http://www.recollectionbooks.
excerpts:
MAY 31
WALT WHITMAN
Singer of the Body Electric, America's finest poet.
Ancient Rome: AMBARVALIA, no work; plows & tools wreathed in
flowers. Silent processions, incense, chanting of priests, animal
sacrifices to Ceres, Bacchus & others. Urns of the dead decked in
flowers, followed by wine & noisy feasting.
______________________________
1678 - Tax protester Lady Godiva rides naked through Coventry.
1779 - By George!?: Beloved & Respected comrade Leader
General Washington orders Iroquois suppressed. A scorched-earth
policy, in which dozens of villages are burned, follows.
Washington orders General John
Sullivan to invade the Iroquois Confederacy in New York.
Washington tells Sullivan his mission is the capture of as many
prisoners of every age & sex as possible:
"It will be essential to ruin their
crops now in the ground &
prevent their planting more."
During the next six months Sullivan carries out the most ruthless
scorched-earth policy in American history.
1819 - Walt Whitman lives (1819-1892). American poet, journalist,
essayist & famous queer, best known for Leaves of Grass (1855),
which has often been banned for "indecency". Worked as a nurse
among Civil War wounded. The war affected him deeply, as
reflected in "Democratic Vistas". An inspiration to the Beats & many,
may others....
"I am as bad as the worst,
but thank God I am as good
as the best."
1836 - Jean-Baptiste Clement (1836-1903) lives, in Boulogne.
Communard & author of the famous song "The Time of Cherries".
1870 - E.J. DeSemdt patents the stuff that became the foundation
of American culture: Asphalt. Got it's name when a test batch was
incorrectly poured. A foreman screamed:
"It's your ass & your fault!"
About 55% of the surface area of a
typical American city's core
is paved with the stuff. You think
Heroin, Cocaine, Meth, Crack,
& Alcohol addictions are tough?
Just try & take away the car keys.
1906 - Spain: In Madrid the young anarchist Mateo Morral throws a
bomb at King Alphonso XIII's wedding party.
¡Tú fuiste en mi vida una llamarada
Por tu negro verbo de Mateo Morral!
¡Por su dolor negro! ¡Por su alma enconada,
Que estalló en las ruedas del Carro Real!...
— excerpt, Rosa de Llamas by Valle-Inclán
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
1912 - Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader Henry
'Scoop' Jackson, US Senator from Boeing, lives.
It is not true that "pooper scoopers"
are named after him.
After Mount St. Helens blew her
top a lot of ash fell in the Ritzville,
Washington area. The clean-up
entailed digging a giant pit east of town
& filling it with the fall-out. It soon
became known as the
"Scoop Jackson Memorial Ashhole."
1921 -- US: Sacco & Vanzetti trial begins.
"Both Nick [Sacco] & I are anarchists — the radical of
the radical — the black cats, the terrors of many, of all the
bigots, exploitators, charlatans, fakers & oppressors.
Consequently we are also the more slandered, misrepresented,
misunderstood, & persecuted of all. After all we are socialists,
as the social democrats, the socialists, the communists, & the
IWW are all Socialists. The difference — the fundamental one —
between us & all the other is that they are authoritarian while
we are libertarian; they believe in a State or Government of
their own; we believe in no State or Government."
— Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1927)
1925 --
Julian Beck lives, New York.
Cofounder of the famed Living
Theatre, along with his partner Judith
Beck wrote & directed plays many
plays throughout the course of his
life. Julian led massive political
demonstrations in NY in the 60s. All
were involving peace. Julian Beck
was a lifelong poet & anarchist.
"I CALL FOR A THEATRE IN WHICH THE ACTORS
ARE LIKE VICTIMS BURNING AT THE STAKE,
SIGNALLING THROUGH THE FLAMES."
— Antonin Artaud
1940 - A memorial meeting for Emma Goldman is held at New York's
Town Hall, presided over by Leonard Abbott; films of Emma in
Spain, Canada, & of her funeral are shown; speakers include
Norman Thomas, Rudolf Rocker, Roger Baldwin, Harry Kelly, Carlo
Tresca, Eliot White, Rose Pesotta of the ILGWU, Martin Gudell,
Dorothy Rogers, & Harry Weinberger.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
http://recollectionbooks.com/
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1946 - Rainer Werner Fassbinder lives. Controversial German
director/playwright, attracted attention with politically committed
& nonillusory work. Central themes were misuse of power
& consequences of oppression.
Fast living & fast working, he died of a drug overdose
at age 36, on June 10, 1982. His death symbolically marks
the end of the most experimental period of the German
cinema since the 1920s.
1951 - USSR: Russia claims inventing the television in 1907.
"The Revolution will not be televised"
— Gil Scott-Heron
1956 - Brendan Behan becomes a folk hero overnight, appearing,
drunk & unintelligible, on a BBC television interview.
http://recollectionbooks.com/
1962 - Adolph Eichmann is hanged. Just doing his job like any
good bureaucrat/patriot.
1982 - No 'Power to the People'?: Vancouver Island, Canada:
"Direct Action" group blows up BC hydro power substation.
1986 - China: "18th day" of Chinese demonstrations; 100,000(?) in
Tienamen Square.
2000 -- Mexico City: Protesting teachers burn pamphlets at a
fence around the Los Pinos presidential residence as riot police
attempt to protect the building. Teachers from various
Mexican states have been protesting for better wages &
education reform since May 15.
2000 -- Argentina: 20,000 protesters take to the streets
against spending cuts announced on the 29th.
2005 -- US: W. Mark Felt admits that he is Watergate source "Deep Throat."
2008 -- France: Salon Livre Libertaire, sponsored by Radio Libertaire
& Librarie Publico, in Paris.
http://salonlivrelibertaire.
— @nti-CopyRite 1997, until we say uncle, or something akin/achin'
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