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dailyanarchistposts · 9 days

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This past International Workers Day, otherwise known as May Day, I attended my local rally. The same old May Day groups were in attendance, Party for Socialist Liberation (PSL), Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a couple other single issue labor groups. The endless tedium of speeches aside, something strange stood out to me. Every group called for left unity in some way or another. “Unite as workers to crush capitalism,” was the exact quote from the young man in running shoes, jeans, and a bright red PSL shirt. I could have spoken up and made a scene, again, but I feel it is more effective to broadly address why this call for left unity is absurd especially considering the Marxist historical revisionism surrounding May Day. The success of May Day was directly because of the anarchist Haymarket Martyrs and the Marxist attempt to ignore this fact is one of the many reasons why left unity is never in the best interest of anarchists.

Before we begin, it is important to go over the events of the Haymarket uprising on May 4th, 1886. The first May Day was called for by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) as the official first day the eight-hour workday in 1886. On May 1st 1886, between 30,000 and 80,000 laborers in Chicago refused to work in support of the eight hour day, which shut down the industrial zones. August Spies, a German-born anarchist and leading contributor to the newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung, was enthused by the unity and relative success of the eight-hour fight.[1] The McCormick Reaper Works’ solution, instead of meeting the demands of the workers, was to hire scabs. On May 3rd, 1886, striking workers from the McCormick Plant asked Spies to come down to the Southwest side of Chicago and give a speech to bolster morale. Minutes into Spies speech, the scabs began filing out of the plant and the McCormick strikers rushed to the gates of the factory. To protect the business and scabs, 200 police officers rushed in and beat the strikers with clubs and shot them with pistols. According to Spies, 6 strikers were killed including those that were shot in the back as they fled. Spies knew that the battle had been lost and returned to his newspaper office with the sound of screams and pistol fire still ringing in his ear.

That night, August Spies rushed into print several thousand leaflets urging workingmen to come to a meeting the next day, May 4th, at Haymarket Square.[2] The next day, the anarchists August Spies, Albert Parsons, and the Rev. Samuel Fielden spoke to a crowd estimated variously between 600 and 3,000. At around 10:30 PM as Fielden spoke, the police showed up despite the peaceful nature of the crowd. As they ordered the crowd to disperse, a bomb was thrown into the advancing officers, killing 6. The Police then opened fire on the anarchists killing 4 and some of the anarchists returned fire killing another police officer. The Police argued it was a conspiracy and eight influential anarchists were arrested, including Spies and Parsons, who were not present but had significant influence in the community. On November 11th 1887, 4 convicted anarchists including Spices, Parsons, Adolph Fischer, and George Engle were hanged. The state executions further enraged the broader community and would be the catalyst for the International Workers Day.

The Haymarket Uprising was internationally significant. During the funeral procession for the anarchists in Chicago, the historian Philip Foner estimates, between 150,000 and 500,000 people lined the streets in support. Both the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor, although initially reluctant, supported the slain anarchists as heroes of labor. The Knights of Labor even published the autobiographies of Parsons, Spies, Fischer, Engle, and the anarchist who killed himself in prison, Oscar Neebe.[3] The London Freedom group argued “No event in the worldwide evolution of the struggle between socialism and the existing order of society has been so important, so significant, as the tragedy of Chicago.”[4] According to the historian Paul Avrich, pamphlets and articles about the case and autobiographies of the martyrs appeared in every language across the world. In Europe, over twenty-four cities boasted sizeable protests in support of the Haymarket Martyrs.[5] Famous anarchists like Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, and Ricardo Flores Magón all attribute the Haymarket uprising to their radicalization. Moreover, it was not only Europe that celebrated the Haymarket Martyrs. The Times of London reported protests in Cuba, Peru, and Chile.[6] Mary Harris “Mother” Jones was in Mexico on May Day, 1921, and wrote that their May Day was expressly in honor of “the killing of the workers in Chicago for demanding the eight-hour day.”[7] More to this point, during a trip to Mexico in 1939, Oscar Neebe’s grandson was shown a mural by Diego Rivera in the Palace of Justice depicting the Haymarket Martyrs.[8] The international significance of the Haymarket Martyrs was undeniable in the hearts and imagination of all of the Left and is a significant element in the success of May Day.

The success of May Day internationally is thanks to the slain anarchists yet Marxist leadership intentionally omitted the significance of the Haymarket Martyrs to further purge anarchism from the historical record. In 1889, just a few years after the execution, the Marxist International Socialist Congress, who would later form the “Second International,” chose May 1st to celebrate international workers. However, nowhere in the Second International’s proclamation was the slightest mention of anarchism or the Haymarket Martyrs’ sacrifice for the eight-hour workday. The historian Philip Foner in 1969 therefore needed to write an entire book to remind the reader that other than pushing for the eight-hour workday, the secondary purpose of the establishment of International Workers Day on May 1st was to honor the Haymarket Martyrs. He argues “there is little doubt that everyone associated with the resolution passed by the Paris Congress knew of the May 1st demonstrations and strikes for the eight-hour day in 1886 in the United States … and the events associated with the Haymarket tragedy.” [9]

This slight against anarchists should come as no surprise considering the Second International broke with the First International Workingmen’s Association to exclude anarchists. The few anarchist members that refused to leave the Second International were barred from contributing. Member William Morris reveals, “expressions of anarchist ideas were often shouted down, and in one incident Francesco Saverio Merlino faced violence from the other delegates.”[10] The later Soviets were no stranger to historical revisionism either. Whether it is Stalin painting himself into pictures alongside Lenin or more typically painting out figures, like Trotsky, from the historical narrative. Famous member of the Communist Party USA’s central committee and founder of International Publishing, Alexander Trachtenberg, published the definitive “History of May Day” in 1932 and did not mention the word anarchism once.[11] Therefore, the Marxists of the Second international developed the May Day holiday to appropriate the international success of the anarchist Haymarket martyrs, while actively excluding anarchist thought from their sphere of influence.

Rosa Luxemburg also actively excluded mentioning the Haymarket Martyrs, which prominent Social Democrat publications like Jacobin choose to publish to further marginalize anarchist ideas. In 2016, Jacobin magazine published Luxemburg’s “What are the Origins of May Day.” In this article, Luxemburg argued that in 1856, the Australian workers call for complete work stoppages in support for the 8-hour workday influenced the American and then International development of May Day.[12] She claims that the Australians call to action was the primary source of inspiration for The International Workers Congress in 1890. While this is most likely true, she does not mention anarchists at all in her story. Not only did Luxemburg choose to ignore the impact of the Haymarket anarchists, but Jacobin’s intentional publication of her work in 2016 illustrated this same interest in erasure. Therefore, it becomes clear that both the Communists and the contemporary Social Democrats reinterpret history in order to ignore the global impact of anarchism on the working-class.

This active historical revisionism from popular Marxists is what makes May Day speeches calling for “left unity” ridiculous. Let us, for a moment, ignore the legacy of anarchist oppression from the Soviet Union to Cuba. The fact that both the Second International to contemporary Marxists willfully ignore the centrality of anarchism to organized labor and the establishment of the eight-hour workday is ahistorical. The fact that they suppress anarchist history and call for unity on the day that anarchist ancestors gave their lives for labor’s cause is bullshit. The eight-hour work day was a compromise for the abolition of waged labor. Let us not compromise our principles again by unifying with Marxists that work to undermine us at every opportunity.

[1] August Spies, “The Dies are Cast!”Arbeiter-Zeitung (May 1, 1886)

[2] August Spies, “Revenge,” Arbeiter-Zeitung (May 3, 1886)

[3] Philip Foner, “Editor’s Intro” in The Haymarket Autobiographies ed. Philip Foner (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1969), 12.

[4] Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 436.

[5] Philip Foner, May Day (New York, NY: International Publishers, 1986), 45-46.

[6] Foner, May Day, 45-46.

[7] Dave Roediger, “Mother Jones & Haymarket”, in Haymarket Scrapbook ed. Franklin Rosemont, David Roediger (Chico, CA: AK Press, 2011), 213.

[8] Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 436.

[9] Phillip Foner, May Day, 42.

[10] William Morris, “Impressions of the Paris Congress: II,” Marxists.org (Retrieved May 4, 2022) https://www.marxists.org/archive/morris/works/1889/commonweal/08-paris-congress.html

[11] Alexander Thrachtenberg, “The History of May Day” Marxist.org (accessed May 5, 2022) https://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday/articles/tracht.html

[12] Rosa Luxemburg, “What are the Origins of May Day?” Jacobin, May 1, 2016 (Accessed May 2, 2022) https://jacobinmag.com/2016/05/may-day-rosa-luxemburg-haymarket

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comraderaccoon · 1 year

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🌹 Happy May Day, Comrades! 🌹

#May Day #May 1st #May First #International Workers Day #Socialism #Leftism #Leftist #Working Class #Progressive #Workers rights #Eat the Rich #Unions #workers' rights #Socialist #Communism #Karl Marx #Anarchism #Roses

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redsolon · 10 months

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The Soviet Union is gone, the Spanish Revolution failed, and the French uprisings of '68 dissipated. We live in a graveyard of revolutions, and people are arguing about which corpse tastes the sweetest.

#communism #socialism #anarchism #anarchy #Marxism #Soviet Union #Spanish Civil War #France #May 68 #Situationism #Situationist International

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windsails · 3 months

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nonprofits are overrated. if you really wanted to help people you would prove economic democracy, helping others, and improving communities is popular and profitable and actually start taking over huge sections of the economy to democratize them and organize apps, software, logistical systems, communities to run it all. in other words, profiting collectively from the redistribution wealth and power to the people of the world

#economics #nonprofit #politics #business #democracy #unions #cybernetics #capitalism #communism #social justice #power to the people #wealth redistribution #international #collaboration #teamwork #ugh #queue

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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"Doubts If Nation Needs Prodding Of Communists," Winnipeg Tribune. October 15, 1942. Page 3. ---- [By The Canadian Press] TORONTO, Oct. 15 - Drummond Wren, chairman of a public meeting here Tuesday, which approved lifting of the legal ban on the Communist Party of Canada, today made public a letter he had received from Justice Minister Louis St. Laurent in reply to a telegram from Wren asking that the ban be lifted. In the reply, Mr. St. Laurent. quoted from another letter he had written, he said, in answer to a similar request: "I am sorry if large numbers in Ontario are feeling indignant because the recommendations of the parliamentary committee considering the Defense of Canada Regulations have not been implemented. "Personally I have not favored their implementation, and the information I have received was to the effect that a majority of the people, even in Ontario, still felt that there would be danger in giving any encouragement to the Communist Party. "We are very much impressed by the magnificent resistance of the Russian people, but I for one am inclined to attribute that to their vigorous Russian nationalism rather than to any virtue of international Communism. I am not at all convinced that we require the prodding of Communism. in our constitutional setup."

#toronto #public pressure #parliamentary committee #mackenzie king government #louis st. laurent #anti-communism #iron heel #internment camps #internees #communist party of canada #communists #soviet union #allied powers #canada during world war 2 #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

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yohane23 · 1 year

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The African Union and the Regional Economic Communities

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#African Union #Arab Maghreb Union #Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa #Community of Sahel-Sahara States #East African Community #Economic Commision Of West African States #Economic Community of Central African States #Intergovernmental Authority on Development #International Confernce on the Great Lakes Region #Regional Economic Communities #Southern African Development Community

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wtisd · 2 years

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Raising awareness of their right to access to telecommunications/ICTs.

The ITU works to increase access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) for persons with disabilities by:

raising awareness of their right to access to telecommunications/ICTs;

mainstreaming accessibility in the development of international telecommunications/ICT standards;

providing education and training on key accessibility issues.

The ITU Secretariat offers an advocacy platform with global reach ( ITU and Accessibility). In addition, the Secretariat oversees the accessibility work undertaken across ITU’s three Sectors, thereby ensuring the efficient coordination of activities carried out in the spheres of development (ITU-D and Accessibility), radiocommunication ( ITU-R and Accessibility), and standardization.

#ITU-T #accessibility #digital cooperation #ITU-D #radio communication #ITU-R #standardization #International Telecommunication Union (ITU)#telecommunications/ICT standards #information and communication technologies (ICTs)

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workersolidarity · 7 months

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youtube

🇵🇸🇮🇱 HAMAS AND PALESTINIAN MILITANTS INVADE ISRAELI SETTLEMENTS

Update on the attacks of Israeli settlements by Ween Union, a highly accurate war analysis channel normally focused on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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catmaidetho · 2 months

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i dont know whats going on w qstudios rn but it sounds absolutely hellish. i am so sorry my beloved quackblr mutuals that this happening it looks like a goddamn mess 😭

#khaos.txt #discourse #u're telling me a union just made a strongly worded tweet and didnt Directly Reach Out to who they're trying to contact???#and also communication internally is also shit??#WHATS GOING ONN #i am not invested at all i just watch tubbo build shit w create while crocheting #it sounds like a complete dumpster fire

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easterneyenews · 2 months

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mariacallous · 7 months

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It is over and everything is lost. This is the refrain repeated by Armenian families as they take that final step across the border out of their home of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In just a handful of days more than 100,000 people, almost the entire Armenian population of the breakaway enclave, has fled fearing ethnic persecution at the hands of Azerbaijani forces. The world barely registered it. But this astonishing exodus has vanished a self-declared state that thousands have died fighting for and ended a decades-old bloody chapter of history.

On Saturday, along that dusty mountain road to neighbouring Armenia, a few remaining people limp to safety after enduring days in transit.

Among them is the Tsovinar family who appear bundled in a hatchback littered with bullet holes, with seven relatives crushed in the back. Hasratyan, 48, the mother, crumbles into tears as she tries to make sense of her last 48 hours. The thought she cannot banish is that from this moment forward, she will never again be able to visit the grave of her brother killed in a previous bout of fighting.

“He is buried in our village which is now controlled by Azerbaijan. We can never go back,” the mother-of-three says, as her teenage girls sob quietly beside her.

“We have lost our home, and our homeland. It is an erasing of a people. The world kept silent and handed us over”.

She is interrupted by several ambulances racing in the opposite direction towards Nagorno-Karabakh’s main city of Stepanakert, or Khankendi, as it is known by the Azerbaijani forces that now control the streets. Their job is to fetch the few remaining Karabakh Armenians who want to leave and have yet to make it out.

“Those left are the poorest who have no cars, the disabled and elderly who can’t move easily,” a first responder calls at us through the window. “Then we’re told that’s it.”

As the world focused on the United Nations General Assembly, the war in Ukraine and, in the UK, the felling of an iconic Sycamore tree, a decades old war has reignited here unnoticed.

It ultimately heralded the end of Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway Armenian region, that is internationally recognised as being part of Azerbaijan but for several decades has enjoyed de facto independence. It has triggered the largest movement of people in the South Caucasus since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan has vehemently denied instigating ethnic cleansing and has promised to protect Armenians as it works to reintegrate the enclave.

But in the border town of Goris, surrounded by the chaotic arrival of hundreds of refugees, Armenia’s infrastructure minister says Yerevan was now struggling to work out what to do with tens of thousands of displaced and desperate people.

“Simply put this is a modern ethnic cleansing that has been permitted through the guilty silence of the world,” minister Gnel Sanosyan tells The Independent, as four new busses of fleeing families arrive behind him.

“This is a global shame, a shame for the world. We need the international community to step up and step up now.”

The divisions in this part of the world have their roots in centuries-old conflict but the latest iterations of bitter bloodshed erupted during the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Karabakh Armenians, who are in the majority in the enclave, demanded the right to autonomy over the 4,400 square kilometre rolling mountainous region that has its own history and dialect. In the early 1990s they won a bloody war that uprooted Azerbaijanis, building a de facto state that wasn’t internationally unrecognised.

That is until in 2020. Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a military offensive and took back swathes of territory in a six-week conflict that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians. Russia, which originally supported Armenia but in recent years has grown into a colder ally, brokered a fragile truce and deployed peacekeepers.

But Moscow failed to stop Baku in December, enforcing a 10-month blockade on Nagorno-Karabakh, strangling food, fuel, electricity and water supplies. Then, the international community stood by as Azerbaijan launched a 24-hour military blitz that proved too much for Armenian separatist forces. Outgunned, outnumbered and weakened by the blockade, they agreed to lay down their weapons.

For 30 years the Karabakh authorities had survived pressure from international powerhouses to give up statehood or at least downgrade their aspirations for Nagorno-Karabakh. For 30 years peace plans brokered by countries across the world were tabled and shelved.

And then in a week all hope vanished and the self-declared government agreed to dissolve.

Fearing further shelling and then violent reprisals, as news broke several Karabakh officials including former ministers and separatist commanders, had been arrested by Azerbaijani security forces, people flooded over the border.

At the political level there are discussions about “reintegration” and “peace” but with so few left in Nagorno-Karabakh any process would now be futile.

And so now, sleeping in tents on the floors of hotels, restaurants and sometimes the streets of border towns, shellshocked families, with a handful of belongings, are trying to piece their lives together.

Among them is Vardan Tadevosyan, Nagorno-Karabakh’s minister of health until the government was effectively dissolved on Thursday. He spent the night camping on the floor of a hotel, and carries only the clothes he is wearing. Exhausted he says he had “no idea what the future brings”.

“For 25 years I have built a rehabilitation centre for people with physical disabilities I had to leave it all behind. You don’t know how many people are calling me for support,” he says as his phone ringed incessantly in the background throughout the interview.

“We all left everything behind. I am very depressed,” he repeats, swallowing the sentence with a sigh.

Next to him Artemis, 58, a kindergarten coordinator who has spent 30 years in Steparankert, says the real problems were going to start in the coming weeks when the refugees outstay their temporary accommodation.

“The Azerbaijanis said they want to integrate Nagorno-Karabakh but how do you blockade a people for 10 months and then launch a military operation and then ask them to integrate?” she asks, as she prepares for a new leg of the journey to the Armenian capital where she hopes to find shelter.

“The blockade was part of the ethnic cleansing. This is the only way to get people to flee the land they love. There is no humanity left in the world.”

Back in the central square of Goris, where families pick through piles of donated clothes and blankets and aid organisations hand out food, the loudest question is: what next?

Armenian officials are busy registering families and sending them to shelters in different corners of the country. But there are unanswered queries about long-term accommodation, work and schooling.

“I can’t really think about it, it hurts too much,” says Hasratyan’s eldest daughter Lilet, 16, trembling in the sunlight as the family starts the registration process.

“All I can say to the world is please speak about this and think about us. We are humans, people made of blood, like you and we need your help.”

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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“On 25 September the Politburo called on its embassies in the region for an accurate update. They were firmly told:

“[D]o not undertake any steps and do not give any explanations without instruction from Moscow.”

Two months later Stalin wrote to Commissar for Military and Naval Affairs Kliment Voroshilov reminding him that the Japanese issue was both “complicated” and “serious”. The outlook was bleak. Tokyo was evidently in pursuit of not only Manchuria “but also Beijing”, intent on forming a government to counterpose to Nanjing. “Moreover”, Stalin continued, “it is not to be excluded and is even likely that it will reach out to our Far East and possibly also to Mongolia.” Japan might not move against the Soviet Union that winter, but in the future

“it could make such an attempt. The wish to reinforce its position in Manchuria would push it in that direction. But it will only be able to reinforce its position in Manchuria if it succeeds in fostering hatred between China and the USSR.”

That would require it to help Chinese warlords seize the CER, Outer Mongolia and Russia’s maritime province, putting in place puppets totally dependent upon Japan. Stalin defined Japanese aims as fourfold:

(a) to safeguard Japan against “the Bolshevik infection”;

(b) to render a rapprochement between the USSR and China impossible;

(d) to make this base self-sufficient for war with America.

Without such a plan Japan would find itself “face to face with American militarisation, China in revolution, and a rapidly growing USSR pushing towards the open sea”. The Japanese believed that waiting a couple of years inevitably meant that they would leave it too late to pre-empt disaster. Only the failure of the United States to act (which Stalin thought unlikely), the failure of the Chinese to mobilise against Japan (which he also thought unlikely), the failure of a powerful revolutionary movement to emerge in Japan (no sign of this so far) and the failure of the Soviet Union itself to take preemptive military and other measures would make it possible to carry out their plans.

At the end of March 1932 the Soviet ambassador in Tokyo, Alexander Troyanovsky, advised Moscow that Japan’s general staff were convinced that neither the United States nor the USSR was willing or able to fight, but that in due course they might become so. Hence Japan had to move quickly. He warned Moscow that the “slightest change in the international situation” might easily result in “dragging us into a war”. Apparently it was only the intervention of Japan’s navy—which had the Americans always in its gunsights—in the form of Admiral Kato that forestalled precipitate military action against the Soviet Union. Looking back years later Molotov recalled how at that time in the Far East security was “neglected and the Soviet Union could undoubtedly expect many surprises”.

In response to the threat, and with the first fruits of industrialisation to hand, the build-up of Soviet forces in the region was intensive. Within four months, as of January 1932, the number of men stationed in the Soviet Far East had risen from 42,000 to 108,610; of planes, from 88 to 276; and of tanks, from 16 to 376. But much more would be needed in the event of war. Late in April 1932 Comintern Secretary Karl Radek let it be known

“that the Soviet Government were getting extremely anxious about the position in Manchuria and feared war with Japan in the near future … He was convinced that if hostilities did break out Poland and Roumania would come in on the side of Japan. This would lead to complications in Europe to which it was impossible to forsee any limit.”

This was clearly an oblique reference to the Rapallo relationship and what Germany might do if the Russians were at war with Poland.

Radek added that Moscow

“had spent milliards of roubles in the last seven months to prepare against a danger it foresaw from the outset of the conflict. These preparations had strained the country’s resources, and compelled the government to alter its five-year plan. The whole programme for the metallurgical industry had been changed owing to production for war purposes. They had stored enough stocks of corn to feed the army for a year, and this and the necessity for transporting supplies to the Far Eastern army accounted for the present food shortage [famine] and general tightening of conditions.”

Radek insisted that they would “remain strongly on the defensive” as the five-year plan’s completion was the highest priority “and would not shed the blood of the workers for any material interests in Manchuria. If there were a genuine revolutionary movement there, that of course would be a different matter.” Japan’s refusal on 13 December 1931 to accept the Soviet offer of a non-aggression pact confirmed existing fears.

Worried as they all undoubtedly were, Stalin none the less had a problem restraining subordinates in the Far East, whose escapades held dangerous implications for Soviet security. In the summer of 1932 a sabotage unit of the OGPU made up of ethnic Koreans was sent into Korea to blow up railway bridges. Hearing of the operation, Stalin called on Lazar Kaganovich for the punishment of those concerned:

“Speak to Molotov and take draconian measures against offenders from OGPU and the Fourth Directorate (it is entirely possible that these people are agents of our enemies in our midst.) Demonstrate that there [in the Far East] Moscow still has the power to punish offenders.”

Other such provocations also prompted outbursts from Stalin:

“It is clear that such issues and ‘incidents’, which carry the risk of ‘suddenly’ unleashing a war, must be handled, down to the tiniest details, by Moscow alone.”

Japanese expansion into Inner Mongolia in January–February 1933 certainly kept the Russians on their toes. In April 1933 Lieutenant Colonel Suzuki of the Japanese Bureau of Military Affairs told the Marquis Kido Kōichi, the emperor’s closest advisor, that

“there are two kinds of enemies, an absolute enemy and a relative enemy. Since Russia aimed to destroy the national structure of Japan, he cited Russia as the absolute enemy.”

The Russians were both an old geopolitical rival and a new revolutionary interloper. The Comintern was, of course, trying its best to destroy the monarchy and empire, though in Japan itself it never had any chance of success. In 1931 more than 280 members of the party (including the leadership and the Tokyo district chiefs) had been arrested in two waves, on 15 March and 16 April.”

- Jonathan Haslam, The Spectre of War: International Communism and the Origins of World War II. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2021. p. 98-101.

#manchurian incident #invasion of manchuria #manchurian crisis #international relations #comintern #soviet union #stalinism #empire of japan #non-aggression pact #anti-communism #ogpu #interwar period #league of nations #japanese imperialism #mukden crisis #politburo #karl radek #josef stalin #road to world war ii

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nasa · 1 month

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LaRue Burbank, mathematician and computer, is just one of the many women who were instrumental to NASA missions.

4 Little Known Women Who Made Huge Contributions to NASA

Women have always played a significant role at NASA and its predecessor NACA, although for much of the agency’s history, they received neither the praise nor recognition that their contributions deserved. To celebrate Women’s History Month – and properly highlight some of the little-known women-led accomplishments of NASA’s early history – our archivists gathered the stories of four women whose work was critical to NASA’s success and paved the way for future generations.

LaRue Burbank: One of the Women Who Helped Land a Man on the Moon

LaRue Burbank was a trailblazing mathematician at NASA. Hired in 1954 at Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory (now NASA’s Langley Research Center), she, like many other young women at NACA, the predecessor to NASA, had a bachelor's degree in mathematics. But unlike most, she also had a physics degree. For the next four years, she worked as a "human computer," conducting complex data analyses for engineers using calculators, slide rules, and other instruments. After NASA's founding, she continued this vital work for Project Mercury.

In 1962, she transferred to the newly established Manned Spacecraft Center (now NASA’s Johnson Space Center) in Houston, becoming one of the few female professionals and managers there.  Her expertise in electronics engineering led her to develop critical display systems used by flight controllers in Mission Control to monitor spacecraft during missions. Her work on the Apollo missions was vital to achieving President Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.

Eilene Galloway: How NASA became… NASA

Eilene Galloway wasn't a NASA employee, but she played a huge role in its very creation. In 1957, after the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, Senator Richard Russell Jr. called on Galloway, an expert on the Atomic Energy Act, to write a report on the U.S. response to the space race. Initially, legislators aimed to essentially re-write the Atomic Energy Act to handle the U.S. space goals. However, Galloway argued that the existing military framework wouldn't suffice – a new agency was needed to oversee both military and civilian aspects of space exploration. This included not just defense, but also meteorology, communications, and international cooperation.

Her work on the National Aeronautics and Space Act ensured NASA had the power to accomplish all these goals, without limitations from the Department of Defense or restrictions on international agreements. Galloway is even to thank for the name "National Aeronautics and Space Administration", as initially NASA was to be called “National Aeronautics and Space Agency” which was deemed to not carry enough weight and status for the wide-ranging role that NASA was to fill.

Barbara Scott: The “Star Trek Nerd” Who Led Our Understanding of the Stars

A self-described "Star Trek nerd," Barbara Scott's passion for space wasn't steered toward engineering by her guidance counselor. But that didn't stop her! Fueled by her love of math and computer science, she landed at Goddard Spaceflight Center in 1977. One of the first women working on flight software, Barbara's coding skills became instrumental on missions like the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) and the Thermal Canister Experiment on the Space Shuttle's STS-3. For the final decade of her impressive career, Scott managed the flight software for the iconic Hubble Space Telescope, a testament to her dedication to space exploration.

Dr. Claire Parkinson: An Early Pioneer in Climate Science Whose Work is Still Saving Lives

Dr. Claire Parkinson's love of math blossomed into a passion for climate science. Inspired by the Moon landing, and the fight for civil rights, she pursued a graduate degree in climatology. In 1978, her talents landed her at Goddard, where she continued her research on sea ice modeling. But Parkinson's impact goes beyond theory. She began analyzing satellite data, leading to a groundbreaking discovery: a decline in Arctic sea ice coverage between 1973 and 1987. This critical finding caught the attention of Senator Al Gore, highlighting the urgency of climate change.

Parkinson's leadership extended beyond research. As Project Scientist for the Aqua satellite, she championed making its data freely available. This real-time information has benefitted countless projects, from wildfire management to weather forecasting, even aiding in monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic. Parkinson's dedication to understanding sea ice patterns and the impact of climate change continues to be a valuable resource for our planet.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space!

#NASA #space #tech #technology #womens history month #women in STEM #math #climate science #computer science

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heritageposts · 4 months

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Ask an older generation of white South Africans when they first felt the bite of anti-apartheid sanctions, and some point to the moment in 1968 when their prime minister, BJ Vorster, banned a tour by the England cricket team because it included a mixed-race player, Basil D’Oliveira. After that, South Africa was excluded from international cricket until Nelson Mandela walked free from prison 22 years later. The D’Oliveira affair, as it became known, proved a watershed in drumming up popular support for the sporting boycott that eventually saw the country excluded from most international competition including rugby, the great passion of the white Afrikaners who were the base of the ruling Nationalist party and who bitterly resented being cast out. For others, the moment of reckoning came years later, in 1985 when foreign banks called in South Africa’s loans. It was a clear sign that the country’s economy was going to pay an ever higher price for apartheid. Neither of those events was decisive in bringing down South Africa’s regime. Far more credit lies with the black schoolchildren who took to the streets of Soweto in 1976 and kicked off years of unrest and civil disobedience that made the country increasingly ungovernable until changing global politics, and the collapse of communism, played its part. But the rise of the popular anti-apartheid boycott over nearly 30 years made its mark on South Africans who were increasingly confronted by a repudiation of their system. Ordinary Europeans pressured supermarkets to stop selling South African products. British students forced Barclays Bank to pull out of the apartheid state. The refusal of a Dublin shop worker to ring up a Cape grapefruit led to a strike and then a total ban on South African imports by the Irish government. By the mid-1980s, one in four Britons said they were boycotting South African goods – a testament to the reach of the anti-apartheid campaign. . . . The musicians union blocked South African artists from playing on the BBC, and the cultural boycott saw most performers refusing to play in the apartheid state, although some, including Elton John and Queen, infamously put on concerts at Sun City in the Bophuthatswana homeland. The US didn’t have the same sporting or cultural ties, and imported far fewer South African products, but the mobilisation against apartheid in universities, churches and through local coalitions in the 1980s was instrumental in forcing the hand of American politicians and big business in favour of financial sanctions and divestment. By the time President FW de Klerk was ready to release Mandela and negotiate an end to apartheid, a big selling point for part of the white population was an end to boycotts and isolation. Twenty-seven years after the end of white rule, some see the boycott campaign against South Africa as a guide to mobilising popular support against what is increasingly condemned as Israel’s own brand of apartheid.

. . . continues at the guardian (21 May, 2021)

#israel #palestine #gaza #south africa #i think all of us need to seriously study the history and actions of the anti-apartheid movement #and apply these lessons to the israeli occupation

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