Today in Labor History January 11, 1943: American mobster, Carmine Galante, assassinated Carlo Tresca in New York City. Tresca was an Italian-American newspaper editor, socialist labor organizer with the IWW, and outspoken critic of the Mafia, Stalinism and fascism. In 1937, he participated in the Dewey Commission, which cleared Trotsky of all charges made during the Moscow Trials.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B4bsqYxwo0

Today in Labor History October 26, 1889: The Ukrainian anarchist general Nestor Makhno was born in Huliaipole,. Makhno led a large insurrectionary army of peasants and helped defeat the reactionary White armies. His Black Army ultimately liberated and held onto the Free Territory within Ukraine, known as Makhnovia, from 1918 to 1921. It was a stateless, anarchist society that was defended by the Black Army. Roughly 7 million people lived in the area. The peasants who lived there refused to pay rent to the landowners and seized the estates and livestock of the church, state and private landowners, setting up local committees to manage them and share them among the various villages and communes of the Free State. His uprising was eventually crushed by Trotsky. Makhno died in exile in Paris, July 25, 1934.

Fanya Baron was executed by the Cheka on the personal order of Lenin. Baron spent her early life participating in the Chicago workers' movement and IWW. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, she moved to Ukraine and joined the Makhnovist movement. She was arrested and imprisoned by the Cheka. On July 1, 1921, she broke out of prison with the help of the Underground Anarchists and went to Moscow, where she was discovered and aided by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. However, on August 17, 1921, she was discovered and arrested again by the Cheka, tortured, and ultimately executed. When activists protested the repression of Baron and other anarchists, Trotsky said “we do not imprison the real anarchists, but criminals and bandits who cover themselves by claiming to be anarchists."[

Leon loookout!!!!!
Leon NOOO!!!!
LEEEONN!!!!

Today in Labor History June 4, 1919: Trotsky banned the 4th Ukrainian Congress of Free Soviets with his Order #1824. He also sent troops to destroy the Rosa Luxemburg Commune near Provkovski, and declared the Ukrainian anarchist insurgent Nestor Makhno an outlaw. The Free Territory within Ukraine, also known as Makhnovia (after Nestor Makhno) lasted from 1918 to 1921. It was a stateless, anarchist society and it was defended by Makhno’s Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army (AKA the Black Army). Roughly 7 million people lived in the area. The peasants who lived there refused to pay rent to the landowners and seized the estates and livestock of the church, state and private landowners, setting up local committees to manage them and share them among the various villages and communes of the Free State.

Today in Labor History May 3, 1937: The May Days began in Catalonia. This was a counterrevolution by the Spanish Republican government against radical workers and anarchists. Prior to this, the communists, socialists and anarchists had been allied against Franco’s nationalists. However, anarchist workers and their militias controlled most industries, which they had collectivized, while the communists controlled the central government and finances. As a result, this brought the various groups into conflict. To make matters worse, the Communist Party of Spain was taking orders from Moscow. And they wanted to separate the two struggles: revolution against the ruling class versus war against the nationalists. In contrast, the POUM and the anarchists saw the two struggles as one and the same. The anarchist faction included the Friends of Durruti Group and the CNT (a confederation of anarcho-syndicalist labor unions).