15 janvier

1809 -- France: Pierre-Joseph Proudhon lives. Famous philosopher, economist, sociologist, often referred to as the 'father of modern anarchism'.

1842 -- Author Paul Lafargue (Marx's son-in-law) lives. Wrote The Right to Be Lazy in 1893 while in layin about in prison.

1870 -- Spain: First issue of "Solidaridad" appears, in Madrid. This newspaper, created by the anarchist Anselmo Lorenzo & friends, is the first paper published by the Spanish section of the A.I.T.

1881 -- Pierre Monatte lives (1881-1960) .

1915 -- US: During these winter months, despite a heavy lecture schedule, Emma Goldman helps organize defense of Matthew Schmidt & David Caplan, arrested for complicity in the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building. Today she attends the concert of her nephew David Hochstein, a violinist of exceptional talent.

1916 -- US: During this month Matthew Schmidt is convicted & sentenced to life imprisonment for complicity in the 1910 bombing of the Los Angeles Times building.

1916 -- US: Alexander Berkman announces publication of the first issue of his San Francisco-based anarchist journal The Blast.

1919 -- Russia: Peasants in central Russia rise against the Bolsheviks.

1919 -- Rosa Luxemburg & Karl Liebnecht, councils communists, are murdered by police.

1922 -- Ireland: Irish Free State established.

1929 -- US: American Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr. lives, Atlanta, Georgia. The government has made the observance of his birth one of those moveable feasts.

1934 -- Canada: Emma Goldman gives a well-attended series of lectures, January 15-31, at Hygeia Hall in Toronto. Topics include "Germany's Tragedy & the Forces That Brought It About," "Hitler & His Cohorts," "The Collapse of German Culture," & "Dictatorship Right & Left — a Religious Hysteria."

1939 -- Agustin Gomez Arcos (1939-1998) lives, Almeria, Andalusia. Spanish anarchist, gay dramatist/novelist. Wrote many novels about pro-Franco Spain: L'agneau carnivore (1975), Maria Republica (1976), Ana non (1977), L'enfant pain (1983), Un oiseau brûlé vif (1984).

1962 -- US: 1,700 women against nuclear testing arrive in Washington DC on Peace Train Special.

1978 -- Spain: 10,000 protest in Barcelona, in a demonstration organized by the C.N.T., the anarchist trade union now legalized for six months, against the pacts of Moncloa (allowing only the C.C.O.O (communist) & U.G.T (socialist) the right to represent workers).

1991 -- US: President Bush restores $42.5 million in military aid to El Salvador. 15 children under 14 who had been detained charged with terrorism are found decapitated. 13,500 civilians murdered or disappeared in eight months... The army no longer bothers to use prisons. Every morning at dawn, they lined up, these relatives, friends, & lovers of the disappeared of El Salvador. They came looking for or offering news; they had no other place to ask about the lost or bear witness. The door of the Human Rights Commission was always open ; or one could simply step through the hole. the last bomb had opened in its wall.

1999 -- Greece: Demonstrations in nearly every city against the "2525/97 Act". Clashes broke out. In Athens, 14 are arrested. Two, Arban Belala, a 17-year old student-emigrant from Albania & Vasilis Evangelidis, a 30-year old anarchist & unemployed teacher, face serious charges. Others, facing lighter charges, were set free. Two more student-emigrants from Albania are arrested in Thessaloniki. Demonstrations, clashes & arrests continue through the month.