The controversy over university presidents who gave lawyerly answers in Congress about punishing students who call for genocide reflects the reality of college free speech codes that try to both encourage debate and stop hatred.
Today in Labor History December 9, 1935: Walter Liggett, American newspaper editor and muckraker, was murdered in a drive-by shooting with a Thompson submachine gun, as he stepped out of his car, groceries in his hand. His wife and daughter were in the car and witnessed his death. Liggett was a card-carrying member of the American Socialist Party, but he was more of a Mid-Western Populist-Socialist than a Marxist. In the 1920's he participated in efforts to free Sacco and Vanzetti and Thomas Mooney. In a series of articles, he accused Farmer-Labor politicians of collusion with the organized crime family of Isadore Blumenfield. He accused Minnesota Governor Floyd Olson of corruption and said that he should be impeached and prosecuted. In response, Blumenfield tried to bribe him to stop his exposés, but Liggett refused. Blumenfield and his gang savagely beat Liggett up. Liggett escalated his attacks and began printing a list of reasons for Olson's impeachment on the front page of the Midwest-American. Soon after, he was murdered.
Today in Labor History November 23, 1644: At the height of the English Civil War, John Milton published an anti-censorship pamphlet, “Areopagitica.” He had been censored several times, particularly in his attempts to defend divorce, a radical idea in those days. He anonymously published “The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce” (1643), which was condemned by the Puritan clergy as heretical and supportive of sexual libertinism.
Today in Labor History November 17, 1942: Ben Reitman, hobo organizer, anarchist and one-time lover of Emma Goldman, died. Reitman served as a doctor for hobos, prostitutes and the downtrodden. He participated in numerous free speech fights and anarchist causes, getting beaten, tarred and feathered, jailed, and run out of town for his troubles, most notably during the San Diego free speech fight. He also wrote the book, “Boxcar Bertha.”
🚨🎓 If you've ever received a grant from #UKRI* - and you're appalled by their total capitulation to govt #silencing - please do sign this open letter before Monday
🚨 FAO UK academics concerned about academic freedom and/or #Palestine:
Tory minister Michelle Donelan is trying to intimidate UKRI into silencing #academics who have expressed legitimate criticism of the genocide in #Gaza. She appears to be succeeding.
If you want UKRI to stand up for us, please sign this open letter.
Today in Labor History October 4, 1884: Japanese writer Jun Tsuji was born. He was a Dadaist, nihilist, Epicurean and shakuhachi musician. Early in his life, he was influenced by the works of Tolstoy, Kōtoku Shūsui's socialist anarchism, and the literature of Oscar Wilde and Voltaire. Later, he became a follower of Stirner’s individualist anarchism. His works were censored by the authorities and he was harassed by the police. His former wife, anarcho-feminist Itō Noe, was murdered by the military police in the Amakasu Incident in 1923, when the military police murdered her and lover, Ōsugi Sakae, an informal leader of the Japanese anarchist movement, along with Ōsugi's six-year-old nephew. During the weeks that followed the great Kantō earthquake, authorities and vigilantes arrested, beat, tortured thousands of dissidents, and murdered an estimated 6,000.
Today in Labor History October 3, 1957: The California State Superior Court ruled that the book Howl and Other Poems, by Allen Ginsberg, was not obscene. The poem was based, in part, on a horrifying peyote hallucination he had of the glitzy Sir Frances Drake hotel, in San Francisco, morphing into a child-eating demon. The poem’s references to drug use and to homosexuality are what provoked the obscenity trial. City Lights bookstore own and publisher of Howl, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and bookstore manager, Shig Murao, were arrested on obscenity charges for selling the book.
Today in Labor History August 18, 1812: Lady Ludd led the Luddite Corn Market riot of women and boys in Leeds, England. Luddites also rioted in Sheffield against flour and meal sellers. England was suffering huge food shortages and inflation at the time, in part because of the War of 1812, which had started in June, and the ongoing Napoleonic wars. Additionally, new technological innovations were allowing mill owners to replace many of their employees with machines. In response, Luddites would destroy looms and other equipment. To try and get control over these worker outrages, the British authorities made illegal oath-taking punishable by death in July 1812. And they also empowered magistrates to forcibly enter private homes to search for weapons. They also stationed thousands of troops in areas where rioting and looting had occurred over the summer.
“Shirley” (1849), Charlotte Bronte’s second novel, takes place in Yorkshire, 1811-1812, during the Luddite uprisings. It was originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell. The novel opens with a ruthless mill owner waiting for the delivery of new, cost-saving equipment that will allow him to fire many of his workers, but Luddites destroy the equipment before it reaches him. As a result of the novel’s popularity, Shirley became a popular female name. Prior to this, it was mostly a male name.
Today in Labor History August 16, 1819: Police attacked unemployed workers demonstrating in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, England. When the cavalry charged, at least 18 people died and over 600 were injured. The event became know as the Peterloo Massacre, named for the Battle of Waterloo, where many of the massacre victims had fought just four years earlier. Following the Napoleonic Wars there was an acute economic slump, terrible unemployment and crop failures, all worsened by the Corn Laws, which kept bread prices high. Only 11% of adult males had the vote. Radical reformers tried to mobilize the masses to force the government to back down. The movement was particularly strong in the north-west, where the Manchester Patriotic Union organized the mass rally for Peter’s Field. As soon as the meeting began, local magistrates tried to arrest working class radical, Henry Hunt, and several others. Hunt inspired the Chartist movement, which came shortly after Peterloo.
John Lees, who later died from wounds he received at the massacre, had been present at the Battle of Waterloo. Before his death, he said that he had never been in such danger as at Peterloo: "At Waterloo there was man to man but there it was downright murder." In the wake of the massacre, the government passed the Six Acts, to suppress any further attempts at radical reform. The event also led indirectly to the founding of the Manchester Guardian newspaper.
Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote about the massacre in his poem, “The Masque of Anarchy.” The authorities censored it until 1832, ten years after his death. Mike Leigh’s 2018 film Peterloo is an excellent portrayal of the massacre, and the events leading up to it. Many writers have written novels about Peterloo, including the relatively recent “Song of Peterloo,” by Carolyn O'Brien, and “All the People,” Jeff Kaye. However, perhaps the most important is Isabella Banks's 1876 novel, “The Manchester Man,” since she was there when it happened and included testimonies from people who were involved.
Today in Labor History August 12, 1952: The Soviet authorities murdered 13 prominent Jewish intellectuals and writers in the Night of the Murdered Poets. All were members of the Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee, which fought for the USSR against Nazi Germany. They were falsely accused of espionage and treason, and then imprisoned, tortured, and isolated for three years before being formally charged.