July 20, 1971: 52 years ago, July 19 1971, members of the Progressive Labor Party fought [...]

52 years ago, July 19 1971, members of the Progressive Labor Party fought police at San Francisco City Hall, injuring four. The PLP had disrupted a Board of Supervisors meeting as part of the Maoists group’s campaign to demand summer jobs for Bay Area youth

PLP’s “Jobs Now!” campaign was partly organized through Students for a Democratic Society, the remnants of which they controlled after the organization’s 1969 collapse. Ironically, when briefing the press after the action, SFPD captain Ernest Raabe called PLP a “Weatherman group”

Kōtoku, a prominent socialist in Japan, came to California after a prison stint for opposing the Russo-Japanese War. Arriving to the Bay, he stayed with Rose Fritz, an anarchist obstetrician who introduced him to anarchist thought and put him in touch with Peter Kropotkin

During his stay, he was invited by IWW members to give a talk in Oakland where he was introduced to the concept of the revolutionary general strike. Kōtoku stayed to witness the great earthquake of 1906, which he said cemented his transition to identifying as an anarchist

Inspired by countless acts of mutual aid in the aftermath of the quake, he described the city as an “ideal paradise,” despite the massive destruction. He saw the state of the city as an example of “Anarchist Communism.” This name would come to characterize his political synthesis

Although the Shakai Kakumeito was a shortlived organization and Kakumei ultimately only printed three issues, many of their members went on to engage in socialist and anarchist political action throughout the Bay Area and California over the following decades

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