This
Week in History is a collection designed to help us
appreciate the fact that we are part of a rich history
advocating peace and social justice. While the entries
often focus on large and dramatic events there are
so many smaller things done everyday to promote peace
and justice.
May
5
•Author of communism born
•Bio teacher arrested for teaching biology
•Last cruise missile leaves U.K.
•Reform victory in Iran
Tuesday May
6
•No Conscription League founded
•Equal Rights for U.S. women considered
•French say no to French nuclear testing
•March in DC against nuclear power
Wednesday
May
7
•Battle of Dien Bien Phu
•Martyr for voting rights
•Agent Orange Settlement
•Nuclear Waste Shipments Opposed
Thursday
May
8
•Peace Society
•Ghandi Fasts in Prison
•Belgians: No Nukes
Political philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary Karl
Marx was born in Trier, Germany. His ideas, laid out in the Communist
Manifesto and Das Kapital, and in many other publications, considered
the state, class divisions, the nature of industrial capitalism,
and culture and religion as oppressive forces.
A
young Karl Marx
May
5, 1925
Biology
teacher John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching Darwin’s theory
of evolution in a Dayton, Tennessee, high school in violation
of state law. Working in a public school, he was prohibited
by statute “to teach any theory that denies the story
of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and
to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order
of animals.”
John
Scopes
May
5, 1981
Irish
Republican Army hunger-striker Bobby Sands died in Northern
Ireland’s Maze Prison; it was his 66th day without
food. He had just been elected to a seat in the British
Parliament for the district of Fermanagh while still
serving the last of a 14-year sentence for possession
of firearms.
Read
more on Bobby Sands, including some of his poetry
“Our
revenge will be the laughter of our children.”-
Bobby Sands
May
5, 1991
The
last U.S. cruise missile left Greenham Common Air Base
in England, the site of a decade of women's anti-nuclear
protests. The encampment persisted for nearly another
decade until it was returned to public access.
Protesters leave Greenham Common for the last time
peace
link
May
5, 2005
Reformers
allied with President Mohammed Khatami swept run-off
elections, winning control of the 290-seat Majlis of
Iran (parliament) from hard-liners for the first time
since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Results were subject
to certification by the Guardian Council which reversed
the results in eleven of the original February contests.
May
6, 1916
Alexander
Berkman and Emma Goldman started the No Conscription
League in the U.S. This was prior to American troops’ being
sent to Europe in what is known as World War I.
read
the No-Conscription League Manifesto
Emma
Goldman and Alexander Berkman
May
6, 1970
U.S.
Senate hearings began on ratification of the Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA) to the U.S. Constitution: “Equality
of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged
by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” Similar
amendments had been introduced in every Congress since
1923.
Writer
and editor Gloria Steinem testified: “During twelve
years of working for a living, I've experienced much
of the legal and social discrimination reserved for women
in this country. I have been refused service in public
restaurants, ordered out of public gathering places,
and turned away from apartment rentals, all for the clearly
stated, sole reason that I am a woman.”
Gloria
Steinem in 1970
Steinem’s
full testimony
FAQ
on the ERA
May
6, 1973
14
cities across France saw demonstrations against their
country’s nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific
Ocean.
May
6, 1979
125,000
rallied in Washington, D.C. to oppose nuclear power.
May
7, 1954
The
battle at Vietnam’s Dien Bien Phu ended after 55
days with Viet Minh insurgents overrunning French colonial
forces, and forcing their surrender. An agreement for
complete French withdrawal was negotiated within two
months in Geneva, Switzerland.
The battle began in March, when a force of 40,000 Vietnamese troops armed
with heavy artillery surrounded 15,000 French soldiers holding the French
position under siege. The Viet Minh guerrillas had been fighting a long
and bloody war against French colonial control of Vietnam since 1946.
French
prisoners being marched by Viet Minh out of Dien Bien Phu,
May 7, 1954
May
7, 1955
The
Rev. George Lee, one of the first black people registered
to vote in Humphreys County, Mississippi, and who used
his pulpit and his printing press to urge others to vote,
was murdered in his hometown of Belzoni.
The
county sheriff had initially refused to accept Rev. Lee’s
poll tax (a tax collected before someone was allowed to
vote, which became unconstitutional in 1964), but he was
later allowed to vote after contacting federal authorities.
That, and the subsequent registration of 92 other negro
citizens he helped register, angered some white residents
of the county. His assailants were never caught, and Rev.
Lee is considered the first martyr of the civil rights
movement.
Rev
George Lee
More
on Rev. Lee
May
7, 1984
American
veterans of the Vietnam War reached a $180-million out-of-court
settlement with seven chemical companies in a class-action
suit relating to use of the herbicide Agent Orange in
Vietnam. The veterans charged they had suffered injury
and illness from exposure to the defoliant used widely
in the war to eliminate jungle cover for Vietnamese forces
opposing the U.S. military presence.
Book
review about the ongoing effects of Agent Orange
May
7, 1996
15,000
protesters demonstrated against the import of French nuclear
waste to Gorleben, Germany. Water cannons were used to
disperse the crowd.
May
8, 1882
The
American Peace Society was established when the peace
societies of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New
York, and Pennsylvania merged to become a national
organization. Currently based in Boston, the merged
organization was a result of the leadership of William
Ladd, an advocate of a "Congress and High Court
of Nations" for solving international disputes.
William
Ladd, one of the founders of the American Peace Society
read
more
May
8, 1933
Mohandas
Gandhi began a 21-day fast to support political rights
for the Dalit (or untouchables) whom he called Harijans,
the children of God. He had been jailed by the British
to interfere with his movement to end colonial control
of India. He was released the day after he began his
personal purification because the colonial authorities
were afraid he might die in prison.
May
8, 1984
Presbyterian
minister Reverend Benjamin Weir was kidnapped in Beirut,
Lebanon, while out walking with his wife, Carol. Members
of Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group in Lebanon, held
Weir for sixteen months-twelve of them in solitary confinement-along
with six other Americans who were released later, including
journalist Terry Anderson. Before the kidnapping, Weir
had spent nearly three decades in Lebanon as a Christian
missionary and a teacher at the Near East School of Theology.
In his various positions in the Presbyterian church since
his release, Weir has been a voice of reconciliation
and tolerance.
Rev.
Benjamin Weir
May
8, 1962
An
estimated 9,000,000 people in Belgium participated
in a ten-minute work stoppage to protest nuclear weapons.
May
9, 1967
In
April, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali
had refused induction into the U.S. Army based on his
religious convictions. He claimed, "I ain't got
no quarrel with those Vietcong." On this day,
following his indictment by 24 hours, he was stripped
of his title and his license to fight by the World
Boxing Association.
In June, a court found him guilty of draft evasion, fined him $10,000,
and sentenced him to five years in prison. He remained free, pending
numerous appeals, but was still barred from fighting for three years.
“Ali's
toughest foe: the Army” from the St. Petersburg Times
May
9, 1969
The
New York Times revealed the United States had been
secretly bombing Cambodia—officially a noncombatant,
neutral country—during the Vietnam War.
May
9, 1970
Five
days after the Kent State killings [see May 4, 1970],
100,000 marched in Washington, D.C. against the Vietnam
War. On the same day, about 600 Canadian protesters defaced
the Peace Arch at the U.S.-Canadian border in Blaine,
Washington.
May
9, 1979
At
least 18 demonstrators were killed and many wounded
after police opened fire on anti-government protesters
outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador,
the capital of El Salvador.
More
(including graphic video) on the cathedral bloodbath
CBS
reporter: "The police continued to fire as bodies
piled up on the cathedral steps"
May
10, 1857
The
Sepoy Rebellion was triggered in Meerut, India, when native
troops (known as Sepoys, which also designated a rank equivalent
to private) turned on their British officers. It was the
first instance of armed resistance against colonial rule.
Indians constituted 96% of the 300,000-man British Army.Loading
the Lee-Enfield Rifled Musket assigned to the Sepoys involved
biting the end of a cartridge greased in a combination
of pig fat and beef tallow.
"Attack
of the Mutineers," a British illustration of the Sepoy
Rebellion
The
former is haraam (forbidden) under Islamic law, the latter
offensive to Hindus who consider the cow as aghanya (that
which may not be slaughtered). When the Sepoys, including
both Hindu and Muslim Indians, became aware of this, some
refused to load their weapons. Mangal Pandey, a soldier
in the Army shot his commander for forcing the Indian troops
to use the controversial rifles. When others were charged
with mutiny for refusing, Sepoys turned on their officers
and released the imprisoned soldiers.
The rebellion is now considered the first Indian war for independence.
More
on the rebellion
May
10, 1967
Army
Captain Howard Levy, a physician, was imprisoned three
years for refusing to train U.S. Special Forces soldiers
for Vietnam. He refused an order to perform the training
as he considered it a violation of his medical ethics. "The United States is wrong in being involved
in the Viet Nam War. I would refuse to go to Viet Nam if ordered
to do so. I don't see why any colored soldier would go to Viet
Nam: they should refuse to go to Viet Nam and if sent should
refuse to fight because they are discriminated against and
denied their freedom in the United States, and they are sacrificed
and discriminated against in Viet Nam by being given all the
hazardous duty and they are suffering the majority of casualties.” -From the Supreme Court case, Parker, Warden,
et al. v. Levy.
May
10, 1968
Peace
talks began in Paris between the U.S. and North Vietnam
with businessman, former New York governor, ambassador
and cabinet secretary W. Averell Harriman representing
the United States. Former Foreign Minister Xuan Thuy,
heading the North Vietnamese delegation, immediately
demanded cessation of U.S. bombing.
May
10, 1980
The
National Organization for Women (NOW) organized 85,000
people to march in Chicago in support of Illinois’s
ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution.
a
chronology of the Equal Rights Amendment, 1923-1996
visit NOW home
May
10, 1994
Nelson
Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa’s first
black president. He had won the country’s first
election in which all South Africans could vote, regardless
of race. Mandela had spent nearly three decades imprisoned
for his part in the struggle to attain political and
civil rights for black and colored citizens. This ended
more than three centuries of white rule, beginning with
the Dutch in 1652.
Brief
biography of Nelson Mandela
South
African chronology
May
11, 1973
Charges
against former Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg (including
conspiracy, espionage, and larceny) for his role in the
release of The Pentagon Papers (a comprehensive classified
study of the origins and conduct of the Vietnam War)
were dismissed. Judge William M. Byrne, citing government
misconduct, including attempts to bribe him with an appointment
as FBI Director, and previously undisclosed wiretaps
of Ellsberg. His compatriot, Tony Russo, a former RAND
Corporation analyst, was also released.
read
chapters from the Pentagon Papers history of the war
Daniel
Ellsberg's book, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon
Papers
May
11, 1975
80,000
turned out in New York City's Central Park to celebrate
the end of the Vietnam War.
"When the Soviet Union collapsed
in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin.
With imports of
oil cut by more
than half – and
food by 80 percent – people were desperate.
This film tells
of the hardships and struggles as well as the community
and creativity
of
the Cuban people during this difficult time.
Cubans share how they
transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system
to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens...
Cuba,
the only country that has faced such a crisis – the
massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options
and hope." watch the trailer
Photo
from readers
Young
peace activists wearing peacebuttons at PeaceJam conference
in Texas
Change
starts here
Celebrate
the birth and life of the peace symbol
which will be 50 years old in 2008.*
Have a Party for the Peace Symbol's 50th birthday.
Invite friends & family and spend some
time
discussing the need for peace and what we can do to better achieve it.
*Activist and artist Gerald Holtom came up with the design on
February 21, 1958.
• Have
a special dinner or a sing along or bake peace a birthday
cake, watch a video, do some dancing, send in more party
ideas to share.
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