day in Labor History October 23

Today in Labor History October 23, 1874: Otto Rühle (1874-1943) was born on this day in Freiberg. Ruhle was a left council communist of the Spartacist League. Along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring, Ruhle helped found the magazine Internationale. Ruhle opposed both world wars, Leninism, fascism, and Bolshevism. Early in his life, Rühle trained and worked a school teacher. He created a socialist Sunday school and criticized traditional school in “Work and Education” (1904), “The Enlightenment of Children About Sexual Matters,” (1907), and “The Proletarian Child” (1911). In 1912, the people elected him to the Reichstag as a Social Democrat.

Otto Ruhle was also a leader of the Council Communist movement, along with Anton Pannekoek. They opposed the state communism of the Soviet Union. They advocated for Workers Councils and Council Democracy. Lenin attacked them in his pamphlet, “Left-wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder.” 

Today in Labor History October 23, 1903: The authorities arrested and deparoted John Turner in the first test of the Anarchist Exclusion Act. Turner edited the “Voice of Labor,” which advocated for direct action and the General Strike. The authorities arrested and expelled him after they searched his apartment and found writings by Johann Most and a memorial to the Haymarket martyrs t.

Today in Labor History October 23, 1956: Pro-Polish demonstrations in Budapest signaled the start of the Hungarian uprising which was part of anti-Stalinist wave throughout Eastern Europe. 250,000 students, workers and soldiers demonstrated in Budapest in support of the Polish insurrection and demanding reforms in Hungary. Security police fired into the crowd, killing several.

Today in Labor History October 23, 1958: Canada’s Springhill mining disaster killed seventy-five miners. Miners rescued ninety-nine of their colleagues. An explosion at the same mine, in 1891, killed 125 miners, including several children. Another explosion in 1956 killed 39 miners. Canada chose surviving miner Maurice Ruddick as their “Citizen of the Year” after the 1958 explosion. Georgia Governor, Marvin Griffin, tried to exploit the disaster and the heroes who helped in the rescue by inviting the surviving miners to a free vacation on Jekyll Island. However, when he learned that Ruddick was black, he told him he’d have to be segregated.