Revolution

24th June 1932 the Siamese Revolution

At dawn on June 24, 1932, a small group of Bangkok intellectuals launched a revolution – seizing control of the army and imprisoning royal officials. By noon, they’d persuaded King Prajadhipok to surrender his autocratic power – thus ending almost … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 2 Comments

1st January 1804 The Black Jacobins and the Haitian Revolution

On New Year’s Day in 1804, Haiti proclaimed its independence: After ten years of struggle, an army of former slaves led by their charismatic leader Toussaint L’Ouverture had fought the French and British to a standstill. After the British colonies … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | Leave a comment

26th July 1953 the Birth of the 26th of July Movement

Today we recall the most revered date in Cuba’s history. For it was on this day, 26th July 1953, that Fidel Castro led the failed attack against the corrupt Fulgencio Batista dictatorship that would serve as the namesake and inspiration … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 4 Comments

14th July 1789 the Storming of the Bastille

Today we celebrate, though not without a small note of reservation, the Storming of the Bastille in Paris on this day in 1789. Commemorated with a public holiday in France, Bastille Day has come to mark the beginning of The … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 9 Comments

16th June 1836 the Birth of Chartism

Today we celebrate the founding of the London Working Men’s Association – the radical organisation that would be responsible for the key demands that were incorporated into the People’s Charter, thus heralding the birth of Chartism – the first mass working-class … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 2 Comments

13th June 1381 the Peasants’ Revolt

On this day in 1381, 20,000 peasants and townsmen from Kent and Essex stormed into London, led by John Ball an itinerant priest and Wat Tyler a craftsman. They had come to present the young King Richard II with a … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Heroes, Revolution | 5 Comments

10th June 1988  the Singing Revolution

The Estonian Singing Revolution

On this day 1988, a crowd of 15,000 Estonians gathered at the Old Town Festival in Tartu spontaneously began singing their unofficial national anthem – a song which, under the Soviet yoke, they were forbidden to sing. The crowd then … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 1 Comment

28th May 1871  Defeat of the Paris Commune

Today we lament the unfathomably brutal suppression of the first proletarian revolution in history, the Paris Commune. Just three months earlier, on 18th March 1871, the workers of Paris rose up, seized power from the new provisional French government, declared … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, Revolution, World Events | 10 Comments

24th May 1856  the Commencement of John Brown’s Holy War

On this day in 1856 in Kansas, a gang of seven abolitionists paid an unexpected visit to the home of militant pro-slavery advocate James Doyle. Doyle and two of his sons were ordered outside, whereupon the posse executed the three … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 3 Comments

13th May 1968 Paris Revolts

No other city is more synonymous with revolution than Paris. Its citizens turned the world upside down in 1789, 1830, 1848 and 1871. And on this day in May 1968, one million Parisians once again took to the streets in … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 3 Comments

10th May 1857 the Great Indian Rebellion

On this day in 1857 in Meerut, India, three infantry regiments of Indian Sepoys turned their guns on their commanding British officers. Shouting ‘Maro phirangi ko’ (death to foreigners), they killed any European in sight, burnt the officers’ quarters, freed … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution | Leave a comment

9th May 1976 the Revolutionary Suicide of Ulrike Meinhof

“How can stupidity invade intelligence?” asked Ulrike Meinhof of post-war West Germany’s increasingly capitalistic policies of betrayal. Since her death in 1976 on this day at the age of forty-one, we’ve been asking that very question of her own dilemmatic … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 1 Comment

29th April 1916 the Easter Rising

On the 29th April 1916 poet, teacher and revolutionary, Pádraig Pearse, issued the following statement from a beseiged building on Dublin’s Moore Street, In order to prevent the further slaughter of Dublin citizens, and in the hope of saving the … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 2 Comments

25th April 1974 the Carnation Revolution

At twenty minutes past midnight on 25th April 1974, Lisbon night owls heard the unthinkable coming through their radios. “Grândola, Vila Morena” – a folk anthem well-known to young people and intellectuals, with lyrics extolling the virtues of brotherhood and … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 5 Comments

23rd April 1968 the Columbia University Student Protest

It was the spring of 1968, the “year that rocked the world”. In America, the anti-Vietnam movement was intensifying, stirred by the Tet Offensive and My Lai Massacre. The women’s rights movement was mobilising. And Black Power and the Black … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution, World Events | 4 Comments

12th April 1989 the Revolutionary Suicide of Abbie Hoffman

Today we commemorate everyone’s favourite Groucho Marxist – the radical activist, Abbie Hoffman. Co-founder of the Yippies and author of Steal This Book and Revolution for the Hell of It, Hoffman was one of the most colourful and iconic figures … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, Heroes, Revolution | 9 Comments

7th April 1969 “The Birth of the Internet”

Today we wish a very happy 50th birthday to the internet. In truth, pinning down an exact date for the birth of the internet isn’t really possible, but Wired magazine suggests today’s as good a day as any to celebrate; … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 7 Comments

31st March 1970  The Yodo-Go Hijack

On this day in 1970 occurred the all-time single-most revolutionary political act in rock’n’roll, when Moriaki Wakabayashi – bass player of Tokyo’s notorious underground legends Les Rallizes Denudés – accompanied several other members of the Japanese Red Army Faction in the armed … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 3 Comments

18th March 1871 the Paris Commune Begins

Today marks the anniversary of the formation of the Paris Commune – the first successful seizure of power by the working class. Facing Prussian invasion forces on one side and French troops mobilised against its own citizens on the other, … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, Revolution, World Events | 3 Comments

27th February 1917 Czar Nicholas II Abdicates

On this day in 1917 Czar Nicholas II abdicated – marking the end of a thousand years of Romanov rule and the beginning of a chain of events that would change the course of world history. Russia had witnessed previous … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 1 Comment

30th January 1649 the Execution of Charles I

Today we commemorate the execution of King Charles I of England, executed on the orders of Oliver Cromwell after a trial by the Rump Parliament found the king guilty of being ‘a tyrant, traitor and murderer.’ It is not the place … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | Leave a comment

22nd January 1905 Bloodsky Sunday

On this day in 1905, a seismic social shift occurred that would ultimately end Russia’s seemingly unassailable dynastical certainties – setting the stage for the new global force of communism. For nearly four hundred years, a succession of patrilineal descendents … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities, Revolution, World Events | 2 Comments

16th January 1968 the Release of Blue Cheer’s VINCEBUS ERUPTUM

Let us today pay tribute to Blue Cheer’s astounding debut LP VINCEBUS ERUPTUM, their teenage master class in colossally loud avant-garde guitar dynamics released exactly 50 years ago and arguably the first rock album genuinely deserving of the description ‘Heavy … Continue reading

Posted in Heroes, Revolution, World Events | 7 Comments

15th January 1919  the Murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

The murder of revolutionary leaders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht on 15th January 1919 at the hands of the proto-Nazi Freikorps marked the end of the Spartacist Week – the failed workers’ uprising in Berlin. Incredibly their murder was ordered … Continue reading

Posted in Atrocities, Heroes, Heroines, Revolution, World Events | 10 Comments

1st January 1994 The Zapatista Uprising

On the first day of 1994, 3,000 indigenous Mayan Indian guerrillas came down from the mountains of the southern province of Chiapas and declared war against the Mexican government. The insurgents – representing some of the poorest and most exploited … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, Heroes, Heroines, Revolution | 3 Comments

16th December 1773 The Boston Tea Party

At nine o’clock on the night of 16th December 1773, a group of angry Bostonians disguised as Mohawk Indians and armed with tomahawks boarded three British ships anchored at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston harbour. Urged on by thousands of cheering … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution | 3 Comments

14th December 1825 The Decembrist Revolt

Today marks the anniversary of the Decembrist Rising – a short-lived revolt of officers in the Czarist army in 1825. In many respects doomed to failure, the revolt has a historic significance that outweighs the actual events and marks a … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 5 Comments

26th November 1976 ‘Anarchy In the UK’ Released

Today we celebrate the release of the Sex Pistols’ debut 7” single ‘Anarchy in the UK’ which caused a public outcry when it first appeared 41 years ago, and heralded the entire regeneration of ‘70s rock’n’roll. A riotous wake-up call … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 2 Comments

17th November 1947 the Death of Victor Serge

Today in 1947, the life-long revolutionary Victor Serge collapsed and died in Mexico City at the age of 57. His health had broken down after many years spent in prison and imposed exile under regimes of various nationalities and political … Continue reading

Posted in Anarchists, Heroes, Revolution | 1 Comment

16th November 1938 Albert Hofmann Synthesizes LSD

Today is quite an anniversary for psychedelic culture. Exactly eight years ago the world lost one of its most remarkable visionary painters, the Peruvian Pablo Amaringo, whose art documented his shamanic ayahuasca visions. Forty-five years ago saw the death of … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 5 Comments

9th November 1989  the Collapse of the Berlin Wall

Today we remember the anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall – that 90-mile-long boundary separating two opposing ideologies, that divided a city in half completely cutting off the political enclave of West Berlin from surrounding East Germany. Ever … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution, World Events | 7 Comments

5th November 1605 Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

Today we commemorate Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in which several important English Catholics – led by Sir Robert Catesby – attempted to assassinate the recently crowned King James I, by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during its … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 7 Comments

30th October 1968  Trans-Love Energies’ Zenta New Year

On 30th October 1968, the revolutionary Detroit commune Trans-Love Energies proclaimed a new era, ringing in the dawn of their Zenta new age at the Grande Ballroom, wherein the MC5 – the commune’s house band – pummelled over two thousand … Continue reading

Posted in Heroes, Revolution | 8 Comments

25th October 1917  the Bolshevik “October Revolution”

Today we consider the anniversary of Phase Two of the 1917 Russian Revolution, just eight months after Tsar Nicholas II’s regime was deposed and replaced by a Provisional Government. But the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks in their so-called October … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 7 Comments

23rd October 1956 the Hungarian Revolution

Today marks the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 – the first major anti-Soviet uprising in Eastern Europe and the first armed battle to occur between socialist states. It began spontaneously on the morning of 23rd October when 20,000 students delivered … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 8 Comments

22nd October 1899 Sigmund Freud publishes “The Interpretation of Dreams”

Today we’re stepping back to the Autumn of 1899. To the day when a small academic printing-press in Vienna produced two advance copies of a book that was to herald a cultural revolution. A book that initially struggled to find … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 3 Comments

18th October 1977 the Revolutionary Suicides of Baader and Ensslin

Today we consider the twin revolutionary suicides of Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin – co-leaders of Germany’s nihilistic Baader-Meinhof Gang – whose bloody and murderous exploits throughout the 1970s – made as part of Europe and Asia’s larger unhomogenised terrorist … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 3 Comments

15th October 1966 the Founding of the Black Panther Party

On this day in 1966, in the Anti-Poverty Center in North Oakland, California, two young black American activists composed a “10-Point Program” for their envisaged revolution. Subtitled “What We Want and What We Believe”, this literal call-to-arms represented a significant shift … Continue reading

Posted in Revolution | 6 Comments

9th October 1967 The Martyrdom of Che Guevara

On this day in 1967, the CIA had Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara murdered in the jungles of Bolivia – the heroic exploits of this Latin American Warrior Poet and future World Prophet having, again & again, rendered the US Government’s many … Continue reading

Posted in Heroes, Revolution | 2 Comments

8th October 1969  the Weathermen’s Days of Rage

On this day in 1969, the Weathermen – the newly-formed militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) – attempted to “Bring the War Home” with a no-holds-barred direct action in Chicago,  surreptitiously billed “Days of Rage”. The intent … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution | 5 Comments

5th October 1789 the Women’s March on Versailles

On this day in 1789, an angry mob of nearly 7,000 working women – armed with pitchforks, pikes and muskets – marched in the rain from Paris to Versailles in what was to be a pivotal event in the intensifying … Continue reading

Posted in Heroines, Revolution | 59 Comments

17th September 2011 The Birth of the Occupy Movement

On this day in 2011, a group of 1000 gathered in New York City’s financial district to protest corporate power over democracy, the growing disparity of wealth distribution, and the total absence of criminal accountability of the greedy rotters responsible … Continue reading

Posted in Dissent, Revolution, World Events | 1 Comment