Tag Archives: peace history

May 4

1886
At Haymarket Square in Chicago, a labor demonstration for an eight-hour workday turned into a riot when a bomb exploded. A mass meeting had been called for that night when a large force of 176 police officers arrived with a demand that the meeting disperse. Someone, unknown to this day, then threw a bomb at the police. In their confusion, the police began firing their weapons in the dark, killing at least four in the crowd and wounding many more. Several police died (only one by the bomb), the rest probably by police fire.

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May 3

1919
Pete Seeger is born in New York City.

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May 2

1955

Indian Parliament forbids discrimination based on caste.

1968
The Poor People’s Campaign began with groups from several locations around the U.S. setting out for Washington, DC, to draw attention to the conditions of poor people in the United States. Conceived and organized by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., and despite his murder the previous month, it was led by his successor at the head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Rev. Ralph David Abernathy.
The first wave of demonstrators arrived in Washington on May 12.
One week later, Resurrection City was built on the Washington Mall, a settlement of tents and shacks to house the protesters.

Resurrection City
Watch a video about poverty in our country today

1989
Hungary begins dismantling 150-mile-long fence on Austrian-Hungarian border.

May 1

1830
Mother Jones (born Mary Harris), Irish-American anti-war activist & labor radical, born in Cork, Ireland.
1886

May Day also became known as International Workers’ Day in 1886 when 340,000 went on strike for the 8-hour work day. May 1, 1890 May Day labor demonstrations spread to thirteen other countries; 30,000 marched in Chicago as the newly prominent American Federation of Labor threw its weight behind the 8-hour day campaign.
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April 30

1917
The American Friends Service Committee was founded.

AFSC History
AFSC Today

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Aprkl 29

1915
The International Congress of Women met at The Hague, Netherlands, with more than 1,300 delegates from 12 countries—including Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland, Belgium and the United States—all dedicated to the cause of peace and a resolution of the great international conflict that was World War I. This was the origins of the organization known today as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

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April 28

1961
Catholic workers refuse to leave park in Manhattan during nuclear civil defense drill
1977
Mothers hold first rally for the disappeared at Plaza de la Maya, Buenos Aires

1978
At the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility, near Denver, over 5,000 protested and 284 were arrested for blocking railroad tracks entering the plant.

Criminal trespasser, Lynn Langford – Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility, 1978

Photo from the early 1980s, people circle the facility in protest.

1996
Sixty-one arrested for dismantling railroad tracks leading out of Gundremmingen nuclear power station, Bavaria, Germany.

April 27

1936
The UAW (United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America), gained autonomy from the AFL, becoming the first democratic, independent labor union concerned with the rights of unskilled and semi-skilled laborers.

1937
The first Social Security payment was made.

The Social Security Debate Today

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April 26

1937
Nazis Test Luftwaffe on Basque Town of Guernica
1961
Actress Vanessa Redgrave is among 826 British anti-nuclear protesters arrested during a London sit-down.
1966
Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales founded the Crusade for Justice, a Chicano activist group, in Denver, Colorado and marked his departure from the Democratic party and the beginning of a Nationalist strategy for the attainment of Chicano civil rights.

Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales

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April 25

1969
The Rev. Ralph Abernathy and 100 others were arrested while picketing a Charleston, South Carolina hospital to support unionization.

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