Notices by Working Class History (workingclasshistory@mastodon.social), page 3

#OtD 31 Mar 1968 Zengakuren - Japanese radical students - clashed with police in riots against the new Narita airport. It was part of an extended campaign for years against the airport which was going to displace hundreds of farmers https://libcom.org/history/zengakuren-japans-revolutionary-students

#OtD 27 Mar 1942 France's Vichy govt issued a decree demanding barbers to collect cut hair and donate it to the war effort. The Zazous (rebellious anti-fascist youths) refused and grew their hair long. More info in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2018/04/04/wch4-anti-nazi-youth-movements-in-world-war-ii/

#OtD 26 Mar 1923, in Yambol, Bulgaria, during an anarchist protest against the government decision to disarm the people, the army shot into the crowd, killing 30 and wounding and arresting many others. Others were executed the following day and in April.

#OtD 26 Mar 1879, Georges Cochon, French tapestry maker, anarchist and tenants' organiser, was born. This is a short biography: https://libcom.org/history/cochon-georges-1879-1959

#OtD 25 Mar 1926 20 police with clubs attacked 1500 striking textile workers in Passaic, NJ. They were fighting against pay cuts, for a shorter working week and for unionisation of the industry. 5 strikers and 3 truck driver supporters were arrested.

#OtD 25 Mar 1873, German anarchist-syndicalist Rudolf Rocker was born. This is a short biography: https://libcom.org/history/articles/1873-1958-rudolf-rocker

#OtD 19 Mar 1969 the UK Labour govt sent troops to invade Anguilla after locals rebelled against being put under the authority of the St Kitts govt - which hated them. The invaders, expecting to fight mafiosi & Black power activists, found only goats.

#OtD 14 Mar 2018 Marielle Franco, bisexual Afro-Brazilian socialist and feminist was assassinated in Rio de Janeiro. She spoke out against extrajudicial killings by police. The suspects so far all have links to police, security forces or Pres Bolsonaro.

#OtD 14 Mar 1883 Engels sent a wire to Friedrich Sorge saying simply "Marx died today!". Karl Marx died in London, aged 64. Marx's magnum opus, Capital, is still the most devastating critique of capitalist political economy. Works by and about him here: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/karl-marx

#OtD 8 Mar 1920, anarchists, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman met with, Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin, and expressed their concern with the lack of freedom of press and the suppression of dissent in Soviet Russia. https://libcom.org/library/alexander-berkman-bolshevik-myth

#OtD 2 Mar 2016 Honduran Indigenous environmental activist of Lenca descent Berta Cáceres was assassinated in her home. She had been protesting against energy company DESA which is suspected of being responsible for the killing. Learn more in this book: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/products/who-killed-berta-caceres-nina-lakhani

#OtD 10 Feb 1987, a telephone box in Puerto Real, Spain was burned, leaving 14,000 phones out of service, in an act of sabotage by dock workers and their supporters, who were fighting against privatisation of the port. https://libcom.org/library/anarcho-syndicalism-puerto-real-shipyard-resistance-community-control

#OtD 6 Feb 2003 Washington Post published this article saying that it was "irrefutable" Iraq had weapons of mass destruction & was working with Al Qaeda to acquire chemical weapons & attack Europe. Worth remembering with furore about fake news. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/02/06/irrefutable/e598b1be-a78a-4a42-8e1a-c336f7a217f4/?utm_term=.b51c5ba24168

#OtD 27 Jan 1987 Swiss revolutionary Clara Thalmann died aged 77. She previously fought in the Spanish civil war then joined the French resistance under Nazi occupation, helping Jewish and revolutionary refugees. Learn more: https://libcom.org/history/articles/1910-1987-clara-thalmann

#OtD 19 Jan 1970 Spanish civil war fighter and textile worker militant Libertad Rodenas died in Mexico, aged 76. She had fought in the anarchist Durruti Column during the revolution, and joined the Mujeres Libres women's group. Short biography: https://libcom.org/history/rodenas-libertad-1893-1970

#OtD 17 Jan 1928 Vidal Sassoon, anti-fascist hairdresser born. Aged 17 he joined the 43 Group, formed by Jewish ex-servicemen, which smashed Oswald Mosley's fascists off the streets of London. Sassoon's weapon of choice? A pair of scissors. Learn more: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35-37-the-43-group/

#OtD 16 Jan 1997 saw the collapse of huge pyramid schemes in #Albania leading to the toppling of the government. Hundreds of thousands lost life savings and family homes; in response, workers demanded the government reimburse them https://libcom.org/library/upheaval-land-eagles

#OtD 12 Jan 1989 punks were identified as the main problem in a "youth analysis" by the East German govt. Punks were surveilled, arrested and beaten, had their mohawks cut off, movements restricted and badjacketed if they refused to be informants.

#OtD 22 Dec 2011 in Athens, the workers at Elefterotypia, Greece’s 2nd-biggest daily paper, walked out on an indefinite strike in protest against not having been paid since Aug. They later launched their own collectively-run paper.

#OtD 14 Dec 1914 gen Silva Renard, the officer responsible for Chile's worst massacre was stabbed by Antonio Ramón Ramón, a Spanish anarchist. Silva's troops killed up to 3500 people in 1907, including Ramón's brother. He survived with permanent injuries.