers in El Salvador that was to be crushed in the peasant massacre known as "La Matanza".

Martí is also known for co-founding of the Communist Party of Central America, as well as helping lead a communist alternative to the Red Cross known as "International Red Aid".

In 1931, Martí returned to El Salvador and helped start a guerrilla revolt of indigenous farmers. The Communist-led peasant uprising against dictator Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, fomented by collapsing coffee prices, enjoyed some initial success, but was soon drowned in a bloodbath, crushed by the Salvadoran military ten days after it had begun. Over 30,000 indigenous people were killed at what was to be a "peaceful meeting" in 1932; this became known as "La Matanza" ("The Slaughter").

For his role in the uprising, Martí was executed by Salvadoran President Hernández Martínez. Martí is the namesake of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, a revolutionary organization during the Salvadoran Civil War and contemporary political party in the country.

"When history cannot be written with a pen, then it should be written with a rifle."

- Farabundo Martí

• Date: 1893-05-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org, www.telesurenglish.net.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Indigenous, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Karl Marx (1818 - 1883)

Tue May 05, 1818

Image: **

Karl Marx, born on this day in 1818, was a foundational political theorist and journalist associated with the philosophy of Marxism.

Among Marx's best-known texts are the "The Communist Manifesto" and the three-volume "Das Kapital", in which he set out to define and explain the behavior of the capitalist mode of production.

Marx's political and philosophical thought have had enormous influence on subsequent intellectual, economic and political history, and his name has been used as an adjective, a noun, and a school of social theory.

Marx's critical theories about society, economics and politics - collectively understood as Marxism - hold that human societies develop through class conflict. In capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production, and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their labor power in return for wages.

Employing a critical approach known as historical materialism, Marx concluded that, like previous socio-economic systems, capitalism produced internal tensions which would lead to its self-destruction and replacement by a new system known as socialism.

"The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."

- Karl Marx

• Date: 1818-05-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Birthdays, #Communism, #Journalism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ruth First (1925 - 1982)

Sun May 04, 1952

Image: Ruth First, in 1966, in a promotional image for a film about her detention in South Africa

Ruth First, born on this day in 1925, was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar who was assassinated by the South African police while living in exile in Mozambique.

As an anti-apartheid activist, First had been harassed for years by the South African government. In 1956, First, alongside 155 other activists, were all charged and acquitted of treason in the country's infamous "Treason Trial".

After the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, First was banned from political participation. She could not attend meetings, publish, or even be quoted in print. In 1963, she was imprisoned and held in isolation without charge for 117 days under the Ninety-Day Detention Law, the first white woman to be detained under this law.

In August of 1982, First was assassinated by South African police in Mozambique, where she was working in exile. South Africa's "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" later granted amnesty to Craig Williamson and Roger Raven, two of the men responsible for her death.

"Poverty and the rule of race that is called apartheid drive the Transkeian migrant from security on the land to work in the cities, and then back again."

- Ruth First

• Date: 1952-05-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.sahistory.org.za.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

May 4th Movement (1919)

Sun May 04, 1919

Image: A 1976 painting by Liang Yulong celebrating the May Fourth Movement. From the Landsberger Collection

The May 4th Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist and nationalist movement that began on this day in 1919 when more than 4,000 unversity students took to the streets in protest of the Treaty of Versailles. These protests became a national and cultural movement that served as an inspiration for later left-wing movements.

On the afternoon of May 4th, over 4,000 students of Yenching University, Peking University, and other schools marched from many points to gather in front of Tiananmen. They shouted slogans as "struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home", "do away with the Twenty-One Demands", and "don't sign the Versailles Treaty".

The next day, students in Beijing as a whole went on strike and in the larger cities across China. Students, merchants, and workers joined the protests. The demonstrators appealed to the newspapers and sent representatives to carry the word across the country. In Shanghai, a general strike of merchants and workers took place, negatively impacting the economy.

In the years that followed, many Chinese political thinkers turned to leftist politics in the wake of the political upheaval of the May 4th Movement. In 1939, Mao Zedong claimed that the May Fourth Movement was a stage leading toward the fulfillment of his own communist revolution.

• Date: 1919-05-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.britannica.com.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

May Day Mass Arrests (1971)

Mon May 03, 1971

Image: Riot squads sweep aggressively through D.C. neighborhoods. Photo by Douglas Chevalier/Washington Post

On this day in 1971, President Nixon executed "Operation Garden Plot", deploying 10,000 federal troops in Washington D.C. to suppress Vietnam War protests, leading to the largest mass arrest in U.S. history - 12,614 people in total.

The 1971 May Day Protests were a series of large-scale civil disobedience actions in Washington D.C. in protest against the Vietnam War. They began on May Day of that year and continued with similar intensity into the morning of May 3rd.

The protest began when 35,000 people camped out in West Potomac Park near the Washington Monument park to plan for the coming protest. The next day, the Nixon administration canceled the protesters' permit and police, dressed in riot gear, raided the encampment, firing tear gas and knocking down tents.

On May 3rd, President Nixon executed "Operation Garden Plot" (a plan developed during the 1960s to combat major civil disorders), deploying 10,000 federal troops to various locations in the Washington D.C. area.

While the troops secured the major intersections and bridges, police roamed through the city, making massive arrest sweeps and using tear gas. By eight in the morning, police had detained over 7,000 people, arresting anyone who looked like a demonstrator, including construction workers who had come out to support the government.

Over the course of several days, the city arrested 12,614 people, making it the largest mass arrest in U.S. history. Members of the Nixon administration would come to view the events as damaging, because the government's mass arrests of protesters were perceived by the public as violating citizens' civil rights.

• Date: 1971-05-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
• Tags: #Imperialism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Salford General Strike (1926)

Mon May 03, 1926

On this day in 1926, a general strike in England involving approximately 1.7 million workers was initiated by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) in response to coal mine owners proposing reductions in pay for miners the previous year.

The general strike was broad in scope, including workers from mines, shipyards, mills, and engineers.

Striking dock workers firmly refused to allow any movement of goods on the docks, causing a bread shortage. In response, the government tried to forcibly move flour and grain to bakeries, but were prevented from doing so by the mill workers and dockers.

During the strike, there were clashes between police and crowds in many areas and at least 4,000 workers were arrested. There were attacks on busses and trains, including the derailing of the Flying Scotsman.

The strike was called off by the TUC on May 12th with no guarantees of fair treatment for the miners, whose strike was defeated in October later that year. The following year, the 1927 Trades Disputes and Trade Unions Act was passed, forbidding sympathetic strikes and mass picketing. Civil Service unions were also forbidden to affiliate with the TUC.

• Date: 1926-05-03
• Learn More: www.salfordstar.com, www.wcml.org.uk.
• Tags: #Labor, #GeneralStrikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Armed Panthers Protest Mulford Act (1967)

Tue May 02, 1967

Image: A Black Panther Party member holds a rifle outside the California State Capitol on May 2nd, 1967, during a protest against a bill that banned carrying loaded guns in public. From the Bettman Archive [buzzfeed.org]

On this day in 1967, 30 armed Black Panthers entered the California State Capitol building while openly carrying firearms in protest of the Mulford Act, bipartisan-supported legislation designed to end Panther patrols of Oakland neighborhoods.

Initially, no one attempted to stop the protesters - they entered the building with their guns pointed at the ceiling and a large group of journalists following them in. When six Panthers entered the assembly chamber, where the lawmakers were in session, some legislators reportedly took cover under desks. Police then ordered the Panthers to leave the premises, and they peacefully complied while insisting they were within their legal right to carry.

Outside, Bobby Seale spoke to a crowd of reporters. Here is an excerpt of what he said:

"Black people have begged, prayed, petitioned, demonstrated, and everything else to get the racist power structure of America to right the wrongs which have historically been perpetuated against black people. All of these efforts have been answered by more repression, deceit and hypocrisy. As the aggression of the racist American government escalates in Vietnam, the police agencies of America escalate the oppression of black people throughout the ghettoes of America."

Shortly after Seale finished speaking, police arrested the group on felony charges of conspiracy to disrupt a legislative session, although the protesters would later plead down to various misdemeanors instead.

Among those arrested was the teenager Bobby Hutton, the first recruit and first treasurer of the Black Panther Party. Hutton would be shot and killed by Oakland Police less than a year later, on April 6th, 1968.

• Date: 1967-05-02
• Learn More: www.huffpost.com, www.sacbee.com, en.wikipedia.org, www.blackpast.org.
• Tags: #Journalism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org