#OtD 5 Aug 1835 the first factory in Spain to use a steam engine to power machinery, the Bonaplata factory in Barcelona, was assaulted and burned to the ground by luddite gangs known as Bullangues stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1048...
Alex Knight
@alexknight.bsky.social
Award-winning game designer of Land and Freedom (Blue Panther), Hammer and Sickle (GMT P500), John Brown, and more! https://www.gmtgames.com/p-1081-hammer-and-sickle.aspx
Our next convention is just around the corner! Saturday, Aug. 8 at noon PDT/3 p.m. EDT, tickets will go on sale for #SDHistConSummit2026, to be held from Nov. 6-9 at the SES Portuguese Hall in Point Loma San Diego (with a pre-convention brewery meetup Nov. 5). More info: sdhist.com/tickets-sdhi...
#OtD 4 Aug 1765 French actor and revolutionary Claire Lacombe was born. She took part in the 1792 Paris insurrection and co-founded the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, an organisation so radical it led all women's organisations to be banned stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1040...
Enjoyed a solo game of Land and Freedom tonight by @alexknight.bsky.social. Fun game even though it was a collective loss with the “Easter Accord” card maxing out Madrid on the 2nd round of Year 3. That aside, the Bot for the Moderates was destroying mine and the other faction. Great game.
#OtD 25 Jul 1934 Nestor Makhno, leader of the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine during the Russian revolution of 1917 and co-author of the Organisational Platform of the General Union of Anarchists, died in exile in Paris at the age of 44 shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/no-...
#OtD 24 Jul 1936 days after the start of the civil war, Buenaventura Durruti left Barcelona with an armed column and headed for Zaragoza which was occupied by the fascists. His workers' militia advanced and saved the Aragon front. More about the war: workingclasshistory.com/2020/06/17/e...
Today we announce our next board game, "The Nights of King Ludd: The Luddite War on Industry 1811-?" A collaborative game of industrial sabotage ⚒️ 🔥 on Kickstarter September 2: www.kickstarter.com/projects/die... @joedewhurst.bsky.social @thedietzfoundation.bsky.social @ronengoldstein.bsky.social
There are 60 cards in COINTELPRO. They'll feature 30 FBI quotes like "The Negro youth and moderates must be made to understand that if they succumb to revolutionary teaching, they will be dead revolutionaries" and Golden Age B&W comic-inspired illustrations of Fred Hampton and the BPP by Jane Kenn.
#onthisday, 19 July 1936, the rebel Spanish military rose in Barcelona against the elected government. An unusual combination of anarchist and other workers with the loyal police, often fighting side by side, defeated them. By the next day. 450 lay dead. Photo Pérez de Rozas
#OTD 90 years ago, right-wing officers couped against the Spanish Republic. What is your favorite Spanish Civil War game? Mine is Land and Freedom.(@alexknight.bsky.social)
#OtD 18 Jul 1969 Black Panthers began the United Front Against Fascism Conference in Oakland, California, alongside the white anti-racist Young Patriots Organisation and Puerto Rican street gang-turned-radical group the Young Lords stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/8997...,
#OtD 18 Jul 1936 right-wing military rebels seized control of a third of the Spanish mainland and martial law was declared in the Canary Islands. The newspaper of the @CNTsindicato called for action & the Spanish revolution began the next day. More here: workingclasshistory.com/2018/07/29/s...
#OtD 14 Jul 1789 the people of Paris stormed the Bastille, a notorious prison and a symbol of power and the old order. This markeda key early victory in the French revolution. Learn more in this book: shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/the...
#OtD 5 Jul 1852 abolitionist Frederick Douglass gave a speech about July 4th: "The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me… this Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1052...
The CNT's propaganda and publishing office. In July 1936, the anarchist union,in an act of potent symbolism, took over as HQ the former headquarters of Catalan business association (+since Franco's victory today's one). Via Laietana (Via Durruti in war). But look what downstairs premises are in 2026
Different versions of one of the most iconic images of revolutionary Barcelona. Taken by Antoni Campañà on the Rambla with C/Hospital on 25 July 1936. A few years ago we learnt her name. Anita Garbín. She died in southern France in 1977. es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ana_Gar...
The moving memorial standing atop of a granite boulder to the Gracia family-by extension the whole of the Republican exile- at La Vajol, Catalonia, just few kilometres from the French border. Inspired by famous 1939 photo. 450,000 fled over these moutain passes into an uncertain, often deadly exile.
#OtD 2 Jun 1863 the Combahee River raid took place, Harriet Tubman led 150 Black Union soldiers. The only woman-led military operation during the American civil war. 750 slaves were freed and the estates of several slaveowners were looted and burned stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/9200...
CNT milita fighters in front of the Bakunin barracks (prewar and now Cuartel Bruc, only remaining barracks in Barcelona) about to leave for the Aragón front. The banner reads "Direcció Saragossa". Photo by Antoni Campañà, summer 1936
Refugees fleeing from Franco's army. Bielsa pocket, Aragonese Pyrenees. Spring 1938.
Vote for the Left. For them!" Poster for the Front d'Esquerres (name of the Popular Front in Catalonia) for the February 1936 Spanish general election. By Cristóbal Arteche.
I just sent out our first newsletter to subscribers! The biggest piece of news is announcing our first game - Painkillers, one of my designs. I am immensely proud of this game and how far it has come since its inception. Here's a mini thread on the game as it is now.
NEW POST: Spring is here! And it’s time for a trip to the nation's capital for Circle DC, an annual historical gaming convention from @fortcircle.bsky.social. Here's what I did and played in Washington, D.C. www.boardgamemeeplelady.com/2026/04/24/c...
Circle DC 2026: Foxes and Lions, Hammer and Sickle, Rooster and Owl -
Spring is here! And it’s time for a trip to Washington, D.C., for Circle DC, an annual historical gaming convention held by Fort Circle in the nation's capital!
boardgamemeeplelady.com
#OtD 12 Apr 1918 Bolshevik forces attacked 26 anarchist centres in Moscow. At least 40 anarchists were killed by Cheka forces, and about 500 arrested and jailed. They falsely claimed "criminal elements [had] infiltrated the anarchist organisations" stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/1253...
#OtD 9 Apr 1898 Paul Robeson, Black singer, actor, communist and former shipyard worker was born. He was involved in anti-fascism, the civil rights movement and workers' struggles, and was blacklisted under McCarthyism shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/pau...
From @alexknight.bsky.social I am always happy to see Hammer & Sickle on the table, an interesting 4-player game about the Russian Civil War. And I finally get to play his new game Dethrone on the French Revolution. Can't wait to see Alex's take on that particular conflict!
I would like to thank everyone who supported & shared Walkable City's message and crowdfunding campaign. A ton of games get released every year - so it's a joy to see my vision resonating with so many people. I think it's going to be a great production - thank you all for believing in it! 🙏💖
We hit our first stretch goal for Walkable City today, but there are some very cool ones down the road still. I think the one I am most excited for so far is the extra art on the city from our artist Ryan Goldsberry - it really brings the city to life! www.kickstarter.com/projects/fow...
