Today in Labor History October 13, 1909: Francisco Ferrer, founder of the Modern School movement, was executed in Spain by the Catholic Monarchists. Ferrer was an anarchist educator who opposed the Church’s monopoly over education in Spain and created that state’s first secular, co-educational schools that taught poor and affluent children side by side. On July 28, martial law was declared throughout Spain, accompanied by brutal military repression. This was in response to a series of violent confrontations between the Spanish army and anarchists, freemasons, socialists and republicans in Catalonia, caused by a draft of workers to be sent as colonial enforcers in Spanish-occupied Morocco. During a kangaroo court, Ferrer was convicted of fomenting the insurrection and was executed by firing squad on October 13, 1909. His execution led to worldwide condemnation and protests. George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as anarchists and radicals like Peter Kropotkin and Emma Goldman protested the execution. While in prison, Ferrer wrote the following on his prison wall: “Let no more gods or exploiters be served. Let us learn rather to love each other.” And when facing the firing squad, he said: “Aim well, boys. I know this is not your fault. Long live the Modern School!”
Read my article on Ferrer and the Modern School here:
Michael Dunn
The Modern School Movement - Michael Dunn
Share via: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn More (Published in Fifth Estate, Spring 2022) In the wake of the punitive No Child Left Behind and Race to the...
#workingclass #LaborHistory #anarchism #FranciscoFerrer #uprising #insurgency #spain #barcelona #catalonia #education #schools #writers #authors #deathpenalty
