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THIS WEEK IN PEOPLES’ HISTORY, NOV 19–25, 2025  
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_ Don’t Mourn, Organize! (1915), Is There a Lesson in the
Anti-Racism of 1835?, Women Rise Up Angry Against Police Sexism
(1980), Judge Slams Homophobic Police (1955), Deadly Brutality
Backfires (1960) _

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_DON’T MOURN, ORGANIZE!_

NOVEMBER 19 IS THE 110TH ANNIVERSARY of the cold-blooded murder of
labor organizer and Industrial Workers of the World activist Joel
Hägglund, who is almost universally known by his pen name, Joe Hill.
The bosses hated Hägglund and everything he represented, including
his ability to set new pro-worker lyrics to popular tunes, such as his
"There is Power in the Union," which uses  the tune of "There is
Power in the Blood of the Lamb," and "Casey Jones—the Union Scab"

Hägglund was found guilty of a murder he did not commit and martyred
because he refused to rat on a friend. Neither he nor his friend had
anything to do with the murder, but the friend, who had shot Hägglund
in a fight, was saved from a long prison term by Hägglund's refusal
to squeal.

Anyone who wants to learn the details of Hägglund’s fascinating
life and also get the best insight into what made him tick ought to
consider two books that were published on the centennial of his death
in 1915. The two volumes were informatively reviewed for xxxxxx by
Paul Buhle in 2015. You can read that review
here: [link removed]
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_IS THERE A LESSON IN THE ANTI-RACISM OF 1835?_

NOVEMBER 20 IS THE 190TH ANNIVERSARY of the founding of the New York
Committee of Vigilance, in 1835, to prevent slave-traders from
kidnapping African-Americans and selling them into slavery. The
would-be kidnappers had the backing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793,
which made any self-emancipated slave a fugitive anywhere in the U.S.
And, of course, the kidnappers were highly motivated to assert their
victims were fugitives, true or not. 

The New York Committee of Vigilance and similar groups in Boston,
Philadelphia, Syracuse and also a NY state-wide organization operated
in a manner akin to anti-ICE groups now.  They raised the alarm
whenever they got wind of slave-catchers’ presence, harassed the
slave-catchers, and made their best effort to insure that anyone
accused of being a fugitive had all the legal help possible to prevent
their removal to the South. On any number of occasions, they used
brute force to rescue the slave-catchers’ victims and spirit them
out of the county. Sometimes they were arrested for such defiant acts,
but they were often acquitted by juries who nullified laws they
considered
immoral. [link removed]

 

 

_WOMEN RISE UP ANGRY AGAINST POLICE SEXISM _

NOVEMBER 22 IS THE 45TH ANNIVERSARY of a fierce demonstration by some
500 supporters of Leeds Women Against Violence Against Women, who were
protesting a shambolic, 6-year-long police effort to capture a serial
killer of women in West Yorkshire, England. In 1980 the demonstrators
were reacting not only to the inability of the police to arrest a man
who had killed at least 13 women in the vicinity of the Leeds and had
also grievously assaulted at least seven others, but also to the
authorities’ proposal to impose a nighttime curfew on women in the
area, instead of a curfew on men.

The demonstrators blocked downtown traffic, beat on cars and buses,
smashed windows, and vandalized two movie theaters that were showing
pornographic films, including one about a killer of women. Less than
six weeks after the anti-police rampage, Yorkshire police arrested the
man who was eventually convicted of 13 murder charges and sentenced to
life in
prison.  [link removed] 

 

 

_JUDGE SLAMS HOMOPHOBIC POLICE_

NOVEMBER 23 IS THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY of a little-remembered early
legal victory for civil liberties and gay rights. On this day in 1955,
Baltimore Criminal Court judge James Cullen dismissed all charges
against 162 patrons of the gay-friendly Pepper Hill Club, who had been
arrested for allegedly disorderly conduct, but actually for no reason
other than their presence in the club. When he dismissed the charges,
Cullen said the police had no right to make such a mass arrest in a
public
place. [link removed]

 

 

_DEADLY BRUTALITY BACKFIRES _

NOVEMBER 25 IS THE 65TH ANNIVERSARY of what turned out to be the
beginning of the end for Rafael Trujillo’s brutal dictatorship over
the Dominican Republic.

On this day in 1960 Trujillo’s thugs attacked and beat to death the
Mirabal sisters, Minerva, Patria and Maria Teresa, three of the
country’s best-known anti-Trujillo activists,  The public revulsion
over Trujillo’s brutality was the last straw; six months later,
after more than 30 years in power, Trujillo was assassinated. 

The Mirabal sisters have been permanently memorialized by the United
Nations, which designated the anniversary of their killings as the
International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against
Women. [link removed]

For more People's History,
visithttps://www.facebook.com/jonathan.bennett.7771/

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