Tag Archives for radical

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – JOHN WYCLIFFE


DECEMBER 31  —JOHN WYCLIFFE
Leader of the dangerous Lollards, 13th century English spiritual revolutionaries.

DECEMBER 31, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
NEW YEAR’S EVE. ANNUAL WORLD PEACE MEDITATION. In Germany, prowling demons & spirits of darkness must be routed this night by mummery & lots of noise. People used to dress in straw clothing with deerskin masks of animals & run through the streets, clanging bells & dragging chains.

Mobile, Alabama: COWBELLION HERD ESCAPADE & REVEL honors Michael Krafft, who founded mystic society, “Cowbellion de Rakin” in 1830 first of all the mystic societies and krewes which stage the Mardi Gras extravaganzas in Mobile and New Orleans.

JAPAN: NAMAHAGE. Men dressed as devils go door-to-door screaming “Any good-for-nothings here about?”

ALSO ON DECEMBER 31 IN HISTORY…
1320 —British religious radical reformer John Wycliffe born, Yorkshire, England.
1384 — Religious radical reformer John Wycliffe Dies, Lutterworth, Leicestershire.
1877 — French radical painter Gustave Courbet dies, Vevey, France.
1996 — Mayan shaman Lacandonista Chan k’in Viejo dies, Chiapas, Mexico.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – OSSIE DAVIS


DECEMBER 18 — OSSIE DAVIS
American actor, civil rights activist, political radical.

Broadway production of Davis’ 1961 play, Purlie Victorious.

DECEMBER 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
HIJRA, Islamic New Year. Oaxaca, Mexico: FIESTA OF THE VIRGIN OF THE LONELY. Apache dancers, amusement park rides, gambling, plenty of fireworks.

ALSO ON DECEMBER 18 IN HISTORY…
1830 — Trial of Swing Rioters, peasants & workers who fought for minimum wage.
1865 — Chattel slavery abolished in U.S. (Wage slavery continues to thrive.)
1879 — Artist Paul Klee born, Bern, Switzerland.
1917 — Black American actor, civil rights activist Ossie Davis born, Cogdell, Georgia.
1946 — South African black-rights activist Steve Biko born, King Williamstown.
1969 — Great Britain abolishes capital punishment.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – MARTY GLABERMAN


DECEMBER 17 — MARTY GLABERMAN
American radical political theorist, proto-autonomist.

DECEMBER 17, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Ancient Roman SATURNALIA (December 17– 23): “Unrestrained and intemperate jollity.”  Relaxation of social rules, no business transacted, courts closed, wars suspended, feuds forgotten,slaves take place of masters. LORD OF MISRULE selected.


Above: “Saturnalia” by Antoine-François Callet

ALSO ON DECEMBER 17 IN HISTORY…
1790 — The great Aztec stone calendar discovered, Mexico.
1830 — Latin American liberationist Simón Bolívar dies, Santa Maria, Colombia.
1936 — Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy make first appearance.
1944 — Abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky dies, Paris, France.
2001 — U.S. radical political theorist Martin Glaberman dies, Detroit, Michigan.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective. The 2010 Autonomedia Calender is now available on the Autonomedia site.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – MAN RAY


NOVEMBER 18 — MAN RAY
Surrealist photographer, radical social critic.

NOVEMBER 18, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
NED LUDD MEMORIAL MACHINE-SMASHING FESTIVAL.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 18 IN HISTORY…
1789 — Photography pioneer Louis Daguerre born, Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France.
1820 — Nathaniel Palmer discovers Antarctica.
1928 —Mickey Mouse born, Walt Disney Studios, Los Angeles, California.
1952 — French writer Paul Eluard dies, Paris, France.
1975 — Eldridge Cleaver, seven years in exile, returns to U.S. to face charges.
1976 — Surrealist photographer Man Ray dies, Paris, France.
1978 — Jonestown, Guyana: 913 party-goers; Kool-Aid shots main attraction.
1983 — Magic realist painter Ivan Albright dies, Woodstock, Vermont.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective.

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – LEO HUBERMAN


NOVEMBER 9 — LEO HUBERMAN
Co-founder of radical U.S. Marxist journal Monthly Review.

NOVEMBER 9, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
CHAOS NEVER DIED DAY. FESTIVAL OF CYBERGNOSTICISM.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 9 IN HISTORY…
1731 — American polymath Benjamin Bannekar born, Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland.
1802 — American abolitionist journalist Elijah P. Lovejoy born, Albion, Maine.
1918 — Berlin workers march on Reichstag during revolution.
1953 — Welsh poet Dylan Thomas dies, New York City.
1968 — Monthly Review co-founder Leo Huberman dies.
1979 — U.S. Air Defense Command computers report that Russia is attacking.
1989 — Berlin Wall comes down, signaling end of half-century-long Cold War.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – GEORGE MACIUNAS


NOVEMBER 8 — GEORGE MACIUNAS
Lithuanian-born founder of “Fluxus” radical arts group.

NOVEMBER 8, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
DUNCE DAY. Tunisia: TREE FESTIVAL.

ALSO ON NOVEMBER 8 IN HISTORY…
1674 — “Paradise Lost” poet John Milton dies.
1801 — Robert Dale Owen born, Glasgow, Scotland.
1895 — X-Rays discovered.
1897 — Catholic Worker Dorothy Day born, Brooklyn, New York.
1929 — Museum of Modern Art opens in New York City.
1931 — “Fluxus” founder George Maciunas born, Kaunas, Lithuania.
1898 — Surrealist painter René Magritte born, Lessines, Hainaut, Belgium.
1974 — U.S. Freedom of Information Act passed.

Excerpted from The 2009 Autonomedia Calendar of Jubilee Saints: Radical Heroes for the New Millennium by James Koehnline and the Autonomedia Collective

Today's Autonomedia Jubilee Saint – MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI


SEPTEMBER 29 — MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
Prominent Italian modernist filmmaker, political radical.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAcePPSsFP0
Above: Short segment of Antonioni’s film Zabriskie Point (1970).

SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS
Royal Courts of Justice, London: PAYMENT OF QUIT-RENT, an ancient,
solemn, annual ceremony in which the city pays the crown six horse-
shoes, 61 nails, a bill-hook and a hatchet. Germany: MICHAELMAS,
the English Feast of Goose, in which the weather is forecast
by the breastbone of a goose.
Mexico: FESTIVAL OF TEZCATZONCATL, Chief God of Intoxication.

ALSO ON SEPTEMBER 29 IN HISTORY…
1547 — Don Quixote author Miguel de Cervantes born, Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
1902 — French experimental writer Emile Zola dies, Paris, France.
1912 — Influential Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni born, Ferrara, Italy.