Today in Labor History May 16, 1918: Congress passed the Sedition Act against radicals and pacifists, leading to the arrest, imprisonment, execution and deportation of dozens of unionists, anarchists and communists. The law forbade the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive” language about the U.S. government, its flag, or it military. The mainstream press supported the act, despite the significant limitations it imposed on free speech and of press freedom. In June, 1918, the government arrested Eugene Debs for violating the act by undermining the government’s conscription efforts. He served 18 months in prison. Congress repealed the act in 1920, since world War I had ended. However, Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, lobbied for a peacetime version of it. Additionally, he continued to round up labor activists, communists and anarchist for seditious behavior, particularly Wobblies, or members of the IWW. For example, they convicted Marie Equi for giving a speech at the IWW hall in Portland, Oregon after WWI had ended. Today, President Trump is attempting to bring it back with decrees forbidding criticism of the U.S. government, capitalism, traditional marriage, Israel, and even fascism, while also forbidding speech in support of transgender rights and safety.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #congress #freespeech #witchhunt #anarchism #communism #union #antiwar #prison #trump #censorship #fascism

Today in Labor History May 16, 1871: Workers of the Paris Commune destroyed the Vendôme Column ("monument de barbarie"), a monument to war that was topped with a statue of Napolean. The communards were particularly disgusted that this glorification of war, colonialism and national chauvinism had been erected on the Rue de la Paix (Peace Street). The communards promptly renamed the plaza “Place Internationale” in celebration of their ideal of international fraternity.

The communards governed from a feminist and anarcho-communist perspective, abolishing rent and child labor and giving workers the right to take over workplaces abandoned by the owners. They took over all aspects of economic and political life. They enacted a system that included self-policing, separation of the church and state, abolition of child labor, and employee takeovers of abandoned businesses. Churches and church-run schools were shut down. The Commune lasted from March 18 through May 28, 1871. Karl Marx called it the first example of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx had also predicted the fall of the Column in his 1852 political pamphlet The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. The Commune ended in massacres and mass executions known as Semaine Sanglante, or the Bloody Week. During this time, the French Army entered Paris and quashed the commune. They killed 10,000-20,000 men, women and children. They also arrested over 43,000 people, sentencing ninety-five to death, 251 to forced labor, and 1,169 to deportation. Thousands more fled to avoid prosecution. One of the leaders of the commune was a young school teacher named Louise Michel. During her trial she said “I do not wish to defend myself, I do not wish to be defended. . . . since it seems that any heart which beats for freedom has the right only to a lump of lead, I too claim my share. If you let me live, I shall never stop crying for revenge and l shall avenge my brothers. I have finished. If you are not cowards, kill me!” She was deported to the French colony of New Caldonia.

You can read my complete biography of Louise Michel here: https://michaeldunnauthor.com/2024/04/20/louise-michel/

#workingclass #LaborHistory #paris #commune #anarchism #communism #marx #louisemichel #massacre #prison #deportation #colonialism #feminism

Colorado governor says he will grant clemency to Trump-aligned election conspiracy theorist | https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/15/colorado-clemency-trump-election-conspiracy-theorist-00924870

Disgraceful, clearly Mr Trump belongs in #prison or in a home for the criminally insane. Only because he is rich and has influential friends he gets away with stuff which would land others in gaol. This would not happen in Europe.

In France during the revolution he would have had an appointment with madame la guilotine.

#trump #eu #europe #france

A Neo-Nazi teenage girl tried to behead a Kurdish barber in #Bristol as a vigilante act against #immigrants and a belief the barbershop was involved in money laundering.

She failed as he was physically larger and managed to disarm her, and
#Police were nearby and quickly arrested her - she pleaded guilty in #Court and has been sent to #prison for 15 years

What is also worrying is Bristol is considered to be one of the safer, more multicultural cities of #England

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2026-05-15/neo-nazi-teen-who-tried-to-behead-barber-jailed-for-more-than-15-years

Adrian Carrasquillo: #tRump Just Handed Mass Detention Policy to a Private Prison Executive, David Venturella.

#ICE #prison #detention #concentrationcamps #immigration #corruption
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/trump-just-handed-mass-detention-private-prison-executive-venturella-homan-mullin