Great Lenin! Ninety eight years after your passing, on January 21, 1924, we continue the struggle to which you dedicated your life — the struggle to liberate the workers and oppressed peoples of the whole world.
Thanks to you, the trail was blazed. You taught us that the struggle has many twists and turns. In times of upheaval, some who seemed like opponents will become your best comrades in arms, while many who seemed solid will lose their way, and still others will emerge to pick up the red banner they abandoned.
To hold onto your revolutionary principles and history, while never surrendering your ability to think critically using the tools of Marxism; to combine these unflinching principles with the greatest flexibility in strategy and tactics; to always maintain a class analysis of imperialism and the state; to uphold the struggles of the oppressed nations and peoples; to build a revolutionary combat organization that can lead the workers to power — these are just a few of your teachings that we cherish and struggle daily to uphold.
On this day, 15 January 1934 the popular UK tabloid the Daily Mail published an article called “Hurrah for the Blackshirts!” in support of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement. The article was written by Viscount Rothermere, who was an avid supporter of Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini, as well as Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party. Rothermere declared in the paper that the election of Nazi MPs “represent[ed] the rebirth of Germany as a nation”. After the Nazi seizure of power, when democracy was abolished and many socialists and communists were sent to the concentration camps, Rothermere praised how “Under Herr Hitler’s control, the youth of Germany is effectively organised against the corruption of Communism.” Rothermere corresponded personally with Hitler, and met with him several times, and wrote approvingly of how the Nazis had dealt with Jewish people: “Israelites of international attachments were insinuating themselves into key positions in the German administrative machine… It is from such abuses that Hitler has freed Germany.”
Rothermere’s family still own the Mail, which today continues to advocate far right politics. For example in recent years they have attacked the National Health Service for distributing HIV medication, falsely claimed that a terrorist bomber was an LGBT+ activist, falsely claimed that most people trying to claim sickness benefits were faking it, criticised the National Trust for acknowledging the existence of gay people, falsely claimed that 10,000 people were trying to claim sickness benefits because they were “too fat”, mocked gay marriage, made countless false claims about Muslim immigrants and much more. Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips was repeatedly quoted in the manifesto of Norwegian neo-Nazi terrorist Anders Brevik who murdered 93 people. Today, the Mail is the top-selling newspaper in the UK.
Learn about the fight against Mosley after WWII in our podcast: https://workingclasshistory.com/2020/02/17/e35-37-the-43-group/https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1899397200245421/?type=3
On this day, 21 January 1921, striking workers in Santa Cruz, Argentina, seized the La Anita and La Primavera ranches, taking their owners and the deputy police commissioner hostage. The strikers, mostly wool workers and rural labourers, were demanding better pay and conditions, including Saturdays off work, better food, and a pack of candles per month each.
The workers had organised themselves into columns and were marching from workplace to workplace, seizing food and weapons. Subsequently some clashes took place with police, but after the arrival of the army, the workers agreed to give up their weapons and release their hostages in return for most of their demands being met.
However, later that year, authorities raided union offices, and when workers launched a general strike in response, Colonel Varela arrived with 200 troops and set about trying to crush the strike with brute force. By January 1922, up to 1,500 workers had been killed.
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Read this and hundreds of other stories of resistance around the world in our book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/working-class-history-everyday-acts-resistance-rebellion-bookhttps://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1904242866427521/?type=3
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