Haymarket
Square Riot Affair
On
May 4, 1886 a riot took place in the city of Chicago, Illinois at
Haymarket Square. As a result, many people died and many more were
injured. It was reported that seven policemen and four workers died.
This event is remembered in the history books because it is an event
that changed the history of Chicago, had an impact on the American
labor and the United States overall. It affected the working class of
Chicago in many different levels.
To
fully understand this event we need to go back to the reasons why it
was happening. At this period of time in U.S. many labor unions and
organizations, including the Knights of Labor, existed to represent
workers in industrial factories. Working conditions are abhorrent at
this time. There was little or often no concerns for safety in most
factories in the Chicago and the U.S. overall. Workers’ wages were
very low and the average work day and week was at least 10 hours, six
days a week. The focal point of many worker advocacy organizations
including the Knights of Labor was to institute the eight hour
workday. In 1866 the National Labor Union wanted to pass an eight
hour work day law. The following year the country’s first eight
hour law was passed.
However
the battle had just begun, because employers refused to abide.
Employers forced workers to sign waivers so they would not get in
trouble and be blamed.1
In essence nothing changed because workers were still working 10 to
12 hours a day, six days a week. On May 1, 1886 many strikes were
held to demand the eight hour work day. This labor movement had
reportedly eighty thousand workers, marching on Michigan Avenue in
Chicago with their banners.2
Songs like the “Eight Hour Day” were sung. The unification of so
many workers pushed the employers in Chicago to sign agreements for
less hours with no reduced pay.
Two
days later, however, strikers from Chicago’s McCormick Harvester
Works factory collided with the police. Police attacked picketing
workers. This provoked a rally on the next day May 4. Again, as the
meeting was coming to an end, the police tried to disperse the group.
A person, still unknown today, threw a bomb. It was the first
dynamite bomb to be used in the United States during a non-war era.
The police responded with shots fired. Seven policemen died and one
of them died due to the impact of the bomb itself. Four strikers were
also killed during this violent outbreak. Outrage and shock shook
the city of Chicago to its core during this tragedy. Over the next
few days the police arrested anarchists and labor activists, with
thirty-one individuals indicted by the grand jury and charged for
being accessories to the murder of the policeman names Mathias J.
Degan .3
Later on, eight
“radicals” or “anarchists” as they called the protesters,
were tried. They were August Spies, Adolph Fisher, Louis Lingg,
Michael Schwab, Albert Parsons, Oscar Neebe, George Engel, and Samuel
Fielden. Four of them were sentenced to death by hanging for their
actions and one of them, Lingg, committed suicide in prison. Neebe
was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. However their trial has
been criticized by many. Some, especially labor organizers, viewed
the dead protesters as victims. Adolph Fischer said to the judge:
“Your Honor, you ask me why sentence of death should not be passed
upon me. I will not talk much. I will only say that I protest against
my being sentenced to death, because I have committed no crime. I was
tried here in this room for murder, and I was convicted of Anarchy. I
protest against being sentenced to death, because
I have not been found guilty of murder.
But, however, if I am to die on account of being an Anarchist, on
account of my love for liberty, fraternity and equality, then I will
not remonstrate. If death is the penalty for our love of the freedom
of the human race, then I say openly I have forfeited my life; but a
murderer I am not”.4
(4). However, a part of the public became even more anti-labor. This
quote is because it shows how much the workers believed in what they
were fighting for. They believed they had a right to better working
conditions and equality.
The
event at the Haymarket Square was unfortunate and many demanded
punishment. Many started to view labor unions or labor movements in a
bad vile way. However, the public’s opinion was divided nationwide
and many were questioning the whole trial . Some people agreed that
workers needed to unionize but others saw it as a bother. In June 26,
1893 the governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld, pardoned Schwab,
Neebe, and Fielden due to the pressure of the public and their many
questions about who was really responsible and if the trial had been
fair. According to William J. Adelman no single event has influence
the history of labor in Illinois more than the Haymarket affair.
The
Haymarket Affair also had an impact on the American labor.American
working class. The union called Knights of Labor no longer existed
due to the chaos brought by the Haymarket riot. This opened the door
for something new. The American Federation of Labor is a union that
soon became really popular after the end of the Knights of Labor. The
AFL, unlike the Knights of Labor was not open to all workers. It was
racially restrictive. For example African Americans were not
welcomed. . It was however powerful and strived to secure better
working conditions for all members. America was becoming even more
industrialized and. And in a time where workers needed unions more
than ever the AFL was successful in improving the public’s view on
unions.
The
Haymarket Affair also influenced the United States. It is at the
origin of what we call today May Day. In a lot of countries in
different parts of the world, May Day is the principal workers'
holiday. It commemorates the tragedy of May 4, 1886. Nowadays May Day
is important to many individuals in the United States. Many events
are celebrated around this day. For example, at Stony Brook
University, The Graduate Student Employees Union (GSEU) organized a
Free University on May Day. There was a rally
to celebrate campus labor unions. May Day was institutionalized as an
international holiday in 1891 in Paris. Today, May Day is a day for
people to rally, march and hold demonstrations in the streets. This
day is a reminder that America has changed and has come a long way
again. Today, for example unions are common practice and no one
judges you for being in a union. since the nineteenth century.
1
Illinois Labor History Society.
http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/haymarket/the-story-of-the-haymarket-affair.html
2
Illinois Labor History Society.
http://www.illinoislaborhistory.org/haymarket/the-story-of-the-haymarket-affair.html
3
. The Haymarket Affair Digital Collection, Haymarket Affair
Chronology. http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/chronology.html
4
Chicago Historical Society, Haymarket Digital Affair Collection,
Speech of Adolph Fischer.
http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/books/b01/B01S004.htm
No comments:
Post a Comment