The Haymarket Massacre (May 4th 1886) in Chicago, also known as the Haymarket Affair or the Haymarket Square Riot, was a labour movement protest which, after the police showed up, led to some 255 people getting injured and 11 killed, seven of them police officers.
On May 1st 1886, three days before, there were strikes and protests across the US for an eight-hour workday. The trains in Chicago stopped running. There was a torchlight procession down Broadway in New York. Back then ten hours a day was common, 12 hours not uncommon. Some said the ills of capitalism went far deeper than mere working conditions, but it was a clear-cut aim most could support.
On May 3rd, Chicago police fired on strikers in front of the McCormick Harvester Works, killing four.
On May 4th, some 3,000 peacefully assembled at Haymarket Square to protest the shooting. Towards the end, when non-metaphorical storm clouds were gathering overhead, when only a few hundred remained and speakers were winding down, 180 policemen showed up. They told everyone to leave. Someone threw a bomb at the police, injuring 66, of whom seven later died. The police in turn shot on the protesters, injuring 200, killing “several”.
To this day no one knows who threw the bomb. It may have been an actual bomb-throwing anarchist. Some think it was an agent provocateur, giving the authorities in Chicago an excuse to do just what they did: crack down on the labour movement and hang its leaders. They arrested hundreds and sentenced eight to hang.
Of the eight sentenced to hang, one was speaking at the time the bomb was thrown and the other seven were not even there. None of that mattered: the law allowed those who incited murder to be found guilty of murder. Some labour leaders were anarchists who wanted violent revolution. Case closed.
The Haymarket Massacre was international news. People knew about it in Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and the Netherlands. When the eight judges of the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear the case, thus upholding the eight death sentences, George Bernard Shaw in Britain advised:
“If the world must lose eight of its people, it can better afford to lose the eight members of the Illinois Supreme Court.”
A year after the trial four were hanged. One killed himself in prison with a stick of dynamite in his mouth. The other three were pardoned after a new governor, John Peter Altgeld, received petitions signed by 60,000 people. He lost re-election.
In the short term, the Haymarket Massacre gave the labour movement a bad name.
In the long term it strengthened the labour movement: it created martyrs, remembered till at least the 1960s, and woke up many people, among them Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
Many years later:
- 1900 – most in the US have the right to form labour unions and strike.
- 1912 – Teddy Roosevelt champions the eight-hour day.
- 1926 – Ford Motor Company goes to a five-day, 40-hour work week.
- 1940 – the 40-hour week becomes a standard US business practice.
Thanks to Chauncey DeVega for inspiring this post.
– Abagond, 2016.
Sources: Mainly “A People’s History of the United States” (2003) by Howard Zinn.
See also:
- Micah Xavier Johnson – a rant in 500 words or less
- Chicago
- Black Power
- Black Lives Matter
- Occupy Central (佔中)
571
Interesting topic with connections to the Black Lives Matter movement. Also, good Spongebob reference.
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There you go again, Abagond — educating!🤗 Thanx!
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The history of the labor movement is something that was taught in school when I was growing up (I won’t say how long ago that was), because I clearly remember lessons about the Haymarket Affair. I asked a young person I know (in her early 20’s) if it had been taught to students when she was in primary or secondary school, and she said it had not.
That started me thinking about how other things are not taught either that were important subjects when I was in school. For example, in grade school we were taught extensively about agriculture and farming methods, probably because the ‘Dust Bowl’ disaster was in recent memory at that time.
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And this where I say to myself…..hmmmmm…..that’s an interesting parallel.
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This is off topic, but my dear Agabond, you are symptomatic to me of a backwards movement going around the world at the moment.
Thinking of yourself as a kind of Joan of Arc fightig racism (cf banner picture), you seem to spend your time spreading obsessively racist comments about everything. I am a French person, a teacher, I never believed in races in mankind (the biological definition of races implies impossibility to interbreed), but I do believe in the extreme dangerousness of communautarism, closed-mindedness, lack of ability to self-reflect and intellectual dishonesty.
Funny how so many of the people who feel self-confident enough to publish and broadcast their thoughts as if it could be of some interest to mankind turn out to be affected by these flaws.
I was given to observe how the US society as a whole seems to be ill with armed violence, communautarism, racism, bigotry, social darwinism, greed and hypocrisy (I am not suggesting in any way that this is the only country in the world where these manifest, or that nothing is good in the US), and therefore I fully understand your need for revolt against these affections; but please, if you are going to pretend to be of any positive influence in society, give up using all the crap techniques and arguments you spend your time denouncing in your very ‘enemies’. You seem to think of yourself as an educated and fairly well-read person, so stand to your principles and give up intellectual complacency. If I may, raise the bar a bit.
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@jacques
It is not clear to me from what you said whether I should give up being racist or give up talking about racism or what.
Please list the crap techniques I should give up.
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@jacques
What on Earth are you on about?
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@jacques: Are you on drugs? What is that moronic screed about?
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@Mary Burrell
Abagond is racist for talking about racism. Didn’t you know that? This is one of the oldest “rules” in the book. Take, for example, this hate letter to MLK that I saw on twitter:
https://twitter.com/chescaleigh/status/754644476413509633
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I said it, I was off-topic in regards to the article about the Haymarket Massacre.
I was on about this pile of crap, among others littering a blog otherwise often interesting:
or:
‘Techniques’: simplification, pretend candidness, categorization, generalizations… In a nutshell: racism. Yes, you got it, Agabond: you should stop being a racist yourself. I reckon you know better. Don’t become your enemy.
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@ Jacques
Those are two of my best posts! So is this one in the same vein:
Some of my posts DO make me cringe when I reread them years later, but they are not among them. They hold up remarkably well.
But you should read my blog-wide disclaimer (which I admit I need to make more visible):
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@Origin: Yes I have noticed that is a pattern when Black people talk about racism. The ones who get offended call Black people racist for calling them out on their b.s.. How crazy is that? This is not the thread to discuss this type of idiocy don’t want to derail the thread.
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@origin: I am a true admirer of MLK, precisely for demonstrating such immense moral strength and intellectual integrity in spite of the noxious context of US society in the 60’s: he fought hatred and racism without ever degrading himself or his cause to use the same weapons as his enemies.
Maybe you should go back to reading him. Despite what Bush junior said, in life it’s rarely only ‘with us or against us’. I believe (and I seem to understand MLK also believed it) that people have a duty to think for themselves and with a minimum of moral and intellectual integrity. Obviously, this is a much more complex and demanding process than lazy, binary thinking that can push people to react to ‘These negroes need putting back into place’ by ‘All these white crackers are crazy mofos’…
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@ Jacques
Interesting how you have Blacks using a racial slur while Whites use a polite middle-class term.
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Oh, and for those of you (scaringly numerous, I realize) who have made a conscious decision to put a stop to their mental growth and to the opening of their minds (/have placed piece of aluminium foil over their heads?), you can always feed your nasty ways of ‘thinking’ here:
http://www.theapricity.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?62-United-States
lol
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Precisely Agabond, precisely… 😉
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SMH.
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My young niece is a French-Rwandese ‘mix’. God forbid she inherits the flaws of both ‘sides’ 😀
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@jacques
The actual irony is that MLK, held up as he is today of as a beacon, was accused, by whites, of the same things black activists are accused of today. Namely, of being racist, inciting violence and so on. Let’s not forget how his story ended.
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Why is Jacques allowed to take over this thread? Why no OFF-TOPIC take it to _____? Why not ask him to rewrite one of the posts he objects to in suitably non-racist language? We could all be enlightened, or bust our guts laughing at his stupidity.
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White supremacists arguments are of no more value to me than black supremacist arguments. MLK’s ideas and ways were fundamentally different to, say, Malcolm X’s. There is no questioning the widespread injustice of black people’s condition in the US here. I just make a very clear point that one bad does not justify another. Just like what happens in Palestine will never justify what happened in Nice; what happened in 11/09/01 will never justify this: https://collateralmurder.wikileaks.org/
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@ gro jo, fair enough, I apologize for posting this in the wrong thread. As to racism, I guess you only hear what you wanna. I would also really appreciate if you could elaborate on the stupidity of what I said.
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just so I can laugh with you 🙂
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Jacques, as a French person, what’s your take on the re-enslavement of the people of Guadeloupe in 1802 by that ‘great’ French hero Napoleon Bonaparte?
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Jacques, if you’d read my comment with a discerning eye, you’d see that I said that your rewriting of Abagond’s posts, the ones you find objectionable, could be enlightening or stupid. I did not write that what you’ve written so far, is. The jury is still out on what kind of commenter you are, as far as I’m concerned. So, go to the posts and do your own version.
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🙂 And I’m the idiot here? Where did I state France was an exemplary country, or that I was speaking as its mouthpiece? FYI, I am among a growing number of people in France who consider that the glorifying of Napoleon should be put into perspective with a few historical facts. But your answer and presumptions just proves how hard it is for some to extract their thinking from binary ‘good/bad’, ‘for/against’, ‘France/USA’ perspective.
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@ gro jo: my bad, I did completely misread your comment. I guess it is late for me now. Have a good evening.
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The people who opposed MLK did not necessarily consider themselves white supremacists. To quote another letter to MLLK from that twitter link:
Sounds like your typical unconcerned white person.
“Blacks in other countires have it worse” = “Don’t like it, go back to Africa”
“Other things are more important” = “All Lives Matter”.
“Your non-violent protest is violent” = “Your identification of racism is racist”
Yup, I have heard similar things in 2016 from many whites who do not consider themselves white supremacists. I do find that many lack a capacity for introspection and an uncanny abillity to miss the point. Sentiments such as the above is probably why MLK, who many love to beat us with, said this in his letter form a Birmingham jail:
https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html
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@ jacques
So this blog hurts your feelings. It isn’t 1/100th of what the average African American has to listen to every day.
I’d dare say that’s also true for any black person living in France, Belgium, Switzerland or wherever it is you hang your hat.
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I have to admit, I’m with gro jo on the character, “jacques”.
Another stroll by troll with a pretentious and condescending manner. I noticed he/she refused to answer direct questions from anyone. gro jo’s query about the re-enslavement of the people of Guadeloupe in 1802, sent him/her scurrying out of the comments section faster than I can write “phony frenchy”.
The fact that this mountebank had the temerity to lecture other commenters about “techniques” and “methods” points to yet another pseudo-intellectual Euro-American coming to this forum to tell us “ignorant” dark-skinned folk to wait until Mount Everest is worn down to seek equality and justice under the law.
It is laughable that this apocryphal Gaul attempts to tie the commenters up with lame arguments about Dr. King vs. Malcolm X. Jack, we are way past that!
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@Afrofem: I noticed how these trolls like to pull MLK out of their hind parts to reprimand Black people knowing full well they care nothing for MLK or equality or justice for Black people in this country or anywhere else in the world.
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OFF TOPIC:
@ jacques
I agree with gro jo.
Please take this discussion to the Open Thread:
https://abagond.wordpress.com/open-thread/
If you want to rewrite one of my posts to show us the right way to talk about race, the guidelines for guest posts are here:
Thank you.
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LOM
It is not hibernophobia to tell the truth about what the Irish did and is documented that the Irish did.
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@ Afrofem
“I guess I did lose my composure.”
I think you should lose your composure more more often.
Being polite and nice has NEVER caused any racist to stop being racist/deluded!
Besides, I tend to become enthralled and more educated whenever you, Herneith, Sharina, Linda (thank you), Taotesan, Mary Burrell, Trojan Pam, Deb – and others – allow your collective Alpha female sides to shine!
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@Fan
You are a rare man to express such opinions. Few men are secure enough in their own masculinity to truly listen to and cheer on the women around him. It takes years to become a whole man. Seems like you have done the work.
Thanks, Fan!
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ONE MORE TIME: This post is not about Jacques.
Take it to the Open Thread. I deleted some comments. If yours was one of them, you can repost it there.
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@ Jacques
Your comments must be in English. I do not allow French or any other language.
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Fair enough Agabond.
But then I suggest you also delete/ move the other related off-topic comments, so as to not make it look like you are depriving me of a fair occasion to respond to some pretty derogatory ad-personam comments by only allowing for my answer to be placed at the bottom of a 2000-long list of unrelated chatter.
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@ jacques
I gave you a thread of your own:
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@Afrofem…“The fact that this mountebank had the temerity to lecture other commenters about “techniques” and “methods” points to yet another pseudo-intellectual Euro-American coming to this forum to tell us “ignorant” dark-skinned folk to wait until Mount Everest is worn down to seek equality and justice under the law.”
Preach, Sister!”
@Fan…Thanx so much to you!!!
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So I guess we can go back to talking about the topic at hand, finally.
I always thought that America’s Calvinist tendencies made it lean more towards the 16 or 18-hour work day as being a “gold standard” of sorts, not just because companies at the time thought it was profitable, but because of fears that a shorter workday would let lower-class workers have too much time on their hands. “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop” and all that.
I remember working 12-hour shifts when I was younger. Back then, I didn’t have much energy to do anything other than vegetate in front of a TV screen and fall asleep after my shift. Keeping the proles constantly occupied with work gives them less time to think about their problems and less time to do silly things like “protest” and “agitate for change.”
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This blog does not hurt my feelings, it just disappoints me to think that whatever the technological and scientific progress, whatever the lessons history may have taught mankind, kids will still have to live in a world where the only strong answer given to narrow-mindedness, racism and violence is more narrow-mindedness, racism and violence.
Double-speak for, “you are not being obsequious enough towards us white ‘allies’, colour-blind racists. You culluds should be more grateful!
As to being condescendent, that’s what I usually do with clever but arrogantly dishonest students when they blatantly chose to ignore the flaws in their own reasoning
Double-speak: I am a patronizing POS, get over it.
I am no teacher here but being the victim of categorization by the blog’s author does make me feel like taking the mick a bit.
Double-speak: You better listen up to your betters n…
@ afrofem: You are paranoïd. Also obsessed with categorizing people into hyphenated classes, it seems (politically correct for racist?).
And you are a white supremacist loon so what of it? I guess ‘paranoid’ to you means not reading and agreeing with your meandering’s
. I have the same right as you do to have, and express, my opinion as to how best to fight the battle.
Double=speak: It’s my way or the highway. There’s an old saying; With friends like this you don’t need enemies. I have come across clowns like you in real life who seek to impose their will, outlook, whatever on Black people whatever the situations and I told them to f off, so I am writing to you to f off!
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@Herneith
Love your direct, unbossed and unbowed expression!
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@ Mack Lyons
Back in college, I did some primary documents research on the industrial revolution, and that was exactly the argument: “If the workers get a shorter day, they’ll just spend the time drinking, gambling, and rioting in the streets.”
Of course, some of these workers were as young as five, doing 12 to 18 hour days, falling asleep at their job and getting mangled by the machinery.
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I’m glad to see that Altgeld Gardens is posted in the reference. Seems like the governor, although not re-elected, had the last word. Altgeld Gardens was a beautiful housing construction for the returning African American Veterans of WWII around the end of the war.
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