(from the Wikipedia version)
In 1884 a convention of The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of
the United States and Canada set May 1, 1886 as the date by which the
eight-hour work day would become law. [3] The FOTLU, and the International
Working People's Association (IWPA) began preparing for a general strike. The
Knights of Labor opposed the strike.[4] On Saturday 1 May, 1886 rallies were
held throughout the United States. The largest was in Chicago, where an
estimated 90,000 people participated. There were an estimated 10,000
demonstrators in New York and 11,000 in Detroit. Albert Parsons, an Anarchist
and founder of the International Working People's Association, with his wife
Lucy Parsons and seven children, led people down Michigan Avenue. In the next
few days, 350,000 workers nationwide went on strike at 1,200 factories.
On May 3 striking workers met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant
where a fight broke out on the picket lines as replacement workers attempted to
cross the picket line. Chicago police intervened and attacked the strikers,
killing four, wounding several others and sparking outrage in the city's
working community.
Local anarchists distributed fliers calling for a rally at Haymarket Square,
then a bustling commercial center (also called the Haymarket) near the corner
of Randolph Street and Des Plaines Street in what was later called Chicago's
west Loop. These fliers alleged police had murdered the strikers on behalf of
business interests and urged workers to seek justice.
[edit] Rally at Haymarket Square
This 19th century engraving showing exaggerated flames and smoke was published
in popular newspapers and magazines during the days and weeks following the
Haymarket riot. It also appeared in some history textbooks.
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 Desplaines
Street.[5] According to many witnesses Spies said he was not there to incite
anyone. Meanwhile a large number of on-duty police officers watched from
nearby. The crowd was so calm that Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., who had stopped
by to watch, walked home early. Some time later the police ordered the rally to
disperse and began marching in formation towards the speakers' wagon. A bomb
was thrown at the police line and exploded, killing policeman Mathias J.
Degan.[6] The police immediately opened fire. While several of their number
besides Degan appear to have been injured by the bomb, most of the casualties
seem to have been caused by bullets. About sixty officers were wounded in the
riot, as well as an unknown number of civilians. In all, seven policemen and at
least four workers (there is no accurate count of the latter) were killed in
the riot, [7][8] [9]
[edit] Trial, executions and pardons
Part of the Politics series on
Anarchism
Schools of thought
Capitalist Christian
Collectivist Communist
Eco Feminist
Green Individualist
Mutualist Primitivist
Philosophical Social
Syndicalist Without adjectives
Anarchism in culture
Religion Society Arts
History Popular Education
Criticisms
Anarchist theory
Origins Economics
Anarchism and capitalism
Anarchism and Marxism
Co-operatives
Symbolism Post-left
Especifismo Platformism
Propaganda of the deed
Spontaneous order
Workers' self-management
Anarchism by region
Africa Austria China
Anglosphere France
Greece Mexico Russia
Ibérica Sweden Ukraine
Anarchism lists
Books Communities
Concepts Organizations
Anarchism Portal
Politics Portal · v d e
Eight people connected directly or indirectly with the rally and its anarchist
organisers were charged with Degan's murder: August Spies, Albert Parsons,
Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, Michael Schwab, Samuel Fielden and
Oscar Neebe. Five (Spies, Fischer, Engel, Lingg and Schwab) were German
immigrants while a sixth, Neebe, was a U.S. citizen of German descent.
The trial was presided over by Judge Joseph Gary. The defense counsel included
Sigmund Zeisler, William Perkins Black, William Foster and Moses Salomon. The
prosecution, led by Julius Grinnell, did not offer evidence connecting any of
the defendants with the bombing but argued that the person who had thrown the
bomb had been encouraged to do so by the defendants, who as conspirators were
therefore equally responsible.
The jury returned guilty verdicts for all eight defendants, with death
sentences for seven. Neebe received a sentence of 15 years in prison. The
sentencing sparked outrage from budding labor and workers movements, resulted
in protests around the world, and made the defendants international political
celebrities and heroes within labor and radical political circles. Meanwhile,
the press published often sensationalized accounts and opinions about the
incident, which polarized public reaction. Journalist George Frederic Parsons,
for example, wrote a piece for the Atlantic Monthly articulating the fears of
middle-class Americans concerning labor radicalism, asserting that workers had
only themselves to blame for their troubles.[10]
Waldheim Cemetery, Chicago in May 1986 during ceremonies commemorating the
100th anniversary of the Haymarket riot
The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of Illinois,[11] then to the Supreme
Court of the United States, where the defendants were represented by John
Randolph Tucker, Roger Atkinson Pryor, General Benjamin F. Butler and William
P. Black. The petition for certiorari was denied.[12]
After the appeals had been exhausted, Illinois Governor Richard James Oglesby
commuted Fielden's and Schwab's sentences to life in prison. On the eve of his
scheduled execution, Lingg committed suicide in his cell using 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 several hours).
The next day, November 11, 1887, Spies, Parsons, Fischer, and Engel were hanged
together before a public audience. Taken to the gallows in white robes and
hoods, they sang the Marseillaise, 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. August Spies was widely quoted as having shouted out, "The time will
come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle
today." Witnesses reported that the condemned did not die when they dropped,
but strangled to death slowly, a sight which left the audience visibly
shaken.[citation needed]
Lingg, Spies, Fischer, Engel and Parsons were buried at the German Waldheim
Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Schwab and Neebe where
also buried at Waldheim when they died, reuniting the "Martyrs." In 1893 the
Haymarket Martyrs Monument by sculptor Albert Weinert was raised at Waldheim.
Over a century later it was designated a National Historic Landmark by the
United States Department of the Interior, the only cemetery memorial to be
noted as such.
The trial is often referred to by scholars as one of the most serious
miscarriages of justice in United States history.[13] 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 pardons
ended his political career.
The police commander who ordered the dispersal was later convicted of
corruption. The bomb thrower was never identified, although some anarchists
privately indicated they had later learned his identity but kept quiet to avoid
further prosecutions.[citation needed]
[
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
