May 1st & the Haymarket Martyrs

[LiviaOlivia]

May 1st & the Haymarket Martyrs
by Dancing Larry
Sun May 1st, 2005 at 18:11:17 PDT
Daily Kos

So today is May 1st. Some small handful of those who visit this site may recall a now quaint and almost forgotten political movement known as "socialism". No day in the calendar was more important to the "socialists" than May 1st. All around the world it came to be recognized as International Workers Day, the day to honor working people and their struggles for social and economic justice. One of the few countries where May 1st was not so celebrated was the United States. And therein lies an irony, for the reason for the choice of that day began right here.

...a moment of silence for the Haymarket Martyrs.

Albert Parsons

On May 1, 1886, led by Albert Parsons of the Chicago Knights of Labor, 80,000 Chicago workers marched down Michigan Avenue, demanding the establishment of an 8 hour workday, and in solidarity with workers on strike at the great McCormick Reaper works. The call sent out from that march resonated immediately around the country, and upwards of 300,000 marched in similar demonstrations across the country inn the next few days.

At a follow-up rally on May 3rd, 6,000 Chicago workers led by August Spies, editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung (Workers Newspaper), marched to the McCormick plant to set up a picket line to stopscabs from replacing the striking workers. The Chicago Police arrived almost immediately and opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four and wounding dozens more. Spies called a rally for the following night at Haymarket Square to denounce the police riot.

The rally on the evening of May 4th, attended by 2,500, went peacefully, despite the tension of the situation. Chicago Mayor Carter Harrison,worried about the situation, observed the rally from the beginning. Recognizing that the rally would be peaceful, he advised Police Captain John Bonfield to send the large force of police at the neighborhood station house home. At about 10pm, with rain starting to fall, the rally wound down, and the crowd had largely dispersed. Only about 200 people remained in the square, when suddenly Bonfield and about 180 police arrived at Haymarket Square, demanding the remnant to disperse immediately. What happened thereafter was chaos, and the facts have never been fully ascertained, but from somewhere a bomb was thrown into the ranks of the police. The police response was to fire indiscriminately into the crowd. The total number killed and injured by the bomb and the police firing remains unknown to this day.

Beginning that night, and for weeks following, a massive crackdown on all elements of the labor movement in Chicago was carried out by the authorities, with the press and the preachers whipping the city into an atmosphere of hysteria. Meeting halls, union offices, printing works and private homes were raided. All known socialists and anarchists were rounded up. Even many individuals ignorant of the meaning of socialism and anarchism were arrested and tortured. "Make the raids first and look up the law afterwards" was the public statement of Julius Grinnell, the state's attorney.

Eventually eight people were put on trial for the bomb throwing: Parsons, Spies, Samuel Fielden, and five anarchists active in the labor movement, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Michael Schwab, Louis Lingg and Oscar Neebe. The jury was composed of businessmen, their clerks, and a relative of one of the dead policemen.

There was no evidence ever presented that any of the eight men had anything to do with throwing the bomb, or even that there was any anticipation of violence. On the stand, Mayor Harrison described the speeches as "tame"; Parsons had in fact brought his two small children to the rally. It didn't matter; in the hysteria following the event, the labor and anarchist affiliations of th accused were sufficient to bring back guilty verdicts, seven sentenced to death, Neebe to 15 years in prison. After a massive international campaign for their release, the state 'compromised' and commuted the sentences of Schwab and Fielden to life imprisonment. Lingg cheated the hangman by committing suicide in his cell the day before the executions. On November 11th 1887 Parsons, Engel, Spies and Fischer were hanged.

600,000 working people turned out for their funeral. The campaign to free Neebe, Schwab and Fielden continued. On June 26th 1893 Governor Altgeld set them free. He made it clear he was not granting the pardon because he thought the men had suffered enough, but because they were innocent of the crime for which they had been tried. They and the hanged men had ben the victims of "hysteria, packed juries and a biased judge".

Today, who remembers or cares about Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg, and George Engel and what they fought and died for?

In memoriam.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/1/211117/2896

[seemslikeadream]

1. The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices

Commercial Photograph. "The Five Chicago Anarchists. November 11th, 1887. Retail price, 25 cts.
Special Collections & Preservation Division, Chicago Public Library

The only original photographs, taken May 3rd, 1887, in the County Jail, by J. J. Kanberg, 433 E. Division St., Chicago.

To the Public! Ten per cent from the Retail Price, on all copies sold, will be kept separately as a fund in favor of the Anarchist's children. J. J. Kanberg, Photographer."

The five men are clockwise from 1:00 o'clock:

A. R. Parsons
Adolph Fischer
George Engel
August Spies
Louis Lingg (in the middle with two letter g's at the end of his name).

The first four were hanged on Friday, November 11, 1887. Lingg committed suicide on November 10, 1887 by lighting a stick of dynamite in his mouth.
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/haymarket ...
...

The rally began about 8:30 p.m. May 4 at the Haymarket, a site on Randolph between Halsted and Des Plaines Street, but due to low attendance it was moved a half block away to Des Plaines Street north of Randolph Street. After 10 p.m., as the rally drew to a close, 176 policemen led by Inspector John Bonfield moved in demanding immediate dispersal of the remaining 200 workers. Suddenly a bomb exploded. In the chaos that followed shots were fired by police and perhaps by workers. One police officer was killed by the bomb, six officers died later and sixty others were injured. No official count was made of civilian deaths or injuries probably because friends and/or relatives carried them off immediately. Medical evidence later showed that most of the injuries suffered by the police were caused by their own bullets.

All well known anarchists and socialists were rounded up and arrested in the days following the riot. Thirty one of them were named in criminal indictments and eight held for trial.

Although the bomb thrower has never been identified the eight indicted men were convicted by a court which held that the "inflammatory speeches and publications" of these eight incited the actions of the mob. The Illinois and U.S. Supreme Courts upheld the verdict.

On November 11, 1887 four of the accused were hanged. One committed suicide in jail, two had their sentences commuted to life in prison and one remained in prison even though there was no case against him.

After John P. Altgeld became Governor in 1893, the petitions for pardon that had been presented to and refused by his predecessor Richard Oglesby, were again introduced. After a careful review of the case Altgeld granted a full pardon on June 26, 1893. In his remarks he claimed the jury was selected to convict and the judge so prejudiced against the defendants that a fair trial was impossible.

Two Chicago area monuments were erected to commemorate the Haymarket Riot. One stands in German Waldheim Cemetery (Forest Park, IL). It depicts Justice preparing to draw a sword while placing a laurel wreath on the brow of a fallen worker. At the base of the monument are the final words August Spies spoke before his execution: "The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today." The monument was dedicated on June 25, 1893, before a crowd of 8,000.

"In the name of the people I command peace" reads the inscription below the police officer depicted on the second monument. Since its dedication in 1889 peace has been somewhat elusive.

The monument was originally situated in the middle of Haymarket Square, where street car lines were forced to swerve around it. On May 24, 1890 an attempt was made to blow it up. In 1900 the monument was regarded as a traffic hazard and moved to Union Park at Randolph and Ogden Ave. On May 4, 1903 the city seal and state crest were stolen from its base. A disgruntled streetcar driver ran his vehicle into it, knocking it off its base on May 4, 1927, claiming he was tired of seeing it. On May 4, 1928, after repairs were completed, it was moved further into Union Park. The statue was again moved on May 4, 1958 and placed at Randolph St. at the Kennedy Expressway, 200 feet from its original location. The Chicago City Council granted the monument landmark status on May 4, 1965. In October, 1969 a dynamite bomb exploded at the feet of the figure damaging it from the calves down. In November black printers ink was tossed on it, doing further damage. Another bomb was exploded there in October 1970. After each incident the monument was restored, but after the 1970 incident Mayor Richard J. Daley placed a round-the-clock police guard at the site. When this proved too costly, the statue was moved to Police Headquarters at 11th and State Street in 1972. In October, 1976 the monument was again moved. It was rededicated at the Police Academy and can only be seen by making arrangements in advance. Peace.
http://www.chipublib.org/004chicago/disasters/haymarket

[Hanover_Fist]

2. God bless'em

Brings a tear to me eye............

[seemslikeadream]

3. In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold

When the union's inspiration through worker's blood shall run, There can be no power greater anywhere beneath the sun; Yet what force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one, For the union makes us strong

Is there taught we hold in common with the greedy
parasite; Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? For the union makes us strong

It is we who ploughed the prairies, built the cities where they trade, Dug the mines and built the workshops, endless miles of railroad laid; Now we stand outcast and starving 'mid the wonders we have made, But the union makes us strong


All the world that's owned by idle drones is ours and ours alone We have laid the wide foundations, built it skyward stone by stone. It is ours, not to slave in, but to master and to own. While the union makes us strong.

They have taken untold millions that they never toiled to earn, But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel will turn; But without our brain and muscle not a single wheel will turn; We can break their haughty power, gain our freedom when we learn; That the union makes us strong

In our hands is placed a power greater than their hoarded gold, Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousand fold; We can bring to birth a new world from the ashes of the old, For the union makes us strong.

"Solidarity," Words by Ralph Chaplin


The strike opened in Chicago with a display of great strength and much promise of success. Nearly 40,000 workers walked out on May 1 as pearranged, and the number jumped to 65,000 within three or four days. Nor was this the full stength of the movement in the city: More than 45,000 were granted a shorter working day without striking, the bulk of them -35,000-workers in the packing-houses. In addition, there were already several thousand men on strike at the Lake Shore, the Wabash, the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, and other freight yards in protest against the hiring of non-union labor. With such a mass movement on foot, Chief of Police Ebersold apprehended dificulties and called upon the entire detective and police force to be on duty Saturday May 1; and his force was augmented by Pinkerton detective previously engaged by railroads, and by special deputies, many of whom were selected from the Grand Army of the Potomac. In spite of these martial preparations, Saturday passed peacefully. The city, with hundreds of factories idle and thousands of strikers and their families promenading the streets, had a holiday appearance. There were processions and mass meetings, addressed in Bohemian, Polish, German and English.

Faced with a strike of unexpected power and solidarity, the leading business men and manufacturers united to crush it. On April 27 the western Boot and Shoe Manufacturers Association, with 60 firms represented in person and 160 by letter, was formed in Chicago for combined action. The chief iron and steel foundries, as also the copper and brass, declared that they would reject the eight-hour demand. A session of the principal planing mills was held on the morning of May 1 at the office of Felix Lang to detemine procedure against the strikers. In the evening these were joined at Sherman Hotel by all the lumber yards and box factories and the lumber industry in concert decided to grant no concessions to the workmen.

Nevertheless, by Monday, May 3, the spread of the strike was alarming. Lumber-laden craft blocked the river near the Lumber Exchange, and 300 more vessels with cargoes of lumber were expected to join the idle fleet. The building interests , then enjoying a boom, were suddenly paralyzed. The great metal foundries and the vast freight yards were tied up. To break the strike aggressive action was needed. On Monday police clubs began to scatter processions and meetings.

That afternoon serious trouble arose at the McCormick Harvester Works. the soreness here was old. It had begun in the middle of February, when Cyrus McCormick locked out his 1400 employees in reply to a demand by the men that the company quit its discrimination against ccertain of their fellows who had taken part in a former strike at the plant. In the following two months strike-breakers, Pinkertons, and police had attacked the locked-out men with wanton savagery. bogart and Thompson say of this period:
http://my.execpc.com/~blake/haymar.htm

[Hanover_Fist]

4. Holy black cats you are my hero!

[seemslikeadream]

5. The Pullman Strike and Pinkerton

WATCH OUT FOR THOSE PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANIES! MERCENARIES! NEW AGE PINKERTONS!




When 300 Pinkerton Detectives came ashore at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead mill on July 6, 1892, they had no idea of the extreme violence with which locked-out steelworkers would greet them. A hail of stones, then bullets, ripped the air. Steelworker William Foy and the captain of the Pinkertons fell wounded.

On June 29, despite the union's willingness to negotiate, Frick closed the mill and locked out 3,800 men. Two days later, workers seized the mill and sealed off the town from strike-breakers. Frick summoned a private police force, the Pinkerton Detective Agency, to protect the non-union workers he planned to hire.

Virtually the entire town flooded to the mill to meet the Pinkertons, weapons in hand. "To be confronted with a gang of loafers and cut-throats from all over the country, coming there, as they thought, to take their jobs, why, they naturally wanted to go down and defend their homes and their property and their lives, with force, if necessary," recalled one worker.

For twelve hours, a fierce battle raged. Outgunned by the Pinkertons' Winchester rifles, Homestead's citizens scoured the town for weapons, pressing into service everything from ancient muzzle loaders to a 20-pound cannon. A local hardware merchant donated his entire stock of ammunition, which workers carried to the mill in wheelbarrows. As workers built barricades on shore, the Pinkertons cut rifle ports in the sides of their barges. Meanwhile, news of the battle had reached nearby Pittsburgh. By 6 am more than 5,000 curious spectators lined the riverbanks
http://www.horizonshelpr.org/socsci/labor1890/handouts/homestead.html

The strike ended with the intervention of the United States Army. The passenger trains also hauled mail cars, and although the workers promised to operate mail trains so long as Pullman cars were not attached, the railroads refused. Pullman and the carriers informed federal officials that violence was occurring and that the mail was not going through. Attorney General Richard Olney, who disliked unions, heard their claims of violence (but not the assurances of local authorities that there was no uncontrolled violence) and arranged to send federal troops to insure the delivery of the mail and to suppress the strike. The union leader, Debs, was jailed for not obeying an injunction that a judge had issued against the strikers."
http://www.horizonshelpr.org/socsci/labor1890/handouts/pullman.html

[seemslikeadream]

8. MERCENARIES FOR HIRE

MERCENARIES FOR HIRE
All this firepower, trained on a public which places its trust in uniformed guards, raises a variety of concerns: The private security industry is largely unregulated; its employees are often poorly trained, underpaid, and inadequately screened; and they serve only those who hired them. While rent-a cops are legally limited to observing, reporting and attempting to deter crime a power which falls short of the authorized use of force or the right to make an arrest the distinction is apt to be lost on most citizens accosted by a uniformed private guard waving a gun and security badge.
The history of businesses hiring security firms and using them like a private army is long and rife with abuse. Pinkerton, the nation's oldest and second largest security company, earned its spurs in the late 19th century when its guards served as a private army for robber barons intent on wiping out unions. Pinkerton provided the firepower when Ford Frick issued the order to gun down striking workers at Andrew Carnegie's Homestead steel plant in 1892.

Private security companies today have kept that union-busting tradition alive and well. As corporations faced with labor disputes turn more and more to so-called permanent replacement workers, guard firms are utilized to crush militant opposition from unions. A rapidly expanding subset of the industry specializes in strikebreaking.

At the forefront is the Special Response Corporation (SRC), based in Towson, Maryland, SRC's ads feature a uniformed agent wielding a riot shield beneath a headline which proclaims: A Private Army When You Need It Most. SRC promises prospective employers that we can provide the security and control measures necessary for the continued operation of the business in the event of a strike. SRC vouches for the professionalism of its agents, stating that they all have prior military or law enforcement experience. In 1990, SRC helped precipitate a melee when its guards used martial arts sticks against striking newspaper workers in New York City.

http://mediafilter.org/caq/CAQ54p.police.html

Tales of the strike-busters
Unionized workers knock heads with controversial security firms that specialize in picket-line intimidation
BY BRUCE LIVESEY
For Edwin Godinez it was a case of déjà vu. Prior to emigrating from the Philippines six years ago he'd grown accustomed to seeing soldiers dressed in riot gear beating up protesters and strikers. But when Godinez and 450 fellow workers went on strike last October against their employer, Mississauga-based CFM Majestic Inc., it was as if he had never left home.

As soon as the strike began, the workers were confronted by burly security guards outside the factory where CFM Majestic manufactures fireplaces and stoves. The guards had shaved heads, were dressed from head to toe in black uniforms and wore black caps and military boots. As the workers tried to block buses filled with replacement workers -- or scabs, as they're traditionally known -- from crossing the picket lines, the guards shoved the picketers out of the way. Aiming video cameras, they also filmed the strikers. These guards worked for an outfit called London Protection International Inc. (LPI), a security company that specializes in "labour unrest management" situations.

If LPI's intention was to frighten the workers -- the majority of whom are from the Philippines -- it didn't work. "Most of the Filipino workers had been college students back home and were used to this sort of police presence," says Godinez, a 35-year-old father of a baby daughter. "We were not really intimidated."

Even before negotiations with the United Steelworkers of America union broke down last fall, the company hired both LPI and Bill McFadden Ltd., an outfit owned by a former U.S. Navy SEAL who leases trucks and buses for transporting scabs (later prompting workers to brandish signs reading "Dump the Seal"). On CFM Majestic's behalf, LPI recruited scabs, herding them onto buses at a Mississauga baseball field while their guards cleared a path through picketers into the company's plant. "The people were constantly pushing and shoving picketers," says Garnet Penny, a Steelworkers area coordinator. The union responded by launching an effective corporate campaign that, after four weeks, compelled CFM Majestic to grudgingly offer a better first contract.

http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_04.13.00/news/busters.html

[kineneb]

6. Happy May Day

From the granddaughter of a Machinists' Union organizer. Ours was a union house, and before I moved I was a member of the Musicians' Union.

Until things change- I pretend to work, and they pretend to pay me.

[LiviaOlivia]

7. The Illinois Mob Action Statute

The Illinois Mob Action Statute
by ben masel on Sun May 1st, 2005 at 19:36:19 PDT

The Haymarket martyrs were the first to be charged under the Illinois Mob Action Statute, which holds anyone who participates in a "mob' for any illegal purpose liable for any crime committed by any member of the "mob."

In the last prosecution under this Statute I was charged, along with 4 codefendants, for an empty plastic mineral water bottle thrown at a Chicago officer during a march on the 1996 Democratic National Convention. The underlying crime? Jaywalking. The march, in support of American Indian Movement leader Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal, had spilled from one lane to 2. We faced 30 years imprisonment, but were acquitted at trial, following a ruling that the Statute is unconstitutional when the underlying offense is not itself a Felony.

This ruling came 110 years too late to prevent the Haymarket executions.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/5/1/211117/2896/31?mode=alone

[LiviaOlivia]

9. Rmember what Bush did to May 1

For Immediate Release
Office of the
April 30, 2003

Loyalty Day, 2003
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

To be an American is not a matter of blood or birth. Our citizens are bound by ideals that represent the hope of all mankind: that all men are created equal, endowed with unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. On Loyalty Day, we reaffirm our allegiance to our country and resolve to uphold the vision of our Forefathers.

Our founding principles have endured, guiding our Nation toward progress and prosperity and allowing the United States to be a leader among nations of the world. Throughout our history, honorable men and women have demonstrated their loyalty to America by making remarkable sacrifices to preserve and protect these values.

Today, America's men and women in uniform are protecting our Nation, defending the peace of the world, and advancing the cause of liberty. The world has seen again the fine character of our Nation through our military as they fought to protect the innocent and liberate the oppressed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. We are honored by the service of foreign nationals in our Armed Services whose willingness to risk their lives for a country they cannot yet call their own is proof of the loyalty this country inspires. Their service and sacrifice are a testament to their love for America, and our soldiers' honor on and off the battlefield reaffirms our Nation's most deeply held beliefs: that every life counts, and that all humans have an unalienable right to live as free people.

These values must be imparted to each new generation. Our children need to know that our Nation is a force for good in the world, extending hope and freedom to others. By learning about America's history, achievements, ideas, and heroes, our young citizens will come to understand even more why freedom is worth protecting.

Last September, I announced several initiatives that will help improve students' knowledge of American history, increase their civic involvement, and deepen their love for our great country. The We the People initiative will encourage the teaching of American history and civic education by providing grants for curriculum development and training seminars. The Our Documents initiative will use the Internet to bring infor-mation about and the text of 100 of America's most important documents from the National Archives to classrooms and com-munities across the country. These initiatives are important, for it is only when our children have an understanding of our past that they will be able to lead the future.

This Loyalty Day, as we express allegiance to our Nation and its founding ideals, we resolve to ensure that the blessings of liberty endure and extend for generations to come.

The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has designated May 1 of each year as "Loyalty Day," and I ask all Americans to join me in this day of celebration and in reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2003, as Loyalty Day. I call upon all the people of the United States to join in support of this national observance. I also call upon government officials to display the flag of the United States on all government buildings on Loyalty Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-seventh.

GEORGE W. BUSH

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030430-26.html

[seemslikeadream]

10. Joe Hill

JOE HILL

I dreamed I saw last night alive as you and me.
Said I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead",
"I never died", said he.
"I never died", said he.

"In Salt Lake, Joe", I said to him standing by my bed,
"they framed you on a murder charge."
Says Joe: "But I ain't dead!" (2x)

"The Cooper Bosses shot you, Joe, they killed you, Joe", says I.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man", says Joe, "I didn't die!"

And standing there as big as life and smiling with his eyes,
Joe says: "What they could never kill went on to organize."

"Joe Hill ain't dead", he says to me, "Joe Hill ain't never
died,
when workers strike and organize Joe Hill is by their side."

From San Diego up to Maine in every mine and mill,
where workers stand up for their rights,
it's there you'll find Joe Hill.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night alive as you and me.
Said I, "But Joe, you're ten years dead","I never died", said
he.

Joan Baez