[Shar_Lamagne]

Chicago in 1886 was the most advanced, cutting-edge capitalist city in the world. Industrialization, commodification, and mechanization on an unprecedented scale transformed the raw materials of the newly opened West in far more efficient ways than anyone had previously imagined.

But this new economic machine transformed workers—mainly European immigrants but also once-independent farmers and mechanics—into proletarian drudges working brutally long days. When the economy took one of its frequent dives, as it had not long before, employers slashed wages and crushed workers’ organizations.

After the nation had fought a civil war often posed as a battle for free labor over slave labor, workers increasingly saw little free about their lives and often viewed their condition, especially compared to the era before the Civil War, as little more than “wage slavery.”

But a dream had been growing amid their ranks across the country for decades, especially in the last few years, a dream of “eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.”

The diverse eight-hour movement built for a general strike starting on May 1—a traditional day of spring renewal—and continuing until workers won and enforced an eight-hour day.

Nurtured by a growing group of working-class socialists and “Chicago anarchists,” “the eight-hour strikes in Chicago were the largest, most aggressive and most successful in the nation,” according to historian James Green. But on May 3 police—whom the city increasingly trained to be willing to attack strikers and not show class sympathies—killed four workers outside the notoriously anti-union McCormick Reaper Works.

Socialists and anarchists called for a mass meeting in protest at the Haymarket the next evening. After hearing speeches denouncing “the existing order” at length, the peaceful crowd began to dissipate. But police moved with a large force into the Haymarket space, ordering the crowd to disperse.

From unknown, still-debated hands, a bomb was thrown into the ranks of police, who opened fire on the crowd. Public hysteria followed the incident, fed by an increasingly cohesive local capitalist class and the major newspapers. Eight anarchists underwent a trial that was a parody of justice. All were convicted, seven condemned to death for murder.

Capitalists and governmental authorities alike used the Haymarket incident as justification for attacking the labor movement for many years to come. But in 1890, labor and leftist groups in Europe and then around the world began to celebrate International Workers Day on May 1, prominently identifying their demonstrations with memories of the Haymarket martyrs.

On the 125th anniversary of Haymarket, the Chicago Federation of Labor and both the Illinois and national AFL-CIO federations are prominently sponsoring the celebration with the Illinois Labor History Society (ILHS) at what ILHS president Larry Spivack calls “the most important labor site in the world.” Among the many events ILHS is sponsoring (and lists on its website) are a full-scale re-enactment of the Haymarket tragedy on April 30 and a May 1 re-dedication of the restored statue of liberty for workers at the monument to the Haymarket Martyrs in Forest Home Cemetery.

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[Cid_Yama]

The Incident in more detail:

Haymarket Massacre

The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre) was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting. The bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of eight police officers, mostly from friendly fire, and an unknown number of civilians. In the internationally publicized legal proceedings that followed, eight anarchists were tried for murder. Four men were convicted and executed, and one committed suicide in prison, although the prosecution conceded none of the defendants had thrown the bomb.

The deeply polarized attitudes separating business and working class people in late 19th-century Chicago are generally acknowledged as having precipitated the tragedy and its aftermath.

In October 1884, a convention held by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions unanimously set May 1, 1886, as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become standard. As the chosen date approached, U.S. labor unions prepared for a general strike in support of the eight-hour day.

Estimates of the number of striking workers across the U.S. range from 300,000 to half a million.

The rally began peacefully under a light rain on the evening of May 4. August Spies spoke to the large crowd while standing in an open wagon on Des Plaines Street while a large number of on-duty police officers watched from nearby. According to witnesses, Spies began by saying the rally was not meant to incite violence. Historian Paul Avrich records Spies as saying "there seems to prevail the opinion in some quarters that this meeting has been called for the purpose of inaugurating a riot, hence these warlike preparations on the part of so-called 'law and order.' However, let me tell you at the beginning that this meeting has not been called for any such purpose. The object of this meeting is to explain the general situation of the eight-hour movement and to throw light upon various incidents in connection with it."

The crowd was so calm that Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., who had stopped by to watch, walked home early. Samuel Fielden, the last speaker, was finishing his speech at about 10:30 when police ordered the rally to disperse and began marching in formation towards the speakers' wagon. A pipe bomb was thrown at the police line and exploded, killing policeman Mathias J. Degan. The police immediately opened fire. Some workers were armed, but accounts vary widely as to how many shot back. The incident lasted less than five minutes.

An anonymous police official told the Chicago Tribune, "A very large number of the police were wounded by each other's revolvers. ... It was every man for himself, and while some got two or three squares away, the rest emptied their revolvers, mainly into each other."

The Chicago Herald described a scene of "wild carnage" and estimated at least fifty dead or wounded civilians lay in the streets.

Eight people connected directly or indirectly with the rally and its anarchist organizers were arrested afterward and charged.

The prosecution, led by Julius Grinnell, did not offer credible evidence connecting the defendants with the bombing but argued that the person who had thrown the bomb was not discouraged to do so by the defendants, who as conspirators were therefore equally responsible.

Albert Parsons' brother claimed there was evidence linking the Pinkertons to the bomb.

The jury returned guilty verdicts for all eight defendants – death sentences for seven of the men, and a sentence of 15 years in prison for Neebe. The sentencing sparked outrage from budding labor and workers' movements, resulted in protests around the world, and elevated the defendants as international political celebrities and heroes within labor and radical political circles.

After the appeals had been exhausted, Illinois Governor Richard James Oglesby commuted Fielden's and Schwab's sentences to life in prison on November 10, 1887. On the eve of his scheduled execution, Lingg committed suicide in his cell with a smuggled dynamite cap which he reportedly held in his mouth like a cigar (the blast blew off half his face and he survived in agony for six hours).

The next day (November 11, 1887) Spies, Parsons, Fischer and Engel were taken to the gallows in white robes and hoods. They sang the Marseillaise, then the anthem of the international revolutionary movement. Family members including Lucy Parsons, who attempted to see them for the last time, were arrested and searched for bombs (none were found). According to witnesses, in the moments before the men were hanged, Spies shouted, "The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!" Witnesses reported that the condemned men did not die immediately when they dropped, but strangled to death slowly, a sight which left the spectators visibly shaken.

The trial has been characterized as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in United States history. Most working people believed Pinkerton agents had provoked the incident. On June 26, 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld signed pardons for Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab after having concluded all eight defendants were innocent. The governor said the reason for the bombing was the city of Chicago's failure to hold Pinkerton guards responsible for shooting workers. The pardons ended his political career.

Commemoration of May Day became an annual event the following year.

The association of May Day with the Haymarket martyrs has remained strong in Mexico. Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was in Mexico on May 1, 1921, and wrote of the "day of 'fiestas'" that marked "the killing of the workers in Chicago for demanding the eight-hour day". In 1929 The New York Times referred to the May Day parade in Mexico City as "the annual demonstration glorifying the memory of those who were killed in Chicago in 1886." The New York Times described the 1936 demonstration as a commemoration of "the death of the martyrs in Chicago." An American visitor in 1981 wrote that she was embarrassed to explain to knowledgeable Mexican workers that American workers were ignorant of the Haymarket affair and the origins of May Day.

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The poor, the working class do not get their history told. What should be known by every American is practically unknown.

[Cid_Yama]

Passion of Haymarket Affair Resonates 125 Years Later

The Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument, in a Forest Park cemetery just outside Chicago, has been called the pietà for workers, a National Historic Landmark visited each year by foreign labor leaders arriving on tour buses to pay homage and lay roses at its base.

Next month, local and national labor leaders will be commemorating the 125th anniversary of the violent Haymarket affair in Chicago, and what had been planned as a May Day celebration of the restored monument has evolved into a mission to unite public and private union members outraged by recent efforts to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers.

“We all know what happened to public workers in Wisconsin and Indiana, but there are so many states that are below the radar, where varying degrees of these legislative proposals are moving forward,” said Elizabeth Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “The Haymarket anniversary is an opportunity to recognize that workers are angry, frustrated and finally standing up and saying, ‘We’ve had enough.’ ”

Tom Geoghegan, a Chicago labor lawyer, said, “This is the perfect time to toast those people who were fighting for higher wages, shorter workdays and more time with their families.”

“The Republican Party right now is doing a miraculous job of bringing labor together,” Mr. Geoghegan added.

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[Cid_Yama]

If I didn't have other things already happening Saturday, I'ld fly up for it. I think this is going to be something important this weekend.

[Cid_Yama]

May 1 is more than just a day for drinking beer

Many of the thousands of beer drinkers gathering in Fælledparken on the first of May this Sunday afternoon will have no idea they’re there because of something that happened in the United States over a hundred years ago.

The idea for a workers’ day started in Australia in 1856, but May 1 became International Workers’ Day only after the 1886 Haymarket massacre in the United States. A nationwide general strike beginning on May 1 called for an eight-hour working day. Police shot four striking workers at a machine plant in Chicago, and a protest was held on May 4 at Haymarket Square. A still-unknown person threw dynamite at police, who opened fire, injuring up to 200 and killing an unknown number.

Eight anarchists were arrested – seven of whom were sentenced to death after a show trial. Even prosecutors conceded none of the eight had thrown the bomb. Two sentences were commuted on appeal, one prisoner killed himself with a cigar bomb the night before his execution, and four were publicly hanged. The most famous was August Spies, a 31-year-old German immigrant whose only crime was being a charismatic anarchist speaker.

Millions of people in more than 80 countries now celebrate May Day. Ironically, the United States doesn’t recognise it, having dubbed May 1 ‘Americanisation Day’ in 1921, then ‘Loyalty Day’ in 1958, and ‘Law Day’ in 1953.

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[Beery]

I have to be in Baltimore on May Day, and I don't think there's anything going on there. But I'll be remembering the Haymarket martyrs on Sunday.

[Cid_Yama]

May Day: Born in the USA

For generations, May Day, the International Workers Day celebrated by working people in more than 200 countries, was ignored in the United States, the country of its origin. In fact, the annual holiday is as American as cherry pie, commemorating as it does the 1886 nationwide general strike in which U.S. trade unionists — largely foreign-born — walked off the job in support of an eight-hour workday.

This year’s observance marks the 125th anniversary of that campaign to humanize the workday — and of the tragedy at Chicago’s Haymarket Square that followed three days later. New Yorkers will mark the day in a rally in support of labor and immigrant rights in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square.

Back in 1886, when the typical work day was 10, 12 or even 14 hours long and joblessness was rife, the demand for a work day limited to eight hours at decent wages was viewed as dangerously radical. The eight-hour-day movement was spearheaded by two organizations, the craft-dominated Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (the forerunner of the American Federation of Labor) and the Knights of Labor.

An 1884 proclamation from the Federation pledged that "eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886." A circular of the time calling for a massive work stoppage on that date read, “Lay down your tools, cease your labor, close the factories, mills and mines” and demand “eight hours of work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what you will.” Nationwide, anywhere from 150,000 to 500,000 workers — the number is in dispute — answered the call, though the epicenter of the strike effort was indisputably Chicago.

Today’s May 1 observance is also associated with Chicago’s infamous May 4 Haymarket Square tragedy that same year. Thousands of labor activists had gathered in the square that evening to protest law-enforcement attacks on the strikers. When the peaceful rally was winding down, riot police marched into the crowd, demanding that everyone disperse. An unknown assailant tossed a homemade bomb at the line of police, killing one. In the chaos that ensued, at least a dozen people were killed, including six more police officers, all from gunshot-related wounds. Eight of the movement’s leaders, two of whom were not even present at the rally, were charged with murder and conspiracy.

The prejudicial trial took place in a hothouse atmosphere. Typical was the Chicago Tribune’s demand for the deportation of immigrants it labeled “ungrateful hyenas” and “foreign savages who might come to America with their dynamite bombs and anarchic purposes.” The prosecution offered no evidence for its contention that the defendants plotted to target police at the demonstration; it argued simply that the remarks of the rally speakers constituted incitement to violence. All eight were found guilty of murder and four of the eight were eventually hanged. Authorities used the incident to launch a massive witch hunt and arrest hundreds of labor leaders, which put a halt to the eight-hour campaign for years.

The eight-hour day finally became a reality only in 1938, when the New Deal's Fair Labor Standards Act made it a legal day's work throughout the nation.

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May Day rally grows on heels of pro-labor protests

Sunday's May Day rally built on the energy following a month of massive pro-labor protests at the state Capitol with a crowd twice as big as last year's.

Organizers and Madison police estimated about 1,000 people were at Brittingham Park for the event in which protesters later marched up of West Washington Avenue to the Capitol where the rally continued.

May Day has become a major date for protests by workers rights groups as well as immigrant rights groups throughout the country.

"The capitalist class might have the money ... they might have politicians," said Daniel Suarez of the International Socialist Organization. "But we have the numbers, and we have the power. We control the labor."

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[Cid_Yama]

One day in a year for the real heroes

May 1 is a holiday in more than 80 countries. Hundreds of millions of people will get a day's respite from their grinding work routine on the first working day of next week. But many of them will be unaware of the sacrifices their labouring forefathers made to give us the International Workers' Day and make working life what it is today.

To know that we have to travel back in time, 125 years to be precise, to Haymarket in Chicago where it all started. The struggle of workers is as old as industry itself, but the Haymarket Massacre gave it a new meaning and infused in it a new life.

In 1884 the Federation of Organised Trades and Labour Unions of the United States set May 1, 1886, as the date by which an 8-hour work day would become standard. Hundreds of thousands of (half a million, according to some estimates) workers marched across American cities on the designated day to demand that. On May 3, striking workers held a meeting outside their factory in Chicago. And when the bell signalling the end of the work day rang, some of them rushed forward to confront the strike-breakers emerging from the factory. But as the striking workers ran toward the factory gate, police fired without any warning or provocation, killing at least two of them.

The next evening, workers called a mass meeting at Haymarket, where a second police firing killed at least four workers (the toll was higher say many sources), though this time city officials claimed the firing was in response to a bomb thrown by "one of the workers" which killed a policeman. Several other policemen were killed in the violence, many by their colleagues' bullets fired in the dark. Eight workers were charged with the murder of the policeman killed in the bomb blast. Seven were sentenced to death and one to 15 years in prison. One of the seven committed suicide, four were executed, and the sentences of two were commuted to life imprisonment.

In 1889, the Second International, or international organization of socialist and workers' parties, declared at its inaugural congress in Paris that demonstrations across the world would be held on May 1, 1890, to commemorate the sacrifice of the workers in Haymarket. By 1891, May 1 had become an international event.

This in short is the history of International Workers' Day, though in the US, where it all began, Labor Day is observed on the first Monday of September.

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[Novus]

The poor, the working class do not get their history told. What should be known by every American is practically unknown.

Sad I didn't learn about what May day was about until I was 25 years old. They don't teach this stuff in the schools or the colleges. Always heard it was some commie holiday to be mocked but it was an American event. Now I take the time to remember that May 1st belongs to the workers.

As George Carlin said: They don't want educated citizens but obedient workers.

[eXpat]

Some trivia; curious things that happened on May 1st:
2011 - Osama Bin Laden death announced
1999 - Euro currency introduced
1971 – Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) is formed to take over U.S. passenger rail service.
1945 - Adolf Hitler death announced
http://mangalorean.com/news.php?newstype=local&newsid=236175
1934 - FDIC goes into effect.
1915 – The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic. Six days later, the ship is torpedoed off the coast of Ireland with the loss of 1,198 lives, including 128 Americans, rousing American sentiment against Germany.
1885 – The original Chicago Board of Trade Building opened for business.
1776 – Establishment of the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), by Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt.
1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.