Today in Labor History November 10, 1995: The Nigerian government executed playwright and environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, along with eight other members of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (Mosop). Saro-Wiwa led a nonviolent movement protesting the despoiling of Ogoniland by Royal Dutch Shell. Beverly Naidoo’s 2000 novel, “The Other Side of Truth,” is based on Saro-Wiwa’s execution, as is Richard North Patterson’s 2009 novel, “Eclipse.”
Today in Labor History November 3, 1793: French playwright, journalist and feminist Olympe de Gouges was guillotined during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794) for attacking the regime of the Revolutionary government and for her association with the Girondists. Her writings on women's rights and abolitionism reached a large audience in many different countries. She was also an outspoken advocate against the slave trade in the French colonies. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen (1791), she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality.
Today in Labor History October 5, 1923: Swedish anarcho-syndicalist playwright & novelist Stig Dagerman was born. Over the course of 5 years, 1945–49, he wrote four successful novels, a collection of short stories, a book about postwar Germany, five plays, hundreds of poems and satirical verses, several essays and a large amount of journalism. He wrote the essay “Anarchism and Me” about his views on anarchism, and society, in post-World War 2 Europe. He killed himself in 1954, by running his car with the garage closed.
#OnThisDay in #history - in 1590, Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor was baptized in Madrid #Spain - not much is known of her early life, but she grew up to be a #writer . Maria wrote what came to be known as the Spanish Decameron, the Novelas amorosas y ejemplares.
She was a #poet and #playwright having written Friendship Betrayed, a comedy which focused on female friendships. She advocated for women's independence (and saw convents as places of women's freedom from men). #OTD#histodons@histodons
Today in Labor History August 21, 1680: Pueblo Indians captured Santa Fe from the Spanish. The Pueblo Revolt was an uprising against the Spanish colonizers in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México. The Pueblos killed 400 Spaniards and drove the remaining 2,000 settlers out of the province. However, the Spaniards reconquered New Mexico 12 years later. One cause of the revolt was the Spaniard’s attempt to destroy the Pueblo religion and ban their traditional dances and kachina dolls.
The Pueblo Revolt has been depicted in numerous fictional accounts, many of which were written by native and Pueblo authors. Clara Natonabah, Nolan Eskeets & Ariel Antone, from the Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Team, wrote and performed "Po'pay" in 2010. In 2005, Native Voices at the Autry produced “Kino and Teresa,” a Pueblo recreation of “Romeo and Juliet,” written by Taos Pueblo playwright James Lujan. La Compañía de Teatro de Albuquerque produced the bilingual play “Casi Hermanos,” written by Ramon Flores and James Lujan, in 1995. Even Star Trek got into the game, with references to the Pueblo Revolt in their "Journey's End" episode. The rebel leader, Po’pay, was depicted in Willa Cather’s “Death Comes for the Arch Bishop” and in Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
Today in Labor History August 21, 1752: French radical priest Jacques Roux (1752-1794) was born in Charente, France. He participated in the French Revolution and fought for a classless society and the abolition of private property. He also helped radicalize the Parisian working class. Roux was a leader of the far-left faction, Enrages, and was elected to the Paris Commune in 1791. He demanded that food be available for everyone and argued that the wealthy should executed if they horded it.
Roux is featured in a mission in the French Revolution-set game Assassin's Creed Unity. He is also portrayed in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade. Here, Roux is dressed in a straight jacket in an asylum and the asylum directors cut off his dialogue to symbolize the state’s desire to restrain political radicals.