2 janvier

1788 -- Etienne Cabet lives, French utopian socialist & influence on the socialist Robert Owen. Utopian colonies based on his ideas will be founded in Illinois, Iowa & Texass. Wrote the highly popular utopian novel, Voyage en Icarie (1839), of an ideal communist city.

1800 -- Free black community of Philadelphia petitions Congress to abolish slavery.

1890 -- Emma Goldman, anarchist feministUS: Johann Most arranges Emma Goldman's first public lecture tour to Rochester, Buffalo, & Cleveland to speak on the limitations of the eight-hour movement. In the course of her tour, Emma demonstrates her talents as an orator & realizes the need to articulate her political beliefs independently; her growing autonomy causes tensions with Most.

1905 -- US: Conference of Industrial Unionists in Chicago forms the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World), fondly known as The Wobblies.

1905 -- Louis Dorlet (1905-1989) lives, Nievre. French anarchist & pacifist

1914 -- US: Emma Goldman's Mother Earth essay "Self-Defense for Labor" responds to a series of violent labor violations; in the absence of legal protection against the danger of exercising their right to organize, Emma calls on workers to arm themselves for self-defense.

1920 -- US: The Red Scare goes into full swing, until the 6th. Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, who has Presidential ambitions, unleashes a nationwide reign of terrorism, raids on suspected anarchist, communist, unionist & radical Americans, arresting at least 2,700 (possibly as many as 8,000) after issuing orders for the arrest (without warrants), & illegal detention of 10,000 Americans, many of them trade union members & officials. Federal agents seized labor leaders & literature in the hopes of discouraging labor activity. A number of citizens were turned over to state officials for prosecution under various anti-anarchy statutes. Thugs with badges break down doors, destroy personal property, printing presses, books, etc. Palmer orders Justice Department raids on meeting halls & homes in 30 cities nationwide. None of the 2,700 people arrested are charged with any explicit crime. In all, more than 6,000 are arrested.

1922 -- Emma Goldman, anarchist feministUS: Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, & Alexander Schapiro, having left Russia disillusioned with the Bolshevik Paradise, arrive in Stockholm, Sweden, & are met by birth-control advocates Albert & Elise Jensen; Emma becomes lover with 30-year old Swedish anarchist Arthur Svensson shortly after arrival.

1946 -- Jean Bernard Pouy lives, Paris. Writer, author of many detective novels. La belle de Fontenay (prix mystère de la critique en 1993) features an old Spanish anarchist.

1965 -- Italy: Bomb explodes in Naples at the Spanish Consulate. The attack is claimed by the Spanish anarchists of the CNT, FAI & FIJL which declare: "As long as the Iberian people continue to be oppressed by the fascist dictatorship, dynamite will recall that the voice of freedom cannot be choked. Long live anarchy".

1974 -- Belgium: Jean de Boe dies. Anarchist militant, trade unionist & cooperativist.

1996 -- Bangladesh: An estimated 100,000 Bangladeshi women traveled from the countryside to attend a rally in Dacca, the capital, to protest Islamic clerics' attacks on women's education & employment.

1999 -- Andre Arru (aka Jean-René Sauliere) dies. French anarchist & pacifist, underground organizer during WWII, & a member, since 1983, of the ADMD (an association for the right to die in dignity). He ended his life, at age 87, refusing to subject himself to the risks & dependency of advancing age & disease.