Working Class Calendar

Bisbee Deportation (1917)

Thu Jul 12, 1917

Image: Striking miners and others being deported from Bisbee on the morning of July 12th, 1917. The men are boarding cattle cars provided by the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad. [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1917, a deputized posse in Bisbee, Arizona kidnapped more than 1,300 striking miners, their supporters, and bystanders, deporting them to New Mexico, more than 200 miles away. The miners were organized by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and had been on strike since June 26th.

The action was orchestrated by Phelps Dodge, the major mining company in the area, which provided lists of workers and others who were to be arrested to the Cochise County sheriff, Harry C. Wheeler.

The 16-hour journey was through desert without food and with little water. Once unloaded, the deportees, most without money or transportation, were warned against returning to Bisbee. The U.S. government soon brought in members of the US Army to assist with relocating the deportees to Columbus, New Mexico.

Phelps Dodge, in collusion with the sheriff, had closed down access to outside communications, so the story was not well reported at the time.

Although a federal commission concluded the kidnapping was done "wholly illegal and without authority in law, either State or Federal" and the U.S. Department of Justice ordered the arrest of 21 Phelps Dodge executives, no individual, company, or agency was ever convicted in connection with the deportations.

• Date: 1917-07-12
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, azlibrary.gov.
• Tags: #Labor, #IWW.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Malala Yousafzai (1997 - )

Sat Jul 12, 1997

Image: **

Malala Yousafzai, born on this day in 1997, is a Pakistani feminist and socialist activist who survived an attempted assassination by the Taliban at fifteen years old.

As a teen, Yousafzai began to achieve international prominence for her activism in favor of female education. She blogged for the BBC, appeared in a documentary by request of a New York Times reporter, made multiple media appearances, and was awarded Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.

In a meeting held in the summer of 2012, Taliban leaders unanimously agreed to kill her. On October 9th that year, a Taliban gunman shot Yousafzai in the face, along with two other girls, as she rode home on a bus after taking an exam in Pakistan's Swat Valley. She survived.

In 2014, she was the co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Kailash Satyarthi of India. Aged 17 at the time, she was the youngest-ever Nobel Prize laureate. In 2020, Malala graduated from Oxford University.

"We realize the importance of our voices only when we are silenced."

- Malala Yousafzai

• Date: 1997-07-12
• Learn More: www.womenshistory.org, america.aljazeera.com, socialistworker.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Niagara Movement Founded (1905)

Tue Jul 11, 1905

Image: A founders photo taken at Niagara movement meeting in Fort Erie, Canada featuring, top row, left to right: H.A. Thompson, New York; Alonzo F. Herndon, Georgia; John Hope, Georgia, (possibly James R.L. Diggs). Second row, left to right: Fred McGhee, Minnesota; Norris B. Herndon; J. Max Barber, Illinois; W.E.B. Du Bois, Atlanta; Robert Bonner, Massachusetts, (bottom row: left to right) Henry L. Baily, Washington, D.C.; Clement G. Morgan, Massachusetts; W.H.H. Hart, Washington, D.C.; and B.S. Smith, Kansas.

The Niagara Movement, founded on this day in 1905, was a civil rights organization led by WEB Du Bois and William Trotter whose "Declaration of Principles" demanded universal suffrage, free education, and an end to prison labor.

The movement was named for the "mighty current" of change the group wanted to effect and Niagara Falls, near Fort Erie, Ontario, where the first meeting took place, on July 11th, 1905. It is considered a precursor to the NAACP, which was founded by many of the same activists.

The Niagara Movement was organized in opposition to racial segregation and disenfranchisement, as well as the perceived conciliatory policies promoted by activists like Booker T. Washington.

During the three day meeting, Monroe and Du Bois co-authored a "Declaration of Principles", which defined the group's philosophy and demands. These demands included an end to the "convict lease" system (prison labor), equal punishment for crimes regardless of race, and universal free education, stating "either the United States will destroy ignorance, or ignorance will destroy the United States".

• Date: 1905-07-11
• Learn More: glc.yale.edu, www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

ILWU Longshoreman Occupy Terminal (2011)

Mon Jul 11, 2011

On this day in 2011, members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and other dock workers were arrested for occupying the Port of Longview's new, highly automated terminal that was about to open with non-union labor. This was just one use of direct action by longshoremen in Longview, Washington that year.

Sheriff's deputies and city cops from Longview and neighboring city Kelso arrested the protesters, who did not resist. "We have worked this dock for 70 years", said Dan Coffman, President of ILWU Local 21, "and to have a big rich company come in and say, 'We don't want you' is a problem. We're all together. We're going to jail as a union."

Three days later, six hundred dock workers and supporters seized the railroad tracks that serve the Port. At 1:30 am, they stopped a train, 107 cars hauling corn, originating in Split Rock, Minnesota, headed for the Longview elevators.

On September 7th, 2011, a massive picket line of some 700 longshoremen and their supporters blocked another train from entering EGT's (a large shipping conglomerate) terminal. When cops started pepper spraying, the picketers pushed back.

The next day, longshoremen from the major Northwest ports, Seattle, Tacoma and Portland, seeing images of the ILWU president being manhandled by cops, stopped work and began destroying EGT property.

According to news reports, the cyclone fence was torn down, grain was dumped from the train cars, and the terminal was briefly occupied by angry longshore workers. Millions of dollars were lost in shipping, warning employers how far ILWU members were willing to go to protect their jobs.

• Date: 2011-07-11
• Learn More: libcom.org, www.counterpunch.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior (1985)

Wed Jul 10, 1985

Image: The Rainbow Warrior in Marsden Wharf in Auckland Harbour after the bombing by French secret service agents. © Greenpeace / John Miller [greenpeace.org]

On this day in 1985, the French government, in an act of state-sponsored terror, bombed the Greenpeace-operated boat Rainbow Warrior, which was en route to protest a nuclear weapons test planned by the French state. The bombing, later found to be personally ordered by French President François Mitterrand, killed a freelance photographer on board named Fernando Pereira.

France had been testing nuclear weapons on the Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia since 1966. In 1985 eight South Pacific countries, including New Zealand and Australia, signed a treaty declaring the region a nuclear-free zone.

Since being acquired by Greenpeace in 1977, Rainbow Warrior was active in supporting a number of anti-nuclear testing campaigns during the late 1970s and early 1980s, including relocating 300 Marshall Islanders from Rongelap Atoll, which had been polluted by radioactive fallout by past American nuclear tests.

For the 1985 tests, Greenpeace intended to monitor the impact of nuclear tests and place protesters on the island to observe the blasts. Three undercover French agents were on board, however, and they attached two limpet mines to Rainbow Warrior and detonated them ten minutes apart, sinking the ship.

France initially denied responsibility, but two of the French agents were captured by New Zealand Police and charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder.

The resulting scandal led to the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu, while the two agents pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years in prison. They spent a little over two years confined to the French island of Hao before being freed by the French government.

In 1987, after international pressure, France paid $8.16m to Greenpeace in damages, which helped finance another ship. It also paid compensation to the Pereira family, making reparation payments of 650,000 francs to Pereira's wife, 1.5 million francs to his two children, and 75,000 francs to each of his parents.

• Date: 1985-07-10
• Learn More: www.greenpeace.org, en.wikipedia.org, www.zinnedproject.org.
• Tags: #Terrorism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Mary McLeod Bethune (1875 - 1955)

Sat Jul 10, 1875

Image: **

Mary Bethune, born on this day in 1875, was a U.S. educator and civil rights activist.

Born in South Carolina to parents who had been enslaved, Bethune started working in fields with her family at age five. She took an early interest in becoming educated, and later became a big exponent of education within the black community. She started a school for young black girls that later, after merging with a boys' school, became known as the "Bethune-Cookman School", with Bethune serving as its president on multiple occasions.

Bethune founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935, established the organization's flagship journal "Aframerican Women's Journal", and resided as president or leader for a myriad of black women's organizations. She also was appointed as a national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whom she worked with to create the Federal Council on Negro Affairs, also known as the "Black Cabinet."

According to Dr. Herb Ruffin of BlackPast.org, Bethune’s friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led to Bethune becoming the Director of the National Youth Administration’s (NYA) Division of Negro Affairs, a post she held from 1936 to 1943. As director, she led an organization that trained tens of thousands of black youth for skilled positions that eventually became available in defense plants during World War II.

For her lifetime of activism, Bethune was deemed "First Lady of Negro America" by Ebony magazine in 1949 and was dubbed by the press as the "female Booker T. Washington". Journalist Louis E. Martin stated that "She gave out faith and hope as if they were pills and she some sort of doctor."

"The drums of Africa still beat in my heart. They will not let me rest while there is a single Negro boy or girl without a chance to prove his worth."

- Mary Bethune

• Date: 1875-07-10
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, www.womenshistory.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

June Jordan (1936 - 2002)

Thu Jul 09, 1936

June Jordan, born on this day in 1936, was a queer Jamaican-American author, feminist, and educator whose works include Some of Us Did Not Die and Report From the Bahamas. "Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth."

In her writing, Jordan explores issues of gender, race, capitalism, privilege, immigration, and representation. Jordan was passionate about using Black English in both her writing and her classroom, teaching her students to treat Black English as its own language and as an important outlet for expressing Black culture.

As a professor at Berkeley, Jordan founded the "Poetry for the People" program in 1991. Its aim was to inspire and empower students to use poetry as a means of artistic expression.

Although not widely recognized when first published in 1982, Jordan's essay "Report from the Bahamas", has since become an important work in gender studies, sociology, and anthropology.

"Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth."

- June Jordan

• Date: 1936-07-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.poetryfoundation.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Phoenix Program Founded (1967)

Sun Jul 09, 1967

The Phoenix Program, founded on this day in 1967 via the MACV Directive, was a CIA program implemented to destroy the Viet Cong (VC) via infiltration, torture, interrogation, and assassination, explicitly targeting non-combatants. These non-combatants were described as "political infrastructure" for the VC.

The Phoenix Program "neutralized" 81,740 people suspected of VC membership, of whom 26,369 were killed, the rest either surrendered or captured. The program was controversial even with the U.S. security state, with one former U.S. military intelligence officer describing it as a "sterile depersonalized murder program".

There were widespread reports of torture and murder of prisoners and, because the program targeted apparent civilians, many innocent people were killed. In some cases, Vietnamese people would report their enemies as Viet Cong in order to get U.S. troops to kill them.

After the program's abuses began receiving negative publicity, it was officially shut down in 1971, although the program continued under the name "Plan F-6", with the government of South Vietnam placed in control.

• Date: 1967-07-09
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.hoosier84.com.
• Tags: #Assassinations.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ghassan Kanafani Assassinated (1972)

Sat Jul 08, 1972

Ghassan Kanafani was a Palestinian author and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), assassinated on this day in 1972 by Israeli forces in retaliation for the Lod Airport Massacre, claimed by the PLFP.

In May, when the outbreak of hostilities in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War spilled over into the city of Acre, Kanafani and his family were forced into exile while he was still a child. After fleeing ~eleven miles north to Lebanon, they settled in Damascus, Syria as Palestinian refugees.

In 1969, after establishing himself as an author and journalist, he joined The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and, resigned from his post as editor for the magazine Al-Anwar to edit the PFLP's weekly magazine, al-Hadaf ("The Goal"). He drafted a PFLP program in which the movement officially took up Marxism-Leninism, a notable departure from pan-Arab nationalist ideology.

On July 8th, 1972, at the age of 36, Kanafani was assassinated via car bomb by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad for his role in the PLFP, which claimed responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre.

The massacre, committed by three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the PLFP, killed 26 people, injuring 80 others.

Ghassan Kanafani was an influential author, whose literary works have been translated into at least 17 languages and published in 20 countries. He began writing short stories when working as a teacher in refugee camps. Often written through the eyes of children, his stories were designed to help his students contextualize their surroundings.

"Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause."

- Ghassan Kanafani

• Date: 1972-07-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.middleeastmonitor.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Assassinations, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ghassan Kanafani Assassinated (1972)

Sat Jul 08, 1972

Ghassan Kanafani was a Palestinian author and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), assassinated on this day in 1972 by Israeli forces in retaliation for the Lod Airport Massacre, claimed by the PLFP.

In May, when the outbreak of hostilities in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War spilled over into the city of Acre, Kanafani and his family were forced into exile while he was still a child. After fleeing ~eleven miles north to Lebanon, they settled in Damascus, Syria as Palestinian refugees.

In 1969, after establishing himself as an author and journalist, he joined The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and, resigned from his post as editor for the magazine Al-Anwar to edit the PFLP's weekly magazine, al-Hadaf ("The Goal"). He drafted a PFLP program in which the movement officially took up Marxism-Leninism, a notable departure from pan-Arab nationalist ideology.

On July 8th, 1972, at the age of 36, Kanafani was assassinated via car bomb by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad for his role in the PLFP, which claimed responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre.

The massacre, committed by three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the PLFP, killed 26 people, injuring 80 others.

Ghassan Kanafani was an influential author, whose literary works have been translated into at least 17 languages and published in 20 countries. He began writing short stories when working as a teacher in refugee camps. Often written through the eyes of children, his stories were designed to help his students contextualize their surroundings.

"Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause."

- Ghassan Kanafani

• Date: 1972-07-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.middleeastmonitor.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Assassinations, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Birmingham Coal Workers' Strike (1908)

Wed Jul 08, 1908

After years of escalating tensions over pay, 4,000 miners, organized across racial lines, in Birmingham, Alabama began striking on this day in 1908, quickly growing to more than 10,000 in strength and clashing with police.

The strike was declared by United Mine Workers (UMW) District 20, which had more than 20,000 members, against U.S. Steel, which had just purchased the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Rail Company (TCI) and instituted sharp pay cuts. More than 4,000 miners stayed off the job, but soon the protest grew to more than 10,000 people.

Mine owners responded to the strike by increasing their use of slave prison labor, deputizing hundreds of armed men to confront workers, and urging Governor Braxton Bragg Comer to declare martial law and dispatch state troops into the coalfields, a request he eventually granted.

Evicted from company housing, thousands of workers were forced to live in tent cities, which were later attacked by state troops.

The strike was also notable for the union's ability to unite miners across the racial divide, a development that was unusual for the United States in this period. A parade of striking black and white miners through the streets of Jasper angered members of Birmingham's business community, who denounced the UMW's interracial workforce as an insult to southern traditions and called for armed state intervention against the racially mixed strikers.

In mid-August, black UMW member William Millin was snatched from his jail cell and lynched by two mine deputies.

The strike was effectively put down after state troops destroyed the miners' tent cities on August 26th, and was officially called off by the union four days later. One year afterward, the mines' production had returned to normal.

• Date: 1908-07-08
• Learn More: encyclopediaofalabama.org, alabamanewscenter.com.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Ghassan Kanafani Assassinated (1972)

Sat Jul 08, 1972

Ghassan Kanafani was a Palestinian author and leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), assassinated on this day in 1972 by Israeli forces in retaliation for the Lod Airport Massacre, claimed by the PLFP.

In May, when the outbreak of hostilities in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War spilled over into the city of Acre, Kanafani and his family were forced into exile while he was still a child. After fleeing ~eleven miles north to Lebanon, they settled in Damascus, Syria as Palestinian refugees.

In 1969, after establishing himself as an author and journalist, he joined The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and, resigned from his post as editor for the magazine Al-Anwar to edit the PFLP's weekly magazine, al-Hadaf ("The Goal"). He drafted a PFLP program in which the movement officially took up Marxism-Leninism, a notable departure from pan-Arab nationalist ideology.

On July 8th, 1972, at the age of 36, Kanafani was assassinated via car bomb by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad for his role in the PLFP, which claimed responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre.

The massacre, committed by three members of the Japanese Red Army recruited by the PLFP, killed 26 people, injuring 80 others.

Ghassan Kanafani was an influential author, whose literary works have been translated into at least 17 languages and published in 20 countries. He began writing short stories when working as a teacher in refugee camps. Often written through the eyes of children, his stories were designed to help his students contextualize their surroundings.

"Everything in this world can be robbed and stolen, except one thing; this one thing is the love that emanates from a human being towards a solid commitment to a conviction or cause."

- Ghassan Kanafani

• Date: 1972-07-08
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.middleeastmonitor.com.
• Tags: #Marxism, #Assassinations, #Massacre.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Wagner Act (1935)

Sat Jul 06, 1935

The National Labor Relations Act (also known as the Wagner Act) is a U.S. labor law that became effective on this day in 1935, guaranteeing the right of private sector employees to organize trade unions, engage in collective bargaining, and strike.

The Act also set up a permanent three-member National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) with the power to hear and resolve labor disputes through quasi-judicial proceedings and banned employers from refusing to negotiate with any union ratified by this board.

The Act does not apply to certain workers, including agricultural employees, domestic workers, government employees, and independent contractors. Despite demands by the NAACP and National Urban League, the Act was written without the inclusion of an anti-discrimination clause, allowing both employers and racist labor unions such as the AFL and CIO to maintain white supremacist labor practices.

Corporate interest was heavily against the NLRA, and, when it was challenged in court, the U.S. Supreme Court was compelled to uphold (5-4) the constitutionality of the Wagner Act in "National Labor Relations Board v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp".

The Wagner Act would later be partially repealed and amended with the strongly anti-union Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, granting states the power to pass so-called "right-to-work" laws.

• Date: 1935-07-06
• Learn More: www.nlrb.gov, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Tappan Riot (1834)

Mon Jul 07, 1834

On this day in 1834, New York City was rocked by a huge anti-abolitionist riot (known as the Farren or Tappan Riot) that lasted for nearly a week until it was put down by military occupation.

The riot arose from tensions in the city as abolitionists became more politically active, black people demanded more dignity and freedom for themselves, and the city experienced a large immigration of Irish people.

White mobs, thousands strong, destroyed the homes and churches of black people and white abolitionists. At times, the rioters controlled whole sections of the city. The uprising was forcibly put down by the New York National Guard.

• Date: 1834-07-07
• Learn More: www.blackpast.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Riots, #Abolitionism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Frida Kahlo (1907 - 1954)

Sat Jul 06, 1907

Frida Kahlo, born on this day in 1907, was a Mexican artist and revolutionary communist known for her folk-art inspired style paintings, touching on themes on gender, race, class, self-perception, indigenous culture, and chronic pain.

Although she had always sketched as a hobby, she did not consider visual art as a career until a severe bus accident at the age of eighteen left her bedridden for three months and with a lifetime of chronic pain. Confined to her bed, Kahlo's mother provided her with a specially-made easel, which enabled her to paint while lying down.

With a mirror placed such so that she could see herself, Kahlo began to paint self-portraits, stating "I paint myself because I am often alone and I am the subject I know best".

Inspired by Mexico's popular culture, she employed an accessible, folk art style. In 1943, Kahlo accepted a teaching position at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado, the "La Esmeralda." She encouraged her students to treat her in an informal and non-hierarchical way and taught them to appreciate Mexican popular culture and folk art, and to derive their subjects from the street.

Frida Kahlo was a member of the Mexican Communist Party and committed to radical anti-capitalism throughout her entire adult life. In 1951, she stated:

"I have a great restlessness about my paintings. Mainly because I want to make it useful to the revolutionary communist movement...until now I have managed simply an honest expression of my own self...I must struggle with all my strength to ensure that the little positive my health allows me to do also benefits the Revolution, the only real reason to live."

• Date: 1907-07-06
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.fridakahlo.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Grabow Riot (1912)

Sun Jul 07, 1912

Image: Imprisoned union workers following the Grabow Riot of 7th July, 1912. [libcom.org]

On this day in 1912, a riot broke out in Grabow, Louisiana when gunfire was exchanged between organizing lumber workers and private gunmen hired by the Galloway Lumber Company, just one event in the Louisiana-Texas Lumber War. The clash left three union workers and one company gunman dead, wounding an estimated fifty more.

The event took place in the context of workers in the sawmill town of Grabow joining the Brotherhood of Timber Workers (shown), a branch of the Lumber Workers Industrial Union (LWIU), itself affiliated with the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

On July 7th, 1912, the union workers held a series of rallies at several different company towns, including Bon Ami and Carson, alongside Grabow.

The group that went to Grabow, around 200 people, spontaneously decided to hold a rally with several speeches - labor leader Arthur L. Emerson spoke on top of a wagon to roughly 25 non-union men, plus the additional union men who had come with him.

Shots began between these workers and a group of four others, including Galloway Lumber owner John Galloway, in the local mill office, all of whom had later been found to be drinking before the incident. It is not known for certain which group fired first. Three union men were killed alongside one member of the private company security force. Approximately 50 more were wounded.

Over the next few days, more than more than 60 workers were taken into custody by police. Although the mill owner himself was arrested, he was released without charges soon afterward. Sixty-five of the timber workers' group were brought up on charges ranging from inciting a riot to murder.

The IWW worked to aid the incarcerated workers, with "Big Bill" Haywood fundraising for their legal fund. The trial lasted until November 8th, and its jury returned a not guilty verdict for all of the union men. All of those arrested were set free.

Although they had limited success in Louisiana, the LWIU successfully organized later, winning an eight-hour day and vastly improved working conditions in the Pacific Northwest after a 1917 strike. Today, there is a historical marker at the site of the riot, located on what is now the property of DeRidder Airport, Louisiana.

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

Douglass's 4th of July Speech (1852)

Mon Jul 05, 1852

On this day in 1852, Frederick Douglass addressed an anti-slavery society, calling July 4th "a day that reveals to [the slave], more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim."

Douglass delivered the speech, later given the title "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July" in Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, speaking to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. The speech is perhaps the most widely known of all of Frederick Douglass' writings save his autobiographies.

Here is a brief excerpt:

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.

To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.

There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour."

• Date: 1852-07-05
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.thenation.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Anti-Rent Movement Begins (1839)

Thu Jul 04, 1839

Image: A poster supporting the Anti-Rent Movement, aimed to end the patroon system in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. Its headline reads "ATTENTION! ANTI-RENTERS! AWAKE! AROUSE!" [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1839, tenant farmers on New York's oldest estate assembled in Albany County to adopt a declaration of independence from their landlord, initiating the longest rent strike in U.S. history, the "Anti-Rent War".

Their previous landlord, Stephen van Rensselaer III, who owned all 726,000 acres of the effectively feudal estate of Rensselaerwyck, had passed away a few months prior.

In their declaration of independence, the farmers stated "We will take up the ball of the Revolution where our fathers stopped it and roll it to the final consummation of freedom and independence of the masses."

This began a six year rebellion known as the Anti-Rent War, the longest rent strike in U.S. history.

In those six years, the farmers fought off attempts to collect rent by force, repelling a 500-man posse led by the Albany County sheriff in December 1839.

In 1844, the movement formed a prominent political party, known as the "Antirenter" party. In 1846, provisions for tenants' rights - abolishing feudal tenures and outlawing leases lasting longer than twelve years - were added to the New York Constitution.

• Date: 1839-07-04
• Learn More: alloveralbany.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Tenant, #Independence.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Operation PBHistory (1954)

Sun Jul 04, 1954

Operation PBHistory was a covert CIA operation that began on this day in 1954, following their ousting of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz, seeking to damage his reputation, disseminate propaganda, and spy on Latin American communists.

PBHistory followed Operation PBSuccess, which led to the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in June 1954 and ended the Guatemalan Revolution, a decade long period of social reforms and representative democracy.

PBHistory seized documents (more than 500,000 in total) left behind by Árbenz's government and organizations related to the communist Guatemalan Party of Labor, attempting to use them to promote propaganda that Guatemala was under the control of the Soviet Union and obtain intelligence that would be useful in undermining left-wing movements in Latin America. One consequence of this intelligence was the CIA beginning to track Che Guevara, who was then only known to the Agency as a physician.

Operation PBHistory also helped set up the Guatemalan National Committee of Defense Against Communism, which was covertly funded by the CIA and responsible for mass repression of the population.

Despite successfully obtaining intelligence and collaborating with the new government of Castillo Armas (a vehement anti-communist on the CIA payroll who led the coup against Árbenz), the psy-op was not successful in undermining Árbenz's reputation or fostering pro-U.S. sentiment throughout Latin America.

• Date: 1954-07-04
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.cia.gov.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Paterson Textile Strike (1835)

Fri Jul 03, 1835

Image: Workers with rolls of finished silk in a Paterson silk factory in 1914. Image: Library of Congress

On this day in 1835, 2,000 workers, most of them children, from more than twenty textile mills in Paterson, New Jersey went on strike to demand working hours be reduced from their standard six day, seventy-eight hour work week.

In response to the strike, employers reduced hours to twelve on weekdays and nine on Saturday. This reduction broke the strike, and most of the workers returned to the mills.

Despite this concession, strike leaders and their families were permanently barred from employment in Paterson, blacklisted by the mill owners.

• Date: 1835-07-03
• Learn More: www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860 - 1935)

Tue Jul 03, 1860

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, born on this day in 1860, was a prominent American humanist, author, socialist, and feminist, probably best known today for her loosely autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper".

Gilman served as a role model for future generations of feminists due to her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle, such as leaving her husband (rare for the era) and living with another woman in what was possibly, though unconfirmed, a romantic relationship.

Gilman is possibly best known today for her semi-autobiographical short story "The Yellow Wallpaper", authored after a severe bout of postpartum psychosis. The story depicts the way in which sick women are maligned in a sexist society.

She was also an advocate for assisted suicide for the chronically ill, and died from a self-inflicted chloroform overdose in 1935 after a struggle with breast cancer.

"To attain happiness in another world we need only to believe something, while to secure it in this world we must do something."

- Charlotte Gilman

• Date: 1860-07-03
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.gutenberg.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Patrice Lumumba (1925 - 1961)

Thu Jul 02, 1925

Patrice Lumumba, born on this day in 1925, was a Congolese anti-colonial revolutionary who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo from June until shortly before his assassination in 1961.

Lumumba played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination on January 17th, 1961 in a coup by Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, backed by Belgian colonizers.

Lumumba did not express a pro-capitalist or pro-communist ideology, attempting to remain neutral in Cold War politics. He sought assistance in stabilizing the new Congolese Republic from both the United States and the Soviet Union, accepting military aid from the latter after the U.S. refused to help him.

On Lumumba's legacy, his friend and colleague Thomas Kanza wrote "he lived as a free man, and an independent thinker. Everything he wrote, said and did was the product of someone who knew his vocation to be that of a liberator, and he represents for the Congo what Castro does for Cuba, Nasser for Egypt, Nkrumah for Ghana, Mao Tse-tung for China, and Lenin for Russia."

• Date: 1925-07-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.sahistory.org.za.
• Tags: #Birthdays, #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Medgar Evers (1925 - 1963)

Thu Jul 02, 1925

Medgar Evers, born on this day in 1925, was an American civil rights leader who achieved national prominence for his efforts in fighting racial oppression in Mississippi, work for which he assassinated by white supremacists.

Evers led boycotts against businesses that discriminated against black people, worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, and fought for fair enforcement of the right to vote. He also played a key role in securing the involvement of the NAACP in the murder of Emmett Till, helping publicize the events and secretly secure witnesses for the case.

Evers was assassinated on June 12th, 1963 by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens' Council in Jackson, Mississippi. His murder and the resulting trials inspired a wave of civil rights protests; his life inspired numerous works of art, music, and film.

All-white juries failed to reach verdicts in the first two trials of Beckwith in the 1960s. He was convicted in 1994 in a state trial based on new evidence.

"I love my children and I love my wife with all my heart. And I would die, die gladly, if that would make a better life for them."

- Medgar Evers

• Date: 1925-07-02
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, web.archive.org.
• Tags: #CivilRights, #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Homestead Strike Begins (1892)

Fri Jul 01, 1892

The Homestead Strike was an industrial lockout and strike which began on this day in 1892, culminating in a battle between the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and private security forces of the Carnegie Steel Company.

Unlike earlier strikes in U.S. history, such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, the Homestead Strike was organized and purposeful, a sign of how labor agitation would develop in the modern era.

In order to break the union at the Carnegie Steel Factory, Henry Clay Frick locked union workers out of the factory on June 28th. On July 1st, thousands of workers, skilled and non-skilled, went on strike.

Frick hired the Pinkerton Agency to guard strikebreakers brought in via barge (the factory was on a river), but strikers patrolled a ten-mile stretch of the river to prevent them from making it to the factory.

On July 6th, the Pinkertons attempted to land under cover of darkness around four in the morning, however thousands of striking workers and sympathizers were waiting for them on the riverbank. When the agents tried to land, gunfire erupted, killing four people and injuring twenty-three on both sides. The Pinkertons surrendered, and many were beaten unconscious after leaving the boat.

The strike was forcibly put down by state militia, resulting in a defeat for the workers. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers collapsed, and its workers returned in August.

For his role in breaking the union, anarchists Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldman unsuccessfully attempted to assassinate Henry Clay Frick.

• Date: 1892-07-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, aflcio.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Anarchism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Leper War on Kaua'i (1893)

Sat Jul 01, 1893

Image: Pi'ilani and Kaluaiko'olau, or Ko'olau, with their son, Kaleimanu, and an unidentified woman believed to be Kaluaiko'olau's mother, Kukui Kaleimanu. From the Hawaii State Archives [Wikipedia]

On this day in 1893, the Leper War on Kaua'i, also known as the Battle of Kalalau, began when members of the new colonial government arrived at Kalalau Valley to enforce a deportation order for an isolated leprosy colony there.

Following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, the colonizers began enforcing the 1865 "Act to Prevent the Spread of Leprosy", which involved deporting or forcibly relocating anyone who had the disease to the Kalaupapa Leprosy Colony of Kalawao, on the island of Molokai.

On June 26th, a group led by deputy sheriff Louis Stoltz ventured deep into the Kalalau Valley to enforce this order. After they established an encampment, a band of lepers led by indigenous Hawaiian man Ko'olau (shown, with his family) seized the camp, and chased the lawmen back to the coast. The following day Ko'olau shot Stoltz dead while he was attempting to arrest a man named Paoa.

On July 1st, 1893, fifteen soldiers landed in Kalalau Valley, initally without incident. Over the next two weeks, Ko'olau, along with his wife Pi'ilani, led a campaign of guerilla warfare against state forces, compelling them to give up due to their inability to Ko'olau or evade his group's attacks.

Twenty seven lepers were captured and sent to Kalawao, while the remaining lepers were never harassed again. The leper community dissolved, living in individual households.

Ko'olau and his family remained unharmed, but hid in the valley for the remainder of his life. After Ko'olau's death, his wife Pi'ilani left the valley to share their story, which was published in 1906 as Ka Moolelo oiaio o Kaluaikoolau ("The True Story of Kaluaikoolau").

• Date: 1893-07-01
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu.
• Tags: #Colonialism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org