[Marxism] Deadly Haymarket Protests Memorialized

[Doug Smiley <doug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/179745-7864-P.html

Deadly labor rally memorialized at last


By Tara Burghart
Associated Press
September 18, 2004


CHICAGO -- For years, visitors at the troubled site of
Haymarket Square left disappointed: Only a plaque
marked the spot where a bomb thrown during an 1886
labor rally killed seven police officers and led to
the executions of anarchists unjustly convicted of the
crime.

Anti-labor hysteria gripped the country after the
bombing, and the site's legacy in Chicago was too
contentious to support a memorial.

Police viewed it as a place where their fellow
officers died in the line of duty. Social activists
went there to honor the memory of those wrongly
convicted. Union supporters considered it a crucible
in the labor movement's history.

Now, a large sculpture has been dedicated there, and
text on the memorial acknowledges that Haymarket's
significance "touches on the issues of free speech,
the right of public assembly, organized labor, the
fight for the eight-hour workday, law enforcement,
justice, anarchy and the right of every human being to
pursue an equitable and prosperous life."

It took a committee of labor leaders, police officers,
historians and city officials two years of meetings to
agree on the statue.

"The unifying theme is it's a tragedy -- a human
tragedy of people under difficult circumstances
reacting to something beyond their control," said Tim
Samuelson, a city historian who served on the
committee.

The committee required artists submitting proposals to
include a wagon, since one was used as a speaker's
platform at the Haymarket rally. The wagon represented
the importance of free speech and free assembly -- a
concept all panel members agreed on.

The winning design, by Chicago artist Mary Brogger, is
a bronze sculpture 15 feet high. Red-brick in color,
the statue depicts faceless figures who are either
putting together or taking apart a wagon, depending on
the viewer's perspective.

"The crux of it is that the truth is complex and there
are many actions and reactions that happen
simultaneously in any given moment -- and it's
important to be reminded of that," Brogger said.

On May 4, 1886, a rally was held near the city's
Haymarket Square west of downtown to protest the
deaths of workers during a labor conflict the night
before.

As the meeting was breaking up, uniformed police
approached and asked the crowd to disperse. A bomb was
thrown into police ranks -- it was never determined by
whom.

"In the aftermath, the people who organized and spoke
at the meeting, and others who held unpopular
political viewpoints were arrested and unfairly tried,
even though none could be tied to the bombing itself,"
reads the extensive text that accompanies the
monument.

Of the eight men who were brought to trial, four were
executed, one died mysteriously in prison, and the
three others were sentenced to prison but later
pardoned.

The monument, funded with a $300,000 state grant, is
not the first at the site. A statue of a policeman was
erected there in 1889 as a tribute to the police who
died, but it was moved to the police academy after it
was blown up twice during the Vietnam era.

Samuelson said he's not surprised it took 118 years
for a Haymarket monument to be agreed upon by police,
labor and city officials.

Dissenters remain -- protesters waving anarchist flags
showed up at the monument's Tuesday dedication.

"The impact of what happened at the time to all
parties concerned was so terrible and so emotional
that it was passed down through generations,"
Samuelson said. "The animosity continued for
generations, just because of the severity of it."


=====
-doug-
http://dougsmiley.net



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