Today in Labor History March 23, 1931: The authorities hanged Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar for killing a deputy superintendent of police during the Indian Independence movement. Singh was a anti-colonial revolutionary, from Punjab, who was inspired by both Bolshevism and anarchism.
![Singh in 1929, age 21, with a thin moustache, hat looking straight ahead and making eye contact. By Unknown author (Ramnath Photographers, Delhi) - [1] [2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75154028](https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/212/438/389/090/718/original/5277d6888884e80f.jpg "Singh in 1929, age 21, with a thin moustache, hat looking straight ahead and making eye contact. By Unknown author (Ramnath Photographers, Delhi) - [1] [2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75154028")
Today in Labor History March 19, 1742: Tupac Amaru was born. Tupac Amaru II had led a large Andean uprising against the Spanish. As a result, he became a mythical figure in the Peruvian struggle for independence and in the indigenous rights movement. The Tupamaros revolutionary movement in Uruguay (1960s-1970s) took their name from him. As did the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary guerrilla group, in Peru, and the Venezuelan Marxist political party Tupamaro. American rapper, Tupac Amaru Shakur, was also named after him. Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote a poem called “Tupac Amaru (1781).” And Clive Cussler’s book, “Inca Gold,” has a villain who claims to be descended from the revolutionary leader.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #indigenous #inca #tupac #conquest #colonialism #uprising #Revolutionary #PabloNeruda #poetry #novel #tupacamaru #peru #fiction #books #author #writer #poetry @bookstadon
For international women’s day here’s a quote from a revolutionary woman
Today in Labor History February 24, 1895: Revolution broke out in Baire, near Santiago de Cuba. This was the beginning of the Cuban War of Independence (1895-1898). The liberation war ended with the Spanish-American War and the U.S. taking Cuba as a colony. Some of the more well-known commanders of the Cuban revolution were the poet Jose Marti (composer of “Guantanamera”) and Afro-Cuban Antonio Maceo, the Titan of Bronze.
![Black and white sketch of Cuban soldiers defending a train during the Cuban War for Independence. By José Passos - (1896-01-06). "La guerra de Cuba". La Ilustración Artística (732): 62. ISSN 1889-853X.Taken from Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica (CC BY 4.0), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76271530](https://kolektiva.social/system/media_attachments/files/114/059/358/488/929/892/original/f6f1c3fb84409612.jpg "Black and white sketch of Cuban soldiers defending a train during the Cuban War for Independence. By José Passos - (1896-01-06). "La guerra de Cuba". La Ilustración Artística (732): 62. ISSN 1889-853X.Taken from Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica (CC BY 4.0), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=76271530")
Today in Labor History February 23, 1903: Jean-Baptiste Clement died. Clement was a socialist and Paris Communard, poet, singer and composer of the famous song, “The Time of Cherries.” He was one of the last on the barricades during the Commune. He escaped and fled to England. The French authorities condemned him to death, in absentia. They later granted him amnesty and he returned to France in 1879. He helped found the Revolutionary Socialist Workers Party in 1890. Paris has since named schools and a street after him.
Today in Labor History February 21, 1934: Augusto Cesar Sandino, Nicaraguan independence fighter, was assassinated by Somoza’s Nation Guard. While in exile in Mexico during the early 1920s, Sandino participated in strikes led by the IWW. Inspired by the anarcho-syndicalist union, he adopted their red and black logo as the colors for the revolutionary Nicaraguan flag. The Sandinistas, or FSLN, who overthrew the dictator, Anastasio Somoza, in 1979, were named for Sandino.
Today in Labor History February 20, 1931: An anarchist uprising in Encarnación, Paraguay briefly transformed the city into the revolutionary Encarnación Commune. Students and workers created popular assemblies to run the city. They tried to create communes in other towns, too, but the authorities thwarted their attempts. When the authorities began to retake Encarnacion, many of the insurrectionists stole steamboats and fled to Brazil. Along the way, they attacked yerba mate companies and burned records related to indentured servants. Gabriel Casaccia alluded to the uprising in his novel “Los Herederos.”
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #uprising #brazil #YerbaMate #Revolutionary #commune #paraguay #slavery #novel #books #author #fiction #writer @bookstadon
"It’s hard to imagine any of these moves commanding majority support among #Americans. They have the scent of religious or #revolutionary fervour—as mini-Robespierres go about guillotining any hint of #wokery."
Is ‘#woke’ really to blame for the rise of #Trump?
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/identity/diversity/69228/woke-dei-to-blame-rise-of-trump
Today in Labor History February 12, 1889: Antonín Dvořák's Jakobín premiered at the National Theater in Prague. The three-act opera was one of Dvořák's peasant operas. Marie Červinková-Riegrová wrote the libretto, based on the story "At the Ducal Court," by Alois Jirásek. In the story, the Count disowns his son, Bohuš, for his alleged ties with the French Revolutionaries known as Jacobins.
I think the #US is closer to a #revolutionary situation today than it's ever been. & this is a country that went through the #GreatDepression, the turbulent times of the 60s, and the 2008 #recession. We're not there yet, but the clock is ticking. Get involved however you can.
I think we're entering a period very soon where we will see a #revolutionary situation in the #UnitedStates. This requires #organization. & to get the organization we need, we need most people on our side. Yes, there's risk involved, but being a #communist comes with risks.
Today in Labor History February 8, 1805: Louis-Auguste Blanqui was born. He was a French revolutionary and participant in the Paris Commune. Blanqui took an active role in most republican conspiracies of the early to mid-1800s, both in France, and in Italy with the Carbonari society, including the July Revolution of 1830. In 1840, the authorities condemned him to death for his role in a violent rebellion led by the Société des Saisons. However, they commuted it to life in prison and then ended up releasing him during the revolution of 1848. Needless to say, he promptly resumed his attacks. In 1849, they again imprisoned him, but he escaped and led two more armed uprisings. Just prior to the Paris Commune, they arrested him again. While in prison, the Communards elected him president of the commune. The Communards offered to release all of their prisoners if the government released Blanqui. In 1872, along with other leaders of the Commune, the authorities sentenced him to deportation. But because of poor health, they commuted his sentence to local imprisonment. He died in 1881.
Today in Labor History February 4, 1979: Six workers were killed by police in the massacre of Cromotex, Lima Peru. The workers had taken over the factory after it went bankrupt and its owners tried to close it down. Led by a hardline revolutionary, Hemigidio Huertas, workers armed with sticks took the premises over. They held out for a week, killing a police captain in the process. When police later stormed the factory, they killed six workers including Huertas. One of the survivors, Nestor Cerpa, was arrested and jailed for 10 months. After his release, he went underground and started to organize the MRTA, or Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement.
#workingclass #LaborHistory #Peru, #tupacamaru #MRTA #massacre #policebrutality #tupac #union #strike #police #Revolutionary
The future is not bleak. The left can not afford such an outlook. We've already known the path that #capitalism and its highest form would take. Our analysis has shown this. Use this time to strengthen and train your #revolutionary #optimism and reaffirm your convictions.
"And even if you don't know how to plan, what to say, what you would do, or what to think about all of this… even if it's been years, but you feel deep in your heart that they would protect you with their life, and you theirs, reach out. Just acknowledge that all of this sucks so much, and that you just want to let them know that you're thinking of them, and that you want to offer your #solidarity. Say the important things that you believe, and echo theirs when you believe them, too, so that you know going into this that there is a basis of trust.
#Compassion, #empathy, friendship, and love, these are all #revolutionary.
I firmly believe that *the most #revolutionary act is the refusal to be #complicit*.
Some people say, do not obey in advance, which is right and true, but it's a baby step to what everyone needs to be prepared to do which is this: #DoNotObey.
*Do not obey. At all.*"
Nguyễn Thị Bình is a granddaughter of the Nationalist leader Phan Chu Trinh. She grew up in a land that had been under French rule since 1858. The country’s resources were plundered, & the people exploited as cheap labour & reduced to grinding poverty. So determined were the French to maintain their colonial hold at any cost, they collaborated in power-sharing with Japanese #fascist #occupiers who brought horror & starvation from 1940-1945.
Despite this, led by the #VietMinh Front, people of Vietnam triumphed in the #AugustRevolution of 1945 & the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam (DRV) was declared on September 2nd. Democratic elections took place in January 1946 but French troops, with the open support of the US & Britain, attacked the new Viet Minh administration in the south of the country & the #WarOfResistance against #France began.
Binh studied French at Lycée Sisowath in Cambodia & worked as a teacher during the #French #colonisation of Vietnam. She joined #VietnamCommunistParty in 1948. Upon joining, she immediately began work as a #grassroots #AntiColonial organiser. From 1945-1951, she took part in intellectual protest movements against French #colonists. She was arrested & jailed between 1951-1953 in #Saigon by the French #colonial authority in Vietnam. She was repeatedly interrogated under torture & sentenced to death but was reprieved & released in very poor health in 1954.
Upon release from prison, Binh went north to work in #Hanoi for the National #WomensUnion. Her job took her to many localities where she witnessed first-hand the impact of #colonialism & the French War on ordinary people & especially women & children.
1954 was a year of victory for the Vietnamese army. The defeated French were forced to sign the #GenevaAccords recognising the independence, sovereignty & unity of Vietnam. The country was temporarily split in two at the 17th parallel, with the French moving to the south from which they would withdraw, while the Viet Minh went to the north. A general election for the government of a united country was to follow within 2 years.
But it never happened. The #USA came centre stage to ensure that the Accords were never implemented. Driven by strategic interests in the region, it made sure that Vietnam stayed divided – preventing an election that would have swept Ho Chi Minh to power with 80% support, while bankrolling & controlling the reactionary #regime of Diem-Nhu south of the 17th parallel. This regime violently suppressed all opposition, executing of thousands of Viet Minh supporters & condemning hundreds of thousands to concentration camps and prisons.
In response, the NLF (for liberation of South Vietnam & unification) was formed in 1960. Nguyen Thi Chau Sa was assigned to the Foreign Affairs Section of its Re-unification Committee & given the name Nguyen Thi Binh (Peace). From 1962 onwards, her high-profile diplomatic work, took her across the world. She represented the aspirations of the people of Vietnam in every country & forum she visited, while the world’s strongest #imperialist power made all-out war on her small country.
During the #VietnamWar, she became a member of the #Vietcong Central Committee and a vice-chairperson of the South Vietnamese #WomensLiberation Association. In 1969 she was appointed foreign minister of the Provisional #Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam. A fluent French speaker, Bình played a major role in the #ParisPeaceAccords - an agreement that was supposed to end the war & restore peace in Vietnam.
She was expected to be replaced by a male Vietcong representative after preliminary talks, but became one of the group's most visible international public figures. During this time, she was famous for representing Vietnamese women with her elegant & gracious style, and was referred to by the media as "Madame Bình". She was also referred to as the "Viet Cong Queen" by Western media.
After the war, she was appointed Minister of Education of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1982-1986; the first female minister ever in the history of Vietnam. Binh was a member of the Central Committee of Vietnam's Communist Party from 1987-1992. She was the Deputy Chair of the Party's Central Foreign Affairs Commission & Chair of the National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee. The National Assembly elected her twice to position of Vice President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam for the terms 1992–1997 & 1997–2002.
Bình has authored several op-eds, including a one on the state newspaper Nhân Dân in which she voiced concerns that the current personnel policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam have allowed some "incompetent and opportunistic" individuals to enter the party's apparatus. She also criticized the Party's focus on increasing membership at the expense of "quality."
From March 2009-2014, she served as a member of the support committee of #RussellTribunal on #Palestine.
Madame Bình became a source of inspiration & namesake for Madame Binh Graphics Collective, a #RadicalLeft all-women poster, printmaking, & street art collective based in NYC from 1970s-1980s.
Many Americans in the #AntiWar movement were proud to wear T-shirts printed with the portrait of "Madame Binh". By then, she had become a symbol for female soldiers of the legitimacy of Vietnam's efforts.
Madame Bình has been awarded many prestigious awards & honours, including the Order of Ho Chi Minh & Resistance Order (First Class). In 2021, President of Vietnam Nguyễn Xuân Phúc awarded her the 75-year Party Membership Commemorative Medal.
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, the Government of Vietnam commissioned the official portraits for 12 former foreign ministers from 1945-2020. Nguyễn Thị Bình was included among them as the only South Vietnamese foreign minister & the only woman.
Ref: Nguyen Thi Binh". Northeastern Dictionary of Women's Biography (3rd ed.). Boston: Northeastern University Press. 1999. ISBN 978-1-55553-421-9
Ref: Triantafillou, Eric (3 May 2012). "Graphic Uprising". The Brooklyn Rail.
Ref: https://www.russelltribunalonpalestine.com/en/about-rtop/patrons.html
Ref: Hy V. Luong (2003), Postwar Vietnam: dynamics of a transforming society, Rowman & Littlefield, ISBN 0847698653
Lucy
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