And let's not forget Louise Michel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Michel
The amount of working class organization, which included paupers, the unemployed, housewives, etc., was remarkable, and it did end in a horrible, tragic bloodbath, one of history and humanity's great shames of the past few centuries. I think it's indeed worth remembering.
Another important date coming up soon is April 24, Martyr's Day, the date to commemorate the victims of the 1915 genocide waged against Armenian. Even my friend of Armenian descent, however, refuses to claim the Armenian genocide as the 1st genocide of the 20th century, preferring instead to state that the 1st genocide of the 20th century was the ongoing war against Native Americans in N. America that began in 1492 and continued into the 20th.
-B.
Mike Ballard wrote:
> "It was the best of times. It was the worst of
times.." Everyone knows
> about those State murders. Hardly anyone knows about
the Commune nor that
> twice as many were murdered execution style in its
aftermath.
>
> 1871: The Paris Commune
>
> A brief history of the world's first socialist
working class uprising.
> The workers of Paris, joined by mutinous National
Guardsmen, seized the
> city and set about re-organising society in their
own interests based
> on workers' councils. They could not hold out,
however, when more
> troops retook the city and the rich ordered the
massacre of 30,000
> workers in bloody revenge.