- Spain: From 8th-13th, some provinces (Andalusia, Aragon, Estremadure) experience uprisings, initiated by the anarchists. In several villages, they declare anarchist-communism, destroy property files, & abolish the currency. But these movements remain insulated & on December 10 the Republican government declares a State of Emergency & sends in the army. As in Casas Viejas, repression is severe: 87 dead, many arrests, tortures, & more than 700 imprisoned.
1*15*1934 - Canada: Emma Goldman gives a well-attended series of lectures, January 15-31, at Hygeia Hall in Toronto
5*28*1934 - Canada: Emma Goldman's recent lectures in Montreal drew audiences of 300-400: she spoke on Hitler & Nazism, "The Collapse of German Culture," & "Living My Life", as well as lecturing in Yiddish on May 21. Now back in Toronto, Goldman finds an apartment; after a disappointing lecture on the New Deal today she determines to curtail her public speaking & concentrate on writing.
6*27*1934 - Canada: Emma Goldman celebrates her 65th birthday in Toronto with a party attended by 40 friends
7*10*1934 - Erich Mühsam, German anarchist poet, murdered on the night of July 9/10, by the Nazis at the Orianenburg concentration camp
7*18*1934 - The American Mercury accepts Emma Goldman's article, "Communism: Bolshevist & Anarchist, A Comparison," which it publishes — to Emma's disgust — in a truncated form as "There is No Communism in Russia" in April 1935, violating the spirit of the original article.
7*24*1934 - Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist guerilla leader who fought reactionaries on the left & the right (both the Bolshevik Red Army & the rightwing White armies, dies, the evening of July 24-25, in exile in Paris, age 44, from tuberculosis.
8*10*1934 - US: Anarchist conference at Stelton, N.J., August 10-11, organized to discuss the creation of an English-language anarchist weekly; Emma Goldman contributes in writing her ideas on anarchists building alliances with other groups.
9*25*1934 - Emma Goldman lectures to a Jewish women's organization in Toronto, Canada, on "The New Approach to the Child."
10*5*1934 - Spain: 40,000 miners & iron workers strike, seizing towns around Gijon. 3,000 killed. The uprising in the mining districts of Asturias, Spain, October 5-18, is followed by severe repression; thousands of miners are executed, thousands more tortured, & thirty to forty thousand are imprisoned.
12*12*1934 - US: During this month Harper's publishes Emma Goldman's "Was My Life Worth Living?" & Roger Baldwin advises Goldman that in the current atmosphere of hostility toward alien radicals she is unlikely to be granted a US visa. Today her brother Herman dies.
1*17*1935 - Canada: After a disappointing turnout for her Jan. 17 lecture on moral censorship of current films Emma Goldman cancels further lectures.
3*4*1935 - Canada: Emma Goldman delivers two further lectures to Jewish groups--on "Crime & Punishment" on March 4 & birth control on March 15--& the last in her drama series conclude Goldman's lectures in Montreal; she returns to Toronto on March 17.
4*11*1935 - Canada: In her last month in this country Emma Goldman speaks in Hamilton, Ontario, under the auspices of the National Council of Jewish Women.
4*22*1935 - Canada: Emma Goldman returns to Montreal where her niece Stella Ballantine visits her on April 26.
5*2*1935 - Canada: Telegrams of tribute greet Emma Goldman at a farewell event hosted by Rabbi Stern of Montreal. On May 4-14 Goldman sails from Canada to Le Havre, France; she reaches Paris on May 15. On May 18 Goldman arrives back in St. Tropez in time to celebrate the anniversary of Berkman's release from prison in 1906; she finds him in better health than she expected.
10*11*1935 - Argentina: Founding of Fédération Anarcho-Communiste Argentine. (F.A.C.A).
11*21*1935 - England: In June of this year Emma Goldman began mobilizing anarchist writers & editors of the movement's press - for example, Rudolf Rocker, Max Nettlau, & Albert de Jong — to publish articles to mark Berkman's 65th birthday today.
1*16*1936 - Spain: Socialists / communists / anarchists form Unidad Popular.
1*31*1936 - Several delegates from the Portuguese Anarchist Federation & from exile attend FAI meeting on 31 January & 1 February 1936.
2*16*1936 - Spain: Election & formation of the Popular Front government against the fascist Franco. Anarchists, socialists, communists, republicans & labor groups for a republic.
3*7*1936 - Germany remilitarizes the Rhineland in direct contravention of the Treaty of Versailles.
3*25*1936 - Wales: Emma Goldman delivers three lectures (March 25-27) to miners in South Wales--at Mountain Ash, Ystradgynlais, & Aberdare--sponsored by the National Council of Labour Colleges. Her lectures on "Mussolini & Hitler" & on "The Two Communisms" are surprisingly well received, as it is the first time that the Labour Colleges had provided a hearing for anarchism & a critique of Soviet Russia.
5*2*1936 - The "Sterilizers of Bordeaux" trial in France. In April 1935 France, lacking specific laws against voluntary vasectomies, charged Dr. Norbert Bartosek, an anarchist Austrian, & others (among them Aristide Lapeyre & both Andrée & André Prévotel) with the "crime of castration" & "aggravated assault". Bartosek received three years in prison & the others 16 months.
5*27*1936 - Alexander Berkman, in declining health, is released from a hospital & returns to his domestic life with companion Emmy Eckstein & his old anarchist pal Emma Goldman in Nice
6*26*1936 - Death of Régis Meunier, French militant syndicalist, anarchist propagandist. Sentenced to seven years in a penal colony during the anti-anarchist hysteria, May 30, 1894 for "criminal conspiracy". He became friends with Clement Duval, whom he helped escape. Meunier was pardoned June 18, 1901.
6*28*1936 - In the early hours of the day, unable to continue enduring the physical pain of a longstanding ailment, Alexander Berkman shoots himself; the bullet lodges in his spinal column, paralysing him. Emma Goldman rushes to Nice to be at his side. He sinks into a coma in the afternoon & dies at 10pm.
6*30*1936 - Alexander Berkman is buried in Nice. Lifelong anarchist pal Emma Goldman is in attendance.
7*9*1936 - US: Alexander Berkman Memorial Meeting sponsored by the Jewish Anarchist Federation in NY City.
7*16*1936 - Spain: In Barcelona, the anarcho-trade unionists of the powerful C.N.T (Confederación Nacional del Trabajo) apply, without success, to Luis Companys, president of the "Generalitat" (self government of Catalonia), to organize a weapons distribution to the workers, to counter the imminent threat of a rightwing military coup d'etat.
7*17*1936 - Military uprising against Republican government led by fascist Francisco Franco, triggering the Spanish Revolution & Civil War. Barcelona workers of the largest & most powerful trade union, the anarchist C.N.T., seize 200 rifles & distribute them. Where the workers offer armed resistance, the fascists are defeated.
Federico Arcos recalls:
"I woke up to the factory sirens. & it was as if the whole of Barcelona was pulsing to a single heartbeat, the sort of thing that only happens maybe once in a century¨ &, if I may say so, it has left its mark on my life & I can still feel that emotion."
7*19*1936 - Spain: The fascists, under Franco, attempt to overthrow the elected government in Spain, triggering the Spanish Civil War & Revolution. Today the rebellious military officers hold most of the garrisons in Barcelona. The workers of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT & socialist POUM attack the barracks, joined by soldiers, civil guards & policemen faithful to the republic.
7*20*1936 - Spain: In Barcelona, following the fascist uprising by Franco & the military against the Republic yesterday, the workers of the CNT & POUM counterattacked & today only Atarazanas barracks remains in fascist hands. During the assault the anarchist Francisco Ascaso is killed
7*21*1936 - Spain: Establishment in Catalonia of the Central Anti-Fascist Militias Committee (CAMC). No workers' organization takes power.
7*23*1936 - Spain: Two militia columns leave Barcelona to liberate Zaragoza, safeguarding & extending the establishment of anarchist communism in Aragon.
7*25*1936 - Spain: Camillo Berneri arrives in Catalonia with a cargo of rifles & ammunition.
8*19*1936 - Spain: Camillo Berneri, after organizing an Italian anarchist column within the Francisco Ascaso formation in the Pedralbes barracks (renamed "Bakunin"), with Angeloni & de Santillán (from the CNT-FAI), leaves Barcelona for the Aragonese front.
9*16*1936 - Spain: Based in Barcelona, the anarchist stronghold in Catalonia, from September 16-December 10, Emma Goldman helps write the English-language edition of the CNT-FAI's information bulletin, visits collectivized farms & factories, & travels to the Aragon front, Valencia, & Madrid. Works closely with anarchist Martin Gudell of the CNT-FAI's Foreign Propaganda Department & broadcasts two English-language radio addresses; Goldman hopes to conduct publicity from Barcelona, not wanting to leave Spain.
9*26*1936 - Spain: Three anarchists -- Doménech, Fábregas & Garcia Birlan -- join the Generalidad government in Catalonia.
10*2*1936 - Spain: The CAMC (Central Anti-Fascist Militias Committee, founded July 21, 1936 in Catalonia) is wound up.
10*17*1936 - Spain: In Perdiguera (Aragon), the International Group of the Durruti Column, composed of 250 anarchists, engage in a battle against the fascists.
10*18*1936 - Spain: Emma Goldman addresses a mass meeting of 16,000 people organized by the FAI (Iberian Anarchist Federation), youth in Barcelona. Also during the month she visits the Aragon front for two days where she is honored to meet Buenaventura Durruti, a leading FAI activist & militia commander. From the 20th to the 26th, in Valencia, with German exiles Anita & Hanns-Erich Kaminski, Goldman tours collectivized villages & farms.
11*4*1936 - Spain: Four leaders of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT, the largest union in the country, bag their principles during the Spanish Revolution & join the new Republican "Popular Front" government as Cabinet Ministers: Juan Garcia Oliver (Justice), Juan Peiro (Industry) Juan Lopez Sanchez (Trade), Federica Montseny (Health). Actions such as these undermine the Social Revolution, turning it into just another "Civil War".
11*4*1936 - Spain: Juan Peiro Belis appointed Minister of Industry in the Republican government under Caballero Largo.
11*5*1936 - Spain: Anarchist Buenaventura Durruti makes a radio broadcast from the Madrid front, in which he opposes the decree issued by the Generalidad militarizing the militias, & calls for greater commitment & sacrifice from the rearguard if the war is to be won.
11*6*1936 - Spain: The Republic's government (along with the four new anarcho-syndicalist ministers) flees Madrid for the safety of Valencia. The populace of Madrid's response is the cry of "Long live Madrid without government!"
11*7*1936 - Spain: Increasingly aware of her inability to speak Spanish hindering her work in Spain, Emma Goldman plans to shift to publicity work & fund raising in Great Britain or the United States, where she could make a greater contribution.
11*15*1936 - Spain: Today 1,800 militiamen from the best of Durruti's anarchist column enter into combat at University City (Madrid).
11*19*1936 - Spain: This afternoon, Buenaventura Durruti is mortally wounded under uncertain circumstances while helping to defend Madrid. Earlier this month he was persuaded by García Oliver & Federica Montseny to bring his anarchist column (composed of about 3,000 men) to the city to defend it against Franco's fascist army.
11*20*1936 - Spain: Buenaventura Durruti y Domingo, the famous & beloved Spanish anarchist, shot in the lung yesterday, dies at this morning at 6a.m.
11*30*1936 - Spain: Over 500,000 attend the funeral of the anarchist Buenaventura Durruti in Barcelona.
12*17*1936 - USSR: In Moscow, Pravda announces that in Catalonia (Spain), the "cleaning" out of Trotskyites & the anarcho-syndicalists has already started. Stalin's agents will carry out these purges:
"As for Catalonia, the purging of Trotskyist & anarcho-syndicalist elements has begun; this work will be carried out with the same energy with which it was done in the USSR."
12*23*1936 - Emma Goldman arrives in London & finds the propaganda bureau of the Generalitat in a shambles.
1*2*1937 - England: Emma Goldman begins organizing publicity campaign about the Spanish revolution, including planning mass meetings in London & the provinces, but is hampered by poor communication with & lack of urgency among key anarchist leaders in Barcelona.
1*18*1937 - England: Emma Goldman speaks on "The Spanish Revolution & the CNT-FAI" at a large meeting chaired by novelist Ethel Mannin in London.
2*5*1937 - Spain: Plenary assembly of the confederal & anarchist militias meeting in Valencia, February 5-8, to consider the militarization issue.
2*8*1937 - Spain: Malaga falls to Franco's forces.
2*13*1937 - Scotland: In Glasgow, Emma Goldman meets with local anarchists at the home of Frank Leech, secretary of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation.
2*14*1937 - Scotland: Emma Goldman speaks in Glasgow to an audience of 600 on "The Part of the CNT-FAI in the Spanish Revolution" in the afternoon; & in Paisley on "The CNT-FAI & Collectivisation" in the evening.
3*4*1937 - Spain: The newspaper "La Noche" carries an announcement introducing the aims, characteristics & membership conditions of the anarchist Friends of Durruti Group. Also, the Generalidad issues a decree winding up the Control Patrols. In La Batalla , Nin passes favorable & hopeful comment on an article by Balius carried in the March 2nd edition of La Noche.
3*11*1937 - notifies Emma Goldman (in England) of the establishment of a new committee composed of members from the CNT & the FAI to handle all foreign propaganda matters, in order to alleviate inefficiency caused by the personal & political rivalry between Augustin Souchy & Helmut Rudiger over propaganda
3*18*1937 - Spain: Battles in Guadalajara (March 8 through 18) end in victory for the Republican forces (the International Brigades & a division controlled by the anarchist Cipriano Mera) over the fascist nationalist camp composed of Italian, Moroccan troops & strongly armed & motorized Carlists attempting to seize Madrid.
3*21*1937 - Spain: The anarchist Iron Column meets in assembly to vote on militarization or disbandment: it agrees to militarization.
3*28*1937 - Spain: Late March-early April: A flyer bearing the endorsement of the anarchist Friends of Durruti Group is issued.
4*1*1937 - US: Abe Bluestein & Selma Cohen head to Spain to aid the anarchists.
4*14*1937 - Spain: "Friends of Durruti Group," (former anarchists in the Durruti Column) issues a Manifesto opposing commemoration of the anniversary of the Republic, arguing it is merely a pretext for reinforcing bourgeois institutions & the counterrevolution.
4*18*1937 - Spain: "Friends of Durruti Group," (former anarchists in the Durruti Column) hold their first public meeting at a theatre with about 1000 workers present & four speakers.
4*27*1937 - Spain: April 27 & 28, 1937: Armed conflict between anarchists & Generalidad forces in Bellver de Cerdaña. Antonio Martin, the anarchist mayor of Puigcerdá, is shot dead.
4*29*1937 - Spain: Late this month a poster from Friends of Durruti Group is pinned up on trees & walls throughout the city of Barcelona. In it, they set out their program: "All power to the working class. All economic power to the unions. Instead of the Generalidad, the Revolutionary Junta."
5*1*1937 - Spain: The only meetings in Barcelona on May Day were an indoor, small meeting by the 'Those of Yesterday & Those of Today' adhering to the Friends of Durruti Group, & an Anarchist nudist group meeting on the value of music. The Friends of Durruti meeting was Sunday 2 May.
5*2*1937 - Spain: The only meetings in Barcelona on May Day were an indoor, small meeting by the 'Those of Yesterday & Those of Today' adhering to the Friends of Durruti Group, & an Anarchist nudist group meeting on the value of music. The Friends of Durruti meeting was Sunday 2 May.
5*3*1937 - Spain: Republican government attacks workers; beginning of open resistance to both the Republican & Communist authorities by radical workers, anarchists, & others, opposing the regional government takeover of the worker-run telephone company in Barcelona. Fighting spread to all parts of the city, lasting for four days. Stalinists denounce Trotskyite P.O.U.M. as "Franco's Fifth Column" in preparation for its own liquidation (assassinations, etc) of independent radicals & anarchists (similar to purges in Russia as well).
5*4*1937 - Spain: (Tuesday): Gun-battles throughout the night in Barcelona. Many barricades & violent clashes throughout the city.
5*5*1937 - Barcelona: "May Days" erupt in Spain, as Communists attack anarchist strongholds
5*5*1937 - Spain: This evening, in Barcelona, the Italian anarchist theorist/activist Camillo Berneri & Francesco Barbieri are seized by the Communists, presumably on Moscow's orders. Taken from their homes, their bodies are found tomorrow, riddled with bullets. Camillo's eldest daughter, Marie-Louise Berneri, who fought on the front in Aragon, returned to Barcelona for his funeral.
5*5*1937 - Spain: (Wednesday) May 5, 1937: A handbill is distributed by the Friends of Durruti. Over the radio, the CNT disowns the Friends of Durruti Group. Fighting is now confined to the city center: the rest of the city being in the hands of the confederal Defense Committees.
5*7*1937 - Spain: Return to "normalization" in Barcelona. The Republican government had sent troops to take over the telephone exchange on May 3, pitting the anarchists & Poumists on one side against the Republican government & the Stalinist Communist Party on the other, in pitched street battles, resulting in 500 anarchists killed. Squads of Communist Party members took to the streets on May 6 to assassinate leading anarchists. Today, among those found murdered, was the Italian anarchist Camillo Berneri, an outspoken anti-communist.
5*7*1937 - Spain: (Friday): "La Batalla" reiterates its appeal, making it conditional upon withdrawal of the security forces & retention of weapons. Transport services are restored & a degree of normality returns. Assault Guards sent by the Valencia government reach Barcelona around 9:00 P.M. Companys surrenders control of public order. The Control Patrols place themselves at the disposal of the special delegate in charge of public order sent down by the Republican government.
5*8*1937 - Spain: (Saturday): Barricades are dismantled, except for the PSUC barricades, which persist into June. The Friends of Durruti distribute a manifesto reviewing the events of May. In that manifesto there is talk of "treachery" by the CNT leadership.
5*9*1937 - Spain: (Sunday): "Solidaridad Obrera" dismisses the manifesto issued yesterday by the Friends of Durruti as demagoguery and the Group's members as provocateurs. Their manifesto had spoken of "treachery" by the CNT leadership.
5*17*1937 - Spain: Negrin takes over from Largo Caballero as premier. The UGT Regional Committee for Catalonia demands that all POUM militants be expelled from its ranks & presses the CNT to mete out the same treatment to the Friends of Durruti.
5*20*1937 - Spain: Author & one-time used book seller George Orwell, sympathetic to the anarchists, & fighting for the Republic, is shot on the front lines. His Homage to Catalonia is based on his experiences during the Spanish Revolution.
5*22*1937 - Spain: A plenary session of the CNT's Local & Comarcal Federations hears a proposal that the Friends of Durruti be expelled. A session of the Sabadell city council agrees that councilor Bruno Lladó Roca (also the Generalidad's comarcal delegate for Economy) be stood down for having displayed a Friends of Durruti anarchist poster in his office.
5*23*1937 - England: Emma Goldman speaks on the Spanish revolution in Norwich at a well-attended meeting sponsored by the Norwich Freedom Group, the ILP, & the Labour League of Youth.
5*28*1937 - Spain: La Batalla is shut down as is the POUM's radio station. The Friends of Durruti's social premises in the Ramblas are shut down.
6*4*1937 - England: Emma Goldman & Fenner Brockway (a former pacifist & CO) speak on "Conditions in Spain" in London. Goldman formed the CNT-FAI London Committee in 1936 & was made representative of CNT-FAI Exterior Propaganda London bureau.
6*6*1937 - Spain: The Control Patrols are disbanded.
6*16*1937 - Spain: Members of the POUM Executive Committee & foreign activists are rounded up. The POUM is proscribed & its militants persecuted by the Stalinists & the Republic's police.
6*22*1937 - Spain: Between June 22-24, Andrés Nin is kidnapped & murdered by the Soviet secret police who are on a campaign to destroy Republican forces they cannot control.
6*23*1937 - Following the Communist suppression of the anarchists & the P.O.U.M., in which he served during the Spanish Civil War & Revolution, George Orwell flees Spain with his wife.
6*26*1937 - Spain: Showing solidarity with the POUM militants persecuted by the Stalinists & the Republic's police, the Bolshevik-Leninist Section calls for concerted action by the Section, the left of the POUM & the anarchist Friends of Durruti.
7*4*1937 - Portugal: The anarcho-syndicalist Emidio Santana attempts to kill Dictator Salazar. Emidio is sent to prison for 14 years.
8*8*1937 - In Paris, Emma Goldman is troubled by the violent opposition among her closest anarchist comrades to the CNT-FAI's unwillingness to confront the Communists' assault on its opponents on the Left & its undermining of the revolution. Obtains Spanish & French visas that will enable her to travel to Spain after all.
9*16*1937 - Spain: Emma Goldman visits until November 5, primarily in Barcelona.
11*5*1937 - Germany: Julius Nolden, a car plant worker from Duisburg is sentenced by the "The People's Court" in Berlin to a 10 year prison term for "preparing an act of high treason with aggravating circumstances."
1*4*1938 - Spain: During this month the pamphlet Towards a Fresh Revolution is drafted by Balius & published by the anarchist militant group Friends of Durruti.
2*20*1938 - Goldman speaks at a small meeting arranged by the ILP in Eastbourne at which Communists in the audience attack her.
3*9*1938 - Spain: Franco's forces, with overwhelming air superiority, launch a major assault on the Aragon front; the Republican forces, torn by internal disputes, collapse; & by Apr. 15 the Nationalists reach the coast, splitting Republican territory in two.
3*19*1938 - England: March 19-20, Emma Goldman speaks at a well-attended fund-raising meeting in Leicester for the SIA; also shows the Louis Frank film, "Fury over Spain."
4*10*1938 - England: In Liverpool, Emma Goldman speaks on Spain at two meetings today & tomorrow: on the first day to a 1,000 people at an ILP-sponsored event; on the second to a small gathering of the Workmen's Circle. Communists disrupt both meetings.
4*13*1938 - England: "Fascism Is Destroying European Civilisation" is the theme of a protest meeting in London sponsored by the CNT-FAI; Emma Goldman makes an appeal for money for arms--illegal under the terms of the Non-Intervention Pact.
4*23*1938 - England: As a delegate, Emma Goldman attends an all-day National Conference on Spain in London, which she is convinced is contrived by the Communist party.
4*29*193* - England: A literary & musical evening in London for the SIA (Solidarité internationale antifasciste) draws a small audience & is a financial flop; Ethel Mannin finds Emma Goldman's militant speech inappropriate to the occasion, organized to promote humanitarian ends.
5*2*1938 - At the beginning of the month, Emma Goldman is reading Orwell's Homage to Catalonia & writing "Trotsky Protests Too Much," a reply to two articles on the Kronstadt rebellion that appeared in the New York Trotskyist journal "New International". Also Herrera announces his intention to leave his position as secretary of the General Council of the SIA; his replacement is Lucia Sanchez Saornil, the Spanish poet & artist, & founder of "Mujeres Libres".
6*8*1938 - Emma Goldman attends Writers Against Fascism meeting organized by the Association of Writers for Intellectual Liberty; she describes it as "almost entirely C.P." (Communist Party).
7*30*1938 - At the anarchist Whiteway Colony in Gloucestershire, Emma Goldman examines the late Thomas H. Keell's papers on behalf of IISH, which hopes to acquire part of his collection.
8*9*1938 - Emma Goldman offers IISH (International Institute of Social History) her unpublished sketches & large collection of newspaper clippings as well as Alex Berkman's diary. She agrees to help IISH obtain other collections of personal papers from her circle of anarchist friends. Several hundred dollars from anarchists in New York & Chicago were sent to her to pay for travel expenses
9*15*1938 - Spain: Many leading anarchists express to Emma Goldman, who is here for the next 6 weeks, their strong opposition to the policies of the CNT's National Committee & its conciliation of the Negrin government. They are especially critical of Vázquez, who now acknowledges the destructive actions of the Communists but still wants them treated gently.
9*25*1938 - Spain: Emma Goldman, accompanied by Gudell & Herrera, visits the 28th division headed by Gregorio Jover & the 26th division headed by Ricardo Sanz at the battlefront.
11*7*1938 - Ethel Mannin, novelist & anarchist, successfully assumes Emma Goldman's role as SIA representative in London; raises significantly more financial support for the SIA than Goldman had. Goldman advises Gudell that the next propaganda campaign undertaken by the CNT-FAI should be aimed at the release of the political prisoners in Spain.
11*16*1938 - The Republican army of Catalonia, made up of anarchist & communist forces, is defeated after three months by pro-Franco forces, leaving tens of thousands of casualties & dead. The Republican forces had held for three months during the great battle on the front at the Ebre River.
12*22*1938 - Emma Goldman travels to Amsterdam to organize Alexander Berkman's & her papers at the International Institute of Social History.
1*4*1939 - George Orwell signs Breton/Rivera manifesto, "Towards a Free Revolutionary Art."
2*2*1939 - England: This month Emma Goldman is frantic with worry until she receives firm news of the whereabouts of anarchists who have escaped from Catalonia after the collapse of the resistance in Spain. Most find sanctuary in France but face harsh conditions in internment camps; others reach Paris without permits.
2*7*1939 - Emma Goldman's letter protesting Zenzl Mühsam's second disappearance in the Soviet Union appears in the Manchester Guardian.
2*24*1939 - Spain: Vázquez & Herrera's circular letter announces that the CNT-FAI will cease activities abroad & thanks the international community for its efforts on behalf of the Spanish anarchists.
3*5*1939 - Spain: The Negrín government is overthrown in an overnight coup (March 5-6) in Madrid; members of the anarcho-syndicalist CNT trade union in the south-central zone are involved in the coup & occupy posts in the new National Council of Defense.
3*9*1939 - Spain: In Madrid, the anarchist Cipriano Mera (1896-1975), heading the IV army corps, routs the communist troops which besieged the national Council of Defense.
3*26*1939 - France: Emma Goldman travels to Paris to meet refugee Spanish anarchists who are demoralized & fraught with misery & internal recriminations & suspicion.
4*1*1939 - April 1 Franco declares the Spanish civil war at an end.
6827*1939 - Canada: Emma Goldman's 70th birthday is marked in Toronto with a celebration that elicits cables from friends, comrades, & labor organizations around the world.
8*15*1939 - The fiftieth anniversary of Goldman's entry into anarchist ranks; she organizes a celebration for September to mark the occasion & to create a long-term Spanish Relief Fund.
9*19*1939 - Canada: Anarchist Emma Goldman delivers a lecture in Toronto on the Nazi-Soviet Pact to an audience of 800.
9*4*1939 - Canada: Under provisions of Canada's War Measures Act, three Italian immigrant anarchists, Arthur Bortolotti, Ruggero Benvenuti, Ernest Gava, & a Cuban, Marco Joachim, are arrested for possession of antifascist "subversive literature," including anarchist classics.
12*10*1939 - Canada: Emma Goldman spends the first two weeks of this month in Winnipeg & speaks five times, reaching 1,400 people in two weeks: once in Yiddish to a women's organization on Living My Life; to a large audience on the Nazi-Soviet Pact; a lecture on Hitler & Stalin; a talk to the IWW; & a lecture on "The Jew in Literature in England until the End of the 19th Century" to the Jewish Woman's Cultural Club.
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1*12*1940 - Nation & the New Republic by Goldman.
4*1*1940 - Emma Goldman returns home to her Toronto apartment on April 1 after regaining consciousness but not the ability to speak.
5*14*1940 - Feminist anarchist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) dies while in Toronto, Canada raising money for anti-Franco forces in Spain. (See also Dec 21). Outspoken birth control advocate & champion of women's rights. Wrote My Disillusionment in Russia; Living My Life; Anarchism & Other Essays; The Place of the Individual in Society.
"If I can't dance I don't want to be part of your revolution."
5*31*1940 - A memorial meeting for Emma Goldman is held at New York's Town Hall, presided over by Leonard Abbott; films of Goldman in Spain, Canada, & of her funeral are shown; speakers include Norman Thomas, Rudolf Rocker, Roger Baldwin, Harry Kelly, Carlo Tresca, Eliot White, Rose Pesotta labor organizer & anarchist in the ILGWU, Martin Gudell, Dorothy Rogers, & Harry Weinberger.
9*19*1940 - US: A Journalist 'discovers' Jay Fox, the "sole surviving anarchist" farming at Home Colony, Washington.
3*7*1942 - US: IWW founder, anarchist labor organizer Lucy Parsons dies, Chicago, Illinois
6*21*1942 - Spain: Agustin Remiro Manero (1904-1942) killed during an attempted prison escape. Remiro, a Spanish anarchist, joined the Durruti column in July 1936, commanding a battalion of machine-guns.
1*11*1943 - US: Assassination of anarchist militant Carlo Tresca, New York City.
3*29*1943 - Spain: Nine members of the "Juventudes libertarias" (anarchist youths) an underground group opposing the fascist military takeover, are arrested & garroted at the "Modelo" prison. They are just a few of the tens of thousands who met, or will meet, a similar fate in the first years of the Franco dictatorship
8*21*1944 - France: Over 4,000 Spaniards take part in the Maquis uprising in Paris that begins today.
8*22*1944 - France: A group of 32 Spaniards & 4 Frenchmen tackle a German column (consisting of 1,300 men in 60 lorries, with 6 tanks & 2 self propelled guns), at La Madeiline. The Maquis blow up the road & rail bridges & position themselves on surrounding hills with machine guns. The battle rages from 3:00pm till noon tomorrow. Three Maquis were wounded, 110 Germans killed, 200 wounded & the rest surrendered. The German commander committed suicide!
8*25*1944 - French divisions march into Paris followed by the U.S. 4th Infantry Division. Nazi resistance was light & a quick surrender is negotiated, ignoring Hitler's orders to burn the city to the ground.
10*3*1944 - Spain: Spanish guerillas, previously fighting the Nazis in France, make their first incursions into Spain, striking in Navarre.
12*1*1944 - France: The anarchist paper "Libertaire," originally published by Sébastien Faure & Louise Michel, resumes publishing once again following the defeat of the Nazis.
1*4*1945 - Italy: In Raguse, Sicily, Maria Occhipinti, lies down in front of army trucks which come to find new young conscripts to incorporate into the new Italian army. Within minutes, a crowd surrounds the soldiers, forcing them to release their recruits, but kill a demonstrator & set off a major revolt.
3*10*1945 - Bulgaria: 90 members of the Bulgarian Anarchist Federation meet (or attempt to meet?) in an extraordinary session, seeking ways of resisting the new communist regime (which has closed all meeting places & prohibited the anarchist newspapers), are stopped by the communist militia & sent in concentration camps, where they are tortured & compelled to do forced labor.
4*27*1945 - England: Three anarchist editors jailed for nine months for "incitement to disaffection", London.
10*17*1945 - Juan Peron's popularity increased after he introduced liberal workplace policies to the point where he was considered a threat by the Junta. In early 1945 he was arrested & detained.
Public discontent was great and the main trade union federation, the Confederacion General de Trabajo (CGT), organised the first major public action for democracy on October 17, 1945. Its call for Juan Peron to be freed was supported by the Union Sindical Argentina (USA), but not the anarchist union, the Federacion Obrera Regional Argentina (FORA). Eva Peron played a large part in this demonstration.
12*2*1945 - France: First congress, of the post-war period, of the Fédération Anarchiste Française.
4*23*1946 - Korean Anarchist Congress concludes (April 20-23), in Anwui. Establishes the considerable influence of Peter Kropotkin's ideas in post-war Asia. Shin Chae-H0 (1880-1936), a Korean historian, was one of the precursors of anarchism in this country. Then, later, the brothers Li Jung-Kyu (1897-1983) & Li Eul Kyu (1894-1972) -- called the "Korean Kropotkin -- are the architects of this congress, along with another outstanding figure in modern Korean anarchism: Ha Ki Rak, who takes part, in 1987, in the congress of the Korean Anarchist Federation.
5*12*1946 - Founding Congress of the Anarchist Federation of Japan held in Tokyo.
12*19*1946 - US: Reenactment of Boston Tea Party in Boston. (Fashionably late?) Glorifies the destruction of property by vandals -- who inspire "Eugene anarchists" during WTO protests in Seattle 1999.
5*22*1947 - The manifesto "Freedom is a Vietnamese Word", published in the anarchist paper "Le Libertaire", signed by the surrealists Bonnefoy, Bousquet, Breton, Peret, Tanguy & 10 others, condemning the French imperialistic adventure in Indochina.
6*26*1948 - Spain: Raul Carbeillera, an Argentinian anarchist who led the action groups of the CNT against Franco's fascist state, being surrounded police & the Guardia Civil in Montjuich, kills himself. Carbeillera had several times slipped into Spain to fight with the Resistance ... but no more.
9*12*1948 - Antonio Ortiz, takes part with Primitivo Gomez & José Perez in an attempt to bomb (using a small private plane) the official platform where Franco is speechifying, in San Sebastien, Spain.
12*25*1948 - Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Communist Party declares as "outlaws" the anarchist founders of the FACB (Federation Bulgare Anarcho-Communist) & its newspaper "Rabotnitche Skamisal".
11*8*1949 - Italy: Group of anarchists attack the Spanish consulate with grenades in Gènes. Eugenio de Luchhi, Gaetano Busico, & Gaspare Mancuso arrested
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2*24*1950 - Spain: Manuel Sabate Llopart is garrotted in Barcelona prison. An anarchist militant, he was accused of having secretly crossed the frontier to take part in the Resistance. One of the main reasons for his harsh sentence of death sentence is that he is the brother of Francisco Sabate, a famous & legendary member of the anarchist action groups.
3*11*1950 - Cuba: Beginning of the The Third National Libertarian Congress "to reorganize the libertarian labor movement & adopt concrete practical measures, enabling its militants to reorient themselves & to play a decisive part in the regeneration of the Cuban labor movement."
4*8*1950 - Spain: José Lluis Facerias, anti-fascist, anarchist guerilla, blows up the Lonja police station in Barcelona.
12*10*1950 - Italy: 42nd national Congress of the Italian Anarchist Federation held (8th-10th), Ancône.
6*5*1951 - Japan: The Japanese Anarchist Federation reconstituted this month, but the organisation which continued under this name was largely composed of those sympathetic to syndicalism.
7*19*1951 - Spain: In Barcelona, César Saborit Carrelero, anarchist guerilla & member of the action group of action of José Lluis Facieras, is killed by two police officers of the "Brigada politico-social".
8*14*1951 - Spain: José Luis Facerias is assassinated by the police in Barcelona.
11*14*1951 - Spain: 75 members of the CNT (anarcho-syndicalist union) are tried in Seville prison, accused of reorganizing their union & aiding guerrillas, particularly for their attempt to evacuate a group of guerrillas by sea in 1949. Two death sentences were handed down, against Antonio Nuñez & Dionisio Rueda, & the others are sentenced to terms ranging from eight to thirty years’ imprisonment, most of them over fifteen years.
6*30*1952 - Congress passes McCarran-Walter Immigration Act, to screen out "subversive" aliens & deport them, even if they have become US citizens. Follows up on the McCarran Act (Internal Security Act of 1950) - one of the more bucolic provisions being its authorization of concentration camps "for emergency situations."
7*5*1952 - Early in July 1952, John Cage performed a series of his sonatas & interludes in a large tent. Charlip had printed programs on tiny pieces of toilet paper & placed these programs on a table next to the entrance. Also on the table was a large bowl of tobacco. During the concert, the audience was invited to roll cigarettes with this tobacco, using their programs as cigarette papers...
12*25*1953 - France: Anarchist Federation & the Libertarian Communist Federation founded by the FAF (French Anarchist Federation).
3*25*1955 - US Customs confiscate 520 copies of Allen Ginsberg's Howl as they enter the US. It will then be published by City Lights publishers in San Francisco, leading to the arrest of anarchist/poet/publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Customs also seized & destroyed another shipment of Ginsberg's poetry sent from Canada in the 60s.
10*13*1955 - American poet Allen Ginsberg organizes poetry reading at Six Gallery, SF (featuring also Michael McClure, Philip Lamantia, Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Kenneth Rexroth) & brings down the house by reading "Howl" publicly for the first time.
3825*1957 - US Customs again seizes Allen Ginsberg's book of poetry, Howl, this time the second printing published by City Lights Books in Frisco; US District Attorney decides not to pursue, & the printing is released. But in August Officer Friendlies from the Frisco Juvenile Dept raid City Lights Bookstore & charge the owner, anarchist & poet Larry Ferlinghetti with obscenity for selling copies of Howl.
8*30*1957 - Spain: José Luis Facerias is assassinated by the police in Barcelona. He was a veteran leader of the anarchist action groups, which had been operating since the end of the civil war. The ‘implacable fighter’ died riddled with bullets in an ambush laid by the police at the intersection of Urrutia and Verdun Streets.
3*12*1958 - Bulgaria: Manol Vassev (1898-1958), true name Yordan Sotirov, dies. Poisoned by prison guards one day before his scheduled release. A popular Bulgarian militant anarcho-trade unionist & a living symbol of resistance of both fascism & Bolshevism. He also spent several years in Stalinist concentration camps before his prison years.
5*28*1958 - US: Catholic anarchist Ammon Hennacy ends 40-day fast against U.S. nuclear weapons tests
7*25*1958 - England: In London, an International Anarchist Congress meets, July 25 until August1
8*1*1958 - England: In London, the International Anarchist Congress, held July 25, ends.
10*29*1958 - Boris Pasternak, under intense pressure from the Soviet government & press, wires the Swedish Royal Academy his "voluntary refusal" of the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of his crimes is to have written -- in his novel, Dr. Zhivago -- too sympathetically of the anarchists, & not kindly enough of the Bolsheviks
11*29*1959 - Kenneth Rexroth in his New York Times Book Review article on Mexico City Blues attacks Jack Kerouac & his writing.
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1*4*1960 - Spain: Spanish anarchist guerilla Francisco Sabater (Sabate; El Quico) wounded as his group has a shoot-out with the Guardia Civil.
1*5*1960 - Spain: Anarchist guerilla Francisco Sabate dies after a shoot-out with fasciste garde civile. Wounded yesterday, he escaped & was killed today in San Celoni by a sometén (Catalan militia).
3*20*1960 - Anarchist-syndicalist workers' papers -- including Solidaridad Gastronomico -- forced to cease publishing.
5*26*1960 - The Italian political tendency of Bordiga whose arguments we combat here (IL Programma Communista, May 26, 1960) defends the conservative union tactic from the most revolutionary point of view. But many Trotskyist and anarchist groups (if not all) fall into the same error with an opportunist flavor. Even those who claim to be against the unions, like "Socialisme ou Barbarie," in fact fall into the same old routine practices.
3*13*1961 - US: Labor organizer Elizabeth Gurley Flynn is elected chair of the National Committee of the Communist Party, U.S.A. One-time IWW & anarchist in her youth.
3*4*1962 - Discovered today in the Family Planning Association archives: Guy Aldred, 4 Mar 1962 to John Peel (who was writing a history of FP) re: Sanger: 'Her work was very important but I believed that she liked to be patronised too much by the great & the rich. I had no time for that sort of thing.'
8*16*192 - Anarchist publications & public activities banned in Cuba.
3*9*1963 - In a "New Yorker" review of Oscar Wilde's letters W. H. Auden writes: "From the beginning Wilde performed his life & continued to do so even after fate had taken the plot out of his hands."
7*29*1963 - Spain: Franco regime wrongly executes the anarchists Francisco Granados & Joaquín Delgado in the Carabanchel prison, for crimes they did not commit.
2*19*1964 - On February 19, the five libertarians still imprisoned out of the twenty-one arrested in September 1963 began a hunger strike at Fresnes prison to draw attention to their situation. A few days later they were all released.
8*11*1964 - Spain: Stuart Christie & Carballo Blanco arrested in Madrid.
12*12*1964 - US: Solidarity Bookstore opens, Chicago, Illinois, distributing anarchist, surrealist, Wobbly & libertarian socialist literature to the nation for the next 10 years or so.
1*2*1965 - Italy: Bomb explodes in Naples at the Spanish Consulate. The attack is claimed by the Spanish anarchists of the CNT, FAI & FIJL which declare:
"As long as the Iberian people continue to be oppressed by the fascist dictatorship, dynamite will recall that the voice of freedom cannot be choked. Long live anarchy".
4*2*1965 - Ken Kesey busted for marijuana first time. We are sure it is the last time, given its addictive qualities -- or Kesey would be a heroin junkie or Mall Rat by now.
4*30*1965 - Rome: Spanish eclesiatic advisor to the Vatican, the prelate Marcos Ussia, is kidnapped by the anarchist group "May 1". The action was explained by Luis A. Edo, demanding the release of all political prisoners of Franco's jails. This action was mainly symbolic, designed to bring international attention to the plight of Spanish anarchists & other victims of the repression in fascist Spain. Ussia was released on May 11, in good health.
11*9*1965 - US: Roger Allen La Porte, Catholic Worker, immolates himself in front of UN.
11*27*1965 - Ken Kesey's first acid test takes place
2*24*1966 - US: Barry Bondhus dumps 10 pounds of his own s*** on draft files
6*13*1966 - Holland: Provo riots in Amsterdam. (Pre-situ street activists, the Provos this month elect first representative to Amsterdam Municipal Council.)
10*6*1966 - First big free concert in Golden Gate Park Panhandle. Several thousand show up for the "Love Pageant" & those anarchist Diggers start handing out free food. Big Brother, Wildflower, The Dead & the Electric Chamber Orkustra entertained.
10*17*1966 - Anarchist collective, "The Diggers," holds its first free street feed in San Francisco.
10*19*1966 - US: Ken Kesey, novelist & anarchist, back from Mexico, arrested.
11*5*1966 - US: Walk for Love & Peace & Freedom: 10,000+ show up, including poets Allen Ginsberg, & Gary Snyder, Paul Krassner, & the Fugs (Tuli Kupferberg, Ed Sanders, et al). The "first hippie style demo in NYC".
11*29*1966 - US: In Frisco, Municipal Court Judge Elton C. Lawless (!) reluctantly drops charges against members of The Diggers. Their heinous act was staging a Halloween puppet show at Haight & Ashbury streets. Released from custody were the anarchists Emmett Grogan, Peter Berg, Brooks Bucher, Peter Minnault & Robert Morticello.
1814*1967 - US: Gathering of the Tribes for the First Human Be-In (first hippie "be-in") at Golden Gate Park in Frisco, California. Probably 20,000 come to play, though Emmett Grogan says as many as 300,000 in Ringolevio. Familiar names include Michael McClure, Gary Snyder, & Lenore Kandel. Sponsored by Haight Independent Proprietors (H.I.P.) & the Communication Co. Among the performers are The Grateful Dead & The Jefferson Airplane.
3*23*1967 - Bolivia: Che Guevara starts guerrilla warfare. Che's group experiences their first battle of the Bolivian campaign -- the successful ambush of troops at Ñacahuazú.
4*9*1967 - US: Digger Emmett Grogan arrives in NY (6 week trip, having left someplace about March 1).
7*2*1967 - US: Floyd Turner is convicted of flag desecration & sentenced to six months in jail & a $500 fine in Seattle, Wa.
10*21*1967 - US: Yippies, Diggers, anarchists & other high priests meet in Washington DC for "Exorcism of the Pentagon" to rid the world of the global evil spirit virus infecting all who work there. Psychedelic face paint & flowers stuck in barrels of guns scare the shit out of US goblins & results in 647 arrested.
1*1*1968 - US: Yippies founded & announces plans to conduct demonstrations the following summer at Democratic convention in Chicago. Whoever called these anarchists "yuppies" yesterday will be beheaded at midnight.
1*16*1968 - US: Youth International Party (Y.I.P.) founded -- Country Joe & Fish, Fugs (includes Tuli Kupferberg, "one of the leading Anarchist theorists of our time" & Ed Sanders, poet, editor, owner of the fabled Peace Eye Book Store), Allen Ginsberg, Arlo Guthrie, Abbie Hoffman, Paul Krassner, Phil Ochs, Jerry Rubin (25 artists, writers & revolutionaries). No anarchist Yuppies allowed; BleedMeister has been beheaded for certain licentious transgressions.
1*26*1968 - France: 40 members of the Nanterre University anarchist group march into the faculty hall with comical posters ridiculing the police. The porters attack the anarchists but are defeated. The authorities call in the police; one thousand students fight back & attend a protest meeting. The movement thus launched has grown ever since. The students are determined to get rid of the uniformed & plainclothes police haunting the faculties. Antecedent of May events in Paris-France.
3*22*1968 - France: Students occupy the school at Nanterre & the March 22nd Movement emerges — an organization with no hierarchy & no ideological program. Includes members of various groups & also unorganized students.
4*11*1968 - Germany: In Berlin, the attempted assassination of Rudi Dutschke, a well known student anarchist activist, unleashes solidarity demonstrations in his behalf in Paris, Rome, Vienna & London.
5*1*1968 - France: During the traditional May Day demonstrations fights break out around a black flag as Communists try to exclude the anarchists from the procession.
5*7*1968 - France: (Tuesday) Ten thousand students had taken possession of a vast circle round the Arc de Triomphe, their red & black flags massed on either side of the unknown soldier's tomb, singing the 'International'. The flics kept out of the way. General de Gaulle declared that he would not tolerate any further student violence.
The students declared that they were ready for a dialogue on three conditions: withdrawal of the police forces from the Latin Quarter; release & immediate amnesty for the imprisoned students; reopening the Sorbonne & Nanterre. Four hundred and thirty-four demonstrators are today arrested. The police also restore the anarchist Danny Cohn-Bendit's residence permit (but only for a short period).
5*10*1968 - Paris, France: During this night of the barricades, Léo Ferré creates his famous song " The Anarchists ". This verse translates to a certain extent the surprise of close observers of the rebirth of the black flag at the time of the demonstrations & the processions of May.
5*14*1968 - Paris '68: Sorbonne students occupy & open the University to the population, inviting "the workers to come & discuss with them the problems of the University". All demonstrators who were arrested have been released. Between May 13-30 similar events & demonstrations are inspired, bringing daily life in the modern industrial countries & authority itself into question -- in Madrid, Rome, Berlin, NY, & Czechoslovakia (during "Prague Spring").
5*14*1968 - France '68: Workplace occupations start. A significant aspect of the May Upheaval. By the end of this month over 10,000,000 workers are involved in occupations. In Nantes, the workmen of South-Aviation, begin the first occupations of factories.
5*15*1968 - The French Prime Minister appealed to the population to resist 'anarchy'. Occupation of the théâtre de l'Odéon.
5817*1968 - France: Today the Occupations Committee, including members of the Situationist International (SI) & the enragés from Nanterre University, sent the following telegram to the Communist Party of the USSR:
SHAKE IN YOUR SHOES BUREAUCRATS STOP THE INTERNATIONAL POWER OF THE WORKERS' COUNCILS WILL SOON WIPE YOU OUT STOP
HUMANITY WILL NOT BE HAPPY UNTIL THE LAST BUREAUCRAT IS HUNG WITH THE GUTS OF THE LAST CAPITALIST STOP LONG LIVE THE STRUGGLE OF THE KRONSTADT SAILORS & OF THE MAKHNOVSCHINA AGAINST TROTSKY & LENIN STOP LONG LIVE THE 1956 COUNCILIST INSURRECTION OF BUDAPEST STOP DOWN WITH THE STATE STOP