Re: Haymarket and the history of May Day (fwd)

[Beth Goldstein <bg28@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Martha,

Thank you so much for this post.  I am often shocked at how little our
schools teach of workers history, and the struggle for equality.  It was
not until I was an adult that I began to even find out that such a rich,
robust history existed.

I always endeavor to work some of this history (and ideas, and critiques)
into my courses. I offer extra credit to students for a report on The
Haymarket Massacre, and I show Land and Freedom (what a TRULY awesome
film).  I also talk up Ursula K. LeGuin's wonderful book *The Dispossesed*

These things are a revelation to most of my students, as they were a
revelation to me.  This post explains the situation beautifully  ---- I
will print it out and keep it for future students.

Thank you,

Beth Goldstein


On Sat, 1 May 1999, Martha Gimenez wrote:

>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 01 May 1995 19:25:31 -0400 (EDT)
> From: "Seth Wigderson, H-Labor" <SETHW@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: H-Net Labor History discussion list <H-LABOR@xxxxxxx>
> Subject: Haymarket and the history of May Day
>  +++++ +++++ +++++ +++++ +++++ +++++ +++++ +++++
>
> From: "X341366 (Luther Gaylord)" <lgaylord@xxxxxxx>
>
>                 MAY DAY--THE REAL LABOR DAY
>
> May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic
> struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized
> in every country except the United States, Canada, and South
> Africa.  This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s
> in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day.
>
> In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed
> a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal
> day's work from and after May 1, 1886.  The resolution called for
> a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had
> already failed.  With workers being forced to work ten, twelve, and
> fourteen hours a day, rank-and-file support for the eight-hour
> movement grew rapidly, despite the indifference and hostility of
> many union leaders.  By April 1886, 250,000 workers were involved
> in the May Day movement.
>
> The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by
> the anarchist International Working People's Association.
> Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly
> revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly.
> The police and militia were increased in size and received new and
> powerful weapons financed by local business leaders.  Chicago's
> Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois
> National Guard to be used against strikers.  Nevertheless, by May
> 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing
> cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers.  But on May 3,
> 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper
> Works Factory, killing four and wounding many.  Anarchists called
> for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the
> brutality.
>
> The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last
> speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already
> breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining.  It was then
> that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to
> disperse.  As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb
> was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy.  Police
> responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring
> many others.
>
> Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident
> was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement.
> Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and
> hundreds were arrested without charge.  Anarchists in particular
> were harassed, and eight of Chicago's most active were charged with
> conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing.  A
> kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence
> connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even
> present at the meeting, and he was on the speakers' platform), and
> they were sentenced to die.  Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf
> Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887.  Louis
> Lingg committed suicide in prison,  The remaining three were
> finally pardoned in 1893.
>
> It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream
> union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history
> of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in Moscow's
> Red Square.  In its attempt to erase the history and significance
> of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be
> "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day--a holiday devoid of any
> historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill
> beer and sit in traffic jams.
>
> Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements,
> the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists
> actually mobilized many generations of radicals.  Emma Goldman, a
> young immigrant at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair
> as her political birth.  Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons,
> called upon the poor to direct their anger toward those
> responsible--the rich.  Instead of disappearing, the anarchist
> movement only grew in the wake of Haymarket, spawning other radical
> movements and organizations, including the Industrial Workers of
> the World.
>
> By covering up the history of May Day, the state, business,
> mainstream unions and the media have covered up an entire legacy of
> dissent in this country.  They are terrified of what a similarly
> militant and organized movement could accomplish today, and they
> suppress the seeds of such organization whenever and wherever they
> can.  As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not
> only for it's historical significance, but also as a time to
> organize around issues of vital importance to working-class people
> today.
>
> As IWW songwriter Joe Hill wrote in one of his most powerful songs:
>
>           Workers of the world, awaken!
>           Rise in all your splendid might
>           Take the wealth that you are making,
>           It belongs to you by right.
>           No one will for bread be crying
>           We'll have freedom, love and health,
>           When the grand red flag is flying
>           In the Workers' Commonwealth.
>