Today in Labor History December 5, 1928: The Colombian military slaughtered up to 2,000 people in the Banana Massacre. Workers had been on strike against United Fruit Company since November 12. They were participating in a peaceful demonstration, with their wives and children. The Columbian troops set up machine guns on the rooftops near the demonstration and closed off the access streets so no one could escape. The soldiers threw the dead into mass graves or dumped them in the sea. U.S. officials in Colombia had portrayed the workers as communists and subversives and even threatened to invade if the Colombian government didn’t protect United Fruit’s interests. Gabriel García Márquez depicted the massacre in his novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” as did Álvaro Cepeda Samudio in his “La Casa Grande.”
United Fruit, which is now called Chiquita, controlled vast quantities of territory in Central America, and the Caribbean, maintained a near monopoly in many of the banana republics in which it operated (e.g., Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica). By 1930, it was the largest employer in Central America and the largest land owner. In 1952, the government of Jacobo Arbenz, in Guatemala, began giving away unused land, owned by United Fruit, to landless peasants. In 1954, the CIA deposed the Arbenz government, leading to decades of brutal dictatorship and genocide of Guatemala’s indigenous population. The head of the CIA at that time was former board member of United Fruit, Allen Dulles, who also oversaw the over throw of the democratically elected prime minister of Iran, the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the MK Ultra LSD mind control experiments.
The Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP, united front of the Communist Party of the Philippines) signed a joint communique opening the door to peace talks.
Two thoughts on the GRP–NDFP joint communique.
1—This is a repeat of Marcos Sr’s demobilization of the PKP-1930 and the fullest conclusion of NatDem politics (eg nationalism, opportunism)
2—What does the resumption of peace talks mean with regards to the ongoing 3rd rectification movement (3RM)? The 3RM started some years ago on focusing on a reaffirmation of the protracted people’s war (PPW). Obviously peace talks is the opposite of a PPW.
Today in Labor History November 26, 1911: Paul Lafargue, Cuban-French revolutionary and son-in-law of Karl Marx, died. Lafargue wrote “The Right to Be Lazy” in 1893 while in prison. Lafargue had Jewish, French, Indian, Creole and African ancestry. When IWW cofounder Daniel De Leon asked him about his origins, he replied that he was proudest of his “negro” ancestry. In his youth, Lefargue participated in the International Students Congress in 1865. Consequently, the government banned him from all French universities. So, he moved to London, where he became a frequent visitor to Marx’s house, ultimately marrying his daughter, Laura. Lafargue was a member of the General Council of the First International. He also participated in the Paris Commune.
📖 In "The Interwar World", edited by Andrew Denning and Heidi J.S. Tworek, more than 50 authors discuss, analyse and interpret this crucial period in the history of the 20th century.
It includes a chapter by Arturo Zoffmann Rodriguez on #Communism.
Today in Labor History November 7, 1918: Kurt Eisner led an uprising that overthrew the Wittelsbach dynasty in Bavaria, during the German Revolution. After the Kiel Mutiny a few days prior, uprising broke out throughout Germany. Within months, the Independent Social Democrats, who were heading the provisional government, were overthrown by the Bavarian Raterepublik, composed of Workers', Soldiers', and Farmers' Councils. Those fighting the socialists included anarchists and anti-authoritarian communists like Erich Mühsam, Gustav Landauer, Ernst Toller and Ret Marut (who became known as the novelist B. Traven after fleeing the counterrevolution and living in exile in Mexico).
The Golden Notebook, by Doris Lessing. You are a mid 20th century writer with one successful novel, but also and communist and mother who struggles with all these things, but in particular with men; you keep separate notebooks trying to sort the parts of your real and fictional lives, but it doesn’t seem to be helping. 5 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈 🐈
Today in Labor History October18, 1927: The trial of Sholom Schwartzbard began for killing Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petliura, for slaughtering15 members of his family in Pogroms. Schwartzbard was a Russian-born French Yiddish poet and an anarchist. He served in the French and Soviet militaries.
Today in Labor History October 9, 1936: A lettuce strike had recently ended in Salinas, California. However, when red flags went up throughout town, the authorities feared communist agitators had returned and removed the red flags, only to find out later that they were part of a traffic check being done by the state highway division.
The first effective organizing in the Salinas Valley began in 1933, with the mostly female lettuce trimmers demanding equal pay to the men. The Filipino field workers supported the women’s demands. In 1934, members of the Filipino Labor Union (FLU) struck the lettuce farms. So, the farmers brought in Mexican and Anglo scabs. They used vigilante mobs and the cops to violently attack the strikers and arrested their leaders. When the Filipino Labor Union and the Mexican Labor Union joined forces, a mob of vigilantes burned their labor camp down and drove 800 Filipinos out of the Salinas Valley at gunpoint. The 1934 strike ended soon after, with the growers recognizing the FLU and offering a small raise. This violence inspired John Steinbeck to write “In Dubious Battle” and “Grapes of Wrath,” for which he won both Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes.
A new article up on my website Sociological Infatuation about world historical political economist and general dirtbag Karl Marx. This is an introduction aimed at community college #sociology students and instructors looking to approach this material. This is not focused on various critiques of #Marxism because it was already 2,200 words and I wanted to get something out.
Today in Writing History September 25, 1894: Playwright John Howard Lawson was born. Lawson wrote several plays about the working class, including “The International” (1928), which depicts a proletarian world revolution and “Marching Song” (1937), about a sit-down strike. In the late 1940s, Lawson was blacklisted as a member of the “Hollywood Ten” for his refusal to tell the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his political allegiances.
Today in Labor History September 19, 1952: The United States barred Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England. In 1947, his black comedy, Monsieur Verdoux, was released. In the film, he criticized capitalism and its reliance on wars and weapons of mass destruction. The FBI launched a formal investigation of him 1947, after public accusations that he was a communist. Chaplin denied the charges, calling himself a “peace monger.” Nevertheless, he protested the HUAC hearings and the U.S. trials of Communist Party members. Representative John Rankin called Chaplin's presence in Hollywood “detrimental to the moral fabric of America.” Writer George Orwell prepared list of people he believed were communists, which he gave to British intelligence before he died in 1949. The list included Chaplin and Michael Redgrave, as well as Paul Robeson, Katherine Hepburn, John Steinbeck and Orson Welles.
Today in Labor History September 5, 1964: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn died in Moscow. Flynn was an anarchist, labor militant and highly successful organizer with the IWW. before joining the American Communist Party. She was also a founding member of the ACLU. She is portrayed in Jess Walter’s historical novel, “The Cold Millions,” about the Spokane Free Speech Fight.
Today in Labor History August 31, 1919: John Reed and others formed the Communist Labor Party of America in Chicago. The party evolved into the American Communist Party. Reed was a journalist and communist activist who extensively covered World War I. He was most famous for his coverage of the Russian Revolution and his book, “Ten Days That Shook the World.” He died in Moscow in 1920 from typhus. They gave him a hero’s welcome and buried him in Kremlin Wall Necropolis. Only two other American were given this honor: Big Bill Haywood, a founding member of the IWW, and C.E. Ruthenberg, founder of the Communist Party USA.
John Dos Passos included a short biography of him in his “U.S.A.” trilogy. Uptain Sinclair called him the Revolution’s Playboy, elements of which can be seen in Warren Beaty’s portrayal of Reed in the film, “Reds.” Sergei Eisenstein made a film version of “Ten Days That Shook the World” in 1927.
I honestly have no clue how to explain actual#communism to people who haven't lived through it. Like, the Internet Communists Who Know Better. (Please block me.)
Today in Labor History August 19, 1920: A peasant insurrection began in Tambov, USSR, over the confiscation of their grain. Led by Alexander Antonov, a former official of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, the Green Army uprising evolved into a guerrilla war against the Red Army, Cheka Units and the Soviet authorities. The Bolsheviks finally suppressed the revolt in June, 1921. 240,000 died in the rebellion and over 50,000 were imprisoned. They also used chemical weapons on the peasants. Dissident writer, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, wrote about it in a short story in his book, “Apricot Jam and other Stories,” (2010).
Today in Labor History August 15, 1918: The American 27th Infantry landed in Vladivostok to join a Japanese-initiated attack against Bolshevist forces. The soldiers suffered from problems with fuel, ammunition, supplies, and food. Their horses, used to temperate climates, couldn’t function in sub-zero Russia. And their water-cooled machine guns froze and became useless. During their 19 months in Siberia, 189 U.S. soldiers died.
Upton Sinclair referenced the Siberian expedition in his novel “Oil!” and blamed capitalist motives for the intervention.
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.
Sadly this term has been forgotten throughout the #Anglosphere, especially in the United States. #Libertarianism has become simply synonymous (in English) with #LibertarianCapitalism. Meanwhile #Communism has drifted to mean statist, even totalitarian statist, "socialism."
Consider the possibility that 'statist socialism' is the oxymoron and stateless socialism is a tautology. It's a much clearer lens with which to view the past two hundred years of #history.