Dec. 3. 1946: Beginning of three-day general strike of more than 130,000 workers from 142 AFL unions in Alameda County (Oakland) CA, opposing police brutality and in support of striking Oakland department store workers.

Dec. 4. 1914: Zapata meets with Villa and agrees to join forces to occupy Mexico City two days later. 1952: Killer fogs begin in London England. "Smog" becomes a (dirty) word.

Dec. 5. 1955: The Montgomery (Alabama) bus boycott begins, lasting over a year (54 weeks) until buses are integrated. About 30,000-40,000 (out of 50,000) Montgomery Negroes participate.

Dec. 6. 1918: US Dept. of War abolishes the practice of manacling defiant prisoners to the walls of their cells in solitary confinement, used to torture conscientious objectors in US prisons during World War I.

Dec. 7. 1929: Birth of linguist and radical political analyst Noam Chomsky. 1995: Up to 1.75 million striking French workers demonstrate in marches shutting down the country as part of an escalating series of general strikes protesting government cutbacks and global exploitation of workers.

Dec. 8. 1987: Protestor Hatem Abu Sisseh, 16, killed by Israeli soldiers, igniting the First Intifadah for self-rule. In the seven years to follow, 1,306 Palestinians slain by Israelis, 192 Israelis killed by Palestinians.

Dec. 9. 1640: Settler Hugh Bewitt is banished from colony of Massachusetts when he declares himself to be free of original sin. 1994: Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders resigns after her masturbation comments are criticized by jerk-offs.

Dec. 10. 1851: Settlers begin 21-day cut to fill the brig Leonesa with 30-foot-long logs, beginning of the clearcut industry in Seattle. 1948: United Nations passes Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Dec. 11. 1986: South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone treaty comes into effect. 1992: Solidarity convoy of 500 peace activists arrives in the besieged city of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzogovina.

Dec. 12. 1916: Dr. Ben Reitman is arrested in Cleveland for organizing volunteers to distribute birth control information at an Emma Goldman lecture on birth control. He is later sentenced to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, plus court costs, for the crime.

Dec. 13. 1652: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman "discovers" the South Pacific island group later known as New Zealand. While attempting to land, several of Tasman's crew are killed by warriors from the native Maori people, who interpret the Europeans' exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. And right they were.

Dec. 14. 1990: Right-to-Die lawsuit permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed; she dies 12 days later.

Dec. 15. 1953: Veteran James Kutcher, who lost both his legs in WWII, is informed his disability is being cut off due to his membership in the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). 1986: CIA director William Casey suffers a cerebral seizure, at work, before he can answer questions about Iran-Contra Affair.

Dec. 16. 1991: Activists in Brussels, Belgium, protesting Vatican funding for an observatory desecrating a sacred Apache site at Mount Graham, Arizona, pull a bulldozer up to a prominent local cathedral. 1994: Russian Gen. Babichev refuses orders to kill Chechen civilians.