(OPE-L) May Day, 1886 and its Aftermath

["Gerald A. Levy" <Gerald_A_Levy@xxxxxxx>]

"The day will come when our

silence will be more powerful

than the voices you are throttling

today."   

                  -- the last words of August Spies

 

 

On May Day, 1886, there was a parade of 80,000 workers in

Chicago for the 8-hour-day.   Two days later, a clash at

the McCormick Reaper Works ended with police beatings

and the killing of 2 unarmed workers.   A protest meeting was

called for the following evening at Haymarket Square.  At the

rally, a bomb exploded which killed one police officer.  The

police immediately opened fire on the workers -- killing 1 and

wounding many others.

 

The events of 1886 led to the infamous "Haymarket Affair" in

which 8 radical leaders -- primarily anarchists and  socialists -- 

were falsely charged, tried, and convicted.  Four of the defendants

 

[George Engel,

Adolph Fischer,

Albert Parsons, 

August Spies]

 

were condemned to death and went to the gallows -- and into history

-- on November 11, 1887.  The day beforehand,   another defendant,

LOUIS LINGG,  allegedly  committed "suicide"  in prison under

mysterious circumstances.  The remaining 3 were pardoned ...

16 years later.   No evidence ever connected any of these men to

the bomb that exploded in Haymarket Square.  The events are described

-- from a variety of  perspectives -- in the following pages.

http://www.graveyards.com/foresthome/hmarket.html

http://flag.blackened.net/revolt/about/mayday.html

http://www.kentlaw.edu/ilhs/haymarket.htm

 

August Spies -- the author of the above quote and one of the 4

who were executed -- became radicalized and politically active after

Federal troops were used against workers in the Railroad Strike of

1877.  Although often described as an anarchist, he was a socialist --

indeed, that same year (1877) he joined the Socialist Labor Party.  He

went on to become a delegate to the Socialist Convention in Chicago

in 1881, a delegate to the  International Workingmen's Party of America

Convention in Pittsburgh in 1883,  worked with the 4,000 striking miners

in the Hocking Valley Strike of 1884-5,  and for several years was the

editor of the German-language newspaper for workers, Arbeiter-Zeitung.

 

Since the passage of the Patriot Act, and ongoing discussion

about whether the Patriot II Act will be passed, the events of

1886 seem to be highly relevant for today. 

 

Even before that  time, an eerie similarity existed between the

circumstances concerning the  trial  of the Haymarket 8  and the

arrest,  trial, and conviction of Mumia Abu-Jamal.  

Abu-Jamal,  a journalist, political activist and former  member of

the Black Panther Party, has been condemned to death and is 

awaiting -- and fighting --  execution on death row in Pennsylvania.   

For more information about his case, see

http://www.freemumia.org

http://www.mumia.org

http://refuseandresist.org/mumia/idx.php

 

The Haymarket trial  was one event in which there was an

*international* movement of solidarity by anarchists and socialists,

including Marxists.  Some of the writings of the latter,  including

an article by Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling, can be found at:

http://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday

 

The speeches of the Haymarket defendants can be read at:

http://www.marxists.org/subject/mayday/articles/speeches.html

 

The most eloquent -- and lengthy -- speech was made by August

Spies (described above). His defense was simple:

 

"My defense is your accusation."

 

His speech turned the words used in his indictment into

an indictment of his accusers and the system they represented.

In a sense, Spies offered a  *critique* of the state's case

against him.  The critique not only attempted to show the irrationality

and falsity of the charges against him but to use the opportunity

to condemn the very system that was trying him and to offer a

political alternative.   Perhaps in this sense, Spies' critique had

a similarity to *Marx's critique of political economy*: i.e. it was not

merely a defense and a criticism, rather it was an attempt to

*surpass* the body of thought being subjected to critique and to

offer an *alternative*.  Of course, Spies' aim (which, after all, was just

a speech) was more limited than Marx's aim in writing _Capital_. 

Yet, both had *revolutionary* aims that can not be forgotten when

assessing their speeches and writings.  How could it be that Marx

-- a revolutionary -- could limit himself to *only* exposing what was

*wrong* with political economy?  The answer, of course, is that

he didn't limit his aim in that way.  This insight, imo, is de-emphasized

or forgotten by those who think that Marx was either a classical

economist or someone whose aim was merely to critique (narrowly

understood) political economy.  In this sense, Marx had far more

in common with  August Spies and Mumia Abu-Jamal than with

Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Do others agree?

 

The Haymarket Eight are, of course, long dead. 

 

Long live the Haymarket Eight!

 

Mumia Abu-Jamal STILL lives!

 

LONG LIVE and FREE Mumia Abu-Jamal!

 

 

Happy May Day everyone!

 

In solidarity, Jerry