Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
October 4th
1887 -- US: Louisiana sugar workers strike, 37 peaceful strikers murdered. Louisiana Militia, aided by bands of "prominent citizens," shot unarmed black sugar workers striking to gain a dollar-per-day wage, & lynched two strike leaders.
1946 -- US: Strikes throughout 20 states end when President Truman orders the Navy to seize oil refineries (half the US refining capacity). Rather than give the workers better wages and benefits, he orders the military to run the refineries instead.
1961 -- US: Mass arrest of three SNCC members & 110 African American high school students who had been praying on McComb City Hall steps in protest of Lee's slaying & suspension of two Freedom Riders.
1974 -- Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee publishes the names of 37 CIA spies, in an effort to undermine what he called the CIA's policies of murder, kidnapping, torture, assassination & other "terrorist crimes against humanity."
1982 -- US: Ben Sasway becomes first public draft non-registrant imprisoned for failure to register. Madison, Wisconsin.
1992 - UN-Sponsored Treaty ends 16 years of civil war in Mozambique
1997 -- US: Demonstrations in Washington, D.C., & across the country (including Seattle) protest the scheduled launch of the space probe Cassini with a plutonium payload.
2000 -- Bolivia: Students protest outside the university in La Paz. Tensions mounted after the government reiterated threats to deploy troops if coca growers, peasants & teachers did not take down roadblocks erected 17 days ago in a nationwide strike. Police respond with tear gas.
1946 -- US: Strikes throughout 20 states end when President Truman orders the Navy to seize oil refineries (half the US refining capacity). Rather than give the workers better wages and benefits, he orders the military to run the refineries instead.
1961 -- US: Mass arrest of three SNCC members & 110 African American high school students who had been praying on McComb City Hall steps in protest of Lee's slaying & suspension of two Freedom Riders.
1974 -- Ex-CIA agent Philip Agee publishes the names of 37 CIA spies, in an effort to undermine what he called the CIA's policies of murder, kidnapping, torture, assassination & other "terrorist crimes against humanity."
1982 -- US: Ben Sasway becomes first public draft non-registrant imprisoned for failure to register. Madison, Wisconsin.
1992 - UN-Sponsored Treaty ends 16 years of civil war in Mozambique
1997 -- US: Demonstrations in Washington, D.C., & across the country (including Seattle) protest the scheduled launch of the space probe Cassini with a plutonium payload.
2000 -- Bolivia: Students protest outside the university in La Paz. Tensions mounted after the government reiterated threats to deploy troops if coca growers, peasants & teachers did not take down roadblocks erected 17 days ago in a nationwide strike. Police respond with tear gas.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
October 3rd
1895 – US: Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage is published in book form. This popular novel about the Civil War questions the idea of “heroism” in wartime and critiques the popular definitions of “manhood” and “bravery.”
1920 – US: Physician and women’s rights activist Dr Marie Equi, arrested for speaking out against America’s involvement in World War I, is imprisoned at San Quentin, California to serve a three year term (which was later commuted to a year & a half).
1932 -- US: All 164 students of the Kincaid High School in Illinois walk out on strike after they discover that the school is being heated with coal from a company employing non-union labor.
1941 – India: In an interview Gandhi incites all subject peoples of the British Empire to rise up in nonviolent resistance and refuse to do work for their colonial overseers.
1945 -- US: Greyhound bus workers in seven states go on strike for better wages and working conditions.
1961 – Russia: After demonstrating in San Francisco, traveling to Europe, and walking all the way to Moscow, a group of anti-nuclear activists demonstrates in Red Square against nuclear weapons.
1965 -- US: President LBJ signs Public Law 89-236, amendments to the Immigration & Nationality Act. For the first time the US now considers Asians equal to Europeans in immigration matters. Great numbers of Asians eventually enter the US under this provision.
1970 -- US: Baseball umpires go on strike for the first time in history. (All jokes about “strikes” in baseball are appropriate here)
1981 -- Ireland: A seven month hunger strike by Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, ends today. Ten people die in the course of the strike in the name of Irish independence.
1990 – Germany: East & West Germany become a united & sovereign state for the first time since Germany's defeat in WWII, burying 45 years of Cold War division. Nearly a million people gather at the Reichstag in Berlin, & at midnight a replica of the Liberty Bell, a gift from the US, is rung, officially proclaiming reunification.
1990 -- Burma: Buddhist sects opposing the military government are outlawed.
1991 -- Haiti: General Strike is called against the military government in Puerto Principe.
1920 – US: Physician and women’s rights activist Dr Marie Equi, arrested for speaking out against America’s involvement in World War I, is imprisoned at San Quentin, California to serve a three year term (which was later commuted to a year & a half).
1932 -- US: All 164 students of the Kincaid High School in Illinois walk out on strike after they discover that the school is being heated with coal from a company employing non-union labor.
1941 – India: In an interview Gandhi incites all subject peoples of the British Empire to rise up in nonviolent resistance and refuse to do work for their colonial overseers.
1945 -- US: Greyhound bus workers in seven states go on strike for better wages and working conditions.
1961 – Russia: After demonstrating in San Francisco, traveling to Europe, and walking all the way to Moscow, a group of anti-nuclear activists demonstrates in Red Square against nuclear weapons.
1965 -- US: President LBJ signs Public Law 89-236, amendments to the Immigration & Nationality Act. For the first time the US now considers Asians equal to Europeans in immigration matters. Great numbers of Asians eventually enter the US under this provision.
1970 -- US: Baseball umpires go on strike for the first time in history. (All jokes about “strikes” in baseball are appropriate here)
1981 -- Ireland: A seven month hunger strike by Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison in Belfast, Northern Ireland, ends today. Ten people die in the course of the strike in the name of Irish independence.
1990 – Germany: East & West Germany become a united & sovereign state for the first time since Germany's defeat in WWII, burying 45 years of Cold War division. Nearly a million people gather at the Reichstag in Berlin, & at midnight a replica of the Liberty Bell, a gift from the US, is rung, officially proclaiming reunification.
1990 -- Burma: Buddhist sects opposing the military government are outlawed.
1991 -- Haiti: General Strike is called against the military government in Puerto Principe.
Friday, October 1, 2010
October 1st
1851 -- US: Syracuse crowd busts up a police station to free a recaptured escaped slave. William "Jerry" Henry, a runaway slave and craftsman in Syracuse, NY is arrested by a US Marshall & scheduled to be returned to slavery. Ten thousand citizens of the city storm the sheriff's office, free Henry & aid his escape to Canada via the underground railroad.
1894 -- Egypt: Greek workers employed by the Suez Canal Company go on strike. Sakilarides Yanakakis establishes a shoemakers union.
1898 -- France: Spanish & US commissioners meet in Paris to draft a Peace Treaty, ending the Spanish American War.
1911 – France: Pacifist Aguigui Mouna (aka Andre Dupont) is born. Anti-nuclear arms protestor and anarchist.
1924: USA: Jimmy Carter born, future President of the United States. Peacemaker, famous for (among other things) helping Israel negotiate successful peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. He once said that going to war was the mark of an “insecure” nation.
1925 -- Germany: Anti-Kriegs Museum — the first museum for peace — founded, Berlin.
1942 – Germany: Günther Wallraff is born. German writer/journalist, who disguised himself once as a Turkish immigrant to reveal hard labor conditions of migrant workers.
1946 – Occupied Germany: Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal rejects defense of "following orders" where crimes against humanity are concerned.
1946 – US: Author Tim O'Brien is born, world-famous for his depictions of his service in the Vietnam War in books such as The Things They Carried and If I die in a combat zone. An outspoken opponent of war.
1949 -- US: Pacifica Foundation (founded 1946) starts first radio station, KPFA in Berkeley, founded by Lewis Hill, poet, pacifist and journalist.
1949 -- US: 500,000 steel workers strike.
1964 -- US: Police attempt to arrest University of California-Berkeley math grad student Jack Weinberg for passing out literature for the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) in Sproul Plaza — inadvertently starting the Free Speech Movement (FSM). Police car is surrounded by demonstrating students for 32 hours. Weinberg coins the famous line: "Don't trust anyone over thirty."
1969 -- Canada: Protesters shut down the U.S.-Canada border crossing at Blaine, Washington, in opposition to U.S. nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
1976 -- New Zealand: Peace squadron resists arrival of US nuclear warship in Auckland.
1997 -- Kosovo: 100,000 demonstrate in Pristina, the capital (occupied by Serbia), for civil rights for the majority ethnic Albanian population.
1997 -- England: A half-day anti-war blockade temporarily shuts down a COPEX "Covert Operations" fair at a base in Farnborough.
1894 -- Egypt: Greek workers employed by the Suez Canal Company go on strike. Sakilarides Yanakakis establishes a shoemakers union.
1898 -- France: Spanish & US commissioners meet in Paris to draft a Peace Treaty, ending the Spanish American War.
1911 – France: Pacifist Aguigui Mouna (aka Andre Dupont) is born. Anti-nuclear arms protestor and anarchist.
1924: USA: Jimmy Carter born, future President of the United States. Peacemaker, famous for (among other things) helping Israel negotiate successful peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan. He once said that going to war was the mark of an “insecure” nation.
1925 -- Germany: Anti-Kriegs Museum — the first museum for peace — founded, Berlin.
1942 – Germany: Günther Wallraff is born. German writer/journalist, who disguised himself once as a Turkish immigrant to reveal hard labor conditions of migrant workers.
1946 – Occupied Germany: Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal rejects defense of "following orders" where crimes against humanity are concerned.
1946 – US: Author Tim O'Brien is born, world-famous for his depictions of his service in the Vietnam War in books such as The Things They Carried and If I die in a combat zone. An outspoken opponent of war.
1949 -- US: Pacifica Foundation (founded 1946) starts first radio station, KPFA in Berkeley, founded by Lewis Hill, poet, pacifist and journalist.
1949 -- US: 500,000 steel workers strike.
1964 -- US: Police attempt to arrest University of California-Berkeley math grad student Jack Weinberg for passing out literature for the Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE) in Sproul Plaza — inadvertently starting the Free Speech Movement (FSM). Police car is surrounded by demonstrating students for 32 hours. Weinberg coins the famous line: "Don't trust anyone over thirty."
1969 -- Canada: Protesters shut down the U.S.-Canada border crossing at Blaine, Washington, in opposition to U.S. nuclear testing in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
1976 -- New Zealand: Peace squadron resists arrival of US nuclear warship in Auckland.
1997 -- Kosovo: 100,000 demonstrate in Pristina, the capital (occupied by Serbia), for civil rights for the majority ethnic Albanian population.
1997 -- England: A half-day anti-war blockade temporarily shuts down a COPEX "Covert Operations" fair at a base in Farnborough.
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