This week in history

January 26

1938: Day of Mourning and Protest marks 150 years since British invasion of Australia and subsequent attempted genocide against the Aboriginal population.

1982: Unemployment reaches 3 million in Britain (one in eight of the working population).

1990: South African railroad workers win 12-week strike. Thirty are killed during the struggle.

January 27

1945: Death camp in Auschwitz is liberated.

1972: The Aboriginal Tent Embassy opens in Canberra.

January 30

1936: Station owner George Bartling is flogged by bushrangers in Oldbury for the mistreatment of his servants.

1948: Ghandi is assassinated.

1972: Bloody Sunday, Derry, Ireland. Thirteen protesters are murdered by British paratroopers.

January 31

1912: Australia's first general strike begins in Brisbane.

1919: Battle of George Square. British soldiers and tanks clash with striking workers in Glasgow, Scotland.

February 1

1834: Troops are called in to quell riots by female prisoners at Parramatta Factory, Sydney.

1960: Four black students sit-in at a segregated lunch counter in North Carolina, USA.

From Green Left Weekly, January 26, 2005.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 612