Working Class History
Working Class History#OtD 13 Feb 1913 82-year-old labour activist Mother Jones was arrested in West Virginia for supporting a coal miners' strike. Convicted in a military court and sentenced to 20 years in prison, she was pardoned after serving 85 days. More on the Mine Wars: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/06/09/wch-e7-the-west-virginia-mine-wars-1902-1922/
Working Class History#OtD 10 Feb 1938, Spanish anarchist miner Pedro Masera was sentenced to death and executed by Franco's forces during the civil war. In 2017 his granddaughter was finally able to get his body exhumed, to be properly reburied. This is a short biography: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/spanish-civil-war/book?sort_by=best-selling
Working Class History#OtD 8 Feb 1937 tens of thousands of Spanish civilians - mostly families with children and the elderly - fleeing Malaga in the Civil War were bombarded from the air and sea by Spanish, German and Italian fascist forces killing up to 5000 people. More: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e39-the-spanish-civil-war-an-introduction/
Working Class History#OtD 8 Feb 1921 Peter Kropotkin, famous proponent of anarchist-communism, died of pneumonia in Russia. He took part in revolutionary groups in four countries and was a major contributor to anarchist theory. Works by and about him available here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/peter-kropotkin
Working Class History#OtD 8 Feb 1943 Lepa Svetozara Radic, a 17-year-old partisan from Bosnia-Herzegovina was captured by the Germans. The Nazis offered her her life if she gave up the names of her comrades, but she showed "unprecedented defiance", refused and was executed https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10788/lepa-svetozara-radiΔ-captured
Working Class History#OtD 5 Feb 1885 King Leopold of Belgium declared his new colony the Congo Free State. What followed was one of the most horrific examples of European colonialism, with 8 to 10 million killed. More on colonialism in the Congo here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/lord-leverhulme-s-ghosts-colonial-exploitation-in-the-congo-jules-marchal
Working Class History#OtD 4 Feb 1869, "Big" Bill Haywood was born. A miner from childhood, he co-founded the revolutionary @iww@mastodon.social union. Once remarked: "I've never read Marx's Capital, but I've got the marks of capital all over my body." More about the IWW in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/05/23/wch-e6-the-industrial-workers-of-the-world-in-the-us-1905-1918/
Working Class History#OtD 3 Feb 1931 US anarchist Michael Schirru was arrested in his hotel room in Rome for coming to Italy with the intention to kill its fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He was imprisoned and later executed by firing squad https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10173/michael-schirru-arrested
Working Class History#OtD 31 Jan 1971 anti-fascists attacked the National Socialist Party HQ in Melbourne, Australia. The Nazis, dressed like storm troopers, were told by police to lock themselves inside, but over 500 people forced their way through and wrecked the offices https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/11141/melbourne-nazis-attacked
Working Class History#OtD 30 Jan 1962 a US general presented a plan for Operation Bountyin which the CIA would offer rewards of between $5000-100,000 to anyone who murdered Cuban communists. While the plan wasn't enacted, there were multiple attempts to kill Fidel Castro. https://stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/10279/operation-bounty