The Explorers' Club, № DCCCXXIX

Operation AXIOM: Between the Wars—Sacco & Vanzetti, Part II
14 July 1921: Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti were convicted of mudering Parmenter & Berardelli during the April 1920 robbery; Vanzetti had been arrested in possession of Berardelli's revolver & told widely varying lies to explain it away; Sacco was caught in several lies; both gave rambling anarchist diatribes when testifying on the stand; their case did not become a cause célèbre until after the trial.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCLXXII

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part XIV
16 September 1920: The Wall Street Bombing—Forty persons were killed & hundreds wounded—one hundred forty-three seriously—when a horse-drawn wagon exploded during a busy lunch time; the bomb contained an estimated one hundred pounds of dynamite & five hundred pounds of cast-iron, to produce shrapnel; the "American Anarchist Fighters" claimed credit in flyers found near the carnage.

Lest we forget.

The Wayback Machine Tour of the Red Scare
№ DCLXXII: The Seattle General Strike (Part I)
№ DCLXXV: The Overman Committee (Part II)
№ DCLXXXI: The Lusk Committee (Part III)
№ DCLXXXV: The Anarchist Mail-Bombing Campaign (Part IV)
№ DCLXXXVI: The Cleveland May Day Riots (Part V)
№ DCXCI: The Anarchist Bombing Campaign (Part VI)
№ DCXCIV: "Bloody Saturday" in the Winnipeg General Strike (Part VII)
№ DCCI: The Chicago Race Riot (Part VIII)
№ DCCVI: The Boston Police Strike (Part IX)
№ DCCIX: The Steel Strike of 1919 (Part X)
№ DCCXV: The Palmer Raids (Part XI)
№ DCCXVIII: The Centralia Massacre (Part XII)
№ DCCXLVI: The May Day "Revolution" (Part XIII)

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLVI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part XIII
1 May 1920: The May Day "Revolution"—U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer & J. Edgar Hoover of the Bureau of Investigation warned throughout April of a planned, violent May Day uprising by radicals aiming to overthrow the American government; police departments & even some state militias were mobilized to counter the threat; May Day came & went peacefully; Palmer was ridiculed.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXLI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—Sacco & Vanzetti, Part I
15 April 1920: In Braintree, Massachusetts, two men were murdered, Frederick Parmenter (shot two times) & Alessandro Berardelli (shot four times), & the payroll of the Slater-Morrill Shoe Company was stolen; the robbers fired wildly as they drove off; the getaway car, a stolen Buick, was found two days later; the murder-robbery resembled a December 1919 attempted robbery in nearby Bridgewater.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXVIII

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part XII
11 November 1919: The Centralia Massacre—Snipers from the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W., the "Wobblies") posted on rooftops opened fire on unarmed American Legionnaires marching in an Armistice Day parade; more Legionnaires died when they stormed the Wobbly hall, four in all; a number of Wobblies were arrested; a mob pulled one of the killers from the town jail & lynched him.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCXV

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part XI
November 1919-January 1920: The Palmer Raids—Under pressure from the Congress, U.S. Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer organized the mass arrest & detention of alien anarchists, aided by J. Edgar Hoover, chief of the Bureau of Investigation's "Radical Division;" Department of Labor officials frustrated the bid to deport even non-violent aliens; 3,000+ persons were arrested & 556 deported.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCIX

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part X
22 September 1919-8 January 1920: The Steel Strike of 1919—Half the steel workers in the United Stats went on strike, encouraged by the Amalgamated Association of Iron & Steel Workers; violent clashes ensued; the federal government was paralyzed, but state & local governments allied with the steel trusts & the American Federation of Labor (A.F.L.) to undermine & eventually break the strike.

Lest we forget.

Bonus! Song o' the Explorers' Club
Dropkick Murphys, "Worker's Song" from Blackout (Mike Papa Whiskey)

The Explorers' Club, № DCCVI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part IX
9-13 September 1919: The Boston Police Strike—Amidst post-war inflation, low wages, & dreadful working conditions, Boston's police went on strike; after a night of lawlessness, Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge sent in the State Guard; martial law reigned 'til 21 December; a general strike in solidarity never materialized & all the striking policemen were fired; nine souls were lost.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCCI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part VIII
27 July-3 August 1919: The Chicago Race Riot—Economic migration, veterans returning from the World War, & a heat wave exploded into rioting after a murder at an informally segregated beach; Irish gangs, closely allied with the corrupt police, donned blackface & attacked white neighborhoods to incite reprisals; thirty-eight souls were lost before the Illinois National Guard restored order.

Lest we forget.

Commentary: The Chicago Race Riot was one of dozens of violent conflagrations across the United States throughout 1919, what civil rights campaigner James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) called the "Red Summer."

The Explorers' Club, № DCXCIV

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part VII
21 June 1919: "Bloody Saturday" in the Winnipeg General Strike—Tens of thousands had been on strike since 15 May; a veterans' "silent parade" on 21 June turned into a violent mob that derailed & set ablaze a streetcar; the Royal North-West Mounted Police opened fire, resulting in two deaths; on 25 June, the Strike Committee voted to end the work stoppage, but many strikers were blacklisted.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCXCI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part VI
2 June 1919: Anarchist bombing campaign—Eight bombs, each containing twenty-five pounds of dynamite (significantly larger than the April mail bombs), were detonated nigh-simultaneously across the United States, at a Catholic church & the residences of notables including Cleveland mayor Harry Davis & Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer; a nightwatchman & a Galleanist bomber were killed.

Lest we forget.

The Explorers' Club, № DCLXXXVI

Operation AXIOM: After the World War—The Red Scare, Part V
1 May 1919: The Cleveland May Day Riots—Socialist marchers carrying red flags, organized by Communist Party U.S.A. founder C.E. Ruthenberg, descended on Cleveland to demand the release from prison of Eugene V. Debs & clashed with police, soldiers, & workers who supported the Victory Liberty Loan; the daylong violence ended with two deaths & a public bonfire of red flags & banners.

Lest we forget.