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#civilwar

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Today in Labor History March 13, 1848: The German revolutions of 1848-1849 began in Vienna. While the middle classes were fighting for a unified German state and increased civil liberties, the working class had more revolutionary aspirations. Participants in the revolution included communist and anarchist revolutionaries like Marx, Engels and Bakunin, as well as the composer Wagner. The aristocracy exploited the split between the classes, facilitating their eventual violent defeat, with great loss of life and mass imprisonment. Many fled to the U.S. and became known as “forty-eighters.” They moved to places like Cincinnati’s Ober der Rhine neighborhood, or Saint Louis. After risking their lives fighting against serfdom in Europe, many were so horrified by the persistence of slavery in their new country that they dedicated themselves to the cause of abolition and free thinking, joining organizations like the Freimӓnverein (Society of Freemen) and the Wide Awakes (a radical militia that defended free blacks and fought Confederates in the streets). Some of them also became publishers, like Henry Boernstein, who had previously published “Vorwärts!” in Paris with Karl Marx, Engels, Heinrich Heine and others.

You can read more on The Wide Awakes and the Antebellum Roots of Wokeness here: michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/

We probably can’t imagine what an attack by the US on #Canada and #Greenland would entail. But Malcolm Nance lays it out in all of its brutal and #fascist horrors.

Donald Trump wants
#WW3 and a #CivilWar in #America. He’s making plans for it right now.

#MalcolmNance

malcolmnance.substack.com/p/ur

Special Intelligence · URGENT WARNING: Trump is Planning to Invade Canada & GreenlandBy Malcolm Nance

“What I want is for every dirty, lousy tramp to arm himself with a revolver or knife on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot their owners as they come out.”

This was what Lucy Parsons, then in her 80’s, told a crowd at a May Day rally in Chicago, at the height of the Great Depression. The way folk singer Utah Phillips tells the story, she was the image of everybody’s grandmother, prim and proper, face creased with age, tiny voice, hair tied back in a bun. She died in Chicago, Illinois, on this date in Labor History, March 7, 1942.

Little is known about Lucy Parson’s early life, but various records indicate that she was born to an enslaved African American woman, in Virginia, sometime around 1848-1851. She may also have had indigenous and Mexican ancestry. Some documents record her name as Lucia Gonzalez. In 1863, her family moved to Waco, Texas. There, as a teenager, she married a freedman named Oliver Benton. But she later married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate officer from Waco, who had become a radical Republican after the war. He worked for the Waco Spectator, which criticized the Klan and demanded sociopolitical equality for African Americans. Albert was shot in the leg and threatened with lynching for helping African Americans register to vote. It is unclear whether her initial marriage was ever dissolved, and likely that her second marriage was more of a common-law arrangement, considering the anti-miscegenation laws that existed then.

In 1873, Lucy and Albert moved to Chicago to get away from the racist violence and threats of the KKK. There, they became members of the socialist International Workingmen's Association, and the Knights of Labor, a radical labor union that organized all workers, regardless of race or gender. They had two children in the 1870s, one of whom died from illness at the age of eight. Lucy worked as a seamstress. Albert worked as a printer for the Chicago Times. These were incredibly difficult times for workers. The Long Depression had just begun, one of the worst, and longest, depressions in U.S. history. Jobs were scarce and wages were low. Additionally, bosses were exploiting the Contract Labor Law of 1864 to bring in immigrant workers who they could pay even less than native-born workers.

In 1877, Lucy and Albert Parsons helped organize protests and strikes in Chicago during the Great Upheaval. The police violence against the workers there was intense. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.” During the Battle of the Viaduct (July 25, 1877), the police slaughtered thirty workers and injured over one hundred. Albert was fired from his job and blacklisted, because of his revolutionary street corner speeches.

After the Great Upheaval, they both moved away from electoral politics and began to support more radical anarchist activism. Lucy condoned political violence, self-defense against racial violence, and class struggle against religion. Along with Lizzie Swank, and others, she helped found the Chicago Working Women's Union (WWU), which encouraged women workers to unionize and promoted the eight-hour workday.

During the late 1870s and early 1880s, she wrote numerous articles, including "Our Civilization, Is it Worth Saving?" and "The Factory Child. Their Wrongs Portrayed and Their Rescue Demanded." In 1884, she helped edit the radical newspaper The Alarm. She wrote an article for that paper, "To Tramps, the Unemployed, the Disinherited and Miserable," which sold of over 100,000 copies. In that article, she advocated using violence against the bosses. In 1885, she published "Dynamite! The only voice the oppressors of the people can understand," in the Denver Labor Enquirer. During this period, Lucy gave numerous fiery speeches on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hundreds of people routinely attended. Mother Jones thought her speeches advocated too much violence. The Chicago Police Department called her “more dangerous than 1,000 rioters.”

On May 1, 1886, 350,000 workers went on strike across the U.S. to demand the eight-hour workday. In Chicago, Albert and Lucy led a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue. It was the world’s first May Day/International Workers’ Day demonstration—an event that has been celebrated ever since, by nearly every country in the world, except for the U.S. Two days later, another anarchist, August Spies, addressed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper factory. Chicago Police and Pinkertons attacked the crowd, killing at least one person. On May 4, anarchists organized a demonstration at Haymarket Square to protest that police violence. The police ordered the protesters to disperse. Somebody threw a bomb, which killed at least one cop. The police opened fire, killing another seven workers. Six police also died, likely from “friendly fire” by other cops.

The authorities, in their outrage, went on a witch hunt, rounding up most of the city’s leading anarchists and radical labor leaders, including Albert Parsons and August Spies. Lucy toured the country, giving speeches and distributing literature about the men’s innocence. Everywhere she went, she was greeted by police, often being barred entrance to the meeting halls where she was scheduled to speak. She was also arrested numerous times.

Despite her efforts, and those of other activists fighting to free the Haymarket anarchists, seven were ultimately convicted of killing the cops, even though none of them were present at Haymarket Square when the bomb was thrown. Four were executed, in 1887, including Albert Parsons. On the morning of his execution, Lucy brought their children to see him for the last time, but she was arrested and taken to the Chicago Avenue police station, where they strip-searched her for explosives. Albert’s casket was later brought to Lucy’s sewing shop, where over 10,000 people came to pay their respects. 15,000 people attended his funeral. Several years later, the governor of Illinois pardoned all seven men, determining that neither the police, nor the Pinkertons, who testified against them, were reliable witnesses.

After her husband’s execution, Lucy continued her radical organizing, writing, and speeches. In October 1888, she visited London, where she met with the anarchists Peter Kropotkin and William Morris. In the 1890s, she edited and wrote for the newspaper Freedom, A Revolutionary Anarchist-Communist Monthly. In 1892, Alexander Berkman (an anarchist comrade and lover of Emma Goldman) attempted to assassinate the industrialist Henry Clay Frick, for his role in the slaughter of striking steel workers, during the Homestead Strike. Lucy published the following in Freedom: "For our part we have only the greatest admiration for a hero like Berkman."

In 1905, Lucy cofounded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), along with Mother Jones, Big Bill Haywood, Eugene Debs, James Connolly, and others. The IWW was, and still is, a revolutionary union, seeking not only better working conditions in the here and now, but the complete abolition of capitalism. The preamble to their constitution states, “The working class and the employing class have nothing in common.” They advocate the General Strike and sabotage as two of many means to these ends.

At the founding meeting of the IWW, Lucy said that women were the slaves of slaves. “We are exploited more ruthlessly than men. Whenever wages are to be reduced the capitalist class use women to reduce them.” She called on the new union to fight for gender equality and to assess underpaid women lower union dues. She also started advocating for nonviolent protest, telling workers that instead of walking off the job, and starving, they should strike, but remain at their worksites, taking control of their bosses’ machinery and property. This was years before Gandhi started leading Indians in nonviolent protest.

 Read my entire biography of her here: michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/

“When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.” –Lucy Parsons

Missouri GOP’s Effort to Take Over St. Louis Police Hearkens Back to Civil War

City officials say the state’s plan to wrest back control of the police department is an attempt by white conservatives to weaken Black political influence. It’s part of a broader pattern of Missouri Republicans trying to override the will of voters.

propublica.org/article/st-loui

ProPublicaMissouri GOP’s Effort to Take Over St. Louis Police Hearkens Back to Civil War
More from ProPublica

Absolom, Absolom! By William Faulkner.

You are a white man who makes his way to rural Mississippi before the Civil War, with the goal of having the biggest plantation in the county, but what is even more fucked up is your need for a male heir, which you pursue relentlessly and destroy not just your life but countless others in your lifetime and beyond.
CW: hate speech

3 of 5 library cats 🐈 🐈 🐈.

@bookstodon #bookstodon #reading #books #race #civilwar #racism #incest

#NoKingsDay #washington #DC 2025-02-17 in a #bigbrother 1984 #orwellian #digital #dictatorship, no one would see anything of this #protests, all the big media conglomerates, search engines would censor it :( question: why did those peaceful protesters not try to turn over the gov and storm congress? (just asking, probably because they are intelligent unlike the january 6 rioters)

BUT if #Trump and #republicans keep ignoring LEGITIMATE grievances of #citizens like higher and higher #food and #fuel prices = imho companies using #inflation as excuse to increase prices without transparency = #corruption of the #middleman: when is #DOGE gonna investigate that???

u gonna have a violent #civilwar like #riot at your hand Mr #TrumpRegime

because #citizens then have nothing to lose and the #FrenchRevolution did not go well for the #King

#Trump + #Elonmusk START FOCUSING ON THE PROBLEMS OF THE #POOR + #ECONOMY NOW! with smart new ideas of #finance

or face dire catastrophic #disaster #consequences

Replied in thread

Long read: How a peripheral state can leverage its wealth, strategic geography and alliances to exert outsized influence on regional and global affairs

"How the UAE can simultaneously be both a subject of imperialism and an agent of imperialist practices within its spheres of influence while challenging traditional imperialist actors": tni.org/en/article/the-emergin

@israel @geography 🧵

Replied in thread

@eloquence @dajb Erik, I’m with you. I acknowledge the cumulative trauma #USPol has had on many of us. Many people just can’t absorb anything more. I am one of them, for now. I have not watched any news broadcasts or videos since the election. Here I am because we are in the worst Constitutional crisis since the #CivilWar. #US economic, political and military power have worldwide impact. ALL democracies are at risk. We have a duty to be present. There is no opt-out.

Elon "doge" Musk is ruining our lives in #America. Too few people knew that #trump would destroy the country and too many voted for him.

Now what do we do? We are now in an undeclared civil war. It is "Us" against "Them."

Just as the #CivilWar in the 1860s, this is a #War to preserve the #Union of the #US.

Given long enough, everything we have come to care about in this country will have been destroyed. This is not hyperbole, it's fact, it's happening.

Now What?

“What I want is for every dirty, lousy tramp to arm himself with a revolver or knife on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot their owners as they come out.”
-Lucy Parsons

This was what Lucy Parsons, then in her 80’s, told a crowd at a May Day rally in Chicago, at the height of the Great Depression. The way folk singer Utah Phillips tells the story, she was the image of everybody’s grandmother, prim and proper, face creased with age, tiny voice, hair tied back in a bun.

Little is known about Lucy Parson’s early life, but various records indicate that she was born to an enslaved African American woman, in Virginia, sometime around 1848-1851. She may also have had indigenous and Mexican ancestry. Some documents record her name as Lucia Gonzalez. In 1863, her family moved to Waco, Texas. There, as a teenager, she married a freedman named Oliver Benton. But she later married Albert Parsons, a former Confederate officer from Waco, who had become a radical Republican after the war. He worked for the Waco Spectator, which criticized the Klan and demanded sociopolitical equality for African Americans. Vigilantes shot Albert in the leg and threatened to lynch him for helping African Americans register to vote. It is unclear whether her initial marriage was ever dissolved, and likely that her second marriage was more of a common-law arrangement, considering the anti-miscegenation laws that existed then.

In 1873, Lucy and Albert moved to Chicago to get away from the racist violence and threats of the KKK. There, they joined the socialist International Workingmen’s Association, and the Knights of Labor, a radical labor union that organized all workers, regardless of race or gender. They had two children in the 1870s, one of whom died from illness at the age of eight. Lucy worked as a seamstress. Albert worked as a printer for the Chicago Times. These were incredibly difficult times for workers. The Long Depression had just begun, one of the worst, and longest, depressions in U.S. history. Jobs were scarce and wages were low. Additionally, bosses were exploiting the Contract Labor Law of 1864 to bring in immigrant workers who they could pay even less than native-born workers.

Lucy and Albert Parsons helped organize protests and strikes in Chicago during the Great Upheaval. The police violence against the workers there was intense. One journalist wrote, “The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them.” During the Battle of the Viaduct (July 25, 1877), the police slaughtered thirty workers and injured over one hundred. Albert was fired from his job and blacklisted, because of his revolutionary street corner speeches.

After the Great Upheaval, they both moved away from electoral politics and began to support more radical anarchist activism. Lucy condoned political violence, self-defense against racial violence, and class struggle against religion. Along with Lizzie Swank, and others, she helped found the Chicago Working Women’s Union (WWU), which encouraged women workers to unionize and promoted the eight-hour workday.

On May 1, 1886, 350,000 workers went on strike across the U.S. to demand the eight-hour workday. In Chicago, Albert and Lucy led a peaceful demonstration of 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue. It was the world’s first May Day/International Workers’ Day demonstration—an event that has been celebrated ever since, by nearly every country in the world, except for the U.S. Two days later, another anarchist, August Spies, addressed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper factory. Chicago Police and Pinkertons attacked the crowd, killing at least one person. On May 4, anarchists organized a demonstration at Haymarket Square to protest that police violence. The police ordered the protesters to disperse. Somebody threw a bomb, which killed at least one cop. The police opened fire, killing another seven workers. Six police also died, likely from “friendly fire” by other cops.

The authorities, in their outrage, went on a witch hunt, rounding up most of the city’s leading anarchists and radical labor leaders, including Albert Parsons and August Spies. Despite her efforts, and those of other activists fighting to free the Haymarket anarchists, the courts ultimately convicted the seven men of killing the cops, even though none of them were present at Haymarket Square when the bomb was thrown. They executed four of them in 1887, including Albert Parsons. On the morning of his execution, Lucy brought their children to see him for the last time. But the police arrested her and strip-searched her for explosives. Albert’s casket was later brought to Lucy’s sewing shop, where over 10,000 people came to pay their respects. 15,000 people attended his funeral. Several years later, the governor of Illinois pardoned all seven men, determining that neither the police, nor the Pinkertons, who testified against them, were reliable witnesses.

You can read my complete biography of Lucy here: michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/03/

I might have to watch Alex Garland’s Civil War film. Given events in the actual USA.

Although the idea of Texas and California seceding at the same time seems a bit off a stretch. Maybe it’s explained in the film. The Director defended the plot point in interviews.

Replied in thread

Civil War 🇺🇸

🔸️ Un grupo de periodistas recorre unos EEUU inmersos en una guerra civil
🔸️ Tiene momentos potentes porque choca ver una guerra en occidente en tiempos actuales
🔸️ Muestra en algunas situaciones lo absurdo de la guerra
🔸️ Es de estas películas modernas en las que "todo está bien ejecutado" pero que, al menos en mi caso, no me llenan nada... Seguramente dentro de un mes haya olvidado el 95% de la peli

🇺🇸Black history is American history.

👉🏽 This month, let us honor the legacy and courage of those who fought for justice and equality, recognizing how their struggle both inspired and laid the groundwork for movements fighting for the rights of women, immigrants, and other marginalized groups.

📌 In these challenging times, apathy has no place. Let us all be the change we wish to see in the world.🗽