Merge branch 'master' of https://github.com/dessalines/essays

crash_course_socialism.md

@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ A 1983 report by England national income and expenditures found that on average,
 
 Capitalists use the surplus to [push out competitors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices) and gain market share, leading to the destruction of most small businesses, with [just a few companies](http://imgur.com/a/xgnEp) controlling our food, media, energy, transportation, and finances.
 
-In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class(called Capitalists, or the [Bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) make up a **tiny minority** of the population.
+In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's owners, who usually appoint a board of directors. This owning class (called Capitalists, or the [Bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) make up a **tiny minority** of the population.
 
 <table>
   <tr>
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ In the table below, both capital and surplus value are controlled by a company's
     <td rowspan="9">Worker value added</td>
     <td rowspan="8">Surplus Value<br></td>
     <td rowspan="4">Other wages</td>
-    <td>Owners(includes shareholders)</td>
+    <td>Owners (includes shareholders)</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>Board of Directors</td>
@@ -119,13 +119,13 @@ Technological advancements, instead of benefiting workers, result in decreased o
 
 ## History, and Human Nature
 
-Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property(and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication(A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents(which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class. 
+Capitalism has nothing to do with human nature. People can be greedy, or cooperative, depending on the incentive structure and ideology of the socioeconomic system they live in, which is usually out of their control. For the vast majority of human history, small groups of people survived by foraging, growing, or hunting for food **as a community**, in a mode of life termed [primitive communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primitive_communism). Communal sharing was essential to the survival of the group. Markets likewise were rare, since communities tended to be self-sufficient. Rituals, harvest festivals, a group of elders deciding fair distribution, or communal decision-making accomplished what markets do today. Private property (and male-dominated societies) came into existence with the growth of large-scale agriculture and animal domestication (A historically male-dominated activity). These tended to be passed on to male descendents (which in turn required strict female sexual control, isolation, and increasing objectification), aggregating into fewer and fewer land-owners, and creating class antagonisms between an owning, and a working class. 
 
 In the modern day, there is the communism of the family, in which family members share freely with one another. There are  community welfare organizations, food banks, as well as thousands of undocumented and unpublicized acts of kindness which show that cooperation endures even in spite of the individualism of the current dominant economic system.
 
 Capitalism evolved historically out of [feudalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) and [slave societies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery), all three being dependent on a dominant [ruling class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruling_class) receiving the surplus of a subordinate class.
 
-Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class(the [bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) seemed to merely replace [feudal lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
+Socialism as a diverse philosophy arose out of a criticism after the french revolution, in which a capitalist class (the [bourgeoisie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeoisie)) seemed to merely replace [feudal lords](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism) to become the new ruling class. Marxism is a socialist tradition, which places emphasis on the means of production, your relation to them, and the inherent class struggles involved between those who control the productive forces and those who don't, as the primary force driving economic and social relations.
 
 ## Value and Conformity
 
@@ -137,11 +137,11 @@ Economic systems, such as Capitalism, don't invent, *create* or *build* anything
 
 ## Democracy
 
-Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system(which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
+Socialists view democracy under capitalism to be an unrealistic utopia, better labeled as [Bourgeois Democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Marxism), or democracy for the rich. Under capitalism, political parties, representatives, infrastructure, and the media **are controlled by capitalists**, who place restrictions and limitations on the ability and choices of the working class. [Bourgeois democracies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_democracy#Dictatorship_of_the_bourgeoisie) tend to be highly plutocratic, resulting in legislation [favorable to the wealthy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tu32CCA_Ig), regardless of the population's actual preferences. Examples of restrictions include the [First Past the Post](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7tWHJfhiyo) voting system (which enforces capitalist two party domination), [gerrymandering](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering), long term limits with no way to recall unpopular representatives, restrictions crafted to disenfranchise poor and minority voters, voter suppression, electoral fraud, unverifiable closed source electronic voting systems, capitalist campaign financing, low voter to representative ratios, and inconvienient voting locations and times. In short, political democracy can't exist without economic democracy.
 
 ## Unsustainable Growth
 
-During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high(and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high(since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.
+During Capitalisms' growth period, when there are new markets and labor forces to expand to, capitalism can appear stable for the richer consumers whose products are actually being produced by exploited, poorer workforces. Likewise, in a labor shortage, as existed in the newly industrializing US, capitalists have no choice but to keep wages high (and the rate of exploitation low) in order to bring in workers from other countries, and keep them from running off into the interior. In the southern US, African slavery was used to solve the labor shortage, and keep exploitation high (since no wages were paid), and consumer products such as tobacco and cotton cheap. In order to take advantage of cheap labor, capitalists usually build production far away from where those products are actually bought and consumed, meaning that most consumer goods are shipped by ocean-freight, wasting energy and **polluting the environment**.
 
 In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, economic bubbles, booms, and eventual busts, termed [business cycles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_cycle), that occur every few years, with varying intensity, but with most of the resulting burden shifted to the working class. The capitalist state often intervenes to prop up failing businesses, and bail out members of its own class.
 
@@ -149,7 +149,7 @@ In actuality, Capitalism is highly unstable, made up of a series of crises, econ
 
 The reason why most people are reticent to read anti-capitalist literature, and discouraged from participating in the class struggle through unionism and political movements, is due to **capitalist indoctrination** and ideology. In Marxist philosophy, [cultural hegemony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony) is the domination of a culturally diverse society, by the ruling class who manipulate the culture of that society... the beliefs, explanations, perceptions, values, and mores, so that their imposed, ruling-class worldview becomes the accepted cultural norm; the universally valid dominant ideology, which justifies the social, political, and economic status quo as natural and inevitable, perpetual and beneficial for everyone, rather than as artificial social constructs that benefit only the ruling class.
 
-Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers(women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity(due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus(the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
+Since the 1960s, there has been a [labor surplus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Median_Family_Income_Growth_in_the_United_States.png), due to an decreased demand for workers due to computers and automation, and an increased supply of workers (women, and low-paid manufacturing and agriculture in less-developed countries). The extra, unemployed workers make up a [reserve army of labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_army_of_labour), keeping wages low, and desperation high. Increased worker productivity (due to computers and automation) mean that the surplus (the difference between worker productivity and wage paid), is historically higher than ever. This trend will only continue, and workers will naturally become more class conscious, as they see their exploitation increase, and their livelihood decrease.
 
 Both feudalism and slavery were thought to be highly stable systems, and even they lasted hundreds of years until their eventual overthrow.
 
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ Marxists aim to replace the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, with a transitional
 
 Socialism as an economic system is distinct from [neoliberalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism), as well as [social democracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy)/Welfare [state capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), which aims to band-aid the ills of capitalism while leaving the exploitation inherent in [wage slavery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery) intact. Social services provided by the capitalist-controlled state have nothing to do with socialism.
 
-Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. However, the early stages of the [1917 russian revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, **Homosexuality was decriminalized**, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, **the workday was shortened**, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled; it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. Western nations(including the US) [sent troops to russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors(civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
+Many Marxists call the totalitarian regimes typically called socialist, as more correctly defined as [State Capitalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism), since production was controlled by state bureaucracies who also distributed the surplus, rather than through the democratic input of workers. However, the early stages of the [1917 russian revolution](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Revolution) were far more progressive than is typically portrayed; Divorce was legalized, **Homosexuality was decriminalized**, land was distributed to the peasantry, banks were nationalized, control of factories was given to worker's councils, **the workday was shortened**, wages were fixed at a higher rate, all elected officials could now be immediately recalled; it created mass literacy drives, free nurseries, communal kitchens, and laundries. Western nations (including the US) [sent troops to russia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War) to fight against the gains of the revolution. Most of these revolutionary gains were lost due to a multitude of factors (civil war, a drastic decrease of the numbers of working class (50% decrease in the industrial centers), decimation of russian industry) that merit deeper study.
 
 Many burgeoning socialist attempts seized state power, in order to defend themselves against inevitable [capitalist military intervention](https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrocities.md), of which very few have survived US interventionism. [This talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVes44hcJg&feature=youtu.be) by Micheal Parenti is a good reflection and criticism on the soviet experiment.
 
@@ -195,11 +195,11 @@ Past and present socialist/anarchist societies include - [Revolutionary Cataloni
 
 [Why do Marxists oppose individual terrorism? (Trotsky)](https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1911/11/tia09.htm)
 
-[What are Mao's contributions to Marxism?(MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
+[What are Mao's contributions to Marxism? (MLM)](https://jiminykrix.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/what-maoism-has-to-offer-the-world-and-why-so-many-former-non-communists-think-its-dope/)
 
 [Is it true that Socialism has killed X million people, and how many has capitalism killed?](https://www.reddit.com/r/LateStageCapitalism/comments/5q2oak/someone_dies_under_socialism_no_matter_how_its/dcvu8lg/)
 
-[Do communists defend the DPRK(Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLDISCOURSE/comments/60voir/lets_talk_about_the_dprk/)
+[Do communists defend the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of North Korea)? short answer: no.](https://www.reddit.com/r/FULLDISCOURSE/comments/60voir/lets_talk_about_the_dprk/)
 
 [Why do many socialist attempts end up in an authoritarian state? Watch this brilliant talk by Micheal Parenti.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYVes44hcJg&feature=youtu.be)
 
@@ -355,7 +355,7 @@ Danny Katch -  Socialism…. Seriously
 
 ## Films
 
-[Pride(2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4), [Reds(1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Salt of the Earth(1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Snowpiercer(2013)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_1), [Libertarias(1996)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113649/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Trotsky(2009)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Battleship Potemkin(1925)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin), [Land and Freedom(1995)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Spook who sat by the door(1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070726/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [I, Daniel Blake (2016)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Tsar to Lenin (1937)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-bPPOY1KA)
+[Pride (2014)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/?ref_=nv_sr_4), [Reds (1981)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082979/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Salt of the Earth (1954)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047443/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Snowpiercer (2013)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1706620/?ref_=nv_sr_1), [Libertarias (1996)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113649/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Trotsky (2009)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1295072/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Battleship Potemkin (1925)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battleship_Potemkin), [Land and Freedom (1995)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114671/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [The Spook who sat by the door (1973)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070726/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [I, Daniel Blake (2016)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5168192/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1), [Tsar to Lenin (1937)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh-bPPOY1KA)
 
 # Organizations
 

us_atrocities.md

@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@
 
 - In 2009, [a coup in Honduras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) has led to severe repression and death squad murders of political opponents, union organizers and journalists. At the time of the coup, U.S. officials denied any role in the coup and used semantics to avoid cutting off U.S. military aid as required under U.S. law. But two Wikileaks cables revealed that the U.S. Embassy, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, was the main power broker in managing the aftermath of the coup and forming a government that is now repressing and murdering its people, including popular leader Berta Cáceres. The two men who killed [Berta Cáceres](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres) A former soldier with the US-trained special forces units of the Honduran military asserted that Caceres' name was included on a hitlist distributed to them months before her assassination.[[66\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-66) According to a February 2017 investigation by *The Guardian*, court papers purport to show that three of the eight people arrested in connection with the assassination are linked to the US-trained elite troops. Two of them, Maj Mariano Díaz and Lt Douglas Giovanny Bustillo, received military training in the US.[[67\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berta_C%C3%A1ceres#cite_note-67) <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Honduran_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)</sup>
 - In 1990 in Haiti, Competing against 10 comparatively wealthy white candidates, leftist priest [Jean-Bertrand Aristide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Bertrand_Aristide) captures 68 percent of the vote. A few months later, the CIA-backed military [deposes him in a coup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Haitian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat). More military dictators brutalize the country, as thousands of Haitian refugees escape the turmoil in barely seaworthy boats. The CIA "paid key members of the coup regime forces, identified as drug traffickers, for information from the mid-1980s at least until the coup."[[66\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change#cite_note-Whitney320-66) Coup leaders Cédras and François had received military training in the United States. As popular opinion calls for Aristide’s return, the CIA begins a disinformation campaign painting the courageous priest as mentally unstable.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Haitian_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)</sup>
-- In 1989, The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, [General Manuel Noriega](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega), with the stated goal of "Defending democracy and human rights in Panama". Noriega had been on the CIA’s payroll since 1966, collecting at least $100,000 per year from the U.S. Treasury. As he rose to be the de facto ruler of Panama, he became even more valuable to the CIA, reporting on meetings with Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and supporting U.S. covert wars in Central America, and had been transporting drugs with the CIA’s knowledge since 1972. By the late 80s, Noriega’s growing independence and intransigence had angered washington. Between 500-4,000 people died in the US invasion. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega)</sup>
+- In 1989, The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own making, [General Manuel Noriega](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega), with the stated goal of "Defending democracy and human rights in Panama". Noriega had been on the CIA’s payroll since 1966, collecting at least $100,000 per year from the U.S. Treasury. As he rose to be the de facto ruler of Panama, he became even more valuable to the CIA, reporting on meetings with Fidel Castro and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua and supporting U.S. covert wars in Central America, and had been transporting drugs with the CIA’s knowledge since 1972. By the late 80s, Noriega’s growing independence and intransigence had angered Washington. Between 500-4,000 people died in the US invasion. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega)</sup>
 - In 1987, the former CIA Station Chief in Angola in 1976, [John Stockwell](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm), testified to Congress and told a grisly tale of US involvement on behalf of business interests in Latin America. He cited covert operations in Nicaragua, Panama, Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba. Over the course of his testimony, he estimated that given the bombings of water supplies and other essential infrastructure, the invasions, the coups, that the United States, on its quest for empire, has been responsible for **6,000,000 deaths.** The CIA retaliated by [suing him into bankruptcy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stockwell). <sup>[1](http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4068.htm)</sup>
 - From 1982-89, The U.S. government attempted to topple the government of Nicaragua by secretly arming, training and funding the [Contras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contras), a terrorist group based in [Honduras](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honduras) that was created to sabotage Nicaragua and to destabilize the Nicaraguan government.As part of the training, the CIA distributed a detailed "terror manual" entitled "Psychological Operations in Guerrilla War," which instructed the Contras, among other things, on how to blow up public buildings, to assassinate judges, to create martyrs, and to blackmail ordinary citizens. In 1986, the Nicaraguan government under the Sandinistas shoots down a C-123 transport plane carrying military supplies to the Contras. The lone survivor, [Eugene Hasenfus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus), turns out to be a CIA employee, as are the two dead pilots, contradicting Reagan's claims that the US was not aiding the contras. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Hasenfus)</sup>
 - In the 1980s the CIA supported [Battalion 316](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion_3-16_(Honduras)), a torture/assasination squad in Honduras, which kidnapped, tortured and killed hundreds of its citizens. Battalion 316 used shock and suffocation devices in interrogations , and prisoners often were kept naked and, when no longer useful, killed and buried in unmarked graves. Declassified documents and other sources show that the CIA and the U.S. Embassy knew of numerous crimes, including murder and torture, yet continued to support Battalion 316 and collaborate with its leaders. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battalion_3-16_(Honduras))</sup>
@@ -119,6 +119,7 @@
 - In 1954, the CIA overthrows the democratically elected Guatemalen [Jacobo Árbenz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobo_%C3%81rbenz) in a [military coup](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat) in [operation PBSucess](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_PBSuccess). Arbenz threatened to nationalize the Rockefeller-owned United Fruit Company, in which CIA Director Allen Dulles also owns stock. Arbenz is replaced with a series of US-backed right-wing dictators whose bloodthirsty policies will kill over 100,000 Guatemalans in the next 40 years, until 1996. The coup has been described as the definitive deathblow to democracy in Guatemala.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1954_Guatemalan_coup_d%27%C3%A9tat)</sup>
 - In 1941, the US used its contacts in the Panama National Guard, which the U.S. had earlier trained, to have the government of Panama overthrown in a bloodless coup. The U.S. had requested that the government of Panama allow it to build over 130 new military installations inside and outside of the [Panama Canal Zone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_Zone), and the government of Panama refused this request at the price suggested by the U.S.
 - In [Smedley Butler's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler#The_Banana_Wars)(A former US general and medal of honor recipient) 1935 pamphlet, [War is a Racket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket), he recounted his experience as being an agent of American Imperialism: “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler#The_Banana_Wars)</sup>
+- In 1928, the Columbian army killed ~80 striking workers in Cienaga, Columbia, after the US threatened to invade with [U.S. Marine Corps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Marine_Corps) troops if the Colombian government did not act to protect the [United Fruit Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Fruit_Company)'s interests, in the [Banana Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_massacre). The banana plantation workers were demanding written contracts, eight-hour work days, six-day work weeks and the elimination of food coupons. The troops set up their machine guns on the roofs of the low buildings at the corners of the main square, closed off the access streets, and after a five-minute warning opened fire into a dense Sunday crowd of workers and their wives and children who had gathered, after Sunday Mass, to wait for an anticipated address from the governor. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banana_massacre)</sup>
 - From 1916-24, the [US occupied the Dominican Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_the_Dominican_Republic_(1916%E2%80%9324)), with repeated actions in 1903, 1904, and 1914. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_the_Dominican_Republic_(1916%E2%80%9324))</sup>
 - From 1915–34, [Haiti was occupied by the US](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Haiti), which led to the creation of a new Haitian constitution in 1917 that instituted changes that included an end to the prior ban on land ownership by non-Haitians. Including the First and Second [Caco Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caco_Wars).[[13\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change#cite_note-13) At least 15,000 Haitians were killed. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_occupation_of_Haiti)</sup>
 - In 1914, the US military invaded Veracruz, Mexico, after US sailors were arrested by the Mexican government for entering off-limits areas, in the [Tampico Affair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampico_Affair). Over 200 were killed in the invasion.
@@ -176,8 +177,10 @@
 
 ### Europe
 
+- From March to June of 1999, After Serbs refused to acquiesce in the break-up of their republic, the US and NATO began [bombing Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia) killing ~500 civilians, leaving thousands homeless, destroying bridges, industrial plants, public buildings, private businesses, as well as barracks and military installations. <sup>[1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia)</sup>
+- In 1995, the US conducted a campaign of airstrikes called [Operation Deliberate Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force), as part of an intervention in the [Bosnian civil war](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_War). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deliberate_Force)</sup>
+- Throughout the 1980-90s, the US, with the aid of the IMF and NATO, [actively destabilized and aided](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/) in the [breakup of Yugoslavia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia), with the goal of weakening and destroying the last surviving socialist bloc in Europe. These include stirring up ethnic tensions between the member countries, economic warfare, and military intervention. The Reagan administration in a 1982 secret memo, advocated "expanded efforts to promote a 'quiet revolution' to overthrow Communist governments and parties," while reintegrating the countries of Eastern Europe into a market-oriented economy. In 1991, Yugoslav Army chief [Veljko Kadijević](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veljko_Kadijevi%C4%87) stated: "An insidious plan has been drawn up to destroy Yugoslavia. Stage one is civil war. Stage two is foreign intervention. Then puppet regimes will be set up throughout Yugoslavia." <sup>[1](https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/18/breaking-yugoslavia-how-the-us-used-nato-as-its-battering-ram/), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakup_of_Yugoslavia)</sup>
 - In 1967 in Greece, the CIA installed [Georgios Papadopoulos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos), a CIA agent and former nazi collaborator, as the military ruler of Greece. He's seen today as an relic of authoritarianism , xenophobia, and anti-communism. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgios_Papadopoulos)</sup>
-
 - In 1956, [Radio Free Europe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty)(a CIA funded propaganda outlet) broadcasts Khruschev’s Secret Speech, which played a role in the [Hungarian revolution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956), and also hinted that American aid will help the Hungarians fight. The US fails to provide any military aid to Hungary in their ensuing conflict with the Soviet Union. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Revolution_of_1956)</sup>
 
 
@@ -374,23 +377,29 @@
 - In 1985-86, Hormel workers [went on strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormel#1985_strike) in Austin Minnesota, due to a  cutwage from \$10.69 to \$6.50 and significantly reduced benefits. After six months, a significant number of strikebreakers crossed the picket line, provoking riots in Austin. On January 21, 1986, the [Governor of Minnesota](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Minnesota), [Rudy Perpich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Perpich), called in the [National Guard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_National_Guard) to protect the strikebreakers. The strike ended in June 1986, after lasting 10 months. Over 700 of the workers did not return to their jobs, refusing to cross the picket line. In solidarity with those workers, the boycott of Hormel products continued for some time. Ultimately, however, the company did succeed in hiring new workers at significantly lower wages. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hormel#1985_strike)</sup>
 - In 1983, a mostly latino workforce lead the 3-year long [Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_copper_mine_strike_of_1983), in which the police, national guard, and Arizona governor assisted in one of the largest strikebreaking incidents of the 1980s, ending with the [Phelps Dodge Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phelps_Dodge_Corporation) replacing most of the workers and decertifying the unions. Miners were subject to [undercover surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance) by the Arizona Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency, to identify strikers engaged in violence, with the governor sending 325 National Guard soldiers to Morenci, and increasing the number of state policemen there to 425. Meanwhile, the local government passed [injunctions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction) limiting both picketing and demonstrations at the mine. The Arizona copper mine strike would later become a symbol of defeat for American unions. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_copper_mine_strike_of_1983)</sup>
 - In 1981, the union [PATCO(Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968)), went on strike for better working conditions, pay, and a shorter work week. The union was [decertified](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decertification), declared illegal, and the strike broken by the [Reagan Administration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_Ronald_Reagan). It is considered one of the last death throes of the US labor movement. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Air_Traffic_Controllers_Organization_(1968))</sup>
+- In May, 1970, the Ohio national guard shot and killed 4 college students, and wounded 9 others in the [Kent State Shootings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings). Some of the students who were shot had been protesting the [Cambodian Bombing Campaign](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambodian_Campaign), which President [Richard Nixon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon) announced during a television address on April 30. Other students who were shot had been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance. There was a significant national response to the shootings: hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools closed throughout the US due to a [student strike of 4 million students](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_strike_of_1970), and the event further affected public opinion, at an already socially contentious time, over the [role of the United States in the Vietnam War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Role_of_the_United_States_in_the_Vietnam_War). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_shootings)</sup>
 - From 1947-56, beginning with a 1947 Truman Executive order that required all federal civil services employees to be screen for "loyalty", a second [Red Scare](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare) took place with senator [Joseph McCarthy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy) at its head, accusing large numbers of people of being communist infiltrators and homosexuals, resulting in hundreds of imprisonments and some 10,000-12,000 people accused losing their jobs. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and [union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union) activists, who McCarthy publicly targeted through the anti-communist [House of Un-American Activies Committee(HUAC)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee) hearings or public statements. The number imprisoned is in the hundreds, and some ten or twelve thousand lost their jobs.[[54\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#cite_note-54) In many cases simply being subpoenaed by HUAC or one of the other committees was sufficient cause to be fired.[[55\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#cite_note-55) In the context of the Cold War, McCarthy framed homosexuality as a dangerous, contagious social disease that posed a potential threat to state security.[[59\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#cite_note-Patrizia_Gentile_2010._pg_65-59) <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism#Victims_of_McCarthy)</sup>
 - In 1947, the [Taft-Hartley Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Management_Relations_Act_of_1947) remains an anti-worker law intended to dismantle and break up labor unions(around 1/4 workers were in unions at that time). It was passed by capitalists as a response to [the post-WW2 strike wave of 1945-46](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_wave_of_1945%E2%80%9346), as more than 5 million workers went on strike during the labor upsurge of returning soldiers. The Taft–Hartley Act prohibited [jurisdictional strikes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jurisdictional_strike), [wildcat strikes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat_strike_action), solidarity or political strikes, [secondary boycotts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_action), secondary and mass [picketing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picketing_%28protest%29), [closed shops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_shop), and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. It also required union officers to sign non-communist affidavits with the government. [Union shops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_shop) were heavily restricted, and states were allowed to pass [right-to-work laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law) that ban agency fees. Furthermore, the executive branch of the federal government could obtain legal strikebreaking [injunctions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injunction) if an impending or current strike imperiled the national health or safety. The amendments required unions and employers to give 80 days' notice to each other and to certain state and federal mediation bodies before they may undertake [strikes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_action) or other forms of economic action in pursuit of a new [collective bargaining agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_bargaining_agreement). Anyone opposed to the act was labeled a communist, in the rising red scare initiated by McCarthy. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_Management_Relations_Act_of_1947)</sup>
 - In 1934, in the midst of the worsening conditions of the great depression, 400,000 [textile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile) workers from [New England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England), the [Mid-Atlantic states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Atlantic_states) and the [U.S. Southern states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Southern_states), [went on strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_(1934)#The_authorities_respond) for 22 days. Deputies and armed strikebreakers in South Carolina fired on pickets, killing seven, wounding twenty others. State authorities aided by the national guard suppressed the strikes, killing and arresting dozens of picketers and strikers across the nation. Governor [Blackwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibra_Charles_Blackwood) of [South Carolina](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina) called out the National Guard with orders to shoot to kill any picketers who tried to enter the mills. Other governors soon followed suit. Nate Shaw, a black alabama sharecropper on strike, was shot and arrested in late 1932, and served twelve years in an Alabama prison.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_workers_strike_(1934)#The_authorities_respond)</sup>
 - In 1934, sailors in San Francisco began a general strike known as the [1934 West Coast Waterfront Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_Coast_waterfront_strike). Police attempted to break up the strike by shooting tear gas into the crowd, and charging the protesters on horseback. Police then fired shotguns and revolvers into the crowd, killing 6 workers, in an event known as "Bloody Thursday". A state of emergency was declared, and the governor sent in the california national guard and federal army soldiers with machine gun mounted trucks to assist vigilante strike-breakers. Over 150 workers were arrested. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1934_West_Coast_waterfront_strike)</sup>
-- In 1932, A [Bonus Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army) consisting of 43,000 poor WWI veterans and their supporters gathered in [Washington, D.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.) in to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. Four troops of cavalry, four companies of infantry, a machine gun squadron, and six tanks assembled near the White House. General Douglas MacArthur was in charge of the operation, Major Dwight Eisenhower his aide. George S. Patton was one of the officers. MacArthur led his troops down Pennsylvania Avenue, used tear gas to clear veterans out of the old buildings, and set the buildings on fire. Then the army moved across the bridge to Anacostia. Thousands of veterans,wives, children, began to run as the tear gas spread. The soldiers set fire to some of the huts, andsoon the whole encampment was ablaze. When it was all over, two veterans had been shot to death,an eleven-week-old baby had died, an eight-year-old boy was partially blinded by gas, two police had fractured skulls, and a thousand veterans were injured by gas. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army#Police_shooting)</sup>
+- In 1932, A [Bonus Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army) consisting of 43,000 poor WWI veterans and their supporters gathered in [Washington, D.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,_D.C.) in to demand cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. Four troops of cavalry, four companies of infantry, a machine gun squadron, and six tanks assembled near the White House. General Douglas MacArthur was in charge of the operation, Major Dwight Eisenhower his aide. George S. Patton was one of the officers. MacArthur led his troops down Pennsylvania Avenue, used tear gas to clear veterans out of the old buildings, and set the buildings on fire. Then the army moved across the bridge to Anacostia. Thousands of veterans,wives, children, began to run as the tear gas spread. The soldiers set fire to some of the huts, and soon the whole encampment was ablaze. When it was all over, two veterans had been shot to death,an eleven-week-old baby had died, an eight-year-old boy was partially blinded by gas, two police had fractured skulls, and a thousand veterans were injured by gas. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army#Police_shooting)</sup>
+- In the 1930s, the [Harlan County War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War), was a series of coal mining-related skirmishes, executions, bombings, and strikes that took place in [Harlan County, Kentucky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County,_Kentucky). The incidents involved coal miners and union organizers on one side, organizing their workplaces and fighting for better wages and working conditions,  and coal firms and law enforcement officials on the other. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_County_War)</sup>
 - The [Wall Street Crash of 1929](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929), caused by a capitalist speculative bubble throughout 1920s, hit working families the hardest, and along with the Dust Bowl, resulted in the [Great Depression](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression), which had devastating social and economic effects on working people everywhere. Unemployment skyrocketed to 25%, poverty and hunger increased, and many families were displaced and forced to leave their homes in search of work elsewhere. The worsening material conditions gave rise to a large movement of industrial unionism(mainly the AFL-CIO), and many large strikes in which workers fought to regain their livelihood. This growing revolutionary movement scared american capitalists into making concessions, and was only pacified by the promises of FDR's social-democratic [New Deal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Deal), which had the effect of preserving American Capitalism, and dismantling the growing labor movement. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Street_Crash_of_1929)</sup>
 - In 1922, the [Great Railroad Strike of 1922](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1922) was a 400,000 person-strong nationwide strike of railroad workers, with police and armed company guards killing 10 workers or their family members. Troops bolstered armed company guards in their work protecting railroad property and aiding in the defense and transportation of strikebreakers, thereby working to undermine the strike effort.[[12\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1922#cite_note-Power89-12) <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1922#Conflict_and_violence)</sup>
 - In 1921, The [Battle of Blair Mountain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain) was the largest labor uprising in [US history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_history) and one of the largest, best-organized, and most well-armed uprisings since the [American Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War), resulting in the US army killing 50-100 strikers, and arresting ~1000 more. In [Logan County](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_County,_West_Virginia), [West Virginia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia), some 10,000 armed [coal miners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_miner) confronted 3,000 lawmen and [strikebreakers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strikebreakers), called the Logan Defenders,[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-FOOTNOTEPatel2012-2) who were backed by coal mine operators during an attempt by the miners to [unionize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union) the southwestern West Virginia coalfields. The battle ended after approximately one million rounds were fired,[[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain#cite_note-3) and the [United States Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army) intervened by presidential order. 
+- In 1920, the [Battle of Matewan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan) was a shootout between coal miners and the [Baldwin-Felts detective agency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin%E2%80%93Felts_Detective_Agency), after they attempted to evict striking miners from company houses. Shooting of undetermined origins resulted in the deaths of two coal miners, seven agents, and the mayor, with [Sheriff Sid Hatfield siding with the miners to defend them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield). Afterward, when the charges against Hatfield and 22 others for the murder of Albert Felts were dismissed, Baldwin-Felts detectives assassinated Hatfield and his deputy Ed Chambers on August 1, 1921, on the steps of the [McDowell County courthouse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County_Courthouse_%28West_Virginia%29) in [Welch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welch,_West_Virginia), West Virginia. None of the Baldwin-Felts detectives was ever convicted of Hatfield's assassination: they claimed they had acted "in self-defense". <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan)</sup>
 - In 1919, An [IWW general strike took place in Seattle, Washington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike), in which dissatisfied workers in several [unions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union) began a strike to gain higher wages after two years of [World War I](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I) wage controls. The strike was put down by the City's mayor, who called in federal troops and nearby police. 39 labor leaders labeled as 'Bolsheviki' were arrested, with Seattle's mayor [Ole Hanson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Hanson) taking credit for ending the strike. He resigned a few months later and toured the country giving lectures on the dangers of "domestic bolshevism", earning $38,000 in seven months, five times his annual salary as mayor. After WWI, the IWW was largely dismantled. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_General_Strike)</sup>
 - In 1919, A [massacre in Centralia Washington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_massacre_(Washington)) occurred when the city-supported american legion attacked IWW labor organizers, killing 6 people. Frank Everett, one of the wobbly organizers, escaped, was dragged back to town behind an automobile, suspended him from a telegraph pole, then locked him in jail. That night, his jailhouse door was broken down, he was dragged out,put on the floor of a car, his genitals were cut off, and then he was taken to a bridge, lynched, and his body riddled with bullets. Seven wobblies were imprisoned and sentenced to 25-40 years by city officials. The primary reason for this was that the growing anti-war labor movement was seen as a threat to capitalists in Centralia. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia_massacre_(Washington))</sup>
 - In 1914, Woodrow Wilson instituted the first modern draft(fighting without pay), since only 73,000 people volunteered(indicating low support for the war), and plunged american workers into [WWI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I), widely regarded as an [imperialist war](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnwarhea14.html) between European capitalist powers over boundaries, colonies, and spheres of influence in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, in which millions were killed and wounded. Around 900 anti-war socialists such as [Eugene Debs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs) were arrested and imprisoned under the [Espionage Act](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espionage_Act) for "obstructing the recruiting or enlistment service."<sup>[1](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinnwarhea14.html)</sup>
 - In 1914, The [Ludlow Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre) was an attack by the [Colorado National Guard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_National_Guard) and [Colorado Fuel & Iron Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Fuel_%26_Iron_Company) camp guards on a tent colony of 1,200 striking [coal miners](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_miner) and their families at [Ludlow, Colorado](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow,_Colorado), fighting for an 8-hour work day, better pay, and union recognition, as part of the larger [Colorado Coalfield War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Coalfield_War). The national and camp guards killed 19-26 people, including two women and eleven children. To finish clearing out the camp, the Guard moved down from the hills with torches, set fire to the tents, and the families fled into the hills. In retaliation for Ludlow, the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines over the next ten days, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard along a 40-mile front from [Trinidad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad,_Colorado) to [Walsenburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walsenburg,_Colorado).[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre#cite_note-2) The entire strike would cost between 69 and 199 lives. Congress responded to public outcry by directing the [House Committee on Mines and Mining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Committee_on_Mines_and_Mining) to investigate the incident.[[5\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre#cite_note-5) Its report, published in 1915, was influential in promoting [child labor laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_laws_in_the_United_States) and an eight-hour work day. Historian [Howard Zinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn) described the Ludlow Massacre as "the culminating act of perhaps the most violent struggle between corporate power and laboring men in American history". <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre)</sup>
+- In 1912, the [Paint Creek Mine War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Creek%E2%80%93Cabin_Creek_strike_of_1912) was a violent series of confrontations between striking coal miners in West Virginia, and police. The confrontation directly caused perhaps fifty violent deaths, as well as many more deaths indirectly caused by [starvation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starvation) and [malnutrition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malnutrition) among the striking miners. In the number of casualties it counts among the worst conflicts in American labor union history. The strike was a prelude to subsequent labor-related West Virginia conflicts in the following years, the [Battle of Matewan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Matewan) and the [Battle of Blair Mountain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint_Creek%E2%80%93Cabin_Creek_strike_of_1912)</sup> 
 - In 1912, immigrant workers began a [Textile Strike in Lawrence Massachusetts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike), lead by the IWW, prompted by a two-hour pay-cut. The strike united workers from more than 40 different [nationalities](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationality).[[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike#cite_note-weir-2) Carried on throughout a brutally cold winter, the strike lasted more than two months, defying the assumptions of conservative [trade unions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union) within the [American Federation of Labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Federation_of_Labor) (AFL) that immigrant, largely female and ethnically divided workers could not be organized. Lawrence police killed 2 people, beat a pregnant woman to miscarriage, and arrested >250. Congressional hearings followed, resulting in exposure of shocking conditions in the Lawrence mills and calls for investigation of the "wool trust." Mill owners soon decided to settle the strike, giving  workers in Lawrence and throughout New England raises of up to 20 percent. Within a year, however, the IWW had largely collapsed in Lawrence.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike)</sup>
 - In the year 1904, 27,000 workers were killed on the job due to industrial accidents from poor working conditions, in manufacturing, transport, and agriculture. In one year, 50,000 accidents took place in New York factories alone. Hat and cap makers were getting respiratory diseases, quarrymen were inhaling deadly chemicals, lithographic printers were getting arsenic poisoning. According to a report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, in 1914, 35,000 workers were killed in industrial accidents and 700,000 injured.<sup>[1](http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/socchal13.html)</sup>
 - The [Coal Strike of 1902](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902) was a strike by 150,000 miners of the [United Mine Workers of America](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Mine_Workers_of_America) in the [anthracite coalfields](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthracite_coal) of eastern [Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania). Miners struck for higher wages, shorter workdays and the [recognition of their union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recognition_strike). Although it was resolved with a modest pay increase(but a refusal to recognize the UMWA union), police killed several strikers. An immigrant striker named Anthony Giuseppe was found fatally shot near a Lehigh Valley Coal Company colliery in [Old Forge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Forge,_Lackawanna_County,_Pennsylvania); it was thought the [Coal and Iron Police](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_and_Iron_Police) guarding the site shot blindly through a fence.[[18\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902#cite_note-18) Contemporary reporting describes three other deaths and widespread shooting injuries among strikers and Shenandoah police. [[20\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902#cite_note-20) On October 9, a striker named William Durham was shot and killed in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, near Shenandoah. He’d been loitering near the half-dynamited house of a non-union worker and disobeyed an order to halt.[[21\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902#cite_note-21) <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_strike_of_1902#Aftermath_of_the_strike)</sup>
 - In 1894, the [Pullman Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike) was one of the bloodiest battles between police and workers in US history. The conflict began in [Pullman, Chicago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman,_Chicago), when nearly 4,000 factory employees of the Pullman Company began a [wildcat strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcat_strike) in response to recent reductions in wages, despite not reducing the rents or cost of goods in the company town. Debs and the [ARU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Railway_Union) called a massive [boycott](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boycott) against all trains that carried a Pullman car. It affected most rail lines west of [Detroit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit) and at its peak involved some 250,000 workers in 27 states.Thirty people were killed by the police. The federal government obtained an injunction against the union, Debs, and other boycott leaders, ordering them to stop interfering with trains that carried mail cars. After the strikers refused, President [Grover Cleveland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland) ordered in the Army to stop the strikers from obstructing the trains. Violence broke out in many cities, and the strike collapsed. Defended by a team including [Clarence Darrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow), Debs was convicted of violating a court order and sentenced to prison; the ARU then dissolved.<sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike)</sup>
+- During the late 19th century, the [Pinkertons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency)) were a private security firm hired by the wealthy to [infiltrate unions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_spy), supply guards, keep [strikers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_action) and suspected [unionists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union) out of factories, and recruit [goon squads](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goon_squad) to intimidate workers. The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes in [Illinois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois), [Michigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan), [New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_%28state%29), [Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania), and [West Virginia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia) as well as the [Great Railroad Strike of 1877](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877) and the [Battle of Blair Mountain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain) in 1921. After bad publicity, and the rise of organized labor by the 1930s, police forces and the national guard were required to suppress the labor movement. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_(detective_agency))</sup>
 - In 1892, the [Homestead Strike](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike) was an industrial lockout and strike between Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania steel workers, and the Carnegie steel company, who hired armed [Pinkertons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinkerton_National_Detective_Agency) to act as strike-breakers. It culminated in a battle between strikers and private security agents on July 6, 1892.[[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike#cite_note-3) The battle was one of the most serious disputes in [U.S. labor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_history_of_the_United_States), third behind the [Ludlow Massacre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre) and the [Battle of Blair Mountain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain). After the thousands of rioters forced the encircled pinkertons to surrender, the US sent in national guard troops to suppress the strike, killing ~9 and arresting hundreds. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Strike)</sup>
+- The [Coal Wars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars) were a series of [armed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armed_conflict) [labor conflicts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_dispute) in the US between striking workers, and the police and paid private security firms, between 1890 and 1930. Although they occurred mainly in the [East](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_United_States), particularly in [Appalachia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia), there was a significant amount of violence in [Colorado](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado) after the turn of the century. Coal capitalists paid private detectives as well as public law enforcement agents to ensure that union organizers were kept out of the region, using intimidation, harassment, espionage, and murder. Mining families lived under the terror of [Baldwin-Felts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin-Felts_Detective_Agency) detective agents who were professional strikebreakers under the hire of coal operators. During that dispute, agents drove a heavily armored train through a tent colony at night, opening fire on women, men, and children with a machine gun. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_Wars)</sup>
 - In 1886, Chicago police killed several workers, and arrested many more striking in support of an 8-hour work day. The next day, they then attempted to break up the strike, upon which an unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police, killing several, in the [Haymarket Affair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair). Four anarchists were tried and hanged without evidence, and their executions aroused a funeral march of 25,000 in Chicago. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair)</sup>
 - The [Great Railroad strike of 1877](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877#Reading) was a nationwide strike in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, and Missouri, after the [Baltimore & Ohio Railroad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_%26_Ohio_Railroad) (B&O) cut wages for the third time in a year. The strike finally ended some 45 days later after it was put down by local and state militias, and federal troops, who murdered around ~100 workers or family members, and arrested ~1000 people. A newspaper recounting the situation in Chicago reports: "The sound of clubs falling on skulls was sickening for the first minute, until one grew accustomed to it. A rioter dropped at every whack, it seemed, for the ground was covered with them." The railroads made some concessions, withdrew some wage cuts, but also strengthened their "Coal and Iron Police." <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Railroad_Strike_of_1877#Reading)</sup>
 - In 1874, Police charged and broke up a labor demonstration of unemployed workers in [Tompkins Square](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompkins_Square_riot_(1874)), New York. One newspaper reported: Police clubs rose and fell. Women and children ran screaming in all directions. Many of them were trampled underfoot in the stampede for the gates. In the street bystanders were ridden down and mercilessly clubbed by mounted officers. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tompkins_Square_riot_(1874))</sup>
@@ -406,6 +415,7 @@
 
 ### Prisoners
 
+- The US **currently** operates a system of slave labor camps, including at least [54 prison farms involved in agricultural slave labor.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29) Outside of agricultural slavery, [Federal Prison Industries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries) operates a multi-billion dollar industry with around ~ 52 prison factories, where prisoners produce furniture, clothing, circuit boards, products for the military, computer aided design services, call center support for private companies. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_farm#In_the_United_States_.28partial_list.29), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries), [3](https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/20/mass-incarceration-prison-labor-in-the-united-states/)</sup>
 - Ramping up since the 1980s, the term [prison–industrial complex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex) is used to attribute the [rapid expansion of the US inmate population](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate#Growth) to the political influence of [private prison](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_prison) companies and businesses that supply goods and services to government prison agencies. Such groups include corporations that contract [prison labor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_labor), construction companies, [surveillance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillance) technology vendors, companies that operate prison food services and medical facilities, [private probation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_probation) companies, lawyers, and [lobby groups](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobby_groups) that represent them. Activist groups such as the [National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Organization_for_the_Reform_of_Marijuana_Laws) (NORML) have argued that the prison-industrial complex is perpetuating a flawed belief that imprisonment is an effective solution to social problems such as [homelessness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness), [unemployment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment), [drug addiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_addiction), [mental illness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_illness), and [illiteracy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illiteracy). <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_complex)</sup>
 - The [War On Drugs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs), a policy of arrest and imprisonment targeting minorities, first initiated by Nixon, has over the years created a monstrous system of mass incarceration, resulting in the imprisonment of 1.5 million people each year, with the US having the most prisoners per capita of any nation. One in five black Americans will spend time behind bars due to drug laws. The war has created a permanent underclass of impoverished people who have few educational or job opportunities as a result of being punished for drug offenses, in a vicious cycle of oppression. <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs#cite_note-59), [2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_on_Drugs)</sup>
 - Over 90% of criminal trials in the US are settled not by a judge or jury, but with [plea bargaining](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain), a system where the defendant agrees to plead guilty in return for a concession from the prosecutor. It has been statistically shown to benefit prosecutors, who "throw the book" at defendants by presenting a slew of charges, manipulating their fear, who in turn accept a lesser charge, regardless of their innocence, in order to avoid a worst outcome. The number of potentially innocent prisoners coerced into accepting a guilty plea is impossible to calculate. Plea bargaining can present a dilemma to [defense attorneys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_attorney), in that they must choose between vigorously seeking a good deal for their present client, or maintaining a good relationship with the prosecutor for the sake of helping future clients. Plea bargaining is forbidden in most European countries. John Langbein has equated plea bargaining to medieval torture: "There is, of course, a difference between having your limbs crushed if you refuse to confess, or suffering some extra years of imprisonment if you refuse to confess, but the difference is of degree, not kind. Plea bargaining, like torture, is coercive. Like the medieval Europeans, the Americans are now operating a procedural system that engages in condemnation without adjudication."  <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plea_bargain#Controversy)></sup>
@@ -473,3 +483,4 @@
 - [x] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change
 
 
+/

us_hate_crimes.md

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 ## White supremacy
 
 - According to hate crimes researcher Brian Levin, hate crimes in nine US metropolitan areas [have risen by 20%](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-hate-crimes-20-percent-2016-fueled-election-campaign-n733306) in the year following Trump's election. <sup>[1](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-hate-crimes-20-percent-2016-fueled-election-campaign-n733306)
+- On August 14th, 2017, at the [Unite the Right rally](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally) in Charlottesville VA, 20-year old Neo-nazi James Alex Fields Jr., [drove his car toward a crowd of antifascist counterprotestors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally#Vehicular_attack_and_homicide), wounding 19, and killing Heather Heyer, a paralegal from Charlottesville. Heyer's mother said she wanted Heather's name to become "a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion." <sup>[1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally#Vehicular_attack_and_homicide)</sup>
 - On May 30th, 2017, [Anthony Robert Hammond attacked a black person](http://www.newsweek.com/anthony-hammond-hate-crime-us-clearlake-617485) with a machete causing serious injuries, while shouting racial slurs, in Clearlake CA. <sup>[1](http://www.newsweek.com/anthony-hammond-hate-crime-us-clearlake-617485)</sup>
 - On May 29th, 2017, Jimmy Kramer, a 20 year old Native American, [was run over during his birthday party](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/young-father-run-down-killed-in-grays-harbor-county-campground-confrontation/) in Washington state by a man and woman in a large pickup truck who first circled the party yelling racial slurs and taunts at the group from inside the truck. Kramer died and his friend was hospitalized. <sup>[1](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/young-father-run-down-killed-in-grays-harbor-county-campground-confrontation/)</sup>
 - On May 28th, 2017, White supremacist [Jeremy Joseph Christian stabbed and killed two men](http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/30/us/portland-train-teenager-stabbing-arraignment/) who defended a 16-year-old and her Muslim friend on a train in Portland OR. As he was brought into court, Christian yelled, ""Get out if you don't like free speech," and, "You call it terrorism, I call it patriotism. You hear me? Die." 16 year old Destinee Mangum told reporters, "He told us to go back to Saudi Arabia and he told us we shouldn't be here, to get out of his country," Mangum told KPTV. "He was just telling us that we basically weren't anything and that we should just kill ourselves." Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, of Portland, and Ricky John Best, 53, of Happy Valley, died defending them the two high-schoolers.<sup>[1](http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/30/us/portland-train-teenager-stabbing-arraignment/)</sup>