On this day in anarchist history, January 29th 1911, we remember The Baja Rebellion aka the Magónista Rebellion.
In the growing discontent under the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship, Ricardo and Enrique Flores Magón were helping to inspire worker self organization from exile through their newspaper, Regeneración. After a dubious arrest and subsequent media circus and their release, the brothers planned to liberate the territory of Northern Baja California.
The Baja Revolution kicked off when about 30 militants from the Partido Liberal Mexicano, (PLM) which was neither liberal nor a party, took the city of Mexicali. The PLM forces would grow to about 500 strong and included a mix of Mexican workers, Indigenous people and IWW members from the US.
The PLM would clash with the Mexican army and take the cities of Tecate and Tijuana. Unfortunately, liberal reformists were able to consolidate power in Mexico and were successful in splitting the PLM into smaller factions that were not able to hold the territories.