Today in Labor History February 21, 1937: The League of Nations banned foreign nationals from volunteering in the Spanish Civil War. Nevertheless, thousands from Britain, the U.S. and other countries came to Spain and joined the Republicans in the fight against Franco and fascism. Altogether, over 59,000 international volunteers supported the anti-fascist cause, along with over 3,000 soviet “technicians.” Roughly 500,000 soldiers and civilians died in the war. The antifascist republican forces lost, leading to a 40-year fascist dictatorship.

One of the battalions of American volunteers was named the Tom Mooney Machine-Gun Company, after the anarchist IWW member Tom Mooney, who was framed for the 1916 Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco. It was led by Oliver Law, a communist, and the first black man known to have commanded white U.S. troops. Law was from West Texas and had worked as a stevedore. Due to his skill, Law quickly rose in the ranks of the Republican army. However, he died on July 9, 1937, as he led an attack on Mosquito Crest.

You can read more about Mooney here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/05/19/tom-mooney-and-warren-billings/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #TomMooney #AbrahamLincolnBrigade #SpanishCivilWar #fascism #dictatorship #antifascism #solidarity #civilwar #antifa #civilians #franco #spain #union #republican #blackhistorymonth #IWW #anarchism #communism #tommooney #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History February 21, 1937: The League of Nations banned foreign nationals from volunteering in the Spanish Civil War. Nevertheless, thousands from Britain, the U.S. and other countries came to Spain and joined the Republicans in the fight against Franco and fascism. Altogether, over 59,000 international volunteers supported the anti-fascist cause, along with over 3,000 soviet “technicians.” Roughly 500,000 soldiers and civilians died in the war. The antifascist republican forces lost, leading to a 40-year fascist dictatorship.

One of the battalions of American volunteers was named the Tom Mooney Machine-Gun Company, after the anarchist IWW member Tom Mooney, who was framed for the 1916 Preparedness Day bombing in San Francisco. It was led by Oliver Law, a communist, and the first black man known to have commanded white U.S. troops. Law was from West Texas and had worked as a stevedore. Due to his skill, Law quickly rose in the ranks of the Republican army. However, he died on July 9, 1937, as he led an attack on Mosquito Crest.

You can read more about Mooney here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/05/19/tom-mooney-and-warren-billings/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #TomMooney #AbrahamLincolnBrigade #SpanishCivilWar #fascism #dictatorship #antifascism #solidarity #civilwar #antifa #civilians #franco #spain #union #republican #blackhistorymonth #IWW #anarchism #communism #tommooney #BlackMastodon

Today in Labor History February 18, 1943: The Nazis arrested the members of the White Rose movement. The activist group called for opposition to the Nazi regime through an anonymous leaflet and graffiti campaign. The Nazis put on a show trial in which none of the defendants were allowed to speak. They executed Hans and Sophie Schol, and Christoph Probst on February 22, 1943. White Rose leaflets openly denounced the persecution and mass murder of the Jews. They might have taken their name from the poem "Cultivo una rosa blanca," by Cuban revolutionary and poet, Jose Marti. Alternatively, they may have gotten it from the B. Traven novel, “Die Weiße Rose” (The White Rose).” Traven served on the Central Council of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic. He escaped the terror that followed the crushing of the Republic and fled to Mexico, where he wrote numerous novels, including “Death Ship” and “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

#LaborHistory #workingclass #WhiteRose #nazis #execution #holocaust #antisemitism #fascism #antifa #antifascism #JoseMarti #cuba #btraven #books #poetry #fiction #novel #writer #author @bookstadon

The kids are fighting back! Teenagers are protesting against ICE, and even punching fascists in the face.
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¡Los chicos contraatacan! Adolescentes están protestando contra ICE, e incluso golpeando a los fascistas en la cara.

#genz #protests #antifascism

https://youtu.be/_I2VRSUB5Pc?si=FFrZL9M_FPFzS2-Y

Today in Labor History February 16, 1934: Thousands of Socialists battled Communists at a rally in New York’s Madison Square Garden. 20 were injured in the melee. The rally was organized to protest the massacre of 1,000 Austrian socialists by the fascist regime of Engelbert Dollfuss. 5,000 members of the Communist Party violently disrupted the meeting to prevent Matthew Woll, of the AFL, and New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, from speaking. Woll was a collaborationist who believed that the most effective strategy for workers was a partnership with the bosses. He was also a staunch anti-communist and worked with the CIA to disrupt leftwing labor organizing in Europe. Some American Communists at that time considered that anyone who wasn’t communist was fascist, including non-communist socialists. On the morning of the rally, the Daily Worker denounced Woll and La Guardia as “open fascist[s]” and urged their Socialist brothers not to let them speak. During the rally, Communists jeered and booed the Socialists, calling them fascists, leading up to the violence.

The next month, five days after the opening of the Dachau concentration camp, the American Jewish Congress held another anti-Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. 20,000 attended, plus another 40,000 rallied outside. One of their demands was that President Roosevelt immediately amend the immigration laws to allow German Jews entry into the U.S.

A few years later, 2/20/1939, Nazis held a large rally at Madison Square Garden. Advertised as a “Pro-American Rally,” 20,000 attendees, in Nazi armbands, were greeted with a 30-foot-tall banner of George Washington, flanked by large swastikas. Storm troopers in Nazi uniforms guarded the aisles. Their rhetoric was very similar to that of the participants at Trump’s rally there in 2024. Attendees had picket signs that read “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America.” There were speeches about stopping the Jews from taking American jobs. One of the speakers, Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, pointed out that American history has always been white supremacist, from the founding of the country by white men, to slavery, the Chinese exclusion act, anti-miscegenation laws, and Jim Crow. They referred to Washington as America’s first fascist. Thousand of anti-fascists demonstrated outside. Both Mayor LaGuardia, and the American Jewish Committee supported the Nazis’ right to hold the rally. LaGuardia said, "If we are for free speech, we have to be for free speech for everybody, and that includes Nazis."

#workingclass #LaborHistory #fascism #communism #socialism #Riot #MadisonSquareGarden #newyork #austria #antifa #antifascism #trump #MAGA #nazi

good morning, enjoy a crime cat.

#TheCrimeCats say sometimes you draw a cat while a little hungover and it comes out looking real weird but it doesn't matter because nothing does.

consider supporting http://ko-fi.com/thecrimecats

#comic #comics #ComicStrip #DailyComic #IndieComic #WebComic #cat #cats #crime #anarchy #anticapitalism #antifascism

good morning, enjoy a crime cat.

#TheCrimeCats say sometimes you draw a cat while a little hungover and it comes out looking real weird but it doesn't matter because nothing does.

consider supporting http://ko-fi.com/thecrimecats

#comic #comics #ComicStrip #DailyComic #IndieComic #WebComic #cat #cats #crime #anarchy #anticapitalism #antifascism

To change things you need: 1. A demand 2. A threat 3. An alternative
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Para cambiar las cosas necesitas: 1. Una demanda 2. Una amenaza 3. Una alternativa

#socialjustice #activism #antifascism

https://youtu.be/a6zs_mlzXEM?si=Pdh4OYG_8ETPz15g