October 22 is Robert George Seale (aka Bobby Seale) birthday. He is a political activist and author famously known for co-founding the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which its main practice was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in Black communities, first in Oakland, California, and later in cities throughout the United States.

Seale was one of the Chicago Eight charged by the US federal government with conspiracy charges related to anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In that trial, Seale was infamously ordered by the judge, Julius Hoffman, to appear in court bound and gagged.

He is a hero to all black people, dedicating his life to free black people from systemic injustice and discrimination. The Black Panther Party, which he founded with fellow Huey P. Newton, instituted the Free Breakfast for Children Programs to address food injustice, and community health clinics for education and treatment of diseases including sickle cell anemia, tuberculosis, and later HIV/AIDS. It advocated for class struggle, with the party representing the proletarian vanguard.

Scholars have characterized the Black Panther Party as the most influential black movement organization of the late 1960s, and “the strongest link between the domestic Black Liberation Struggle and global opponents of American imperialism”.

Since 2013, Seale has been seeking to produce a screenplay he wrote based on his autobiography, Seize the Time: The Eighth Defendant. Seale co-authored Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, a 2016 book with photographer Stephen Shames.

In 2020, Seale was portrayed by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Aaron Sorkin’s film, The Trial of the Chicago 7. In 2021, Seale is mentioned in the movie Judas and the Black Messiah by a policeman commenting on a drawing of him tied up at the trial.

Happy birthday Bobby. May we reach the goals you’re fighting for.

Karl Marx, one of the greatest thinkers and revolutionaries in history was born on this day (May 5), 203 years ago. Despite our differences in thinking and ideologies, we can’t deny the fact that Marx was one of the most influential politicians and philosophers of the world.

Marx’s critical theories about society, economics, and politics, collectively understood as Marxism, hold that human societies develop through class conflict. In the capitalist mode of production, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known as the bourgeoisie) that control the means of production and the working classes (known as the proletariat) that enable these means by selling their work-power in return for wages.

We shall not say: Abandon your struggles, they are mere folly; let us provide you with true campaign-slogans. Instead, we shall simply show the world why it is struggling, and consciousness of this is a thing it must acquire whether it wishes or not.

Karl Marx

Each year on May 1, people across the globe take to the streets to commemorate International Workers’ Day, or May Day. In dozens of countries, May Day is an official holiday, and for workers’ rights campaigners it is particularly important.

In the late-19th century, socialists, communists, and trade unionists chose May 1 to become International Workers’ Day. The date was symbolic, commemorating the Haymarket affair, which took place in Chicago, in the United States, in 1886.

The 1904 Sixth Conference of the Second International, called on “all Social Democratic Party organizations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the eight-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace.”

The first of May is a national, public holiday in many countries across the world, in most cases as “International Workers’ Day” or a similar name. Some countries celebrate a Workers’ Day on other dates significant to them, such as the United States and Canada, which celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday of September.

While in many countries workers are still demanding basic laws for their work status and environment, in some other countries workers protest and demonstrate for equality, equity, justice, peace, and human rights. Workers often plan for anti-capitalist protests and show their fight for anarchism, liberty, and socialism.

Workers understand how capitalism is a war against workers class. They understand the modern slavery we are in. Workers understand this new slavery is not based on skin color or race, but based on class, imposed by bourgeoisie to the proletariat.

May Day has been a focal point for demonstrations by various socialist, communist, and anarchist groups since the Second International. May Day is one of the most important holidays in socialist countries such as Cuba.

Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

Today, April 25, is the anniversary of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974, also known as the Carnation Revolution.

On this day in 1974, Portugal’s 40-year old fascist dictatorship was overthrown, ultimately ushering in parliamentary democracy and the end of Portugal’s colonial wars in Africa, leading to independence for Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Príncipe.

As hundreds of thousands of people became politically active and workers took over their factories and farms, the overthrow of the regime not only led to the downfall of the Portuguese Empire, but brought Portugal to the brink of a socialist revolution, bringing socialism back on the agenda in Europe for the first time in decades.⁠

Signaled by the playing of the popular anti-fascist song “Grândola, Vila Morena”, left-wing army officers and soldiers of the Movement of the Armed Forces moved against the fascist dictatorship. The military coup had near-universal support among the poor and working class, who came out in the streets in masses to celebrate the overthrow. Women confronted soldiers in the streets of Lisbon and put carnations in the barrels of their guns. Soldiers formerly allied to the dictatorship switched sides en masse.⁠

The overthrow of the dictatorship was an incredible achievement and paved the way for the establishment of basic political rights, the nationalization of a large proportion of the economy and land reform. There was an important relationship between the national liberation movements in Portugal’s colonies and the revolutionary movement within Portugal itself. The anti-colonial wars for independence from Portugal had played a major part in bringing about a revolutionary crisis within Portugal as hundreds of thousands of soldiers radicalized and the brave anti-colonial resistance inspired the Portuguese left. In turn, the Carnation Revolution ended Portuguese resistance to decolonization and cleared the way for independence.⁠

The Mozambican revolutionary Joaquim Chissano said: “April 25 is seen as a great day, a historic day that saw the fall of fascism and contributed to the freedom of all our peoples.”⁠

April 24th is the Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. It is a public holiday in Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh and is observed by the Armenian diaspora on 24 April.

It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915. It was a series of massacres and starvation of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottomans. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, hundreds of thousands of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame.

The date 24 April commemorates the deportation of Armenian intellectuals on 24 April 1915 from Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). The first commemoration, organised by a group of Armenian Genocide survivors, was held in Istanbul in 1919 at the local St. Trinity Armenian church.

Many prominent figures in the Armenian community participated in the commemoration. Following its initial commemoration in 1919, the date became the annual day of remembrance for the Armenian Genocide.

In 2019, France marked its first national commemoration of the genocide, with French president Emmanuel Macron declaring 24 April “a national day of remembrance of the Armenian genocide”, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

This year’s anniversary had some good news in it. Amerikkka’s President Joe Biden recognized the genocide on 24 April, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

Sadly, the Turkish government still does not accept genocide and covers it.