In November…
- 1887, the Haymarket Martyrs were executed after being wrongfully convicted of being involved in the bombing of 7 police officers who were trying to break up a rally advocating for an eight-hour workday.
- 1855 was the birth of Eugene V. Debs – labor leader, socialist, five-time candidate for U.S. president, organizers of one of the first industrial unions in the U.S. (the American Railway Union), and one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
- 1915, IWW organizer and songwriter Joe Hill was executed after being framed by the police on a murder charge, but that didn’t distract him from what he saw as more important: “Don’t waste any time in mourning. Organise!”
- 1917 in Petrograd, during early November, the working class masses (tens of thousands in number and of various revolutionary socialist tendencies) seized state power for themselves away from the bourgeois minority through armed insurrection (wonderfully, though, there were no fatalities, only a few injuries).
In every month of the year there have been defeats and triumphs of the working people. It is the task of us today in the labour movement to learn from both the failures and successes. Remembering all those workers and activists from years ago, who struggled for a better world similar to how we currently struggle for one too, must give us the inspiration and hope that we are capable to advancing our shared cause that those before us started.
