See, it's not the teachers pushing wokeness on kids.

Today in Labor History October 25, 1943, the Patriotic Action Group (Gruppi di Azione Patriottica; GAP) assassinated Domenico Giardina, a senior fascist official at fascist headquarters of Piedmont. The GAP was formed in October, 1943, by the Garibaldi Brigades, antifascist partisans allied with the Italian Communist Party, who had previously fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War. Bruno Fanciullacci was one of the groups cofounders. In March 1944, they launched the Via Rasella attack, in which they killed 33 Nazi occupation forces in Rome. All 12 GAP who participated in the attack survived and escaped. In retaliation, the Nazis killed 335 Italian civilians. Also in 1944, the GAP assassinated Italian fascist philosopher Giovanni Gentile.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #fascism #antifascism #directaction #assassination #italy #partisans #civilwar #garibaldi #communism #nazis

Image: Bruno Fanciullacci, cofounder of the Gruppi di Azione Patriottica, in a suit and tie, with a thin mustache.

Today in Labor History October 25, 1983: Under orders of President Ronald Reagan, the U.S. invaded the tiny Caribbean country of Grenada in order to “protect” U.S. citizens. In reality, the attack was intended to topple the left-leaning government and to test the waters for future U.S. invasions. According to one American official, the United States needed to prove that it was still a powerful nation, after its defeat in Vietnam and the more recent debacle in Lebanon. “What good are maneuvers and shows of force, if you never use it?” Eight years later, the Wall Street Journal called it an “invasion of banks,” as Grenada’s capital city now had 118 offshore banks, one for every 64 local residents or. Or, as is much more likely, one for every few foreign billionaires needing to hide assets.

At the time of the invasion, there were very few U.S. nationals living in Grenada and they were under no threat by the government, or by anyone else on the island. Yet just a few years prior, Salvadoran death squads, trained and supported by the U.S., had murdered four U.S. nuns. The U.S. not only didn’t invade El Salvador, where U.S. lives were demonstrably in danger, it continued to fund the terror by its right-wing government.

During the 8-day war on Grenada, 19 U.S. soldiers, 45 Grenadian soldiers, and 24 Cuban soldiers (there to support the Grenadian revolution) were killed. 2 Soviets were injured. 24 civilians were killed, as well, the majority of whom dying when the U.S. bombed a mental hospital.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #imperialism #grenada #reagan #soviet #cuba #coldwar

Today in Labor History October 25, 1944: Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth group (age 14-17) that assisted Nazi army deserters and helped others hide from the Third Reich. The first Edelweißpiraten appeared in the late 1930s, in opposition to the Hitler Youth, who they violently opposed, ambushing their patrols and taking pride in beating them up. One of their slogans was "Eternal War on the Hitler Youth." They formed their own subculture that rejected the norms of Nazi society and defied their rules. Subgroups of the Edelweißpiraten included the Navajos, in Cologne, the Kittelbach Pirates of Oberhausen and Dusseldorf, and the Roving Dudes of Essen. According to one Nazi official, "Every child knows who the Kittelbach Pirates are. They are everywhere; there are more of them than there are Hitler Youth." During the Himmler crackdown, the Nazis hanged thirteen Eidelweiss Pirates leaders, including six teenagers. They also imprisoned some in concentration camps, and shaved their heads to shame them.

Their rejection of authority brought them into conflict with the Allies after the war. Some attacked U.S. military intelligence spied on them. In 1946, Allied intelligence officers launched Operation Valentine, a counter-insurgency dragnet intended to arrest hundreds of Edelweiss leaders and the decapitation of many local groups. Some remained active in antifascist organizing. Other groups disbanded after the war in order to avoid being taken over by communists. There were also assaults on Soviet and Polish displaced persons, as well as German women who were believed to have slept with British soldiers. And in April, 1946, a young man was sentenced to death for his role as a Piraten, an organization the judge said threatened the peace of Europe. Other surviving Piraten said that the post-war judges were all former Nazis “who upheld the criminalization of what we did and who we were."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #eidelweiss #pirates #nazis #fascism #antifascism #hitler #himmler #concentrationcamps

@nprofile1q... @[email protected] @nprofile1q...

Here's what @nprofile1q... would say:

Y'all are really good at making claims and insults without providing any evidence to support them. There are thousands (probably millions) of people out there who critique the mainstream candidates, but still vote for them. Tens of thousands (probably a lot more) who critique the mainstream "lesser evil" Dems who are also out there on the streets, risking life and limb supporting immigrants with their rapid response teams & anti-ICE pods; doing civil disobedience and direction action; going to jail, or even prison; risking their freedom or careers supporting Palestinians at their workplace or school; marching on picket lines in solidarity with fellow workers at their own and at others' workplaces; battling skinheads and Nazis in the street, or at punk shows; and organizing in their communities and/or workplaces for a better world.

You know nothing about me and what I do as an activist, or how I live my life, or fight for social change in the real world when I’m not on social media. So kindly stfu about what kind of person you think I must be. You don't know and it's not any of your business anyway.

With respect to "engagement," I'm happy to engage in a good faith discussion about ideas, so long as folks are respectful. A good faith and harm reduction-based engagement, however, doesn't start with name-calling & attempts to bully someone into voting, or thinking, the way you think they should. Nor does it start with the assumption that they're your enemy. Indeed, many of you have been following me on social media for some time now, which suggests that you appreciate at least some of the things that I write. That being the case, perhaps we actually have more in common on these issues than you think. Wouldn't it at least be worth checking in with me first? See if I'm really saying, believing, attempting to push the horrible things you accuse me of?

I get that y’all are angry and scared about the world we’re currently living in; that you want a quick end to fascism. Me too! And yes, there are plenty of bots, trolls, and psy-ops attempting to coopt our movements and draw more and more people away from resistance and toward compliance. But if you’re reading my posts consistently, it should be clear that I am not one of them.

I hope you can understand that a critique of mainstream Dem candidates is not the same as promoting fascism, MAGA, independent 3rd party candidates with little chance of winning, nor abstention from voting. Liberal and lefty comedians do it all the time and still support them.

Likewise, my critiques are not the delusional ravings of some kind of left wing purist who won’t be satisfied until we have the perfect candidate. I know there is no such thing. Rather, I’m trying to point out that the continued acceptance of mediocre candidates who’ll throw some marginalized communities under the bus in order to win over those in the “center;” who continue to support genocide and regime change and the slaughter of children and civilians; who are rich and/or in bed with the rich, accepting their campaign financing & owing them favors once in office; will continue to push the Overton window further and further to the right. And when these candidates fail to make significant improvements to the financial well-being of the poor and working-class, there will be new fascists and demagogues waiting to step in and exploit the frustration and discontent of the people who feel betrayed by those candidates. This is why it’s so important to make these critiques now, well before 2028, before Newsom and Harris are entrenched as the only possibilities, while there is still time for someone better to step up. And why it’s so important to make these critiques now about the likely victors in the coming blue tidal wave. Because if the Dems really do take back the House and Senate, but are unable to deliver any significant change, particularly with respect to affordability and livability, they might lose in 2028, even with a Harris or Newsom as their candidate.

A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic.

State officials didn’t order the mink to be killed, which other countries with outbreaks have done (& which the U.S. used to do, before Trump & RFK). They are prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade.

Despite CDC guidance urging officials to monitor workers, they actively chose not to and declined to test workers — including one with a symptom experts said would warrant testing.

https://www.propublica.org/article/bird-flu-mink-farm-utah-human-risk?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

This repost is a yr or 2 old now, and the numbers have only gotten worse.

And the benefits of a single payer system ALSO incl:

*Potential pay increases for all workers, since healthcare deductions will no longer be required, without any cost to employers.
*People could retire earlier, since they won't have to wait until they're 65 to be eligible for Medicare
*Taxpayers will save millions because, with everyone covered, there'll be far fewer people dependent on county-funded emergency rooms as their primary source of healthcare

Today in Labor History October 24, 1956: At the request of the Stalinist regime of Hungary, a massive Soviet force invaded Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution, a nationwide uprising against the policies imposed by the Soviet Union. It began in Budapest on October 23, when university students demonstrated at the Hungarian Parliament Building in protest of the USSR's domination of Hungary. After a delegation of students entered the building of Hungarian Radio to broadcast their demands for political and economic reforms to the civil society of Hungary, the delegation was detained. When police shot and killed several protestors, Hungarians organized revolutionary militias to battle the authorities. The uprising lasted from June until early November. The Soviets utilized 31,550 troops and over 1,100 tanks to quell the revolt, killing as many as 3,000 Hungarians and wounding 13,000. The Soviet and Hungarian militaries lost 722 soldiers in the battles.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #communism #soviet #ussr #hungary #uprising #revolution #tanks #massacre

In 1971, Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart published “How to Read Donald Duck,” a book-length essay critiquing Disney comics as capitalist propaganda for U.S. corporate and cultural imperialism. It became a bestseller throughout Latin America and is still considered a seminal work in cultural studies. It was first published in Valparaiso, Chile when Allende was in power. Pinochet banned it and conducted public book burnings.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #disney #anticommunism #antilabor #unionbusting #communism #witchhunt #huac #fbi #union #censorship #bookburning #BookBans #Chile #allende #pinochet #dictatorship #writer #author #books #comics @nprofile1q...

Today in Labor History October 24, 1929: The NY Stock Exchange lost 11% of its value in one of the most devastating stock market crashes in the history of the US. It marked the beginning of the Great Depression, which saw unemployment in the U.S. rise to 25% and as high as 33% in other countries. Farming communities were particularly hard hit, with crop prices falling by 60%. The depression coincided with the Dust Bowl, further exacerbating the loan defaults and suffering in the Midwest. Hundreds of thousands of Americans became homeless, and began congregating in shanty towns that were known as "Hoovervilles." In 1933, Congress passed the Glass–Steagall Act mandating a separation between commercial banks and investment banks, in hopes of averting another similar crash. However, there have since been two stock market crashes worse than Black Thursday: The Black Monday of October 19, 1987, when the Dow Jones fell 22.6%, and the Black Monday of March 16, 2020, when the stock market fell by 12.9%. Both saw bigger percentage drops than any single day of the 1929 crash.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #StockMarket #GreatDepression #unemployment #poverty #hunger #Hooverville #DustBowl #AlCapone

Today in Labor History October 24, 1892: Black and white teamsters, salesmen and packers struck together in New Orleans, paralyzing commerce throughout the city. It quickly turned into a General Strike. Workers were fighting for a 10-hour work day. They were soon joined by non-industrial workers, such as musicians, clothing workers, clerks, utility workers, streetcar drivers and printers. The bosses and media tried to stoke sectarian violence by repeating lies that black mobs were rampaging through the streets beating up white women and children, but the workers refused to break ranks and continued to show solidarity with each other, regardless of skin color. In the end, the workers won the 10-hour workday and overtime pay, but the employers refused to accept the union shop or to recognize the unions as representatives of the workers.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #neworleans #nola #generalstrike #solidarity #racism #strike #union #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History October 24, 1871: A mob of 500 White and Hispanic residents of Los Angeles (10% of the city’s population at the time) entered Old Chinatown and robbed, beat and murdered Chinese residents in the Chinese massacre of 1871. The incident started after reports that the Chinese were slaughtering whites in cold blood, including a cop and a rancher. The mob killed 19 Chinese immigrants. They hanged 15 of them, after first shooting them to death, fully 10% of L.A.’s small Chinese community. Only 8 of the rioters were convicted, but all of their convictions were overturned on technicalities. The massacre is represented in Judy Baca’s “Great Wall” mural in L.A.

You can read my longer article, “America’s Long Sordid History of Anti-Asian Violence,” here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2021/03/21/americas-long-sordid-history-of-anti-asian-violence/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJOpKiJVdfQ

#workingclass #LaborHistory #chinatown #massacre #losangeles #AntiAsianHate #racism #immigration #chinese