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 …
July 19, 1966: 57 years ago, Jul 18 1966, queer youth group Vanguard began picketing Gene [...]
57 years ago, Jul 18 1966, queer youth group Vanguard began picketing Gene Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco. The conflict at the cafeteria, a meeting place for gay & transgender people, soon led to the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot, a major flashpoint in early LGBT struggles Vanguard was formed in 1965 …
July 15, 1881: Burnette G. Haskell established the IWA
July 15 1881, Burnette G. Haskell established the International Workingmen’s Association in San Francisco. Taking its name from Karl Marx’s by-then defunct First International, the IWMA was the Bay Area’s first locally-founded Marxist organization Haskell, born to California pioneers in 1857, had trained as a lawyer before being put in …
July 14, 1998: 25 years ago, July 14 1998, members of Food Not Bombs stormed police [...]
25 years ago, July 14 1998, members of Food Not Bombs stormed police barricades in San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza that had been set up to prevent unhoused people from sitting on newly-planted grass. Several were arrested
July 14, 1970: 53 years ago, July 14 1970, a crowd of hundreds in Berkeley celebrated [...]
53 years ago, July 14 1970, a crowd of hundreds in Berkeley celebrated Bastille Day by attacking the fence surrounding People’s Park. Fighting broke out with police, who blanketed the area in tear gas, making 30 arrests and injuring dozens. 40 holes were cut in the fence The park was …