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Sammy Younge Jr. (1944 - 1966)

Fri Nov 17, 1944

Image: Official image of Sammy Younge Jr. as enlisted member of the United States Navy. [WikiCommons]

Sammy Younge Jr., born on this day in 1944, was an activist who was shot dead after he attempted to use a "whites only" restroom in Tuskegee, Alabama. Younge was one of the first black college students killed in the civil rights movement. After his murderer's acquittal by an all-white jury, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) came out in opposition to the Vietnam War.

Younge served in the U.S. Navy for two years before being medically discharged, after which he began attending the Tuskegee Institute as a political science student.

Younge became a civil rights activist after enrolling in college, becoming active within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and a leader with the Tuskegee Institute Advancement League. He also participated in the Selma to Montgomery protest march in March 1965.

In September 1965, Younge was arrested and jailed after attempting to drive a group of black people to get registered to vote in Lee County, Alabama. Younge continued his efforts to get blacks registered to vote in Macon County, Alabama four months after being released from jail, up until his death.

On January 3rd, 1966, Younge was shot and killed by a gas station clerk after trying to use a "whites only" bathroom in his hometown of Tuskegee. Earlier that day, Younge had brought 40 people to register to vote at Macon County Courthouse, where he was threatened with a knife by a registrar.

At 21 years of age, Younge became the first black university student to be killed in the civil rights movement. His murderer was quickly arrested, indicted, and found not guilty by an all-white jury. This led to widespread protests in Tuskegee, and for the SNCC to officially oppose the Vietnam War. The SNCC issued a statement on January 6th, 1966, saying:

"We believe the United States government has been deceptive in its claims of concern for the freedom of the Vietnamese people, just as the government has been deceptive in claiming concern for the freedom of colored people in such other countries as the Dominican Republic, the Congo, South Africa, Rhodesia, and in the United States itself.

...The murder of Samuel [Younge] in Tuskegee, Alabama, is no different than the murder of peasants in Vietnam, for both [Younge] and the Vietnamese sought, and are seeking, to secure the rights guaranteed them by law. In each case the United States government bears a great part of the responsibility for these deaths. Samuel [Younge] was murdered because United States law is not being enforced. Vietnamese are murdered because the United States is pursuing an aggressive policy in violation of international law."

• Date: 1944-11-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, snccdigital.org.
• Tags: #Civil Rights, #Birthdays, #Imperialism, #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Elizabeth McAlister (1939 - )

Fri Nov 17, 1939

Elizabeth McAlister, born on this day in 1939, is a former nun of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary and peace activist associated with the direct action-oriented Plowshares Movement.

McAlister was married to Philip Berrigan (1923 - 2002), a fellow Catholic activist, and both were excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Of her 29 years of marriage to Philip, 11 of them were spent separated because one of them was in prison.

On April 4th, 2018, McAlister and six other people (known as the Kingsbay Plowshare Seven) entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia and performed symbolic acts of disarmament. On October 24th, 2019, McAlister was convicted on four counts in federal court in Brunswick, Georgia for entering and holding a symbolic disarming of the Trident submarine's nuclear weapons. In June 2020, McAlister was sentenced to time served, probation, and restitution.

"True! The jail is tomb-like. But there was life there of which - to judge from his remarks - the priest knew nothing. There was hope that women built together in that tomb; there was love that they shared in a thousand small and large ways to make "the wilderness and dry land glad, the deserts rejoice and blossom" (Isaiah 35:1)."

- Elizabeth McAlister

• Date: 1939-11-17
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.democracynow.org.
• Tags: #Birthdays.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Gavril Myasnikov Executed (1945)

Fri Nov 16, 1945

Gavril Ilyich Myasnikov was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and later left communist dissident who was executed by the USSR on this day in 1945. Myansikov participated in the Revolution of 1905 and became an underground Bolshevik activist in 1906. He was arrested by Tsarist police and spent over seven years at hard labor in Siberia.

In 1922, along with former members of the Workers' Opposition (a dissident group with the Bolsheviks), Myasnikov signed the "Letter of the Twenty-Two", sent to the Comintern in 1922, protesting the Russian Communist Party leaders' suppression of dissent among proletarian members of the Communist Party. Shortly thereafter, Myasnikov was expelled from the Russian Communist Party, and he formed an opposition faction called "Workers Group of the Russian Communist Party" that opposed the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Myasnikov was arrested by the Soviet state in 1923, and served several years in prison before being exiled to Armenia, where he fled the country. In 1944, he accepted an invitation by the Soviet embassy in France to return to the USSR. Upon his arrival, he was arrested by the Soviet secret police and later executed on November 16th, 1945.

• Date: 1945-11-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, www.marxists.org.
• Tags: #Communism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Salvadoran Jesuits Murdered (1989)

Thu Nov 16, 1989

On this day in 1989, during the Salvadoran Civil War, Salvadoran soldiers killed six Jesuits and two others on the campus of Central American University in San Salvador and attempted to frame the act on rebel groups. The Jesuits were advocates of a negotiated settlement between the government of El Salvador and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), and their murders prompted international outrage.

The Atlacatl Battalion (trained at the U.S. "School of the Americas") was an elite unit of the Salvadoran Army responsible for the violence. The Jesuits were deemed "subversives" that needed to be eliminated, and officers attempted to disguise the operation as a rebel attack, using an AK-47 rifle that had been captured from the FMLN.

After storming their residence and killing the priests, soldiers also executed housekeeper Julia Elba Ramos and her 16-year-old daughter, Celina Mariceth Ramos. The murders increased international pressure for a cease-fire and became one of the key turning points that led toward a negotiated settlement to the war.

• Date: 1989-11-16
• Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, libcom.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Fred Beal Passes Away (1954)

Mon Nov 15, 1954

Fred Beal (1896 - 1954) was an American labor organizer who played a leading role in the Loray Mill Strike of 1929 and a former communist who renounced his beliefs upon his exile to Soviet Russia. He died on this day in 1954.

In the Loray Mill Strike, Fred Beal was a leading labor organizer, who, along with six Loray Mill workers, were indicted for the murder of a police chief that happened during the protests. Beal was convicted and skipped bail, fleeing to the Soviet Union. There, he became ambivalent about the state of the Bolshevik revolution and sought to return to the United States.

After successfully fleeing to his home country, Beal changed his mind once more, returning to the Soviet Union and working as a manager in a Ukrainian tractor factory. It was here that he became disillusioned for good with the communist system, noting bitterly that he was still a labor organizer, facing Soviet versions of the same issues that had prompted the North Carolinians to strike, only now he was urging workers not to demand better conditions.

Upon returning to the U.S., he became an anti-communist critic, publishing his experiences in a book titled "Proletarian Journey". According to author Matthew Disler, much of "Proletarian Journey" is clearly embellished, repeating dialogues from decades earlier, frequently editorializing, and mixing anecdotes from his experiences with diatribes about his enemies within the Communist movement. Bisler also claims that these inconsistencies are even worse in Beal's 1949 book, "The Red Fraud".

After serving four years in prison, Beal was paroled and began working at a textile mill, participating in union activities there. He died on November 15th, 1954 of a heart attack.

• Date: 1954-11-15
• Learn More: narratively.com, www.ncpedia.org.
• Tags: #Communism, #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Berlin Conference (1884)

Sat Nov 15, 1884

Image: The Conference of Berlin, as illustrated in 'Illustrierte Zeitung', 1884 [WikiCommons]

On this day in 1884, the "Berlin Conference" began when delegations from nearly every Western European country and the U.S. met in Germany to develop a set of protocols for the seizure and control of African resources.

The conference, which had no African representatives, was the first international conference ever on the subject of Africa, and dealt almost soley with the matter of its exploitation.

At the time, approximately 80% of African land and resources were under domestic control; the influence of Europeans was most strongly exerted on the coast. Following it, colonial powers began seizing resources further inland.

As a result of the conference, which continued into 1885, a "General Act" was signed and ratified by all but one of the 14 nations at the table, the U.S. being the sole exception. The Act's main features were the establishment of a regime of free trade stretching across the middle of Africa, the development of which became the rationale for the recognition of the short-lived "Congo Free State", the abolition of the overland slave trade, and the principle of "effective occupation".

The Conference's rapacious intentions for Africa were noted by outsiders: socialist journalist Daniel De Leon described the conference as "an event unique in the history of political science...Diplomatic in form, it was economic in fact."

Before the Conference ended, the Lagos Observer declared that "the world had, perhaps, never witnessed a robbery on so large a scale." Theodore Holly, the first black Protestant Episcopal Bishop in the U.S., condemned the delegates as having "come together to enact into law, national rapine, robbery and murder".

• Date: 1884-11-15
• Learn More: www.aljazeera.com, en.wikipedia.org.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

First Recorded Strike in History (1159 BC)

Sat Nov 14, 1159

Image: Enslaved brick-makers, depicted in the tomb of the vizier Rekmire, c. 1450 BCE [https://www.thetorah.com/]

On this day in 1159 BC, the first recorded strike in history began when necropolis workers in Ancient Egypt refused to continue working after going 18 days without pay.

The workers were preparing for Pharaoh Ramses III's thirty-year jubilee, a lavish celebration in his honor, years in advance.

The payment to the workers at Deir el-Medina (also known as Set-Ma'at, "The Place of Truth") was inconsistent before finally stopping altogether. After 18 days of non-payment, workers laid down their tools and marched toward the city shouting "We are hungry!"

After negotiations for back pay broke down, the workers took over the southern gate of the Ramesseum, the central storehouse of grain in Thebes. After winning their back pay, wages continued to be paid inconsistently and workers again went on strike, taking over and blocking all access to the Valley of the Kings, which disrupted important religious ceremonies.

These labor actions went on for three years; the workers would not receive their pay, they would then go on strike, the officials would find the means to pay them, and the same scenario would be repeated again the next month.

• Date: 1159-11-14
• Learn More: www.ancient.eu, nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Night of Terror (1917)

Wed Nov 14, 1917

Image: Suffrage leader Lucy Burns imprisoned in the Occoquan Workhouse, November 1917

On this day in 1917 the superintendent of the Occoquan Workhouse prison ordered forty guards to brutalize suffragists, imprisoned for picketing for the right to vote in the U.S. capital.

Before November 14th, some of the activists had initiated a hunger strike to protest the conditions of the prison, the prison doctors force-fed the women by putting tubes down their throats, causing some women to vomit.

On the night of November 14th, prison guards beat Lucy Burns and chained her hands to the cell bars above her head for the entire night. They threw Dora Lewis into a dark cell and beat her unconscious.

Lewis's cellmate, Alice Cosu, who believed her to be dead, suffered a heart attack, and was refused medical treatment. Dorothy Day (famous for later founding Catholic Worker Movement) was slammed repeatedly over the back of an iron bench. Guards grabbed, dragged, beat, choked, pinched, and kicked other women.

The suffragists dubbed the episode the "Night of Terror", and the brutality was highly publicized, garnering support for the movement to give women the right to vote. On January 9th, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson (who had been specifically targeted by suffragette pickets) finally announced his support for the proposed women's suffrage amendment.

• Date: 1917-11-14
• Learn More: www.washingtonpost.com, www.zinnedproject.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Protests.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Full Sutton Prison Strike (1995)

Mon Nov 13, 1995

On this day in 1995, four of Full Sutton Prison's six wings (all those not set aside for sex offenders) went on strike. Full Sutton prison is located in the village of Full Sutton, near Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.

After breakfast, inmates from four out of the six wings went on strike, refusing to perform their duties, including meal preparation, kitchen help, carpentry, textiles, industrial cleaning, and other trade jobs. Inmates sat in their cells and refused to work.

The protest was mainly against the new 'Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme', as well as anger over a series of restrictions imposed on prisoners there over the previous months, including restrictions on use of phones, on the amount of property inmates were allowed to keep, and a ban on them having property handed in by relatives and friends.

The strike lasted for at least three days, ended by the authorities sending in officers in riot gear to break it up. Dozens of inmates (estimated between 20 and 60) were moved to other jails as a consequence.

• Date: 1995-11-13
• Learn More: libcom.org, nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu.
• Tags: #Labor.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Suffragette Assaults Churchill (1909)

Sat Nov 13, 1909

On this day in 1909, British suffragette Theresa Garnett (1888 - 1966) assaulted Winston Churchill with a whip, striking him several times while shouting "Take that in the name of the insulted women of England!"

The action came out of the militant suffragist group "Women's Social and Political Union", of which Garnett was a member. Set up in Manchester, its policy of "deeds not words" led to campaigns of direct action by women frustrated by the failure of more peaceful methods.

Members of the group committed many illegal activities, ranging from slapping policemen to widespread arson attacks.

Although Garnett was arrested for assaulting Churchill, she was only charged with disturbing the peace because Churchill did not want to appear in court. She served one month in Horfield Prison.

• Date: 1909-11-13
• Learn More: libcom.org, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Labor, #Feminism.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Missouri Anti-Nuclear Break-in (1984)

Mon Nov 12, 1984

On this day in 1984, four Plowshares peace activists broke into a Minuteman missile site near Kansas City, Missouri and smashed weapons equipment. The four protesters were Larry Cloud-Morgan, an indigenous rights activist and Anishinabe spiritual leader; Paul Kabat, a Catholic Priest; Carl Kabat, also a Catholic Priest; and Helen Woodson, mother of seven.

The group called themselves the "silo pruning hooks" in reference to the Biblical mandate to "beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks", and used a compressor-driven, 90-pound jack hammer to damage the weapons equipment.

The activists received sentences varying from 6 to 18 years. After his arrest, Carl Kabat told United Press International "It is up to the people to disarm. Governments will never disarm. Ordinary people will have to do extraordinary things if this planet is to survive."

• Date: 1984-11-12
• Learn More: www.upi.com, www.washingtonpost.com.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org

Swiss General Strike (1918)

Tue Nov 12, 1918

Image: Machine guns on the streets of Zurich in November 1918. Armed soldiers were positioned all over the city. From Gretler's Panoptikum zur Sozialgeschichte [swissinfo.ch]

On this day in 1918, the Swiss "Landestreik" began, a two day general strike in which 250,000 struck for a variety of social reforms, including a 48 hour week, women's suffrage, disability insurance, and the formation of people's army.

The strike took place in the context of World War I and skyrocketing food prices that left many workers hungry. As bread prices doubled between 1914 and 1918, the average industrial wages sank by a quarter. The wage of conscripted soldiers was also often less the jobs those workers were forced to abandon.

In early November, Zurich's labor movement sought to celebrate the first anniversary of the Russian October Revolution. After news of the German November Revolution and the toppling of the German emperor reached Zurich, the military banned all public demonstrations, dispersing one protest by attacking workers with saber-bearing cavalry.

Following this incident, leaders of the Swiss Socialist Party (SPS), the country's labor unions, and the socialist press, banded together in an alliance called the Olten Action Committee (OAK), issued a proclamation of working class demands and a call for a general strike on November 12th, 1918.

The demands included a 48 hour week, women's suffrage, disability insurance, establishing a state monopoly on foreign trade, new national council elections, and the reorganization of the military into a people's army.

Facing pressure from the government to end the strike and a hostile military, OAK leadership quickly backpedaled and called off the strike just two days later, on November 14th. Despite this, some workers continued to strike for several days afterward.

A military court acted quickly and initiated legal proceedings against 35,000 strikers, and 21 of its leaders were tried for mutiny. In the short term, the strike's failure was a disaster for the labor movement, however many of OAK's demands would later come to fruition - in 1919, the 48 hour week was established for workers.

• Date: 1918-11-12
• Learn More: www.swissinfo.ch, en.wikipedia.org.
• Tags: #Socialism, #Labor, #General Strikes.
• Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org