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Seeds of Fire: A People’s Chronology – September – Recalling events that happened on this day in history. Memories of struggle, resistance and persistence. Compiled by Ulli Diemer
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June September September 1843 Related Topics: Critical Theory – Karl Marx – Marxism – Radical Theory – Revolutionary Politics September 1873 September 1896 Related Topics: Killings by Police – Labour History – Lock-outs – Mineworkers (Miners) – Mining Safety – Police Violence – Strikebreaking – Strikes/U.S. – U.S. History – Workers’ History – Workplace Death and Injury September 1898 Luxemburg writes: “It is contrary to history to represent work for reforms as a long-drawn out revolution and revolution as a condensed series of reforms. A social transformation and a legislative reform do not differ according to their duration but according to their content... people who pronounce themselves in favour 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. If we follow the political conceptions of revisionism, we arrive at the same conclusion that is reached when we follow the economic theories of revisionism. Our program becomes not the realisation of socialism, but the reform of capitalism.” Further Reading:
Social Reform or Revolution, by Rosa Luxemburg Related Topics: Marxism – Radical Theory – Reformism – Revolutionary Politics – Rosa Luxemburg – Socialism – Strategies for Social Change – Transition to Socialism September 1906 Related Topics: Cuba – Intervention – September 1917 Related Topics: Mutinies September 1931 September 1938 Further Reading:
The Transitional Program: The Death Agony of Capitalism and the Tasks of the Fourth International Related Topics: Fourth International – Trotskyism September 1 September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invades Poland, triggering the bloodiest conflict in human history. Before World War II ends, some 50 to 75 million people will die, two-thirds of them civilians. Related Topics: World War II September 2 September 2, 1885 White coal miners, led by the Knights of Labor, violently attack their Chinese co-workers in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing 28 and burning the homes of 75 Chinese families. The white miners want the Chinese barred from working in the mine. The mine owners and operators had brought in the Chinese ten years earlier in a successful attempt to keep labour costs down by dividing the workers and suppressing strikes. September 2, 1918 Birth of Claire Culhane (1918-1996), Canadian socialist, anti-Vietnam War activist, prisoner rights advocate. Further Reading:
One Woman Army: The Life of Claire Culhane Related Topics: Correctional Institutions – Incarceration – Prison Reform – Prisons – Vietnam War September 2, 1945 Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam a republic and independent from France. Half a million people gather in Hanoi to hear him read the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence, modeled on the U.S. Declaration of Independence. France refuses to recognize Vietnam's independence and sends troops to put down the independence movement. France hangs on another nine years until French forces are crushed by the Vietnamese at Dien Bien Phu. September 2, 1962 About one thousand members of the ‘Sons of Freedom’ Doukhobors begin a trek out of their village of Krestova in British Columbia, Canada. They leave behind the ruins of two hundred homes which they have themselves burnt to the ground, as a way of showing their freedom from property. They are trekking to a jail, about 650 kilometres away, where some 200 men from the community are imprisoned for acts of bombing and arson. At the root of the situation is a conflict between Doukhobors who have compromised their traditional beliefs by buying land, and the Freedomites, who believe that land should not be owned as private property, and that it is wrong to compromise with state authority or wealth. September 3 September 3, 1838 Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery. He goes on to become an abolitionist, journalist, and author. September 3, 1934 Start of the 1934 textile workers’ strike in the United States, the largest strike in the history of the U.S. at that time, involving 400,000 textile workers and lasting 22 days. Related Topics: Labour History – Strikes/U.S. – U.S. History – Workers’ History September 3, 1991 Twenty-five workers die at the Hamlet Chicken Processing plant fire in North Carolina when locked doors prevent workers from escaping when a fire breaks out. September 4 September 4, 1870 Emperor Napoleon III of France is deposed, two days after his defeat and capture in the Franco-Prussian War. In Lyon, citizens rise up and declare the creation of a provisional revolutionary government. September 4, 1926
Birth of philosopher and social critic Ivan Illich (1926-2002). September 4, 1949 Paul Robeson defies a racist red-baiting mob and sings to 15,000 at a Labour Day gathering in Peekskill, New York. September 4, 1970 Salvador Allende, a moderate socialist, is elected President of Chile. Having failed in its efforts to prevent Allende’s election, the American CIA immediately begins efforts to overthrow him. They succeed in organizing a bloody coup on September 11, 1973. Further Reading:
Conversations with Allende Related Topics: Chile September 4, 1978 Simultaneous demonstrations in Moscow’s Red Square and in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., organized by the War Resisters League, call for nuclear disarmament. September 5 September 5, 1839 The First Opium War: Britain declares war on China in order to compel the Qing Dynasty to allow opium imports, a lucrative source of profits for the British. September 5, 1917 In 48 coordinated raids across the United States (the Palmer Raids, so-called because they were ordered by Attorney General Palmer), federal agents arrest hundreds of activists and radicals, and seize records and destroy equipment and books. Related Topics: U.S. History September 5 - 12, 1917 The third ‘Zimmerwald’ conference of anti-war socialists takes place in Stockholm. Further Reading:
The Junius Pamphlet, by Rosa Luxemburg Related Topics: Anti-Imperialism – Anti-War Movement – First World War – Marxism September 5, 1957 Publication of On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. September 5, 1977 German business leader Hanns Martin Schleyer is kidnapped in Cologne by the Red Army Faction and is later murdered. September 5, 1981 “Women For Life On Earth” set up the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp outside Greenham Air Base in England. September 6 September 6, 1492 Christopher Columbus and crew leave the Canary Islands aboard three ships on what will turn out to be a five-week voyage westward. September 6 - 12, 1869 The First International holds its Congress in Basle, Switzerland. Related Topics: First International – Workers’ History September 6, 1920 Anarchists set off a bomb on Wall Street in front of J.P. Morgan’s bank. The explosion kills 38 and seriously injures 143. Most of the dead and injured are young workers working at poorly paid jobs in the area; the presumed target, banker J.P. Morgan, is not in his office: he is several thousand miles away, in Scotland. Further Reading:
Buda’s Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb, by Mike Davis Related Topics: Anarchism – Anarchism/Critiques – Bombers – Bombings – Political Violence – Propaganda of the Deed – Terrorism – Violence Against Civilians September 6, 1941 All Jews over the age of six in German-occupied territories are ordered by the Nazi regime to wear a yellow Star of David on their clothing. September 6, 1969 A group of left-leaning members of Canada’s New Democratic Party adopts a statement known as the Waffle Manifesto, which becomes the basis for the Waffle group within the NDP. Related Topics: New Democratic Party (NDP) – Waffle Movement September 7 September 7, 1903 U.S. forces intervene in Syria to ‘protect American interests.’ Related Topics: Intervention – Syria September 7, 1992 South African troops kill at least 24 people and injure 150 more at an African National Congress (ANC) rally. Related Topics: Apartheid – South Africa – State-Sponsored Violence September 8 September 8 - 12, 1919 U.S. forces intervene in Honduras to ‘protect American interests’ when an attempted revolt breaks out. September 8, 1965 Start of the Delano Grape Strike, a strike, boycott, and secondary boycott led by the United Farm Workers (UFW) against growers of table grapes in California. Related Topics: Labour History – Strikes/U.S. – Workers’ History September 9 September 9, 1739 Outbreak of the Stono Rebellion (also known as Cato’s Rebellion), a slave rebellion in the British colony of South Carolina. A group of slaves obtains arms and battles the South Carolina militia before eventually being defeated. Related Topics: Slave Revolts September 9, 1828 Birth of Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), novelist, social reformer, and pacifist. (August 28 old style calendar). September 9, 1911
Birth of Paul Goodman (1911-1972), writer, social critic, anarchist, poet. Further Reading:
Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life, by Paul and Percival Goodman September 9, 1922 Birth of Manolis Glezos, Greek socialist. On May 30, 1941, Glezos and Apostolos Santas climbed on the Acropolis in Athens and tore down the swastika flag planted there by the Nazi occupation forces. Glezos was captured, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death, but managed to escape. In the Greek civil war in 1948, he was again imprisoned and sentenced to death by the right-wing government of the time, but was saved by an international outcry. He was imprisoned again for his leftist views in 1958, and in 1961 was elected to parliament while in prison. He was imprisoned again under the Greek military dictatorship of the late 1960s. In 2012, 89-year-old Glezos was again arrested, by riot police in Athens, while protesting against the current government. September 9, 1971 Outbreak of a prison riot in Attica, New York. Protesting against abusive and racist treatment, inmates rebel and take control of the prison, taking 33 staff hostage. After four days of negotiations, police and national guard troops suddenly storm the prison, resulting in the deaths of 29 inmates and nine hostages. In the aftermath, police and guards engage in sadistic reprisals and acts of revenge, including forcing inmates to strip naked and crawl through the mud, and vicious mass beatings. Related Topics: Incarceration – Prisons September 9, 1976 The death of Mao Zedong sets off a power struggle in China. September 10 September 10, 1676 Death of English radical Gerrard Winstanley (1609-1676). Winstanley was one of the founders of the “True Levellers”, whose egalitarian beliefs were based upon Christian communism. They were also known as the Diggers because they took over public lands and dug them over to plant crops. Further Reading:
The True Levellers Standard Advanced, by Gerrard Winstanley Related Topics: The Commons – Diggers September 10, 1897 In the Latimer massacre in Pennsylvania, 19 striking coalminers are murdered by sheriff’s deputies, and many others are wounded. Some of the murdered men had originally been brought in as strikebreakers but had subsequently joined the striking workers. Most of those killed were shot in the back. Related Topics: Killings by Police – Labour History – Mineworkers (Miners) – Police Violence – State Violence – Strikebreaking – Strikes/U.S. – U.S. History – Workers’ History September 10, 1923 Birth of Uri Avnery, Israeli writer and peace activist. Further Reading:
The Lion and the Gazelle Related Topics: Israel September 10 - 15, 1924 American forces intervene in Nicaragua to ‘protect American interests.’ September 10, 1941 Birth of Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), palaeontologist, evolutionary biologist, and essayist. Further Reading:
Kropotkin Was No Crackpot Related Topics: Biology – Evolution – Evolutionary Theory – Palaeontology – Scientists September 11 September 11, 1903 Birth of Theodore Adorno (1903-1969), leftist philosopher, critical theorist, and musicologist, member of the Frankfurt School. Further Reading:
The Frankfurt School and “Critical Theory”
Related Topics: Critical Theory – Frankfurt School September 11, 1973 Chilean President Salvador Allende is overthrown and killed in a bloody coup orchestrated by the U.S. government through the CIA, and carried out by General Augusto Pinochet. Thousands are murdered, tortured, and ‘disappeared’ in the ensuing reign of terror. Further Reading:
Salvador Allende: Last Words to the Nation. September 11, 1973, 9:10 am Related Topics: Chile – CIA – Coups September 11, 2001 Terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon kill almost 3,000 people, and provide the U.S. government with the opportunity to launch an indefinite ‘war on terror’ and massively restrict civil liberties. September 11, 2012 A factory fire in Karachi, Pakistan, kills at least 289 workers. All but one of the doors had been locked by management to prevent workers from leaving. The factory owners had also placed iron bars over the windows. Earlier the same evening, another 25 workers died in a fire in a shoe factory in Lahore. Related Topics: Corporate Crime – Sweatshops – Workers’ Health and Safety – Workplace Death & Injury September 12 September 12, 1837 Hundreds of black Canadians confront British troops attempting to deport Solomon Moseby, an escaped slave from Kentucky, back to the United States. Slavery is illegal in the British Empire, so slaves who reach Upper Canada are supposed to be safe, but U.S. authorities have demanded that Moseby be deported back to the U.S. because he stole a horse from the slaveowner in order to escape. When news of the planned deportation becomes known in late August, blacks encircle the jail in Niagara-on-the-Lake in Upper Canada in order to prevent his removal. When the authorities make their move on September 12, the crowd attacks the troops guarding Moseby and enable him to escape. Two people are killed by the soldiers in the melee, and 40 are arrested. September 12, 1898 Birth of Ben Shahn, artist and leftist. September 12, 1924 Birth of Amilcar Cabral (Abel Djassi) (1924-1973), left nationalist and leader of the struggle for the independence of Guinea-Bissau. Further Reading: The Weapon of Theory, by Amilcar Cabral Related Topics: National Liberation Movements September 12, 1944 Birth of Leonard Peltier, native activist and political prisoner who has been incarcerated in the United States since 1977. Further Reading:
I Am Barak Obama's Prisoner Now, by Leonard Peltier Related Topics: Aboriginal Prisoners – Aboriginal Rights – Peltier, Leonard – Political Prisoners September 12, 1945 Start of the Windsor Ford strike, a 99-day strike in which 10,000 workers walk off the job, eventually resulting in a victory for the workers. Further Reading: Ninety-Nine Days: The Ford Strike in Windsor, 1945 Related Topics: Labour History – Picket Lines – Strikes/Canadian September 12, 1977 Black liberation leader Steve Biko is murdered by South African police. Related Topics: Apartheid – Killings by Police September 13 September 13, 1858 A group of citizens of Oberlin, Ohio, stop slavecatchers from abducting John Price, a black man. They free Price from the slavecatchers and help him escape across the Canadian border. Further Reading:
Abolition of Slavery Timeline Related Topics: Anti-Slavery – Direct Action – Slavery September 13, 1961 33 protesters, including 89-year-old Bertrand Russell, are arrested at a major demonstration against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square, London. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – Non-Violence – Nuclear Disarmament – Peace Movement September 13, 1983 The first group from Peace Brigades International (PBI) arrives in Guatemala to provide unarmed and nonviolent witness protection for indigenous leaders. September 14 September 14, 1769 Birth of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), naturalist, scientist, geographer, opponent of slavery, philosopher. September 14, 1867
Publication of the first volume of Das Kapital, by Karl Marx.
Further Reading:
A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, by Karl Marx (1859) Related Topics: Accumulation of Capital – Capital – Capital Accumulation – Capitalism – Capitalism/History of – Capitalist Mode of Production – Critique of Political Economy – Economic History – Marxism Overviews September 14, 1918 Socialist Eugene Debs is sentenced to 10 years in prison for opposing U.S. entry into World War One, which he characterized as a capitalist war. While in prison, he runs for President in the 1920 election and receives nearly one million votes. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – First World War – Political Prisoners September 15 September 15, 1812 The French army, commanded by Napoleon, enters Moscow, to find it virtually abandoned. Napoleon’s apparent triumph is actually a prelude to disaster: of the 432,000 men in the French army when it set out on its campaign, only 10,000 will survive to return home. September 15, 1835 The Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, reaches the Galapagos. Darwin goes on shore for the first time the next day, September 16. September 15-16, 1931 The Invergorden Mutiny. A mutiny breaks out among British sailors on a number of ships docked at Invergorden, Scotland. Related Topics: Mutinies September 15, 1935 Germany’s Nazi government passes the Nuremberg Laws, under which Jews are deprived of legal equality. The population is divided into ‘citizens of the state’ and ‘subjects of the state’, the latter being denied the rights of citizens. ‘Racially mixed’ marriages and relationships are made illegal. Related Topics: Anti-Semitism – Nazi History September 15, 1963 During Sunday School, 15 sticks of dynamite planted by the Ku Klux Klan blow apart a black church, the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four children, and injuring 23 others. The bombing followed the court-ordered integration of public schools the previous week. A few days before the bombing, Alabama Governor George Wallace had said that in order to stop integration, Alabama needed a “few first-class funerals.” Related Topics: De-segregation – Jim Crow – Racism – Segregation – Terrorism September 15, 1971 The first Greenpeace voyage. With a crew of 12, members of the newly formed Greenpeace organization set sail from Vancouver on the Phyllis Cormack (later renamed the Greenpeace) to try to stop a U.S. nuclear test near Amchitka in the Aleutian islands. Five months later, the U.S. announces that it is ending nuclear tests in the Aleutians. September 15, 1996 6,000 people rally near the Headwaters Grove in California to protest plans by the Pacific Lumber Company to clearcut one of the last remaining large stands of redwood trees, where some trees are more than 2,000 years old. More than 1,000 are arrested during this day’s protest. Ongoing protests over a fifteen-year period are ultimately successful in saving about half the area, the other half was clearcut before being incorporated into the Headwaters Forest Reserve. Related Topics: Clearcut Logging – Forest Conservation – Forest Industry – Forests – Logging – Old Growth Forests September 16 September 16, 1498
Death of Tomas de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, notorious for his persecution of Christians suspected of heresy, as well as of Jews and ‘crypto-Jews’. Torquemada was one of the chief supporters of the Alhambra Decree, which expelled Jews from Spain in 1492. His approach to persons suspected of heresy was to first give them the opportunity to confess; if they refused to confess they would be tortured until they did. Many of those convicted of heresy were put to death by beheading or being burnt to death; some were left in prison until they died. September 16, 1912 The Vancouver Island Coal Strike begins when miners at Cumberland walk out to protest an arbitrary firing. The issues in the strike are union recognition and safety (there have been hundreds of deaths in the mines). The mining companies lock them out and bring in scabs to break the strike. The government backs the companies by sending in a large force of militia and imprisoning striking miners. Eventually the strike is defeated. Related Topics: Coal Mining – Labour History – Mineworkers (Miners) – Strikebreaking – Strikes – Strikes/Canadian – Workers’ History September 16, 1913 The German Marxist Rosa Luxemburg gives a speech in which she says that if the ruling classes start a war and call on workers to kill other workers, the reply must be “we will not do it!” The German state charges her with calling for public disobedience of the laws, and jails her. When the Great War breaks out less than a year later, Luxemburg is in jail, and workers in all the imperialist states accept the call to arms and set out to kill other workers. September 16, 1921 Birth of Ursula Franklin, Canadian scientist and author. Franklin has written and spoken extensively on the social and political effects of technology, and has been active in the anti-war, feminist, and social justice movements. Further Reading:
The Ursula Franklin Reader: Pacifism as a Map Related Topics: Pacifism – Technological Change – Technology and Society September 16, 1971 In a series of continuing protests against the expropriation of land for Narita airport near Tokyo, 5,000 farmers and students battle police. Three policemen are killed in the riot. September 16, 1973 Chilean singer-songwriter Victor Jara is murdered by the dictatorship which seized power in Chile on September 11, 1973. Jara is among thousands of prisoners held in the Chile Stadium after the coup. He is beaten and tortured; the bones in his hands are deliberately broken to ensure that he cannot play a musical instrument. On September 16 he is murdered by soldiers. Thirty years later, in 2003, the stadium in which he was murdered is renamed Estadio Victor Jara. Further Reading:
Eyewitness Chile: After 30 Years Related Topics: Chile – Coups – State Terrorism – State Violence September 16, 1982 A massacre takes place in two Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, Sabra and Shatila. The actual massacre is carried out by a Lebanese Phalangist militia allied with Israel. However, at the time of the massacre, access to the camps is controlled by the Israeli armed forces (IDF), and later evidence shows that the Israeli authorities were well aware of what the Phalangists were intending to do, and gave them access to the camps so they could carry out their planned slaughter. The IDF also prevented Palestinians trying to flee the massacre from escaping. Further Reading:
The Massacre at Sabra and Shatila, Thirty Years Later Related Topics: Israeli Military – Massacres – Palestinian Refugees – Terrorism September 17 September 17, 1852 U.S. Marines land in Buenos Aires to ‘protect American interests’. They remain until April 1853. Related Topics: Argentina – Intervention – U.S. Foreign Policy – U.S. Imperialism September 17, 1961 British peace activists, supporters of the Committee of 100, block roads at Holy Loch and Trafalgar Square, 1314 are arrested. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – Non-Violence – Nuclear Disarmament – Peace Movement September 17, 1961 UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold dies in an air crash in the Congo. Whether the crash was accidental or deliberately caused remains a source of controversy. September 17, 1989 Coal miners at the Pittston Coal mine in Virginia go on strike. Their year-long strike receives almost no coverage in the U.S. media, who are busy providing extensive coverage of a coal miners’ strike in the Soviet Union. September 17, 1997 A draft treaty banning anti-personnel mines is signed in Oslo. The United States refuses to sign. September 17, 2007 Iraq: Blackwater mercenaries contracted by the U.S. occupation authorities kill 17 unarmed civilians and wound 27 others in Baghdad. Blackwater quickly changes its name to “XE”; many of the mercenaries switch to other security firms. Even though the murders took place in Iraq, the U.S. claims jurisdiction, and to no one’s surprise, an American judge then dismisses all charges against the killers on legal technicalities. September 17, 2011 Occupy Wall Street begins life in Zucotti Park, New York City. Related Topics: Occupy Movement September 18 September 18, 1968 In an ongoing campaign to repress any form of overt dissent in the period leading up the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, troops invade the National University in Mexico City. Riot police first invaded the campus in July; the repression culminates in the October 2 Tlatelolco Massacre of students. Related Topics: Mexico – Military Violence against Civilians September 19 September 19, 1819 A beautiful day in the English countryside. John Keats, twenty-three years old, ill with tuberculosis, goes walking in the country near Winchester, and then, “While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;” he returns home and writes To Autumn. It is the last poem he will write before tuberculosis kills him. September 19, 1856 The United States invades Panama in order to ‘safeguard’ the Panama Canal, as it claims to have the right to do if it decides that the local government is ‘unfit’. More than 150 years later, the U.S. continues to claim the ‘right’ to intervene militarily any time, anywhere, it sees fit. Related Topics: Intervention – Panama – Panama Canal – U.S. Foreign Policy – U.S. Imperialism September 19, 1905 Apostrophes lead to a revolutionary upheaval. On September 19, typesetters at a Moscow printing plant go out on strike. The strike arises out of a demand by the typesetters, who are paid on a piecework basis according to how many letters they set, to be paid for apostrophes. They also ask for a shorter working day. The employer refuses. The strike spreads: by September 24, fifty print works are out on strike. On the 25th, police attempt to crush the strike. They fail: other workers, including bakers, and then railway workers, go out on solidarity strikes. By October 7, Russia’s entire railway system is shut down by the strike, by October 12, a Russia-wide general strike is underway. Revolutionary soviets (councils) form in St. Petersburg and other cities. The government offers concessions while attempting to regain control; by 1906, it has succeeded in defeating the revolution – for the time being. September 19, 1921
Birth of Paulo Freire (1921-1997), Brazilian educator and proponent of critical pedagogy. Further Reading:
Pedagogy of the Oppressed, by Paulo Freire Related Topics: Critical Pedagogy – Popular Education September 19, 1940 Witold Pilecki, a member of an underground Polish resistance group, deliberately sets out to be caught in a Nazi roundup, so that he will be sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The only person to voluntarily become an inmate in Auschwitz, his goal is to gather intelligence in Auschwitz and attempt to organize inmate resistance. Pilecki is able to smuggle out reports on what is happening in Auschwitz, providing evidence that it is a death camp. In 1943, he is able to escape and subsequently takes part in the Warsaw Uprising. Related Topics: Anti-Nazi Resistance – Auschwitz – Holocaust – Polish History/World War II September 20 September 20, 1260 Prussian tribes revolt against Teutonic Knights. The Knights were a crusading military order, supported by the Popes and the rulers of Christian Europe, that sought to conquer the pagan Prussian tribes and impose Christianity on them. The Prussians revolted against the invaders repeatedly; in later rebellions, class divisions came to the forefront, to the extent that peasants rising in revolt began by killing their own nobility, who had meanwhile converted to Christianity and formed alliances with the Teutonic knights. The Prussian tribes were eventually swamped by colonists from Germany, and were assimilated; their language is thought to have disappeared around the beginning of the 18th century. Related Topics: Colonial-Settler States – Colonialism – Prussia September 20, 1878
Birth of Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), American journalist, socialist, and political activist. Further Reading:
The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair Related Topics: Meat Packing Industry September 20, 1997 3,000 protesters in Germany rip up railroad tracks leading from the Krummel nuclear power station to the main Hamburg-Berlin line. Scientists had linked the nuclear station to an increased incidence of leukemia among the population around the plant. Related Topics: Anti-Nuclear Movement September 21 September 21, 1797 Sailors on the British warship HMS Hermione mutiny against a sadistic captain, killing the captain and most of the officers. Related Topics: Mutinies September 21, 1963 The War Resisters League organizes the first American anti-Vietnam War demonstration in New York City. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – Vietnam War September 22 September 22, 1980 Iraq invades Iran, starting a war which will go on until August 1988, and result in the deaths of perhaps a million people on both sides. September 23 September 23 – October 9, 1873 American forces intervene in Colombia to ‘protect American interests.’ September 24 September 24, 1968 Anti-Vietnam-War activists destroy thousands of draft files in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – Vietnam War September 24, 1969 Start of the Chicago Seven conspiracy trial. Related Topics: Anti-War Movement – Judicial Bias – Legal Systems as Instruments of Oppression – Sixties (1960s) September 25 September 25, 1940 Suicide of Walter Benjamin, German Marxist, philosopher, literary critic, and cultural theorist. A Jew, Benjamin was part of a refugee group which had fled to Spain from Nazi-occupied France. Learning that Spain is about to deport them back to France into the hands of the Nazis, Benjamin commits suicide by taking an overdose of morphine. September 25, 1957 Federal troops force desegregation of Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. Further Reading:
Racial Segregation Related Topics: De-segregation – Jim Crow – Racism – Segregation September 25, 1961 Mississippi justice: Herbert Lee, a farmer working to register black voters, is gunned down in Liberty, Mississippi by E.H. Hurst, a state legislator. Mississippi justice is nothing if not swift: a ‘trial’ before an all-white jury takes place later the same day. The ‘jury’ finds Hurst not guilty. Related Topics: De-segregation – Judicial Bias – Legal Systems as Instruments of Oppression September 26 September 26, 1905 The physics journal Annalen der Physik publishes “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”, a paper submitted by a 26-year-old employee of the Swiss Patent Office, a recent physics graduate who has so far been unable to find a job in his field. In his paper, the author, Albert Einstein, outlines what will become known as the special theory of relativity. Further Reading:
Einstein's 1905 Revolution: New Physics, New Century September 26, 1926 Birth of Daniel Singer, socialist journalist. Further Reading:
Remembering Daniel Singer, by Percy Brazill September 26, 1936 Spain’s anarchist federation, the CNT, drops its long-standing opposition to taking government positions and agrees to enter the Catalan government, with three CNT leaders receiving positions. The left-socialist POUM also enters the government, receiving one position. Further Reading:
History Archive of the Spanish Revolution Related Topics: Anarchism – Spanish Civil War September 27 September 27, 1480 Start of the Spanish Inquisition. September 27, 1860 American forces invade Colombia to ‘protect American interests’ during an attempted revolution. September 27, 1962 Silent Spring, Rachel Carson’s landmark study documenting the detrimental effects of pesticides on the environment, particularly on birds, is published. Further Reading:
The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement Related Topics: Birds – Environmental Impacts – Forest Management – Herbicide Toxicity – Pesticide Toxicity – Pesticides – Pesticides/Overuse September 27, 1967 A statement headed “A Call To Resist Illegitimate Authority,” signed by over 320 influential people (professors, writers, ministers, and other professional people), is published, asking for funds to help youths resist the draft. September 28 September 28, 1864 An international meeting of workers’ delegates meets in St. Martin's Hall, London, and agrees to form an international organization of workers. The organization becomes the International Workingmen’s Association – (also known as the First International). Further Reading:
The International Workingmen's Association Documents: 1864 - 1874 Related Topics: First International September 28, 1870 Farce in Lyon: Three weeks after citizens of Lyon set up a provisional revolutionary government and raise the red flag over their city hall (Sept 4, 1870), a small group of anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin, calling themselves the “Committee for the Salvation of France,” walk into Lyon city hall, and declare themselves in charge. In the name of the (imaginary) “Revolutionary Federation of Communes” they announce that the state is ‘abolished’ effective immediately. They nevertheless propose to exercise state-like powers themselves: they name one of their number commander-in-chief of the army, and Bakunin declares that anyone who tries to interfere, in any way whatsoever, with the activity of the revolutionary communes (i.e. his group), will be executed. The self-proclaimed vanguard is ejected from city hall a few hours later, and Bakunin leaves Lyon the next day. Related Topics: Anarchism September 28, 1917 As part of a U.S. government campaign to cripple the radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members and former members of the IWW, 166 in all, are indicted for protesting against World War I. This is 10 months after U.S. President Woodrow Wilson won re-election on a promise to keep the U.S. out of the war. The radicals are accused of trying to “cause insubordination, disloyalty, and refusal of duty in the military and naval forces” in violation of the so-called Espionage Act. 101 defendants are found guilty and given prison sentences ranging from days to twenty years, plus enormous fines. Related Topics: Free Speech – Industrial Workers of the World – Labour History – Legal Systems as Instruments of Oppression September 28, 1932 Birth of Victor Jara, Chilean singer-songwriter and political activist. September 28, 1943 In Denmark, hearing of imminent plans by the Nazi occupation forces to arrest and deport Danish Jews, anti-Nazi activists begin planning to smuggle Danish Jews to Sweden. In just three weeks, all but 481 of Denmark’s 8000 Jews are moved to safety. Related Topics: Anti-Nazi Resistance – Holocaust – Holocaust Survivors September 28, 1969 The FLQ, an underground Quebec nationalist group, bombs the home of Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau. September 28, 2000 Start of the Second Intifada in Palestine. The underlying cause of the revolt is the continuing occupation of Palestine and oppression of Palestinians; the immediate trigger is a deliberately provocative march by right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, accompanied by an entourage of right-wingers and hundreds of armed police, through the Temple Mount area in Jerusalem, which contains the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Related Topics: Israel – Palestine September 29 September 29, 1931 The Estevan Coal Miners’ Strike in Saskatchewan is crushed by police. Three miners are murdered by the police and many injured. Related Topics: Killings by Police – Labour History – Mineworkers (Miners) – Police Violence – Strikes/Canadian – Workers’ History September 29 - 30, 1941 Babi Yar massacres. Nazi occupation forces kill 33,771 Jews in a ravine near Kiev. It is the largest single massacre in the history of the Holocaust. The Nazis subsequently use the site for other massacres of Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Romani, Ukrainian nationalists and civilian hostages. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 were killed at Babi Yar. September 30 September 30, 1938 The Munich Pact: British and French leaders agree to let Nazi Germany annex the Sudeten regions of Czechoslovakia. The government and people of Czechoslovakia are given no choice in the matter. September 30, 1959 In Canada, 14-year-old Steven Truscott is convicted of murder and sentenced to death. His death sentence is eventually commuted to life imprisonment, and in 1969 he is released from prison. In 2007, his conviction is overturned and he is declared the victim of a miscarriage of justice and awarded compensation. Related Topics: Capital Punishment – Miscarriages of Justice September 30, 1974 Carlos Prats, a former Chilean vice-president exiled in Argentina, is assassinated by General Pinochet’s secret service.
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June Seeds of Fire is compiled for Connexions by Ulli Diemer. References used include the Connexions Library generally, and Connexipedia specifically, Wikipedia, Sources, the Peace History feature on Peacebuttons.info, the books and articles of Noam Chomsky and William Blum (marvellous antidotes to historical amnesia), and a wide, wide variety of other sources.  |
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