Iraq invaded Kuwait August 2, 1990 and the Gulf War or the first US-led war against Iraq began January 16, 1991. Legal basis for the war was provided by UN Security Council Resolution 678, with China abstaining and non-permanent members Cuba and Yemen opposed. The USSR still existed at the time and voted for the resolution.
August 2, 2019 the US formally withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, blaming Russia and China.
Friedrich Engels died August 5, 1895 in London, UK of throat cancer. His ashes were spread in the English Channel off of the high white chalk sea cliffs of Beachy Head in East Sussex, England, UK.
The bombing of Hiroshima
The US dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima a little after 8am on August 6, 1945. The UK consented under the Quebec Agreement.
The USSR and Mongolia entered the war against Japan very early on August 9th, as had long been requested by the other Allies, and quickly advanced deep into Japanese-held areas.
The bombing of Nagasaki
A second atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki August 9, 1945 after 11am when the cloud cover that would have saved the city broke (Wikipedia articles say that the primary target August 9th was Kokura and that it had been the alternative target on August 6th). The bomb used on Hiroshima was set to explode as it fell, while the bomb used on Nagasaki exploded at ground level, but hills deflected some of the force and unlike in Hiroshima there was not a firestorm. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were both hit by nuclear fission-based atomic bombs (as opposed to more destructive hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs based on nuclear fusion and first developed by the USA for use during the Cold War), but the designs were different.
August 9th was the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples ( www.un.org/en/observances/indigenous-day ) and this year's theme is "Leaving no one behind: Indigenous peoples call for a new social contract." 2022 - 2032 is the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (www.un.org/en/observances/international-decades ). I might try to learn Classical Nahuatl or another North American indigenous language in that time.
International Youth Day is August 12th: www.un.org/en/observances/youth-day
The Unite the Right Rally was held August 11-12, 2017 in Charlottesville, Virginia and resulted in multiple deaths and injuries.
The Mexica or Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell 500 years ago to a force of several hundred Spaniards and tens to hundreds of thousands of indigenous allies under Hernando Cortés following a long siege and attacks by land and water (the city was on an island in Lake Texcoco, in a series of lakes, and crossed by many canals). Mexica leader Cuauhtémoc (his predecessor Cuitláhuac, who replaced Moctezuma II, had died of disease in 1520) was captured as a flotilla attempted to escape the final assault on Tlatelolco, a connected sister city. Some claim Cuauhtémoc intended to surrender that day. Many sources give the date as August 13, 1521 (noted as the feast day of Saint Hippolytus), which is the date by the calendar Spain used at the time, while others say August 21, which must be the corrected date in the modern calendar. Possibly hundreds of thousands died in Tenochtitlan and neighboring cities during the war due to fighting, epidemics, and starvation. Killings, rape, and looting continued after the Mexica had lost. Most of the city was levelled in the fighting and it was further razed as Mexico City was built over the ruins, creating a situation similar to Baghdad's Green Zone, where the Spanish lived apart from the Indians. While it took place over a longer period, the death and destruction is comparable to what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945. In all, several thousand Spanish and native allies were killed (the vast majority of the casualties were among the allies). The Spanish force included some non-Spaniards and women. In subsequent years Spain conquered the other states in Mesoamerica and in South America, though there was protracted struggle in the Yucatan and the Andes and against less settled groups.
Native societies far away were probably not aware of Tenochtitlan and the rest of the Valley of Mexico, but populous Tenochtitlan, one of the largest cities in the world at the time by population, and the surrounding region could be considered a cultural and political capital of North America in its time, similar to New York City, Washington, and Los Angeles today. I think objects from cultures in the area have been found as far away as the Southwest and Eastern US, though it is an open question whether people there knew where the objects originated. Maize formed the basis of the economy over much of the Pre-Columbian Americas and is thought to have been domesticated in what is now central Mexico, though that was long before the Mexica and might have begun in a different region.
[I think there is or was a mural of a resplendant Aztec warrior on a restaurant near the Durham School of the Arts and Brightleaf Square.]
[In late January 2022 I looked for it and it seems to be gone, possibly because of a gas explosion or just remodeling. It might have been on Main Street, possibly on the side of the now red-painted Torero's Mexican Restaurant. Maybe it was on Duke Street, but I think it was on a southfacing wall. A search online didn't turn up any images. I also noticed that it loks like the distinctive boxy white building with vertical rows of black windows nearby at the east corner of Main Street West and Great Jones Street is being torn down.]
 |
| Is this the former site of the mural (further to the left)? Torero's Mexican Restaurant (800 West Main Street, historicbrightleaf.com/dine/toreros/ ), at the northwest corner of Main and Duke streets, part of Brightleaf Square©. |
Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro was born August 13, 1926: cpcml.ca/210807-fidel-castro-95th-anniversary/Karl Liebknecht was born August 14, 1871 in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany and was a founder of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (which he represented in Prussia's parliament and later in the German Reichstag), the Spartacist League, and the Communist Party of Germany. Along with Rosa Luxemburg he was tortured and executed by Freikorps rightists, supporting the Social-Democratic German government (the Weimar equivalent of the US Democratic Party or democratic socialism?) at the end of WWI.
The
Confederate Soldiers Monument next to the downtown County government building (Old Durham County Courthouse) was toppled August 14, 2017 (
docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/118/ ). The pedestal was removed under cover of darkness early on August 11, 2020. Nearby monuments dedicated to those who died "defending freedom" for "mankind" in Korea and Vietnam and the monuments to those who died in the first and second great wars of imperialism (WWI and II) were undamaged, though the costs for those involved might have been higher if they had been more thorough. In January 29, 2001 a still unknown party commandeered a bulldozer to destroy a Vietnam War memorial at another location in Durham and later its US flag was stolen.
In a recorded radio broadcast at noon on August 15, 1945 Emperor Hirohito announced domestically that Japan had surrendered to the Allies.
UNC-Chapel Hill began charging for parking on weekday nights August 15, 2019.
The Taliban captured Kabul August 15th.
Conserving Carolinas Moss ID Hikes
Annie Martin, owner of Brevard-based Mountain Moss Enterprises and an authority on moss gardening, will lead hikes at Walnut Creek Preserve near Lake Lure in Western NC August 21st at 10am and 12:30pm. Contact pam [at] conservingcarolina /period/ org for registration.
August 19 - 22, 1991 members of the Soviet government attempted to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev but they were unsuccessful and the USSR ceased to exist by the end of the year.
#SealtheDeal Day of Action - Envisioning the World We Want to Live in: Rally for Climate Justice
UNC's
Silent Sam Confederate monument was toppled the evening of August 20, 2018, the day before the fall semester began (
docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/41/ ). The University removed the pedestal later.
The Siege of Ruby Ridge was August 21-31, 1992 in northern Idaho. US marshals attempted to arrest Randy Weaver for failing to appear to face firearms charges, leading to an 11-day siege and the deaths Samuel and Vicki Weaver, Deputy US Marshal WF Degan, as well as one of Weaver's dogs, Striker, in the first two days.
The Greensboro Fire Fighters IAFF Local 947 will hold its
Red Ale Charitable Fundraiser Saturday, August 21st 11am - 5pm at Lebauer Park; for more information see
Instagram.
Family Fun-draiser to Support Line 3 Pipeline Resistance
Lucus and Isa in Durham are selling sweet and savory Brazilian crepes (beiju de tapioca) and art to benefit the Giniw Collective August 21st 12 - 7pmat 1203 Watts Street in Durham; RSVP
here.
NC Workers Safety Town Hall
US and EU and allied rightists try to link the USSR and Nazi Germany on August 23rd, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in 1938.
Chatham Park development meeting
There will be a continued Pittsboro Town Board hearing via Zoom regarding the Chatham Park Development Agreement and and North Village Small Area Plan Monday, August 23rd at 7pm. The Agreement would cover at least 7091 acres and 40 years of construction while the North Village Small Area Plan proposes more than 7500 dwellings and 11 million square feet of commercial and institutional space on 2225 acres. For more information see:
hawriver.org/river-issues/chatham-park/
The Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, part of the Coal Wars over unionization, was August 25 - September 2, 1921. As in Tulsa, Oklahoma earlier that year private airplanes were used to bomb as well as gas the miners, a tactic advocated by Billy Mitchell, who also sent Army aircraft to surveill the miners. The anti-union forces included the Logan County sheriff, West Virginia State Police, West Virginia National Guard, US Army, and private paramilitary forces.
Well-known Trotskyist
blogger, founder (?) of the Marxmail listserve, and subject of a comic book autobiography drawn by Harvey Pekar
Louis Proyect passed away in his sleep August 25th due to long-standing illness. According to the announcement on his blog he was born January 26, 1945. There are also some memorial articles posted at
counterpunch.org, a site that frequently carried his articles.
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas August 26, 2017 and later in Louisiana, and was one of the costliest tropical cyclones, on a level with Katrina. Harvey was also the wettest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the USA.
There was a suicide attack attributed to ISIS-K at Kabul's international airport August 26th, resulting in the deaths of many Afghans and 13 US military personnel. There are conflicting accounts or rumors about how much foreknowledge the US had and whether some of the Afghan victims were killed by US gunfire.
Industrial Contaminants Forum
The Haw River Assembly is hosting an in-person forum (also streamed online) on the industrial contamination of Pittsboro's drinking water and possible solutions Thursday, August 26th 6 - 8pm at the Chatham County Agricultural Center (1192 US 64 Business in Pittsboro). PFAS are an issue, and contamination issues elsewhere were
recently written about on
Covert Action.
German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born August 27, 1770 in Stuttgart, Germany; his thought was a major influence in the later development of Marxism.
A US airstrike killed or injured alleged high-level ISIS-K operatives and no civilians August 27th in Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province.
The NO MVP / NO MVP Southgate Bundle of Arrows Gathering will be in the Burlington area August 27 - 28th to resist the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline and MVP Southgate fracked natural gas pipelines and Lambert Compressor Station; there is more information here.
Paperhand Puppet Intervention's 21st outdoor show Unfolding Seeds: Invocation of Transformation will run August 27th - October 3rd at Chapel Hill's Forest Theatre[moved to UNC's Memorial Hall and the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh]: paperhand.org/
Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana August 29, 2005.
Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov died, possibly under questionable circumstances, August 31, 1948. A few of his books are available from redstarpublishers.org/
The International Day for People of African Descent is August 31st: www.un.org/en/observances/african-descent-day The International Decade for People of African Descent is 2015-2024 and the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa is 201-2025.
Foreign military forces vacated Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport by August 31st local time, but the Biden Administration will probably continue attacking Afghanistan from the air, such as the August 29th drone attack against alleged suicide bombers that also killed many civilians including children [9/18: Now they are saying it was all a mistake and only noncombatants were killed, but how many of the other US aerial attacks in Afghanistan and other countries killed civilians or were totally mistaken and hit only civilians? It seems like this death toll would have contributed to the extraordinarily quick fall of the government in Kabul.]. The US government will probably also kill or otherwise harm ordinary Afghans through economic sanctions, diplomatic means, and possibly cyberwarfare in coming years, as it did to Iraq and is currently doing to countries such as Venezuela, Cuba, and Iran, with the additional factor of the coronavirus pandemic. Or the US could get along with the reactionary Taliban, as it did in the 90's for economic reasons.
September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, accirding to the Moore County Library's Facebook page.
Germany invaded Poland September 1, 1939, often portrayed as the beginning of WWII, but smaller wars were already going on elsewhere and would be subsumed into the global conflagration.
According to the BBC a new law will come into force in Belgium September 1st allowing people to enter private land without permission, if necessary, to retrieve balls, pets, etc. accidentally lost inside. There was already a law requiring that lost items be returned. For more information: vnexplorer.net/its-coming-home-law-gives-neighbours-right-to-retrieve-lost-ball-in-belgium-ez202170502.html In the UK people are apparently allowed to cross private land on presumably old cross-country trails, they just have to re-shut any farm gates they open. On the other hand, in the USA a person can be harassed or threatened by other people or the forces of the state for doing legal activities on public roads and public lands, and resistance is necessary.
North Carolina wetlands talk
Kristie Gianopulos of the Carolina Wetlands Association will give a talk about the types of wetlands found in the state and the plants that live in these habitats at a Zoom meeting of the NC Native Plant Society's Triad chapter Wednesday, September 1st at 7pm. Non-members can register
here.
Vietnamese revolutionary and statesman Ho Chi Minh was born September 2, 1890 (there is apparently some uncertainty about the year).
The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 or Hurricane Three hit the Florida Keys September 2nd and 4th; it was one of the most intense hurricanes known to have hit the USA, the most intense landfalling hurricane by air pressure, and tied with Hurricane Dorian in maximum sustained wind speed. Many civilians were killed and even more veterans, working on Florida's Overseas Highway through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
Imperial Japan formally surrendered September 2, 1945 onboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. There were other surrenders elsewhere.
Wilmington Labor Day Festival
Hurricane Fran made landfall in North Carolina September 5, 1996.
US and Canadian Labor Day, is Monday, September 6th. Unions called for the creation of a day for workers in the late 19th century, with some advocating a date in September, and the government supported a September date instead of May 1st, associated with revolutionary labor movements. May Day is labor day or an official holiday in many countries, such as Mexico, and that date also has roots in the American labor movement. Beginning under Eisenhower May 1st has been called Loyalty Day and Law Day and previously it was Child Health Day.
Charlotte Labor Day Family Picnic
The Southern Pidemont Central Labor Council and IBEWLocal Union 379 are hosting this event with food, games, prizes, and fellowship Monday, September 6th 10am - 2pm at Charlotte's Nevin Community Park.
[]
Nuclear weapons state Israel bombed an alleged nuclear reactor site in Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria early on September 6, 2007.
The Battle of Mexico City was September 8 - 15, 1847, during the Mexican-American War.
International Literacy Day is September 8th:
www.un.org/en/observances/literacy-day The success of Cuba's 1961 literacy campaign and later initiatives both in Cuba and as aid to other countries have often been noted.
There were anti-Asian riots in cities on the Pacific coasts of the USA and Canada in 1907, including San Francisco in late May; Bellingham, Washington September 4th against South Asians; and Vancouver, British Columbia September 7-9th. Today the Democrats and Republicans and their government allies in Canada, the UK, Australia, and other countries are stirring up distrust and hate for the People's Republic of China during a time of economic, health, and climate crises, and then disavow any responsibility for increased attacks on people of Asian descent.
The Treaty of San Francisco formally restoring diplomatic relations of the US and allied countries with Japan was signed September 9, 1951 and came into effect April 28, 1952. Several countries refused to participate in the negotiations or were not invited. The last Japanese soldier (actually Taiwanese) was arrested in Indonesia December 18, 1974, but a Wikipedia article claims others joined communist guerillas in southern Thailand. This might not be true, though in other cases I think surrendered Japanese soldiers did join guerilla armies.
The bloody Attica Prison Rebellion, Massacre, or Riot was September 9-13th, 1971 in Attica, western New York State; many prisoners and staff were killed when Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller used force to regain control. Reportedly the government forces assassinated specific prisoners during the assault, killed prisoners who were surrendering, killed hostages held by the prisoners, used bullets banned under international law, and claimed many of the hostages had been executed by the prisoners, when they had actually been shot. Afterward prisoners were tortured, such as by being forced to walk or crawl through broken glass.
Afghan mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was assassinated September 9, 2001.
According to Wikipedia Spanish Catalonia's national day is September 11th while French Catalonia's is November 7th.
The bloody Chilean coup of September 11, 1973 overthrew elected president Salvador Allende and many people were killed or tortured (see above post) with US government complicity. The Chilean coup put in place neoliberal policies recommended by Milton Friedman and others from the University of Chicago and the coup is still praised by well-known rightists in academia.
This is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
NEVER FORGET: 9/11 & the 20 Year War on Terror webinar September 11th 3-6pm, organized by CODEPINK, Massachusetts Peace Action, and ADDICTED To WAR and co-sponsored by many groups.
The NC DOT is seeking volunteers for its
2021 Fall Litter Sweep, September 11-25th (there is also a spring litter sweep every April):
www.ncdot.gov/initiatives-policies/environmental/litter-management/Pages/litter-sweep.aspx Besides random roadside litter I saw several trash bags, some ripped open on a nearby highway recently, something that seems to happen relatively often. It was hard to get the DOT to remove junk dumped in a rural area, though they were obviously running into it when they mowed. My main concern was that the otherwise innocuous wooden junk could harbor non-native pests such as emerald ash borers.
Peruvian Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso or the Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path) leader Abimael Guzman (Manuel Rubén Abimael Guzmán Reynoso) or Chairman Gonzalo passed away in prison September 11th. He had been captured in September 1992 and given a life sentence. He was born December 3, 1934 in Mollendo, on the southern Peruvian coast. [There is an analysis of his legacy at: ml-today.com/2021/10/08/on-the-death-of-abimael-guzman-a-k-a-chairman-gonzalo-1934-2021/ ]
The 40th annual
Apex Peakfest will be September 11th and includes tabliing by groups such as the Sierra Club Capital Group:
apexpeakfest.com/
The Duke Gardens' class
Plant Communities of the North Carolina Piedmont, part of the Piedmont Naturalist Series and co-sponsored by the Triangle Land Conservancy, will be September 11th - October 9th 9am - 12pm; register
here.
Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde national liberation leader Amílcar Cabral was born September 12, 1924 in Bafata, Guinea-Bissau, but his parents were from Cape Verde, both colonies of Portugal at the time.
A direct US war againt Syria was averted when Syria agreed to give up all chemical weapons under a US-Russian deal September 13, 2013, but there were other close calls and the indirect US and allied war against Syria and occupation of parts of Syria continues to this day.
Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh from India who worse the customary turban and beard, was killed September 15, 2001 at his gas station in Mesa, Arizona by Frank Silva Roque, who thought Sodhi was a Muslim. Roque carried out other shootings afterward but no one was injured.
Mexico's Independence Day is September 16th, commemorating Miguel Hidalgo's Grito de Dolores (Cry of Dolores) in 1810.
Hurricane Floyd made landfall in North Carolina around September 16, 1999, a few weeks after Hurricane Dennis came through, leading to extensive flooding and destruction of hog farms and their waste lagoons.
The International Day for Preservation of the Ozone Layer is September 16th: www.un.org/en/observances/ozone-day September 16, 2009 agreements protecting the ozone layer became the first universally ratified UN treaties. The ozone layer (made of a form of oxygen) absorbs some ultraviolet light, but is depleted by industrial chemicals, such as CFCs, which are also potent greenhouse gases.
September 17, 1991 the DPRK and ROK joined the United Nations.
September 17, 2018
Israeli aggression against Syria resulted in the shooting down of a Russian military aircraft, killing 15 Russian personnel, one of Russia's largest death tolls during the Syrian Civil War. Four Israeli F-16 fighters flew into Latakia from the Mediterranean, resulting in the targeting of a nearby Russian Illyushin Il-20 by a Syrian S-200 air defense system and the death of everyone on board. The Israelis did warn the Russian aircraft, but a one minute warning was not enough time for the plane to leave the area. A frigate of the French Navy was also in the vicinity. Israel was allegedly bombing Iranian weapon-making supplies being sent to the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah, and blamed Syria, Iran, and Hezbollah for the loss of life:
www.rt.com/news/438686-syria-russia-s200-il20/ Israel regularly commits such violations of borders and bombings, which are not often mentioned by the US media and usually go unpunished:
ingaza.wordpress.com/2021/08/22/israels-airstrikes-in-syria-are-not-newsworthy-for-western-media-as-a-result-status-quo-continues-civilians-suffer/
Swedish UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold died in a plane crash in what is now Zambia September 18, 1961 while negotiating a cease-fire between UN forces and Katangan secessionists in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. There were suspicions that it was not a simple plane crash and that possibly organizations in the US, UK, South Africa, or Belgium were involved, while the CIA blamed the USSR. Hammarskjold was the second UN secretary-general and the youngest person yet to hold the post.
George W Bush signed the
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks September 18, 2001; some members of Congress did not vote on the bill, but only Barbara Lee of California in the House of Representatives voted against. The AUMF is still in effect and was the legal basis for actions throughout the world, including the continuing occupation of oil-rich parts of Syria; the prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; actions in Libya, Yemen, the Republic of Georgia, the Philippines, Somalia, Ethiopia, etc. [There is an online campaign for repeal
here.] [Defending Rights and Dissent on the continuing domestic effects of the AUMF and the "War on Terror:"
www.rightsanddissent.org/news/president-biden-end-the-war-on-terror-at-home/ ]
The 2001 anthrax attacks began with letters postmarked September 18th, and the Bush administration tried to link them to al-Qaida and Iraq. Ultimately Bruce E Ivins at the Fort Detrick "biodefense" facility was blamed as the sole culprit, but is supposed to have committed suicide before he could be charged, leaving lingering questions.
The
Triangle Land Conservancy's annual membership meeting and celebration of the
one-year anniversary of the opening of the Bailey and Sarah Williamson Preserve will be Saturday, September 18th 10am - 3:00pm.
Registration is required to keep attendance spaced out. The TLC has an on-going
Hiking Challenge, with prizes:
www.triangleland.org/explore/hiking-challenge
Ghanaian natoinal liberation leader and pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah was born September 21, 1906 in Nkroful in what was then the British colony of the Gold Coast
The Fall Equinox will be September 22nd.
The Vela Incident occurred September 22, 1979 in the south Indian Ocean (see above).
The Edible Campus UNC Harvest Moon Festival will be Wednesday, September 22 at 7pm at Forest Theatre and admission is free. There will be free food and music and speakers from Happy Dirt Organics, Sankofa Farms, and Transplanting Traditions.
The Haw River Assembly is organizing a virtual showing of Mark Ruffalo's film "Invisible Hand," on the idea of elements of the natural world having rights and legal personhood, September 23rd at 7pm: www.invisiblehandfilm.com/haw-river-assembly/
There were huge demonstrations against the Iraq War September 24, 2005 across the USA and in Europe, but the US government evidently wasn't as scared as it was by the protests and unrest of 2020-2021.
The Ellerbe Creek Bioblitz 2021! will be September 24th - October 3rd and people can participate solo or in groups, and naturalist experience is not required. There will also be organized hikes at ECWA preserves and Durham parks in the Ellerbe Creek basin: keepdurhambeautiful.org/events-1/2021/8/31/ellerbebioblitz
British artist Edith Blackwell Holden was born September 26, 1871 in Kings Norton, Birmingham, England, in the UK; her illustrated nature journal of 1906 was published posthumously as The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady in 1977 and there was a TV film about her life.
The International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons is September 26th: www.un.org/en/observances/nuclear-weapons-elimination-day There are about 13,080 nuclear weapons in existence, many more than would be required to threaten the extinction of humanity and many other species on the only planet known to sustain life. The USA, Russia, and other major nuclear powers demand that smaller countries completely and unilaterally denuclearize, and not develop rockets that could carry nuclear weapons, while they have thousands of nuclear weapons ready to destroy humanity and instead of beginning to get rid of them, they spend huge amounts to maintain their current weapons and develop new ones. Iraq was accused of developing nuclear weapons, and was invaded in 2003, killing many civilians and leading to sectarian conflict and the creation of ISIS. Libya gave up its weapons program and was attacked in 2011, creating a wartorn "failed state" and allowing a flood of migrants through Libya to the EU. Democrats and Republicans accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons and it is under severe pressure and faces war, despite not seeking nuclear weapons while being threatened by nuclear powers, and agreeing to the JCPOA, which Trump tore up. Under the Non-Proliferation Treaty Iran has the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology. The DPRK developed nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, including submarine-launched missiles, and seems relatively safe from attack by the USA and other countries, though that isn't solely because of its nuclear arms, and nuclear weapons give the US another justification for its Korean policies. On the other hand, the US doesn't mind when its allies, such as the UK, Israel, and India, develop nuclear weapons and even helps them do it.
Former Afghan leader Mohammad Najibullah of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan was abducted from the UN compound in Kabul, tortured, and killed by the Taliban September 27, 1996.
September 29th is the first observance of the
International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste Reduction:
www.un.org/en/observances/end-food-waste-day/ This relates to hunger but also to the environment, because of the resources required to provide the food that is wasted and food waste decaying in landfills generates methane, a more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Egregious examples can be seen at popular NC state parks during a typical summer and I imagine waste of food is common at most of the many grocery and convenience stores in the Triangle.
World Maritime Day is also September 30th, and this year's themes is "Seafarers at the core of shipping's future" (and many seafarers ended up trapped on their ships months longer than contracted during the pandemic while the demand for shipped goods increased):
www.un.org/en/observances/maritime-day
China's National Day is October 1st, commemorating the formal declaration of the People's Republic of China by Mao in Tiananmen Square, Beijing in 1949.
Trident II Plowshares
October 1, 1984 five people went into the General Dynamics Electric Boat Quonset Point factory in North Kingston, Rhode Island and damaged six Trident II nuclear missile tubes. They also put blood and a Call to Conscience declaration on the tubes, put up a banner saying "Harvest of Hope - Swords into Plowshares, and left a pumpkin. They were arrested after less than half an hour and originally charged with possession of burglary tools (a felony with up to 10 years imprisonment), malicious damage, and criminal trespass. Their expert witnesses were qualified with the jury present, but their testimony was dismissed by the judge and a justification defense denied. The five viewed pleading guilty to the malicious damage charge as consistent with nonviolence, so the prosecution dropped the possession of tools charge. The trespass charge was dismissed. October 18, 1985 they were given a year in jail and a fine of $500 dollars. Four were freed after 6 months, while one protester was given an extra two months for refusing to tell the judge who drove them to Quonset Point. The first plowshares action was September 9, 1980. This account comes from Swords into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, published in 1987.
The most recent referendum on Catalonian independence from Spain was October 1, 2017, and has been followed by Spanish government and rightist repression against Catalonian self-determination.
The
Tlatelolco Massacre was October 2, 1968 in Mexico City's Plaza de las Tres Culturas. On that day the Mexican government attacked a student demonstration, possibly killing hundreds and arresting more than 1000.
Saudi journalist
Jamal Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside a Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 2, 2018. Among other roles, he was a columnist for the
Washington Post. The Khashoggi assassination motivated parts of the US government and establishment to denounce and attempt to punish the government of Saudi Arabia, while they say little about the brutal Saudi-led war in neighboring and poverty-stricken Yemen (I had not heard anything about Yemen in what seemed like months until late August when the BBC mentioned a suspected Houthi attack that killed several soldiers). The US has materially aided the Saudi coalition's war under both Obama and Trump (and Biden?) and denounces alleged Iranian involvement, rather than the attacks by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and others on the people of Yemen. I think it was Gates during the Obama administration who said something about the Saudis wanting the US to fight to the last man against their rival Iran, and other countries want a US-Iran war. More about Saudi instability, adventurism, and attacks on neighboring countries:
www.counterpunch.org/2019/10/04/a-year-after-khashoggis-murder-saudi-arabia-is-lurching-toward-chaos/
The Friends of the JC Raulston Arboretum's Annual Plant Distribution will be October 2nd at 9am, with registration opening at 7:30; apparently people can join on October 2nd. There are also spring and fall plant sales and like the NC Botanical Garden there is a small ongoing sale. There will be a members-only, by-appointment sale at Duke Gardens October 2nd, due to the pandemic, as well.
The annual
Celebrate Fuquay-Varina will be Saturday, October 2nd 10am - 4pm:
www.celebratefv.com/
The Second Italo-Ethiopian War began October 3, 1935.
Folk singer
Woody Guthrie passed away October 3, 1967.
The German Democratic Republic was absorbed by the Federal Republic October 3, 1990, and continuing economic and political marginalization of the former East Germany has led to electoral support for the "far right." The current and soon to retire prime minister is "center right" and grew up in the GDR. It is thought that the imperialist German Green Party will do well in coming elections. The US repeatedly attacked a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan early on October 3, 2015, killing 12 staff, 10 patients (3 children), and wounding 37. The US, NATO, and Afghanistan were all informed where the hospital was and the NATO command was called when the attack started:
progressive.org/dispatches/u.s.-airstrike-doctors-without-borders-hospital-war-crime/ The media loudly accuses unfavored countries of deliberately attacking hospitals and medical personnel, but I am not aware of the outcome of the investigations into this incident or nothing further has been said.
October 3, 2015 the US bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing 42 and injuring more than 30. Eleven days after the attack a US tank forcibly entered the hospital compound.
The US, NATO, and the government of Afghanistan were told where the hospital was and the NATO command was called when the attack started:
progressive.org/dispatches/u.s.-airstrike-doctors-without-borders-hospital-war-crime/ In general when a government the US is hostile to allegedly commits a war crime, the media trumpets it as a planned atrocity that definitely happened, but when the USA, Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. do something it is an understandable accident due to the fog of war and is swept under the rug.
October 3rd is
National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day, according to this
website.
The 4th annual
Festival of Nations (
sistercities-durham.com ) was scehuled for October 3rd but was ;postponed to April 3rd next year.
The Duke Gardens' class
GARDEN REVOLUTION: How Our Landscapes Can Be a Source of Environmental Change will met October 3rd - 27th 7-pm, and will be led by landscape architect Larry Weaner, founder of Larry Weaner Landscape Associates and author of a book with the same title as the class. To register see this
link.
October 4, 1993 tanks fired on the Russian parliament (the White House) and soldiers occupied the building, allowing President Boris Yeltsin to extralegally dissolve the legislative bodies in a crisis that had begun September 21st. Official statistics say 147 people were killed, including non-Russians, and 437 wounded in fighting between pro-Yeltsin and pro-parliament forces.
Mark Anthony Stroman shot three Muslim and Hindu South Asian immigrants in and around Dallas, Texas September 16 and 21 and October 4, 2001, blaming them for the 9/11 attacks. Stroman reformed while in prison but was executed July 20, 2011.
Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi-American Muslim and the only person shot who survived, forgave Stroman and tried to prevent the execution.
World Space Week is October 4th - 10th:
www.un.org/en/observances/world-space-week
October 5, 2021 a US Marine Corps F-35B practiced taking off and landing from the Japanese destroyer Izumo, which looks suspiciously like an aircraft carrier and is Japan's largest warship since WWII.
The German Democratic Republic was founded October 7, 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany had been founded May 23rd, formally dividing the country.
The USA invaded Afghanistan October 7, 2001.
The annual
Shakori GrassRoots Festival of Music and Dance will be October 7-10th:
shakorihillsgrassroots.org [The NCGP will be tabling.]
Raleigh's Crabtree Creek Greenway will open for walking and cycling Friday, October 8th at 10am at 46722 Ratchford Drive. There will be a communal bicycle tour led by Oaks and Spokes. Some Citrix bicycles will be available. There is an existing greenway upstream between Cary and Morrisville, near Crabtree Lake. Durham has some greenways but probably fewer than in Wake County and is losing the opportunity to create them as construction fills in.
Argentine revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara, best known for his role in the Cuban Revolution, was executed in Bolivia October 9, 1967, with CIA involvement.
October 9th is also
World Post Day, celebrating the founding of the Universal Postal Union in 1874, called into question under Trump (while Congress did its part to financially damage the US Postal Service). This year's theme is "Innovate to recover:"
en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldteachersday
[Tar Heel Service Day will be Saturday, October 9th; see below]
The
Republic of China's National Day is October 10th, commemorating the beginning of the
Wuchang Uprising in 1911, part of the Xinhai or Chinese Revolution, overthrowing the last Qing emperor and establishing a republic under President Sun Yat-sen.
Party Foundation Day is October 10th in the DPRK, commemorating the 1945 founding of a predecessor to today's Workers' Party of Korea:
www.naenara.com.kp/en/event/?part=20151010/According to
Wikipedia, October 10th is also Vietnam's
Capital Liberation Day and Cuban
Independence Day, commemorating the
Grito de Yara at the beginning of the Ten Years' War in 1868. It took two more wars before Spanish rule was successfully overthrown in 1898, followed by a few years of occupation and decades of subservience to the USA.
The
Outer Space Treaty, banning the placement of nuclear weapons in space, military activities on the Moon, claims of sovereignty over celestial bodies, etc., came into effect October 10, 1967.
Pakistani physicist and metallurgical engineer Abdul Qadeer Khan, often abbreviated AQ Khan, passed away October 10th due to the coronavirus. He was a key figure in Pakistan's development of nuclear weapons and was accused of giving nuclear technology to the DPRK, Iran, and Libya. Under the non-proliferation treaty countries such as Iran have the right to develop peaceful nuclear technology, and the US and other "Western" countries have assisted their allies in developing nuclear and other "weapons of mass destruction" or looked the other way. Under the NPT the nuclear weapons states are supposed to disarm, but the USA is spending a huge amount to upgrade and improve its nuclear arsenal and discussing starting wars against Russia and/or China. While nuclear-powered submarines are not nuclear weapons, there have also been concerns about the US and UK giving this technology to Australia, and questions of whether French conventional submarines would have been the more effective weapons for Australia.
According to School of the Americas Watch, 9 years ago on October 10th Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz fired 16 shots into Mexico, killing 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, similar to what the Israeli military does. SOAW held an in-person and online vigil in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico at 9 pm Eastern on the 10th.
The
Carolina Classic Fair (
carolinaclassicfair.com/ ) will be October 1st -10th in Winston-Salem and includes tabling by groups such as the
NC Green Party, which is seeking signatures to restore state recognition, lost after the 2020 election, due to onerous state election rules:
www.ncgreenparty.org/petition
Indigenous Peoples' Day first became a Federal holiday this year, marked on October 11th.
October 11 - 15 there will be People vs. Fossil Fuels: Mass Civil Disobedience in DC targeting Biden and the White House leading up to the UN COP26 climate negotiations October 31 - November 12 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. This is being organized by the Build Back Fossil Free coalition.
Many on the left passively or actively supported the election of Biden and Harris, but said little about what they would do to oppose his policies or pressure him from the left, and some are still focused on Trump, when Obama, Biden, and Hillary Clinton's policies led to Trump being elected.
Día de la Raza, similar to Columbus Day, is October 12th in Mexico. Columbus reached the New World October 12, 1492 according to the Julian Calendar; Wikipedia says this would be October 21st under the modern Gregorian calendar.
[Rescheduled to November 2nd, see top]
"Balance & Accuracy in Journalism online
7:30PM program TUE OCT 12
Friends of honest media,
Is it even possible to act against the risk of nuclear winter, mass slaughter
and widespread radioactivity from an accidental or intentional nuclear war?
And is it worth accepting the likelihood of prison sentences meted out
to those taking direct action against deploying nuclear weapons?
Patrick O’Neill and six others determined to try...
and accepted the consequences as they acted to avert
the omnicide risked by current US policy.
This is our first live BAJ Zoom event (wish us luck) !
as we hear from Patrick O’Neill, just out of prison and brimming with
compassionate and clear observations of prison life and
the prosecutorial pipeline.
These links describe the action and the outcomes
- [ ]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cosponsored by the ECO committee of Chapel Hill’s Community Church, UU,
our monthly Balance & Accuracy in Journalism programs resume
with a talk by Patrick O’Neill on
Plowshares Action & Prison Industrial Complex
Join us on Zoom at 7:30 PM Tue October 12 for an evening with journalist Patrick O’Neill,
a long time peace activist who has, energetically and with a sense of humor, been leading,
organizing, writing, and protesting violent policies for decades. His insights include
first hand observations about the prison industrial complex, drawn from his recent
year-long sentence for Civil Disobedience, after protesting against nuclear weapons.
His release occurs just before his evening with us.
“Doors open” at 7:15.
Clicking on the link below is the first step, and
a quick email brings you the Zoom entry link.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MEDIA/POLICY TOPICS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CHINA???!
"An indispensable primer before avaricious and/or dumb 4-stars provoke nuclear war with China.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Instead of a Free Press October 5, 2021
"In the failed corporate coverage of Steven Donziger and Julian Assange
[and, we could add, the Kings Bay Plowshares 7] there is an imposition of
darkness, ignorance inflicted on Americans with intent."
-----"
The
NC AFL-CIO's 64th Annual Convention and Elections will be October 13 - 15th in Wilmington, and is planned to be the first in-person convention in two years (
aflcionc.org/ )
The 2021 NC State Fair will be October 14-24th and includes tabling by political groups such as the NC Green Party, exhibits by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, etc.
Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara, president of Burkina Faso and known as "Africa's Che Guevara," was assassinated in a military coup October 15, 1987. The coup placed his former colleague Blaise Compaoré in power until he was himself overthrown October 31, 2014 after trying to amend the constitution for re-election. October 11th this year Burkina Faso began a trial of 14 people over the coup, including Compaoré, but he is in absentia. Sankara was born December 21, 1949 in what was then Upper Volta, a French colony. [There is an article at: www.counterpunch.org/2021/10/20/the-trial-of-thomas-sankaras-killers/ ] This year Chapel Hill's annual Festifall will take the form of block parties in different locations October 15th, 23rd, and 30th: www.chapelhillarts.org/festifall-arts-market-more/ Durham's annual Centerfest won't be held this September, but is planned for 2022.
Enver Halil Hoxha was born October 16, 1908 in Gjirokaster, in southern Albania.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was October 16 - 28th, 1962, and came close to sparking a nuclear war. Among other narrow misses, it was later revealed that a Soviet submarine low on air, being harassed with depth charges, and unaware of whether a war had begun came close to launching a nuclear torpedo, and one dissenting officer (Vasily Arkhipov) might have prevented a third world war. To end the crisis, Soviet nuclear weapons were withdrawn from Cuba, the US removed nuclear missiles placed near the USSR, and the US promised not to invade Cuba again. Other things were done to reduce tensions in coming years, but now the US is abandoning arms control treaties, trying to overthrow the Cuban government (and the governments of Venezuela and Nicaragua), and is developing new nuclear weapons to threaten Russia and China, though they are all now more or less in agreement about capitalism.
George W Bush signed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq October 16, 2002, which had been passed by Congress, with the help of Joe Biden, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
October 16th is International Observe the Moon Night, which apparently began in 2009 or 2010 with NASA and astronomy groups.
Alex Saab, detained by Cape Verde as he returned from a diplomatic mission to Iran for Venezuela, was extradited to the USA October 16th and is being held in Miami:
afgj.org/free-alex-saab The Venezuelan government ended negotiations with its opponents in Mexico over the extradition. The US government apparently hopes to extract information about how Venezuela has weathered the US economic and dipomatic
(and sometimes shadowy "kinetic") "regime change" campaign against the country.
Up to 300 Algerian protesters, peacefully demonstrating against the Algerian War (November 1, 1954 - 1962), were killed by French police in the Paris Massacre of 1961, on October 17th. The related Charonne Massacre happened February 8, 1962, when the police killed nine trade unionists demonstrating against a French terrorist group. Only in recent years has France admitted that torture was systematic during the war, and even French citizens were tortured and killed extrajudicially.
The Million Worker March was October 17, 2004 in Washington, DC. Thousands participated (and there were one or more buses from the Triangle and elsewhere in North Carolina) and while there were not actually one million people there, according to the Wikipedia article the endorsing unions represented about 3.5 million workers.
National Opossum Day is apparently also October 17th, celebrating and raising awareness of the USA's last marsupial, a possibly misunderstood beneficial animal frequently hit on roads during the winter. Being a marsupial, a female possum could have young in her pouch or riding on her back, and even if the mother is killed, the babies might be able to be saved by a rehabilitator. Various people who should know have informed me that opossums either can't get rabies or are very unlikely to, so a good Samaritan is unlikely to get infected helping injured opossums, though it would still be best to wear gloves, wash afterward, etc. Unfortunately a few species are barred by law from rehabilitation in North Carolina because of the danger of rabies, but opossums are not on that list and I have handled injured opossums without any problems (I'm surprised that none used their teeth or claws).
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA limiting Iran's nuclear activities was adopted October 18, 2015. October 13, 2017 Trump accused Iran of violating the nuclear deal, leading to US withdrawal and sabotage of the agreement, which other governments were trying to continue.
Colin Powell died due to coronavirus October 18th. When Powell and John Negroponte appeared before the UN February 5, 2003 to justify invading Iraq a full-sized tapestry of Picasso's painting Guernica was temporarily covered up.
In celebration of NC's
Native Plants Week the Audubon North Carolina is hosting an online panel Monday, October 18th 12-1pm on Zoom and Facebook Live, featuring Cara and Tony Woods, who created a wood thrush-themed garden in King; Tara Mei Smith, executive director of Extra Terrestrial Projects; and speakers on the local New Hope Audubon Society on Leave Your Leaves:
nc.audubon.org//events/native-plants-week-celebration
Samora Machel, president of Mozambique, was killed in a suspicious plane crash October 19, 1986, resulting in the country turning away from socialist construction.
Libyan leader Qaddafi was killed brutally and without trial October 20, 2011, after having given up Libya's nuclear weapons program, such as it was, and opening up to the US and EU imperialists. Hillary Clinton laughed watching the video. This is the model being offered to the DPRK if it unilaterally "denuclearizes," leaving nuclear-armed US forces in the south and nearby countries.
Christopher Columbus first encountered the New World early on October 21, 1492 [using the modern Gregorian calendar]; apparently October 12th, Columbus Day, is the date under the old Julian calendar.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators (maybe 50,000) participated in the March on the Pentagon October 21st, 1967, protesting the Vietnam War. Rage Against the War Machine will be in Washington October 11-12th this year (see above).
American journalist and revolutionary John Reed was born October 22, 1887 in Portland, Oregon. He wrote Ten Days That Shook the World, a first-hand account of the Great October Socialist Revolution, and he is one of three Americans honored with burial in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
The
National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation is marked every October 22nd:
revcom.us/en
Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet politician Anatoly Vasilyevich Lunacharsky was born November 23 or 24 in what is now Poltava, Ukraine. He was appointed as the USSR's ambassador to Spain but died December 26, 1933 in France. In 1932 he represented the USSR at the League of Nations.
The USA under Reagan and a few forces from neighboring countries attacked the Caribbean nation of Grenada October 25 - 29, 1983 with some US losses, but killing more Grenadan soldiers, civilians, and Cubans, as well as injuring Soviet citizens and many others.
Pioneering local native plant nursery Niche Gardens, located a few miles southwest of Carrboro since 1986, closed for good October 18, 2019, just in time to miss the coronavirus crisis. The
Soviet-Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956 was signed October 19th, formally restoring peace between the two countries.
Disarmament Week is October 24th - 31st, beginning on
United Nations Day, when the UN was founded:
www.un.org/en/observances/disarmament-week October 24th is also World Development Information Day:
www.un.org/en/observances/development-information-day
The DC sniper spree ended with the arrest of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo October 24, 2002 near Myersville, Maryland.
Global Media and Information Literacy Week, also October 24th - 31st, began this year, and in recent years issues of the media's roles in society, online disinformation, and government and corporate control of information and speech online have become more prominent:
www.un.org/en/observances/media-information-literacy-week
Haw River Water Walk
There will be a walk led by Native people from the source of the Haw River to where its water meets the Atlantic (as part of the Cape Fear River) at Fort Fisher October 24th - November 4, traveling about 30 miles a day. This is being organized by Seven Direction of Service. To join or support see:
forms.gle/iAK6AxB4yVRUq9et9
The
USA PATRIOT Act was passed by the Senate October 25, 2002 and later renewed under Bush and Obama. Soon afterward the national
Bill of Rights Defense Committee was created, with very active chapters in Durham and Orange counties among others; in 2015 it merged with the Defending Dissent Foundation to create Defending Rights and Dissent, which is active today:
www.rightsanddissent.org/about/ A related group is
NC Stop Torture Now:
ncstn.org which is also still active.
[]There were also large demonstrations against the Iraq War October 25, 2003.
Catalonia declared independence from Spain October 27, 2017.
There will be a Pollinator Party at the Lenoir County Farmers Market (100 North Heritage Street in Kinston, NC, zip code 28501, Saturday October 30th 9am - 1pm
The Día de los Muertos / Day of the Dead [Le Jour/La Fete des Morts] is November 1-2nd [Wikipedia says it is October 31st - November 2, and possibly also November 6th in places, but US calendars usually says it is only November 2nd] and Halloween is Sunday, October 31st [According to Wikipedia the Celtic harvest festival Samhain was October 31st evening through November 1st.]
Catholicism and many Protestant churches commemorate All Saints' Day [la Toussaint] on November 1st and Catholicism commemorates All Souls' Day November 2nd. [October 31st to November 2nd is also known as Allhallowtide, Hallowtide, Hallowmas season, and Allsaintstide.]
World Cities Day is October 31st, with the theme this year of "Better City, Better Life" and a sub-theme, "Adapting Cities for Climate Resilience:" www.un.org/en/observances/cities-day
Italian pilot Giulio Gavotti carried out the first known aerial bombardment using an airplane November 1, 1911, bombing two Ottoman Turkish bases in Libya during the short Italo-Turkish War a few years before WWI. Apparently the Ottomans argued that this was illegal under the Hague Convention of 1899, which banned bombardment by balloon. Balloons had been used for reconnaissance during the wars following the French Revolution and in the US Civil War, while Germany used giant zeppelins to bomb the UK during WWI. In the decades before WWI there were reports of mystery airships around the world.
The war for Algerian independence from France began November 1, 1954 and lasted until March 19, 1962. The Battle of Algiers is a well-known film on the national liberation war, banned in France for years.
November 1, 1991 Yeltsin was given the power to issue decrees regarding the economy even if they violated the law.
November 2, 1917, during WWI, the UK issued the Balfour Declaration, promising support for Zionist goals in Palestine, at the time part of the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central powers.
November 3rd is Culture Day or Bunka no Hi in Japan, commemorating the announcement of a new constitution 1946, though November 3rd had already been a holiday, commemorating the birth of Emperor Meiji, who ruled 1867-1912.
The Greensboro Massacre was November 3, 1979. KKK and American Nazi Party members fired on a Death to the Klan demonstration organized by the now disbanded Communist Workers' Party, killing 5 people and wounding others. Some police were present and the local police and Federal agencies had infiltrated the KKK and neo-Nazi groups. For more information see: www.greensboromassacrelessonstoday.org/
Annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival
The Film Festival will have in-person showings Tuesday, November 2nd at Greensboro's Carolina Theater and Thursday, November 4th at Chapel Hill's Varsity Theater:
hawriver.org/wild-scenic-film-festival/
Syndicalist writer Georges Sorel was born November 3, 1847 in Cherbourg, France. His most influential work is probably
Reflections on Violence, published in 1908.
November 3rd is
Culture Day (
Bunka no Hi) in Japan, celebrating the arts, culture, and scholarship; the Apollo 11 astronauts are among the recipients of the Order of Culture presented on this day. The post-war Japanese constitution, which the ruling rightist Liberal Democratic Party wants to amend, was announced November 3, 1946.
Musician and recording engineer
Malachi Ritscher burned himself to death in condemnation of the Iraq War November 3, 2006 near the Kennedy Expressway in Chicago. His final statement is included in:
chicago.indymedia.org/archive/newswire/display/74806/index.php and he wrote his own obituary at:
www.savagesound.com/gallery100.htm
The USSR intervened in Hungary November 4, 1956
British working class democratic reformer
Thomas Hardy (not the famous author) was acquitted of High Treason on Guy Fawkes Day (November 5th) 1794, but at a high personal cost. Subsequently the other arrested radicals were also acquitted or prosecution was dropped. Who could vote or otherwise participate in British bourgeois democracy was very restricted until well into the 20th century. For more information see an article in
Monthly Review:
monthlyreview.org/2019/11/01/the-trial-of-thomas-hardy/ and Thomas Hardy's
Wikipedia entry:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy_(political_reformer)Eugene V Debs, a founder of the Industrial Workers of the World and presidential candidate of the Socialist Party of America, was born November 5, 1855. He was imprisoned for advocating draft resistance during WWI, and sentenced to a decade in prison and loss of suffrage November 18, 1918, but ran for president again in 1920, from a Federal prison in Atlanta. President Harding commuted his sentence in 1921 and he died in 1926.
School of the Americas Watch (SOAW) will hold its annual Virtual Conference Saturday, November 6th
The 27th annual
Orange County Artists' Guild Open Studio Tour will be November 6-7th and 13-14th:
www.ocagnc.org/tour/
The 79th Annual
NC Gourd Arts and Crafts Festival will be November 6-7th in Raleigh at the NC State Fair Grounds' Holshouser Building:
www.ncgourdsociety.org/
November 7th is the 104th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in the former Russian Empire in 1917.
According to Wikipedia French Catalonia's national day is November 7th while Spanish Catalonia's is September 11th.
Daylight Saving Time in the US [and Canada] ends early November 7th [it ended a week earlier in the UK and other countries]. The Federal government seems to control time standards, but local governments can opt out, though few do so, despite regular complaints.
The NC Botanical Garden's annual
Jenny Elder Fitch Memorial Lecture will be Sunday, November 7th and this year's speaker will be Bland Simpson, discussing his new book
North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky; the description seems to say that his wife Ann Cary Simpson and Tom Earnhardt, who took some of the photos, will also speak:
ncbg.unc.edu/learn/adult-programs/
There will be major elections in Nicaragua November 7th, and US and other "Western" election interference and propaganda is probably increasing, while they are quiet about the situation in Honduras, partially created by the US, which leads to mass migration northward.
Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes and Mexica leader Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin first met around November 8, 1519, as a Spanish party entered the capital Tenochtitlan peacefully. They were chased out and came close to total defeat in La Noche Triste of summer of 1520.
The Communist Party of Albania (later renamed the Party of Labor of Albania) was founded November 8, 1941 through a merger of earlier groups. At the time Albania was occupied by fascist Italy.
Old Bolshevik Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov died November 8, 1986.
November 11 is Armistice Day, marking the truce that (more or less) ended World War I 100 in 1918. In the USA Armistice Day has became the more pro-war
Veterans Day. The 11th is
Remembrance Day in Canada.
Business interests and the local American Legion attacked an IWW hall in Centralia, Washington November 11, 1919, using an Armistice Day parade as cover, resulting in several deaths on each side. Wesley Everest, a logger and International Workers of the World member, was taken from jail and lynched later that day. Only the IWW and supporters were prosecuted and convicted of crimes. Other attacks preceded the events of Armistice Day, including an attack on an IWW hall during a Red Cross parade April 30, 1918. For a more detailed account see:
www.counterpunch.org/2019/11/11/class-war-violence-centralia-1919/American novelist Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis. See for example:
thedailyvonnegut.com/ and
blogs.cofc.edu/vonnegut/vonneguts-life/
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was [born] November 11, 1945 in La Libertad.
November 11, 1975 Governor-General Sir John Kerr, representing Queen Elizabeth II, removed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party, and installed a member of the Liberal Party. There were allegations of US involvement, allegedly to prevent the Labor Party from closing US military bases in Australia.
Sun Yat-sen, a founder of the Republic of China, created by the Revolution of 1911, was born November 12, 1866.
Silo Pruning Hooks
November 12, 1984 four people entered a Minuteman II ICBM silo operated out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri. Using a jackhammer and air compressor, they damaged the silo's lid, offered Eucharist and left Christian and Native American condemnations of the US government and mainstream Christianity over nuclear war. An hour later they were arrested by military security authorized to kill and were held in preventive detention without bail. In a Federal jury trial they were convicted of destruction of government property, conspiracy, intent to damage the national defense, and trespass. They were sentenced to 8 to 18 years in jail, 3 to 5 years of probation, and each had to pay the government $2932.80. A few months later the 18 year sentence was reduced to 12 years, but when the others appealed they were denied.
Indonesian soldiers killed hundreds of East Timorese supporters of independence in the Santa Cruz or Dili Massacre, November 12, 1991. A citizen of New Zealand was also killed. The events were witnessed by American journalists Amy Goodman (now host of Democracy Now!) and Allan Nairn, who were attacked by soldiers while acting as human shields, fracturing Nairn's skull. Max Stahl secretly recorded the massacre, and Australia went as far as strip-searching the camera crew to find the footage, but failed to prevent its release.
UNAC and the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power and Weapons in Space are hosting a webinar, The deadly connections between space militarization and the climate crisis, November 12th at 4pm Eastern.
Kabul was captured from the Taliban November 13-14, 2001.
The Haw River Assembly's annual membership meeting will be held outdoors at Jordan Lake State Recreation Area the afternoon of November 13th (details TBA): www.hawriver.org [The meeting will be in the Seaforth area's picnic shelter; there will be a free lunch catered by Mediterranean Deli and kayaking 12-2pm and the business part of the meeting, with keynote speaker Donna Chavis and elections to the Board of Directors, will go until 4pm.]
American civilian pilot Eugene Burton Ely carried out the first takeoff from a ship, the USS Birmingham, November 14, 1910. He also carred out the first landing on a ship, the USS Pennsylvania, January 18, 1911. Ely wanted to join the US Navy, but it didn't have an air corps at the time and then he was killed in a crash October 19, 1911 in Macon, Georgia, just prior to his 25th birthday. This paved the way for naval aviation and aircraft carriers, which had a role in WWI but were more important in WWII. It has been argued that aircraft carriers are much less decisive today, for example China could sink US carriers at a distance, though China is also building carriers. Aircraft have also been launched from other ship types, such as battleships, if I'm not mistaken including the USS North Carolina, now on display in Wilmington, and submarines
The German air force bombed the city of Coventry, England, UK multiple times during WWII, but the largest and most damaging air raid was the night of November 14 - 15th in 1940. 515 Luftwaffe bombers, using both explosive and incendiary bombs, virtually destroyed the downtown area and its medieval buildings, destroyed thousands of homes, and damaged 2/3rds of the city's buildings, as well as killing about 568 people and wounding many more. Some have suggested that the UK knew the attack was coming but didn't give a warning so that the German military would not find out that its encryption had been broken. Coventry had military value because of its industries, but it also might have been targeted for its cultural value, as revenge for the bombing of Munich a few days earlier. The British used the attack as a pretext to start indiscriminately bombing or firebombing German cities, and later the US Air Force developed these techniques further, culminating in attacks such as the firebombing of Tokyo in March 1945 and the devastation of an entire city with a single nuclear bomb.
Plowshares Number Four
November 14, 1982 seven people entered the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard in Groton, Connecticut. Three hammered and put blood on several of the USS Georgia submarine's ICBM hatches. Four others hammered and put blood on parts in the south storage yard. They were soon placed under arrest. In a jury trial they were not able to make a justification defense and were convicted of criminal mischief, conspiracy, and criminal trespass, and sentenced to two months to a year in prison.
Japan's traditional coming of age festival 7-5-3 or Shichi-Go-San is on or around November 15th.
Buran (Russian for snowstorm or blizzard), the USSR's answer to the US Space Shuttle program, first orbited the Earth November 15, 1988, without a crew, and was the first spaceplane to fly without a crew and then perform an automated landing. The destruction of the USSR ended funding for the Buran program and the only existing orbiter was destroyed in a hangar collapse May 12, 2002. The space shuttles lasted longer but were found to have drawbacks, so they now sit in museums and have been replaced by more conventional rockets. For a while American astronauts could only reach space riding Russian rockets (launched from Kazakhstan), and now they ride private rockets.
CODEPINK was founded November 17, 2002.
The French Yellow Vest protest movement (Mouvement des gilets jaunes) began November 17, 2018.
Russian revolutionary Mikhail Kalinin was born November 19, 1875 and was head of state of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later of the entire USSR and a member of the CPSU's Politburo. The Baltic port city of Kӧnigsberg was renamed Kaliningrad after his death June 3, 1946. The city and its surrounding territory was formerly East Prussia, seized from Germany after WWII, and is now a Russian enclave cut off by NATO and EU states.
There will be a lunar eclipse early Friday, November 19th.
November 20th is Mexico's Revolution Day (Día de la Revolución), a national holiday marking the beginning of the Mexican Revolution in 1910.
The Indians of All Tribes occupied Alcatraz Island November 20, 1969 to June 11, 1971.
SOAW's Annual Vigil will be Sunday, November 21st.
The Nepalese Civil War ended November 21, 2006 with the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Accord between the government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)
Old Bolshevik Lazar Kaganovich was born November 22, 1893 in what is now northern Ukraine and came from a Jewish family. He served in various capacities in the Soviet government, including work on the Moscow Metro, membership in the Politburo, etc., but was sidelined under Khrushchev and died July 25, 1991.
President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated November 22, 1963 in Dallas.
Japan's Labor Thanksgiving Day or Kinrou Kansha no Hi based on the old Niiname-sai harvest festival, is November 23rd this year; International Workers' Day/May 1st is also a prominent in Japan.
Griffiss Plowshares
November 24, 1983 (Thanksgiving Day) seven people entered Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York and proceeded to hammer and put blood on a B-52 bomber modified to carry cruise missiles and on some B-52 engines. They left a statement condemning Griffiss and the US government for nuclear war preparation and condemned the violation of constitutional rights and punishment of acts of conscience under what they called the state religion of "nuclearism." No one came to arrest them for hours, so they looked for the guards themselves. This was the first Federal trial of Plowshares activists. A justification defense and expert testimony were barred. The jury found them innocent of sabotage but convicted them of conspiracy and destruction of government property, with prison sentences of two to three years and an appeal was denied. This account and the others in this post come from Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, and published in 1987. There have been more recent actions.
November 24, 2015 a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-24M that had allegedly briefly crossed over Turkish airspace from Syria, the first time a Russian or Soviet aircraft had been destroyed by a NATO country's military since the Korean War (in 1953). There are conflicting accounts of whether the Su-24 entered Turkey, where it was fired upon, and whether the F-16 entered Syria, but the Su-24 crashed in Syria. The two Russians inside ejected, but the pilot was hit by Syrian rebel gunfire before landing and was killed, a violation of Protocol I of the Geneva Convention. According to the Wikipedia article the rebels might have been Turkmen and Turks led by a Turkish citizen and member of the Grey Wolves. Later a Russian helicopter looking for the crew was forced to land due to rebel gunfire and a naval infantryman was killed.
Japanese writer and rightist Yukio Mishima (Kimitake Hiraoka) committed seppuku (hara-kiri) at the Camp Ichigaya military base in Tokyo November 25, 1970.
The modern US Thanksgiving holiday began under Lincoln November 26, 1863 (the last Thursday that November), during the Civil War, though there had been previous thanksgiving days around that time. It has also been called the National Day of Mourning and Unthanksgiving Day because of the associations with colonialism. Thanksgiving eclipsed Evacuation Day, commemorating the November 25, 1783 evacuation of the last of the defeated British army, through New York City. Thanksgiving is followed by the unofficial Black Friday commercial holiday (also Native American Heritage Day since 2008), or Buy Nothing Day. There is also Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Giving Tuesday to continue the spending.
Marxist philosopher and writer Friedrich Engels was born November 28, 1820 in what is now Wuppertal, Germany.
Albania has two national days, November 28, 1912, when Albania gained independence from the Ottoman Empire, and November 29, 1944, when Albanian partisans drove out the German occupiers. Subsequently the Albanians were unique in liberating their own country and then helping to liberate neighboring Yugoslavia. [A British account of the Albanian independence days as marked this year in Gjirokaster, in southern Albania, Enver Hoxha's hometown: michaelharrison.org.uk/2021/12/independence-day-29th-november-2021-in-gjirokaster/ ]
The Natchez and other groups rebelled against French colonialism in the lower Mississippi Valley, starting November 29, 1729. Other indigenous nations fought on the side of the French. The governor feared that a wider Indian and possibly slave rebellion was planned, so had a force of African slaves massacre the peaceful Chaouacha tribe living near New Orleans, for which he was apparently criticized at the time. Ultimately the Natchez were driven out of their homeland or enslaved by the French, but still exist as a people.
Russian Marxist Georgi Plekhanov was born November 29, 1856 and was upheld as a founder of the Russian Marxist movement, but was an opponent of the Bolsheviks.
In the Sand Creek Massacre, starting November 29, 1864, Federal soldiers attacked peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians camped along Big Sandy Creek in what is now Colorado (where they had asked them to gather, displaying a US flag and a white flag), killing about 230 Indians, predominantly women, children, and elders, as well as committing torture and mutilation, before leaving the area December 1st. Some soldiers refused to attack the village, but the perpetrators received little punishment and no criminal prosecution (from
Wikipedia as well as
www.nps.gov/sand/learn/historyculture/index.htm ).
[The Federal People's Republic of Yugosalvia was declared November 29, 1945, and the 29th was the country's national day until 2002; the name was changed to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1963, becoming the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or Serbia and Montenegro February 4, 2003, and in June 2006 Montenegro and Serbia separated and the South Slavic union was ended completely.]
The People's Republic of Southern Yemen (South Yemen) gained independence from the UK November 30, 1967. North Yemen had been independent since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after WWI.
November 30, 1981 the Reagan administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Cooperation, making Israel a strategic partner of the US. The partnership was suspended after Israel annexed the Golan Heights December 14th, but it came back into force in 1983. This is described in Fifty Years of Israel by Donald Neff, published in 1998. This could bring to mind the way Democrats in the House of Representatives proclaim Ukraine a vital partner and the proposal to absorb the Republic of Georgia into NATO, both increasing the likelihood of bloodshed between the USA and Russia. More recently, the US military now trains with the Israelis in territory held by Israel.
Tens of thousands of people, many anarchists, protested the World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1999 in Seattle November 30th - December 1st, sometimes called the
Battle of Seattle and
N30. It was a major event of the anti-globalization movement, later overshadowed by the need for anti-war organizing after 9/11. There was a lot of organizing against sweatshops and globalization at UNC-Chapel Hill around then, by groups such as Students for Economic Justice (later called Demand Economic Justice), and some concessions were gained from the administration. The Battle of Seattle also featured things like the black bloc, heavy police repression, bans on protesting, etc. seen in many large protests in the early 2000's.
Rosa Parks refused to yield her bus seat December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama. Her trial began December 5th and there was a bus boycott for over a year.
According to Wikipedia the Morning Star flag of West Papua (on the island of New Guinea) was first raised December 1, 1961 and this is a traditional day to protest for independence from Indonesia; displaying the flag is harshly punished by Indonesia and people have been sentenced to over a decade in prison. Independence activists declared the Republic of West Papua July 1, 1971.
The
People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (South Yemen), the first and so far only Arab Marxist state, was founded December 1, 1970. It merged with the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) in 1990, creating the Republic of Yemen. There is currently a civil war and armed intervention by other Arab states and the USA and there are still Southern Yemen secessionists.
According to Wikipedia, Motecuhzoma Xocoyotzin's successor Cuitlahuac ruled from mid-September 1520 until dying December 4th, possibly of smallpox. He was succeeded by Cuauhtemoc. In late December 1520 a Spanish and allied army returned to the Basin of Mexico.
Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed by the Chicago Police December 4, 1969.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) declared Acehnese independence from Indonesia December 4, 1976. Following the December 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami a peace agreement was negotiated, signed August 15, 2005.
Plowshares Number Seven
The first Plowshares direct action disarmament in Europe and 7th in all was carried out December 4, 1983 in West Germany. Carl Kabat, one of the Plowshare Eight defendants from the first action, in Pennsylvania, and Herwig Jantschik, Dr Wolfgang Sternstein, and Karin Vix of Germany cut through a fence at a US Army base in Schwabisch-Gmund, Federal Republic of Germany and damaged a Pershing II missile launcher. The deployment of these American intermediate-range nuclear missiles in West Germany was apparently very unpopular and they no longer exist, thanks to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which Trump wants to withdraw from (Russia and China support the INF Treaty). Kabat left the country while the three Germans were charged with trespassing, attempted sabotage, and destruction of property. The defendants had the option of imprisonment or fines, so Jantschik was imprisoned for 90 days, Vix for 60 days, and Dr Sternstein paid 1800 Deutsche Marks. Similar direct actions are still going on today. See Swords Into Plowshares: Nonviolent Direct Action for Disarmament, edited by Arthur J Laffin and Anne Montgomery, published in 1987.
The Chatham Artists Guild
2021 Studio Tour will be December 4-5th and 11th-12th and there will be some related events in November and December:
chathamartistsguild.org/events/
Soviet Constitution Day was December 5th from 1936 until 1977, when a new constitution was promulgated (October 7th, the more recent Soviet Constitution Day).
The DPRK's Korean Central New Agency (KCNA) was founded December 5, 1946 (
www.kcna.kp ; includes sections in English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Japanese).
National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is December 7th, marking the 1941 attack. There are allegations of conspiracy on the part of the Roosevelt administration. Many (but not all) citizens of Japanese descent and Japanese nationals were later interned in the US and Canada and their property taken (Wikipedia seems to indicate that other countries were involved as well). The last people were freed in 1946 in the US and 1949 in Canada.
Indonesia invaded newly independent East Timor December 7, 1975, with the complicity of Australia, Belgium, Canada, India, Japan, the UK, the USA, and other countries.
Apollo 17, the last mission of the Apollo program, was December 7 - 19, 1972. Apollo 17 was the last time a human mission left Earth orbit, the only time a Saturn V was launched at night, it was the first and only time a professional geologist went to the Moon, it returned the largest lunar sample, had the most orbits and longest time in lunar orbit, the longest total time doing EVAs on the surface of the Moon, etc. (according to Wikipedia). The crew included Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, Ronald Evans, and five pocket mice.
The First Palestinian Intifada began December 9, 1987. There wasn't a single trigger, but on December 8th an Israeli military truck hit Palestinians close to the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, killing four and injuring seven, and many thought it was retaliation for the killing of an Israeli salesman in Gaza a few days earlier.
The Treaty of Paris, ending the Spanish-American War, was signed December 10, 1898. This war is often seen as the beginning of the imperialist phase of US capitalism, when it became one of the great powers, eclipsing the old imperialist powers by 1945.
Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill occupied an 180' tall coast redwood in California for 738 days, starting December 10, 1997, to save a forest from being clearcut by Pacific Lumber Co. She endured winter storms and company harassment from the air and ground. The tree was named Luna and is thought to have sprouted 1000 years ago.
The Dayton Accords were signed December 14, 1995 in Paris, ending the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
India seized Goa from Portugal December 17-19, 1961.
The Winter Solstice will be [Tuesday] December 21st.
![This is looking [southwest] towards what are now large residential buildings, being built in a former commercial area, in November 2015; in the foreground is a beaver pond, probably on the ditch or stream in the earlier photo, and now gone ©.](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgupZLQe_Jz7HbUbT62J3eK98gb4NzU8hiQ-HiY86WeoAMiv99DjMd0higueD4DJP_wFNmfeHi3bhZinHOjzPl11c2AT5VlekX9WXj9qKzpBjLHo7e3CY6tTLrHlJkvYSt_nAeL/s5152/IMG_7394.JPG "This is looking [southwest] towards what are now large residential buildings, being built in a former commercial area, in November 2015; in the foreground is a beaver pond, probably on the ditch or stream in the earlier photo, and now gone ©.")
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