surreybrowncap
“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand"
John Lydon’s birthday.
He is 66
He is 66
On this day
- Thread starter brogdale
- Start date
not a trot
Well-Known Member
hitmouse
music obfuscation technology
A day late now, but I've just remembered the Fulvio Grimaldi description of Bloody Sunday:
It's worth a read if you've not read it already, not particularly light reading though.
It's worth a read if you've not read it already, not particularly light reading though.
Seventy-nine years ago today. The 2nd of February 1943, The Soviet Goverment announced the total defeat and surrender of all German Forces at the Port of Stalingrad.
Bringing to an end one of the most brutal battles of WW2 and one that was pivotal in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.
Bringing to an end one of the most brutal battles of WW2 and one that was pivotal in the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.
On this day, 4th February 1987, Afghan political and women’s rights activist Meena Keshwar Kamal was assassinated in Pakistan. She founded the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) in Kabul in 1977, whose mission was to “give a voice to the deprived and silenced women of Afghanistan” and taught Afghan women how to read and write. Two men subsequently confessed to her murder, who were both linked to the KHAD secret police agency under Soviet occupation. Kamal and RAWA opposed the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. RAWA’s work continues, though mostly in secret due to the rule of the Taliban.
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On this day, 5th February 1981, the 240 mostly women workers at the Lee Jeans factory in Greenock, Scotland, occupied their workplace upon learning that it was due to be closed and production moved elsewhere. They barricaded the doors with chairs, and two of them climbed onto the roof and down a drainpipe to buy 240 portions of fish and chips and Irn Bru. They kept up the occupation for seven months, when management caved and agreed to a buyout, giving the jobs back to all 140 workers still occupying the plant.
On this day, 6th February 1919, perhaps the most spectacular strike in US history took place: the Seattle general strike. Nearly 100,000 downed tools in support of striking shipyard workers but, more importantly, then elected a general strike committee and began running the city and essential services themselves.
While the shipyard workers did not get their pay increase, the five-day general strike was a historic and successful experiment demonstrating that workers could run society ourselves.
After the strike ended, the newspaper of the Central Labor Council, the Union Record, explained its importance:
"We see but one way out. In place of two classes competing for the fruits of industry, there must be, eventually only one class sharing fairly the good things of the world. And this can only be done by the workers learning to manage.
"When we saw in our General Strike: The Milk Wagon Drivers consulting late into the night over the task of supplying milk for the city’s babies; The Provision Trades working twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four on the question of feeding 30,000 workers; The Barbers planning a chain of co-operative barber shops; The steamfitters opening a profitless grocery store; The Labor Guards facing, under severe provocation, the task of maintaining order by a new and kinder method; When we saw union after union submitting its cherished desires to the will of the General Strike Committee: then we rejoiced. For we knew it was worth the four or five days pay apiece to get this education in the problems of management. Whatever strength we found in ourselves, and whatever weakness, we knew we were learning the thing which it is necessary for us to know.
"Someday, when the workers have learned to manage, they will begin managing. And we, the workers of Seattle, have seen, in the midst of our General Strike, vaguely and across the storm, a glimpse of what the fellowship of that new day shall be."
This is the detailed official history of the strike: The Seattle general strike of 1919
While the shipyard workers did not get their pay increase, the five-day general strike was a historic and successful experiment demonstrating that workers could run society ourselves.
After the strike ended, the newspaper of the Central Labor Council, the Union Record, explained its importance:
"We see but one way out. In place of two classes competing for the fruits of industry, there must be, eventually only one class sharing fairly the good things of the world. And this can only be done by the workers learning to manage.
"When we saw in our General Strike: The Milk Wagon Drivers consulting late into the night over the task of supplying milk for the city’s babies; The Provision Trades working twenty-four hours out of the twenty-four on the question of feeding 30,000 workers; The Barbers planning a chain of co-operative barber shops; The steamfitters opening a profitless grocery store; The Labor Guards facing, under severe provocation, the task of maintaining order by a new and kinder method; When we saw union after union submitting its cherished desires to the will of the General Strike Committee: then we rejoiced. For we knew it was worth the four or five days pay apiece to get this education in the problems of management. Whatever strength we found in ourselves, and whatever weakness, we knew we were learning the thing which it is necessary for us to know.
"Someday, when the workers have learned to manage, they will begin managing. And we, the workers of Seattle, have seen, in the midst of our General Strike, vaguely and across the storm, a glimpse of what the fellowship of that new day shall be."
This is the detailed official history of the strike: The Seattle general strike of 1919
D'oh! Wrong day! 
On this day, 8th February 1921, Peter Kropotkin, famous proponent of anarchist-communism, died of pneumonia in Russia. In his life he founded and participated in revolutionary groups in Russia, England, France and Switzerland, and wrote many key texts in the development of anarchist theory. These included Mutual Aid: a Factor in Evolution, which showed how cooperation was a key factor for any successful species, and Fields, Factories and Workshops: a practical model on how a free society, run by the working class, could function.
On this day, 9th February 2007, Alejandro Finisterre, the anarchist poet and inventor of the Spanish version of table football (foosball) died in Zamora, Spain.
He invented the game following injury during the Spanish civil war and revolution so injured children could still play football. Fleeing following the fascist victory, he ended up in Guatemala, where he played table football with Che Guevara. After the US-backed military coup in the country, he was kidnapped by Franco's agents and put on a plane to Madrid. However on board he went to the toilet, wrapped a bar of soap in newspaper and emerged shouting "I am a Spanish refugee" and threatening to blow up the plane. Supported by the crew and passengers, the plane landed and let him off in Panama.
He invented the game following injury during the Spanish civil war and revolution so injured children could still play football. Fleeing following the fascist victory, he ended up in Guatemala, where he played table football with Che Guevara. After the US-backed military coup in the country, he was kidnapped by Franco's agents and put on a plane to Madrid. However on board he went to the toilet, wrapped a bar of soap in newspaper and emerged shouting "I am a Spanish refugee" and threatening to blow up the plane. Supported by the crew and passengers, the plane landed and let him off in Panama.
On this day, 10th February 1960, civil rights sit-ins that had been moving through North Carolina, after beginning in Greensboro, arrived in Raleigh. Around 150 Black students demonstrated against whites-only lunch counters at drugstores across the city; the drugstores responded by closing the counters. Protests continued for several days, and crowds of racist white people heckled and harassed the protesters, sometimes escalating into violence. One white woman even reprimanded the aggression of the counter-protesters, stating “You’re going about this in the wrong way… I’m as much a segregationist as you are, but I believe you should meet courtesy with courtesy.”
The mayor, WG Enloe, issued a public statement declaring: “It is regrettable that some of our young Negro students would risk endangering Raleigh’s friendly and cooperative race relations by seeking to change a long-standing custom in a manner that is all but destined to fail”.
But the protests were successful, and as part of a national direct action movement achieved the formal banning of segregation in 1964.
The mayor, WG Enloe, issued a public statement declaring: “It is regrettable that some of our young Negro students would risk endangering Raleigh’s friendly and cooperative race relations by seeking to change a long-standing custom in a manner that is all but destined to fail”.
But the protests were successful, and as part of a national direct action movement achieved the formal banning of segregation in 1964.
On this day, 11th February 1918 in Copenhagen, armed unemployed workers attacked the Danish stock exchange demanding unemployment benefits. Two meetings for the unemployed were held earlier in the day, and syndicalist speakers called on the assembled poor to use direct action. The crowds armed themselves with clubs and guns and stormed the most powerful symbol of the capitalist class in the city. Later, 40,000 demonstrated in protest at arrests of syndicalists in the wake of the action.
On this day, 11th February 1916, Lithuanian-born Jewish anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested in New York City for distributing information on birth control. She was technically charged with breaching the Comstock Act, which banned "obscene" material from the mail or from being transported across state lines.
Goldman's arrest came as she was due to deliver a public lecture on family planning, which was a key concern for working class people. Radicals argued that family planning was essential for working class people to be able to have an acceptable standard of living, and believed that authorities opposed birth control so that there would be an oversupply of labour to keep down wages and fill the army.
Emma Goldman decided to defend herself in court, and used the trial to generate large amounts of publicity for her message. She was eventually convicted, and rather than pay a $100 fine she chose to serve 15 days in prison.
Goldman's arrest came as she was due to deliver a public lecture on family planning, which was a key concern for working class people. Radicals argued that family planning was essential for working class people to be able to have an acceptable standard of living, and believed that authorities opposed birth control so that there would be an oversupply of labour to keep down wages and fill the army.
Emma Goldman decided to defend herself in court, and used the trial to generate large amounts of publicity for her message. She was eventually convicted, and rather than pay a $100 fine she chose to serve 15 days in prison.
On this day, 14th February 1779, British coloniser captain James Cook was killed by a Native Hawaiian by being stabbed in the neck as he tried to kidnap a local leader.
Cook became famous in particular for assisting the British invasion of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia. Within two hours of his crew's arrival in Aotearoa in 1769, they had shot and killed a Māori man called Te Maro. Over the next few days at least eight more Ngati Oneone hapu and Rongowhakaata iwi people were killed. In 1770, after Cook's arrival in Australia, his men shot two Aboriginal Gweagal people.
In Hawaii, on February 14, news of Cook and his marines killing a local chief caused an angry crowd of several hundred Indigenous people to gather. Cook was also attempting to kidnap the Hawaiian aliʻi nui (hereditary ruler), Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Some of the crowd gathered stones and spears, at which point Cook fired at the crowd, killing one. Rather than run in fear, as the colonisers anticipated, the local people began throwing stones at the marines, and a man called Kanaʻina hit Cook on the head with a club. Cook was then stabbed and killed, and which point a full-scale battle broke out, forcing the marines to retreat. By the end of the fight, several locals had been killed as well as four British soldiers.
Cook became famous in particular for assisting the British invasion of Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Australia. Within two hours of his crew's arrival in Aotearoa in 1769, they had shot and killed a Māori man called Te Maro. Over the next few days at least eight more Ngati Oneone hapu and Rongowhakaata iwi people were killed. In 1770, after Cook's arrival in Australia, his men shot two Aboriginal Gweagal people.
In Hawaii, on February 14, news of Cook and his marines killing a local chief caused an angry crowd of several hundred Indigenous people to gather. Cook was also attempting to kidnap the Hawaiian aliʻi nui (hereditary ruler), Kalaniʻōpuʻu. Some of the crowd gathered stones and spears, at which point Cook fired at the crowd, killing one. Rather than run in fear, as the colonisers anticipated, the local people began throwing stones at the marines, and a man called Kanaʻina hit Cook on the head with a club. Cook was then stabbed and killed, and which point a full-scale battle broke out, forcing the marines to retreat. By the end of the fight, several locals had been killed as well as four British soldiers.
On this day, 16th February 1943, US-born translator, writer and German anti-Nazi resistance activist Mildred Fish-Harnack was beheaded in Berlin: the only US woman to be executed on dictator Adolf Hitler's personal orders.
Fish-Harnack was a leading activist in the largest underground resistance group in Berlin, known to its members as the Circle, but better known to many by the name given to it by the Nazis: the "Red Orchestra". The group recruited other resistance activists, distributed anti-fascist propaganda, and some of its members provided valuable intelligence on Nazi military plans to rival governments, including the US and Soviet Union.
Fish-Harnack was arrested alongside her husband, Arvid Harnack, and brutally tortured, tried and sentenced to hard labour, while Arvid was executed. But her sentence enraged Hitler, who ordered she be retried and sentenced to death.
Upon reviewing the case after Germany's defeat in World War II, US intelligence determined that Fish-Harnack's execution was justified. The US then recruited the Nazi who prosecuted Fish-Harnack, and helped him avoid being charged with war crimes at Nuremberg. Meanwhile, British intelligence recruited the Nazi responsible for Fish-Harnack's arrest and torture, faking his death and giving him a new identity as a factory manager in West Germany.
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We have nearly finished producing a double podcast episode about Mildred Fish-Harnack in conversation with Rebecca Donner, Mildred's great great-niece and author of the fantastic book about Mildred's life, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days. Our patreon supporters will get to listen to these episodes first. Join us and get early access to our podcasts at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory
Fish-Harnack was a leading activist in the largest underground resistance group in Berlin, known to its members as the Circle, but better known to many by the name given to it by the Nazis: the "Red Orchestra". The group recruited other resistance activists, distributed anti-fascist propaganda, and some of its members provided valuable intelligence on Nazi military plans to rival governments, including the US and Soviet Union.
Fish-Harnack was arrested alongside her husband, Arvid Harnack, and brutally tortured, tried and sentenced to hard labour, while Arvid was executed. But her sentence enraged Hitler, who ordered she be retried and sentenced to death.
Upon reviewing the case after Germany's defeat in World War II, US intelligence determined that Fish-Harnack's execution was justified. The US then recruited the Nazi who prosecuted Fish-Harnack, and helped him avoid being charged with war crimes at Nuremberg. Meanwhile, British intelligence recruited the Nazi responsible for Fish-Harnack's arrest and torture, faking his death and giving him a new identity as a factory manager in West Germany.
*
We have nearly finished producing a double podcast episode about Mildred Fish-Harnack in conversation with Rebecca Donner, Mildred's great great-niece and author of the fantastic book about Mildred's life, All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days. Our patreon supporters will get to listen to these episodes first. Join us and get early access to our podcasts at https://patreon.com/workingclasshistory
On this day, 17th February 1942, Huey P Newton, founding member of the revolutionary socialist Black Panther Party, was born in Monroe, Louisiana.
Newton described his early activism in the Party, which involved conducting armed patrols to protect Black people from police harassment: "I always carried lawbooks in my car. Sometimes, when a policeman was harassing a citizen, I would stand off a little and read the relevant portions of the penal code in a loud voice to all within hearing distance… If the policeman arrested the citizen and took him to the station, we would follow and immediately post bail. Many community people could not believe at first that we had only their interest at heart. Nobody had ever given them any support or assistance when the police harassed them, but here we were, proud Black men, armed with guns and a knowledge of the law. Many citizens came right out of jail and into the Party, and the statistics of murder and brutality by policemen in our communities fell sharply."
Newton himself was shot by the police after being racially abused, and he was then jailed for killing a police officer in the ensuing shootout. But following a global campaign for his release, his conviction was overturned on appeal. He was tried twice more, but after the district attorney failed to get a conviction on either occasion he gave up and dismissed the charges.
Later the BPP developed survival programs like free breakfast for children and health clinics while Newton continued to develop Porton revolutionary theories. He developed the concept of revolutionary intercommunalism for the Party, as opposed to Black nationalism, and was a fierce critic of sexism and homophobia within radical movements, arguing that when people organise "revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and the women's liberation movement."
Newton described his early activism in the Party, which involved conducting armed patrols to protect Black people from police harassment: "I always carried lawbooks in my car. Sometimes, when a policeman was harassing a citizen, I would stand off a little and read the relevant portions of the penal code in a loud voice to all within hearing distance… If the policeman arrested the citizen and took him to the station, we would follow and immediately post bail. Many community people could not believe at first that we had only their interest at heart. Nobody had ever given them any support or assistance when the police harassed them, but here we were, proud Black men, armed with guns and a knowledge of the law. Many citizens came right out of jail and into the Party, and the statistics of murder and brutality by policemen in our communities fell sharply."
Newton himself was shot by the police after being racially abused, and he was then jailed for killing a police officer in the ensuing shootout. But following a global campaign for his release, his conviction was overturned on appeal. He was tried twice more, but after the district attorney failed to get a conviction on either occasion he gave up and dismissed the charges.
Later the BPP developed survival programs like free breakfast for children and health clinics while Newton continued to develop Porton revolutionary theories. He developed the concept of revolutionary intercommunalism for the Party, as opposed to Black nationalism, and was a fierce critic of sexism and homophobia within radical movements, arguing that when people organise "revolutionary conferences, rallies, and demonstrations, there should be full participation of the gay liberation movement and the women's liberation movement."
On this day, 20th February 1988, 20,000 people in Manchester marched against Margaret Thatcher's homophobic section 28 law, which made it illegal for public bodies to "promote" homosexuality, which included banning schools teaching the "acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship". The law was abolished in 2003, although later Conservative prime minister David Cameron voted against the complete scrapping of the ban. Current Conservative prime minister Boris Johnson voted in favour of scrapping section 28, although he had previously compared gay marriage to bestiality in a book he published, and referred to gay men as "tank-topped bumboys" while working as a journalist.
GarveyLives
Well-Known Member
(Source: AP Photo/Eddie Adams)
... human rights activist Malcolm X assassinated on this day, 57 years ago.
On this day, 22nd February 1943, three German White Rose activists, students Christoph Probst, Hans and Sophie Scholl, were executed by guillotine for urging the overthrow of the Nazi government: just some of the many Germans who attempted to oppose fascism. As the blade fell, Hans called out “Let freedom live!”
Pictured: Hans, left, Sophie, centre and Christoph, right
Pictured: Hans, left, Sophie, centre and Christoph, right
I wrote an essay on The White Rose Resistance Group. It was a difficult topic, but I fully admired the courage and resilience of those young people.
On this day, 2nd March 1971, the Israeli Black Panthers, a left-wing group made up of children of North African and Middle Eastern migrants, held an illegal protest in front of Jerusalem's city hall. 2-300 people attended protesting against discrimination against Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews and calling for the release of activists who had been arrested pre-emptively for planning the demonstration. The action attracted media attention and a significant number of supporters.
The Israeli Panthers also emulated the US Panther organisation's survival programs, and attempted to help provide for the basic needs of poor Mizrahi Jews by engaging in activities like the expropriation of milk from delivery trucks in wealthy neighbourhoods.
According to BlackPast, due to the US Panthers' support for Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister Golda Meier "feared the IBPP would form an alliance with Palestinians. Consequently, she appointed a commission to study “Youth in Distress” and found $22.9 million to fund services for Mizrahi."
The Israeli Panthers also emulated the US Panther organisation's survival programs, and attempted to help provide for the basic needs of poor Mizrahi Jews by engaging in activities like the expropriation of milk from delivery trucks in wealthy neighbourhoods.
According to BlackPast, due to the US Panthers' support for Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister Golda Meier "feared the IBPP would form an alliance with Palestinians. Consequently, she appointed a commission to study “Youth in Distress” and found $22.9 million to fund services for Mizrahi."
GarveyLives
Well-Known Member
2 March 1981: The Black People's Day of Action, London
On this day, 5th March 1871, the revolutionary socialist of Polish-Jewish descent Rosa Luxemburg was born. Splitting from the Social Democrats (SPD) when they supported World War I, she co-founded the Spartacus League, which later renamed itself the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), and enthusiastically took part in the German revolution of 1918.
Luxemburg was a critic both of the "ultra-centralism" of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin, and also of reformist socialists, declaring: “People who pronounce themselves in over of the method of legislative reform in place of and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society... Our program becomes not the realization of socialism, but the reform of capitalism not the suppression of the system of wage labor, but the diminution of exploitation, that is, the suppression of the abuses of capitalism instead of the suppression of capitalism itself.”
Luxemburg and her colleague Karl Liebknecht were later murdered by the right-wing paramilitary Freikorps acting on behalf of the SPD in the wake of the failed Spartacist uprising of 1919.
Luxemburg was a critic both of the "ultra-centralism" of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin, and also of reformist socialists, declaring: “People who pronounce themselves in over of the method of legislative reform in place of and in contradistinction to the conquest of political power and social revolution, do not really choose a more tranquil, calmer and slower road to the same goal, but a different goal. Instead of taking a stand for the establishment of a new society they take a stand for surface modifications of the old society... Our program becomes not the realization of socialism, but the reform of capitalism not the suppression of the system of wage labor, but the diminution of exploitation, that is, the suppression of the abuses of capitalism instead of the suppression of capitalism itself.”
Luxemburg and her colleague Karl Liebknecht were later murdered by the right-wing paramilitary Freikorps acting on behalf of the SPD in the wake of the failed Spartacist uprising of 1919.
On this day, 5th March 1984, the great UK miners’ strike began when miners at Cortonwood colliery walked out in response to the Conservative government’s announcement of a pit closure plan. Some other pits were already on strike in other disputes, but the strikes against closures spread across Yorkshire, and four days later the National Union of Mineworkers called a national strike, which was joined by a majority of miners around the country.
Women, many of them miners’ wives, played a crucial role in supporting the strike, helping the workers to remain out for nearly a year.
Prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her government were determined to break the power of workers’ organisations and push through mass privatisation and free market reforms. They had learned from their previous defeats in miners’ strikes in 1972 and 1974. They built up coal stocks, so they could withstand a long strike, and then deliberately provoked the strike by announcing the closure plan in spring when coal was in less demand than during the cold winter months. The defeat of the miners, who had been the most well-organised and most militant group of workers in Britain, marked a decisive turning point in the balance of power between workers and employers in the country. It eventually led to the much more atomised and individualised nature of the working class in Britain today.
Women, many of them miners’ wives, played a crucial role in supporting the strike, helping the workers to remain out for nearly a year.
Prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her government were determined to break the power of workers’ organisations and push through mass privatisation and free market reforms. They had learned from their previous defeats in miners’ strikes in 1972 and 1974. They built up coal stocks, so they could withstand a long strike, and then deliberately provoked the strike by announcing the closure plan in spring when coal was in less demand than during the cold winter months. The defeat of the miners, who had been the most well-organised and most militant group of workers in Britain, marked a decisive turning point in the balance of power between workers and employers in the country. It eventually led to the much more atomised and individualised nature of the working class in Britain today.
On this day, 8th March 1917, thousands of housewives and women workers in St Petersburg, Russia defied union leaders' appeals for calm and took to the streets against high prices and hunger, thus igniting the February revolution (so-called because of the different calendar in use at the time). The following day, 200,000 workers joined them by striking, shouting slogans against the tsar and the war. Some military units began to join the workers, and by 15th March, tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate.
On 8th March 1918, women in Austria celebrated International Women's Day on this date for the first time as thousands took to the streets protesting against World War I. There is a popular myth that March 8th was chosen on the anniversary of an 1857 strike of women workers in New York, and a further stoppage on the same date in 1908, however this is incorrect, as this excellent history of the radical, working class origins of International Women’s Day explains: On the socialist origins of International Women's Day - Temma Kaplan
On 8th March 1918, women in Austria celebrated International Women's Day on this date for the first time as thousands took to the streets protesting against World War I. There is a popular myth that March 8th was chosen on the anniversary of an 1857 strike of women workers in New York, and a further stoppage on the same date in 1908, however this is incorrect, as this excellent history of the radical, working class origins of International Women’s Day explains: On the socialist origins of International Women's Day - Temma Kaplan
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Apologies for any derail.
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No it's fine, what you posted was interesting.
On this day, 9th March 2020, tens of thousands of women across Mexico went on strike in protest at gender-based violence which kills thousands of women each year in the country.
Transport, banking, education and retail were amongst the industries affected by women either staying at home or taking to the streets, under the slogan "Un Día Sin Nosotras" ("A Day without Us"). One worker, Isaura Miranda, a biologist, told the New York Times why she took part: “I just realised I had to do something… I can’t carry on with this feeling of rage and impotence over so many deaths that are cruel, without dignity… Also, I don’t want my daughter to go out one day and never come back again."
Support for the action was so widespread that many large corporations and government departments were pressured into agreeing not to discipline women who took part in the action. Mexico's left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blamed "past neoliberal policies" for endemic violence against women, 10 of whom are murdered each day, and accused right-wing opponents of helping organise the strike.
Transport, banking, education and retail were amongst the industries affected by women either staying at home or taking to the streets, under the slogan "Un Día Sin Nosotras" ("A Day without Us"). One worker, Isaura Miranda, a biologist, told the New York Times why she took part: “I just realised I had to do something… I can’t carry on with this feeling of rage and impotence over so many deaths that are cruel, without dignity… Also, I don’t want my daughter to go out one day and never come back again."
Support for the action was so widespread that many large corporations and government departments were pressured into agreeing not to discipline women who took part in the action. Mexico's left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, blamed "past neoliberal policies" for endemic violence against women, 10 of whom are murdered each day, and accused right-wing opponents of helping organise the strike.
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On this day, 12th March 1912, employers caved in to most of the demands of the Bread and Roses strike by 20,000 garment workers, mostly women and girls, in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The stoppage, after it was started by Polish women, was denounced by the American Federation of Labor as "revolutionary" and "anarchistic", and so the workers instead turned to the radical Industrial Workers of the World union for support. The name of the strike referred to the workers wanting their basic needs met, "bread", as well as the beautiful things in life, "roses".
The workers held meetings which were translated into almost 30 languages, faced down savage police and militarily repression, who killed one woman and beat and jailed many others, and eventually won big concessions across the whole garment industry. In particular, the workers won a 15% pay increase, double pay for overtime and amnesty for most of the strikers. A campaign to free IWW organisers arrested during the strike continued until they were acquitted in November.
The workers held meetings which were translated into almost 30 languages, faced down savage police and militarily repression, who killed one woman and beat and jailed many others, and eventually won big concessions across the whole garment industry. In particular, the workers won a 15% pay increase, double pay for overtime and amnesty for most of the strikers. A campaign to free IWW organisers arrested during the strike continued until they were acquitted in November.
On this day, 13th March 1940, Indian revolutionary Udham Singh assassinated former lieutenant governor of the Punjab, Michael O'Dwyer, at a meeting in London. The assassination was in revenge for the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre when O'Dwyer dispatched troops to attack a peaceful protest, resulting in around 1,800 people being killed and over 1,200 wounded. O'Dwyer referred to the events as a "correct action".
While in custody, Singh called himself "Ram Mohammad Singh Azad": the first three words of the name reflect the three major religions of Punjab (Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), while the last, "azad", means "free".
Convicted of murder, Singh was sentenced to death. Speaking at his trial, Singh explained: "He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to seek vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job."
While in custody, Singh called himself "Ram Mohammad Singh Azad": the first three words of the name reflect the three major religions of Punjab (Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), while the last, "azad", means "free".
Convicted of murder, Singh was sentenced to death. Speaking at his trial, Singh explained: "He deserved it. He was the real culprit. He wanted to crush the spirit of my people, so I have crushed him. For full 21 years, I have been trying to seek vengeance. I am happy that I have done the job."
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