Date: Tue, 01 May 2001 10:33:49 -0700 From: David Brown <recall-AT-eskimo.com> Subject: Daily Crouch: 5/1 MOTHER JONES web version in full, 97 (!) entries, http://www.eskimo.com/~recall/bleed/0501.htm Excerpts: MAY DAY MOTHER JONES "I'm no lady, I'm a hell-raiser!" Labor agitator, radical. WORLD LABOR DAY. TRADITIONAL FERTILITY FESTIVAL. Welcoming back the Spring. Ancient Roman FLORALIA, Festival of the Goddess Floralia. Grand processions in England including "Jack in the green," milkmaids, Morris dancers, Robin Hood & his Merry Men. SATIRE DAY. Keep in mind this is: Correct Posture Month, National Asparagus Month, Good Carkeeping Month, Better Sleep Month, Fungal Infection Awareness Month, Revise Your Work Schedule Month First week is: National Bathroom Reading Week, Carpet Care Improvement Week Second week is: International Online Romance Week http://www.online-romance.com Conserve Water/Detect-A-Leak Week Third week is: Raisin Week, Girls Incorporated Week Fourth week is: International Pickle Week, American Beer Week (begins Last Sunday), Poppy Week, Important moveable holidays are: first Friday: International Tuba Day; 2nd Wednesday, National Third-Shift Worker's Day; 3rd Friday, National Defense Transportation Day; Monday before Ascension, Pacing the Bounds (Switzerland) Important Indeterminate Holidays: Late May, Hot Penny Toss Day (Rye, Sussex, UK) MAY DAY! MAY DAY! MAY DAY! Hundreds of thousands of American workers, increasingly determined to resist subjugation to capitalist power, poured into a fledgling labor organization, the Knights of Labor. Beginning on May 1, 1886, they took to the streets to demand universal adoption of the 8-hour day. Chicago was the center of the movement. Workers there had been agitating for an 8-hour day for months, & on the eve of May 1, 50,000 were already on strike. 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next day, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. Fears of violent class conflict gripped the city. No violence occurred on May 1 -- a Saturday -- or May 2. But on Monday, May 3, a fight involving hundreds broke out at McCormick Reaper between locked-out unionists & non-unionist workers McCormick hired to replace them. The Chicago police, swollen in number & heavily armed, quickly moved in with clubs & guns to restore order. They left four unionists dead &many others wounded. Angered by the deadly force of the police, a group of anarchists, led by August Spies & Albert Parsons, called on workers to arm themselves & participate in a massive protest demonstration in Haymarket Square on Tuesday evening, May 4. The demonstration appeared to be a complete bust, with only 3,000 assembling. But near the end of the evening, an individual, whose identity is still in dispute (possibly a police agent provocateur), threw a bomb that killed seven police & injured 67 others. Hysterical city & state government officials rounded up eight anarchists, tried them for murder, & sentenced them to death. On 11 November 1887, four, including Parsons & Spies, were executed. All of the executed advocated armed struggle & violence as revolutionary methods, but their prosecutors found no evidence that any had actually thrown the Haymarket bomb. They died for their words -- not their deeds. 250,000 people lined Chicago's street during Parson's funeral procession to express their outrage at this gross miscarriage of justice. For radicals & trade unionists everywhere, Haymarket became a symbol of the stark inequality & injustice of capitalist society. The May 1886 Chicago events figured prominently in the decision of the founding congress of the Second International (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity & power of the international working class movement. May Day has been a celebration ever since. http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5202/GenStrike.htm http://www.accessweb.com/mayday/links.html 1380 - Cecilia Chaumpaigne, a baker's daughter, releases Geoffrey Chaucer from the charges ("de raptu, meo") she had brought against him. http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/chaucer.htm 1543 - Copernicus circulates "The Little Commentary," showing the heliocentricity of the Solar System. Churches & people react rather badly to the notion that Mankind is not the center of the Universe. 455 years latter, many (especially (F)redites) still do. 1654 - "Under penalty of death, no Irish man, woman, or child, is to let himself, herself, itself be found east of the River Shannon." An Order from the Parliament of England. 1672 - Joseph Addison--essayist, poet, statesman, & contributor to The Tatler and The Spectator--lives, England. 1700 - John Dryden, poet (All for Love: or The World Well Lost), dies in London. 1776 - Order of the Illuminati founded in Germany by Adam Weishaupt. 1812 - England: James Brook arrested for trying to destroy Cartwight's Mill. 1830 - Mother Jones (born Mary Harris) lives, Cork, Ireland. Irish- American anti-war activist & labor radical. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was born in the year 1830. The renowned Labor organizer, who lived to be 100-years old, said: "I live in the United States, but I do not know exactly where. My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression. My address is like my shoes; it travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong." 1838 - Louis Champalle lives. French anarchist, weaver in Lyon where he was arrested November 19, 1882 for agitating during Montceau-les-Mines events & sent to prison for six months in the repressive trial of January 1883 ("Procès des 66"). Joined the "Le réveil de la Croix-Rousse" in Lyon in 1892. http://perso.club-internet.fr/ytak/mai1.html#1 1857 - Too Many Conquerors in the Kitchen?: William Walker, conqueror of Nicaragua, surrenders to U.S. Navy. 1866 - US: Beginning this day for three days, white Democrats & police attack freedmen & white allies in Memphis; 48 are killed. 1875 - Government Grant?: The “St. Louis Democrat” exposes the “"Whiskey Ring"“ -- a conspiracy of distillery owners & federal officials, including Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Ulysses S. Grant's private secretary, to withhold liquor taxes from the government. Grant used his influence to save his secretary from conviction. In all, 238 persons were indicted -- charged with defrauding the Treasury. 1881 - Mystical Christian evolutionist Teilhard De Chardin lives, Auvergne, France. 1884 - Moses Walker became first black player in the major league. Hazardous duty?: In 1887, on July 14, the “"Father of Apartheid Baseball,"“ Adrian "Cap" Anson threatened Newark officials to bench Walker or forfeit the game. It was here Anson shouted his infamous remark, "Get that nigger off the field, there’s a law against that!" Anson, an excellent player & future Hall of Famer, had clout on & off the field. The ban began. Soon after league officials of the American Association & the National League announced teams would not be allowed to hire black players in the future, because of the "hazards" black players imposed. 1884 - Eugène Dieudonne lives (1884-1944), Nancy. French individualist, illegalist anarchist & member of the Bonnot Gang. http://perso.club-internet.fr/ytak/mai1.html#1 1886 - First nationwide General Strike for 8-hour day, commemorated in 1889 as the first International Labor Day. 340,000 U.S. workers in Chicago, Milwaukee & other cities strike. Four demonstrators are killed & over 200 wounded when police attack the Chicago rally. International Workers' Day (May Day) begins in Chicago. 340,000 U.S. workers in Chicago, Milwaukee & other cities strike for the 8-hour workday. Four demonstrators are killed & over 200 wounded when police attack the Chicago rally. U.S. later sets another day as Labor Day to undercut world solidarity. http://www.dnai.com/~figgins/generalstrike/index.html 1890 - American utopianist Albert Brisbane dies, Richmond, Virginia. 1890 - May Day labor demonstrations spread to 13 other countries; 30,000 march in Chicago as the newly prominent American Federation of Labor throws its weight behind the 8-hour day campaign. 1891 - France: Army test their newly designed Lebels machine gun against a peaceful May Day rally at Fourmies where women & children were carrying flowers & palms. Casualties numbered 14 dead & 40 wounded. The anarchist Ravachol bombed the Lobau Barracks in Paris in March 1892 as retribution. Each footstep taken in this society bristles with privileges, & is marked with a bloodstain; each turn of the government machinery grinds the tumbling, gasping flesh of the poor; & tears are running from everywhere in the impenetrable night of suffering. Facing these endless murders & continuous tortures, what's the meaning of society, this crumbling wall, this collapsing staircase? ... No cry is heeded: whenever a single, louder complaint penetrates the din of sad murmurs, the Lebels is loaded & the troops are mobilized. — Octave Mirbeau, “Ravachol” http://burn.ucsd.edu/~mai/TEXT/mirbeau_ravachol.html 1893 - World's Columbian exposition opens in Chicago, Jane Addam's purse snatched at opening ceremonies. 1898 - George Dewey commands, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." 1900 - Flunk the test?: Poet Wallace Stevens, drunk at a dinner for the Harvard junior class, recites his class ode & passes out. http://www.uwm.edu/People/kater/ 1906 - Twelve hundred members of the Iron Molders Union in Milwaukee strike for shorter hours & a pay increase. After two years, the strike ends in defeat. One employer, Allis-Chalmers, will spend 21,700 dollars for the Burr-Herr Detective Agency. What did the company get for its money? The union reports more than 200 assaults on its members, including union leader Peter Cramer, whose injuries kill him. Another unionist, planted outside Burr-Herr, testifies the agency offered him 10 dollars for each striker he beat up. The employers also obtain court orders against picketing. The union appealed the injunctions & won. By that time, however, the strike was already lost. 1907 - France: During a demonstration in Paris Jacob Law, a Russian anarchist (born in Balta in 1887), puts five bullets into a bus returning to an Imperial battleship. He was sent to prison in Guyana, until released May 10, 1924. A lifelong anarchist, his memoirs, “Dix-huit ans de bagne” appeared 1926. http://perso.club-internet.fr/ytak/mai1.html#1 1911 - Beginning of the End?: US: Election of Socialist governments in over 20 U.S. cities (plus Eugene Debs gets 900,000 votes for President). 1911 - Chinese Revolution -- Sun Yat-sen becomes first president. 1916 - Chicago Herald becomes first newspaper to call the new music "Jazz." 1923 - Joseph Heller lives. American writer, gained world fame with his satirical war novel “Catch-22”: to fly dangerous combat missions is insane, but if airmen seek to be relieved for mental reasons, the request proves their sanity. http://www.levity.com/corduroy/heller.htm http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/heller.htm 1924 - Terry Southern lives. American novelist/screenwriter, attacked Hollywood's film industry, drugs, tv-shows, religion, clichés of pornography, "dreamgirls" etc. His works aroused critical debates, been labeled pornography or just plain sick. Most notable screenplay was “Dr. Strangelove”. 1926 - Baseball great, Satchel Paige, makes pitching debut in Negro Southern League. 1929 - Liberal Book Friends (GfB) begins publishing the free monthly illustrated review 'Meditation & Departure'. Nice mix of anarchist & contemporary & critical art-related materials. Included Max Baginski, Karl Roche, Erich Muhsam, Fritz Linow, Arthur Lehning, Rudolf Rocker among many others. Each issue included a booklet by some anarchist or sympathetic author (Emma Goldman & Theodor Plievier, for example). http://www.free.de/dada/ask51121.htm http://www.free.de/dada/ask5rz06.htm 1933 - Christian anarchist "Catholic Worker" founded, New York City. Dorothy Day & Peter Maurin, anarchist-Catholics (!), publish first issue of their long-running newspaper. http://www.catholicworker.org/ 1946 - Australia: Beginning of the Pilbara Strike, the first industrial strike by Aboriginal people in Australian history. 1948 - Glenn Taylor, Idaho Senator, arrested in Birmingham, Alabama for trying to enter a meeting through a door marked "for Negroes". 1950 - General strike against South African repression. 1958 - Crew of protest ship "Golden Rule" is arrested by U.S. Navy in nuclear test zone, South Pacific. 1965 - Wales: Second Factory for Peace opens, Onllwyn, Dulais Valley. 1966 - 500,000 Vietnamese march for end of war. 1968 - France: During the traditional May Day demonstrations fights break out around a black flag as Communists try to exclude the anarchists from the procession. 1969 - US: 169 are convicted of trespass in the aftermath of a student occupation at Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1970 - US: ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corp) building ransacked, College Park, Washington D.C. During this first week of May 30 ROTC buildings are burned or bombed, & the National Guard are teaching students a thing or two on 21 campuses in 16 states. 1970 - US: In New Haven, new protests over the pending trial of Seale & Ericka Huggins, today & tomorrow, when 20,000 demonstrators show up. 1971 - US: Beginning of five days of anti-war May Day protests in Washington, D.C., resulting in over 14,000 arrests--the largest mass civil disobedience in U.S. history. 1971 - US: Anti-Vietnam War protesters attempt to blockade government for a day; 5,000 District police, 1,500 National Guard & 8,000 Federal troops start rounding people up: 7,000 arrested [another source: "20,000 National Guard & police, 10,000 paratroopers"]. BleedMeister, then Midwest Field Secretary for the US Student Press Association & reporter for College Press Service, is there. By May 5 a total of 12,614 are arrested (record). 1972 - Quang Tri captured by North Vietnam. The number of U.S. troops has been reduced to 69,000. Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President Dick M "I Have a Plan" Nixon orders the mining of ports in North Vietnam. 1977 - The Clash start their first tour of the U.K. with a May Day celebration at the Roxy in London. The 40 day White Riot Tour brings a show to London's Rainbow Theater. The audience gets wild, ripping out seats bolted to the floor to make room for dancing. The news media sees it as a fulfillment of the tour's billing & describe the incident as a "riot." 1977 - US: 24-hour occupation of Seabrook (NH) nuclear power site results in 1,415 arrests. The action, sponsored by Clamshell Alliance, becomes a model for anti-nuclear direct actions across the country. 1977 - Turkey: State-sponsored paramilitary groups open fire on tens of thousands of May Day demonstrators in Istanbul, killing 37. 1978 - Sylvia Townsend Warner dies. Originally intended a career as a musicologist-- accomplished as an editor to the 10-volume Tudor Church Music & contributor to Grove's Dictionary of Music. Her first novel, “Lolly Willowes”, was the first selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. 1982 - England: Day of resistance & protest against Falklands War. 1985 - US: Ronnie Reagan declares trade embargo against Nicaragua. So much for rightwing touting of "free trade". 1986 - 1.5 million take part in South African general strike. http://www.dnai.com/~figgins/generalstrike/index.html http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/ 1992 - US: Two days of rioting in the aftermath of the Rodney King police brutality trial leaves 38 dead, 1500 injured & a half a billion dollars in property damage, in Los Angeles. Preparations made for military occupation. 1993 - Ecuador: Marchers in Quito protest "disappeared people". 1995 - Recollection Used Books opens it doors. AuntieDave buys 100 books, sells one. The mood is set. Only used bookstore in the world with a beat up cat for it's logo & no cats -- just four dogs in-house. 1996 - Chicken or the Egg?: Board of Directors meeting of British Aerospace, sellers of the Hawk jet fighter to Indonesia for its illegal occupation of East Timor, is interrupted by protesters pelting them with eggs. http://www.disinfo.com/ci/humrts/ci_humrts_timor.html 1996 - Germany: Riots with Berlin police erupt after two separate May Day marches, one of 20,000 workers protesting government social spending cuts & one of 10,000 "radical leftists" protesting anti-squatting raids. Ten police are injured. 1996 - Turkey: Three killed & 69 injured when Turkish police attack banned leftist demonstrators in a 100,000 person May Day rally. Istanbul. 1997 - Russia: Victor Serge Public Library in Moscow opens. The first & only Russian library to take up the task of acquainting the Russian public with scholarly and political literature of a left- wing (anti-capitalist & anti-bureaucratic) orientation. In addition to lending books, the Library is used for discussions. http://users.skynet.be/johneden/foundatn/library.htm 1998 - Denmark: Strike wave continues. The May Day rally in Copenhagen was a massive event which marked day 5 of the all-out strike by 500,000 private sector workers demanding a week extra holidays & the 35 hour week amongst other demands. Between 350 & 500,000 workers participated in the rally. 1999 - US: Rally to Save Ancient Forests in Eugene, Oregon as logging season begins today. Ancient forest campaigners in Western Oregon marked one year of continuous occupation of a contested timber sale near Eugene on April 19th. 1999 - US: Million March for Hemp, Seattle, Washington. 1999 - US: Nummer One Son concludes his first season of bowling, Seattle, Washington. Wins numerous Youth League awards. His Travel team earns second place & he wins Greater Seattle King of the Hill match November 1998, about a month after he first picked up a bowling ball. Awarded for the highest scratch game of the season, with a high score of 174. Finishes the Travel League season with a 115 average & regular League a little below that. 1999 -- >Happy anniversary to Recollection Books & congratulations to Nummer 1 son Brandon. >28 yrs ago tonite I was in a may-day detention camp in Washington, D.C. So you were on the outside of the Redskins football field (named after Bobby Kennedy, I believe) those long 28 years ago. Michael & I, east coast correspondents for the National Catholic Reporter, were among the first arrested that morning on the streets & on first busload of prisoners taken to the field. It didn't matter that we had press credentials --- Bleedster Ruth Like desert flowers we learned to crouch near the earth, fearful that we would die before the rains, cunning, waiting the season of good growth. ---Meridel LeSueur http://www.trussel.com/hf/mayday51.htm Anti-CopyRite 2001
Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005