The Haymarket affair also referred to as the Haymarket massacre or riot, took place in Chicago on May 4, 1886. The protest's precursor was a rally conducted in support of workers who were on strike and calling for an eight-hour workday. The police and labor demonstrators engaged in a violent altercation that became recognized around the world as a symbol of workers' rights. It has been linked to May Day, or May Day, ever since it was declared a worldwide workers' day. On 3rd May the same year, one person was murdered and several others injured by the police as they tried to safeguard immediate strikers and strikebreakers (Stanton 67). This action was carried out at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company which also included in the nationwide campaigns toward achievement of an eight-hour workday. To protest the brutality by the police, labor leaders called for a mass meeting the following day in Haymarket Square which ended up in a violent confrontation between the police and the worker.
According to the Mayor of Chicago Carter Harrison, the meeting was expected to be peaceful, and he also attended to observe. After the departure of Carter Harrison and other demonstrators, a group of police officers arrived at the scene and tried to force the crowd to leave (Stanton 67). It was at this point that unidentified person from the masses threw a bomb at the police before the officers responded by random gunfire. A total of seven police officers lost their lives in the event, and 60 others were wounded before the violence stopped. The citizens who died have been approximated to be four to eight and thirty to forty were injured.
In the 1880s, the US experienced an increasing number of strikes by industrial workers. At the time the employees were fighting for issues such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to free assembly. Additionally, other Haymarket matters were about the rights of the citizens to have a fair trial by a jury of peers and the workers right to have an eight-hour workday (Stanton 97). The United States, labor movement during that time was also made of a radical group of socialists, anarchist, and communists who believed that the capitalist system of governance had to be destroyed for exploiting workers. Many of these radicals were not natives of America, and a number of them came from Germany. Moreover, the workers union was also fighting against the use of excessive force by the law enforcement agencies. For instance, as stated above, the rally at Haymarket Square that gave rise to the Haymarket affair was held to address killing and injuring workers by the police in Chicago during a strike on 3rd May 1886.
Sadly, in the America's history there had been many instances where these rights had been violated even before the Haymarket Affair. For example during the demonstrations against the Vietnam War, in the 1960s at the time of right civil marches, and the Democratic National Convention of 1968, similar violations of the United States constitutional rights were experienced (Rulli 234). They have a clear understanding of the occurrence at the Haymarket; it is essential to go back to 1884 during summer. It was the time when the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, the one that was superseded by the American Federation of Labor announced 1st May 1886 as the time when a national program for the eight-hour workday would begin. This idea was not radical because both employees in Illinois and the federal workers were expected to have had the cover of eight-hour workday law from the year 1867. It became a problem just because the government had failed to enact this legislation and instead, in some areas like Illinois, workers were forcefully made to sign waivers of the law by their employers as a condition to obtaining employment.
The failure by the federal government to pass the law left the prearranged labor movements with two years to organize themselves throughout Illinois and Chicago. They distributed questionnaires to the workers to determine who they felt about shortened labor hours and other matters, child labor included (Rulli 236). The campaign gained momentum and the slogans such as "Eight Hours for Work, Eight Hours for Rest, and Eight Hours for What We will!" or "Shortening the Hours Increase the Pay" were heard in Chicago and all over Illinois.
The Haymarket Riot had various outcomes: it created extensive panic directed against the labor leaders and the immigrants. Some citizens of the United States perceived the Haymarket Riot as a reason to disbelieving organized labor (Rulli 254). Knights of Labor was accused of the disturbance and this made the organization to register a decline in its membership. Nevertheless, the event stimulated other labor movement sectors. Seven anarchist and spies were sentenced for murder with claims that they had worked together and also assisted an unidentified assailant. Chicago Eight comes to be a sacrificial victim for the occurrence though most of them were absent during the time of the violence. In 11th November 1887, three defendants and spies were hanged whereas another defendant killed himself (Rulli 258). Even though unions rejected radical politics publicly, they kept on to agitate for improvement of the working conditions. In July the year 1889, American Federation of Labor which was one of the most prominent labor organizations In America by then announced May 1to be a global Labor Day commonly referred to as May Day and celebrated in memory of Haymarket Riot.
In 1893, John Peter Altged, the governor of Illinois got petitioned by Clarence Darrow who was a criminal attorney together with others to grant mercy to three surviving men. Going through the transcripts about the case, the governor realized that the trail of the suspects was never fair and the judgment that was delivered concerning their case was biased (D'Agostino 865). The jury acted in favor of the prosecution, and most of the evidence that was provided against the defendants was fabricated. Altged's decision to grant pardon was extensively fated by the conservative press and industrialists. However, the same action was thoroughly commended by the labor reformers.
The Haymarket Massacre had a long-term effect on the United States' labor movements. Generations of leftist activists, labor leaders, and artist got inspired by the tragedy, and it has been widely commemorated in posters, murals, and monuments all over the world, particularly in Latin America and Europe. For instance, in 1893 in the cemetery located in the Forest Park suburb of Chicago, a Haymarket martyrs' monument was built in their honor (Pulkrabek 145). Additionally, a statue that was constructed in 1889 at the Haymarket Square in memory of the slain police officers was transferred to the training academy of the Chicago Police Department in the early 1970s. This statue was moved because it was continuously been damaged by the leftist radicals. Moreover, in 2004, The Haymarket Memorial was mounted at the scene of the violence for official commemoration of the tragedy.
The Haymarket Riot is regarded as a crucial landmark in the labor movement history not only in the United States but also in the whole world. 1986 marked the centenary of the Eight-Hour-Workday movement as well as the Haymarket Affair. A group referred to as "The People Yes," together with artist Pete Seeger organized a countrywide celebration (Pulkrabek 146). The event provided a rare opportunity to the teachers to instill into the students the facts the Haymarket incident and to correct misrepresentation and inaccuracies found in most textbooks.
The Haymarket Affair fired up the activities of the labor movement and reinforced its resistance. The trials that occurred after the event was primarily viewed as the sham they were. Within a short period, the eight-hour-day crusade had rejuvenated and was once again on its feet (Pulkrabek 149). Their activities led to the achievement of their quest with the first worldwide May Day celebration being conducted in the year 1890. The event was an enormous success; it was celebrated in both South and North America as well as all over Europe.
The US is still living with the history of The Haymarket Affair to date. The legacy of the incident resonates today than any other time in the past. The actual Haymarket Riot that occurred in 1886 was part of a vast, countrywide May Day strike and rally that was led by several America's workers who were mainly immigrants. About 120 years after the event, two movements called the Immigrant General Strike also referred to as the "Day without Immigrants" together with the "Great American Boycott" inherited and gave a boost to the legacy of the Haymarket. As a result of the Haymarket violence, today workers in the United States enjoy the eight-hour-workday cover and them also able to actively campaign towards the improvement of their living standard and wages (Martin 65). In 1889, an American Federation of Labor delegated during a labor conference conducted in Paris recommended that the May Day be a global labor day in honor of the Haymarket martyrs and injustices. Presently, in about all the major industrialized countries, May Day is set at a Labor Day and includes both Israel and the Great Britain who enacted legislation and declared May 1 as a national holiday.
In virtually every nation in the world, May Day is currently recognized as the primary workers' holiday. The day is known to be for demonstrations, strikes, and rallies, often connected to the demands for shorter working hours. Within the global labor campaigns, the tradition of May Day demonstration began in America (Martin 67). However, today the United States is the primary exception to this custom. The country developed Labor Day break which is celebrated at the end of summer to replace the May Day protests by the labor movements officially. Nonetheless, what we need to understand is that there is a central difference between the Labor Day and May Day. Labor is usually a celebration of the dignity of work whereas May Day encompasses events that are strongly linked to the quest for reduced labor hours and improved pay.
The American attitude concerning labor has evolved significantly from the time of the Haymarket Riot. Many people in America seem to view organized labor as a blue-collar thing. In the same way, Haymarket Affair is perceived in sentimental sepia tones (Martin 70). Concerning this viewpoint, the labor movement is regarded as a thing of 19th and the beginning of the 20th century when employees were abused and exploited due to industrial capitalism. Labor movement is thought to have no place in today's new economy in the white collar and high-tech world.
Ironically, the issue of labor hours which formed the care of the Haymarket Riot has today become more critical in the white-collar economy. Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) established 40-hour workweek as a legal norm besides imposing requirements for over-time payment on the employers on any work that exceeds 40-hours. Workers who are paid per minute receive an extra fee for an additional hour spent at work (Kean and Schmitt 34). Most white collar job is excused from this law, and the outcome has been increased pressure on the 40-hour workweek. The United States' white-collar workers with 10-hour workday which include many weekends, fewer paid holidays compared to other white-collar employees internationally have realized the need to keep on with the Haymarket spirit.
Comparing the labor movement historically and presently, there has been a bit of misunderstanding. The relationship between labor movement and immigration has been widely misunderstood among the people of the United States. There have been severe talks concerning immigration and the United States' infiltrated borders among unruly nationalists with claims of safeguarding the America's working class (Kean and Schmitt 36). They have rejected and even insulted the pro-immigrants and labor progressives who call for open and free borders. Presently, anti-immigrant supporters maintain that immigrants cause labor market to be flooded and this situation benefit the employers rather than the worker. What they need to understand is that during the time of Haymarket event, immigrants had a significant contribution in advocating for shorter labor hours without the restriction of borders. Today their rights have been substantially violated by employers and the May Day aggressiveness toward the immigrants has been strengthened.
Overall, the Haymarket Affair was a confrontation between the police officers and the workers union demonstrators at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. During this time, the workers were fighting for issues such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and the right to free assembly. Additionally, other Haymarket matters were about the rights of the citizens to have a fair trial by a jury of peers and the workers right to have an eight-hour workday. The Haymarket Riot had various outcomes; the many of the United States citizens disbelieved organized labor movements. On the other hand, the incident stimulated other labor movement sectors. Also as a result of the Haymarket Riot, many people who participated in the event either directly or indirectly were convicted including the Chicago Eight. The United States is still living with the history of The Haymarket Affair to date. The fact is regarded as a crucial landmark in the labor movement history not only in the United States but also in the whole world. Currently, in about all the major industrialized countries, May Day is set at a Labor Day and includes both Israel and the Great Britain who enacted legislation and declared May 1 as a national holiday. The May Day is currently recognized as the primary workers' holiday and is associated with demonstrations, strikes, and rallies, often connected to the demands for shorter working hours.
Work Cited
D'Agostino, Anthony. "Timothy Messer-Kruse. The Haymarket Conspiracy: Transatlantic Anarchist Networks." (2013): 865-865.
Kean, Eli, and Adam J. Schmitt. "What's missing from the textbook? An inquiry-based lesson plan on the untold histories of labor unions." The Georgia Social Studies Journal Winter 2015, Vol 5, Iss 1, pp. 31-43.
Martin, Lauren. "Sweet Home Chicago." (2014). Library of Congress Teachings Lesson Plans. 38.
Pulkrabek, Payton. "The Haymarket disaster and the knights of labor, an annotated bibliography of selected sources." (2016). Curriculum Unit on the Gilded Age in the United States. 19.
Rulli, Joseph A. The Chicago Haymarket Affair: A guide to a labor rights milestone. 2016. Print.
Stanton, Robert. "Privacy and power: An analysis of policy body cameras." Accessed 11th December, 2017 https://philosophy.uoregon.edu/files/2014/05/Stanton_PhilMatters_2016-1k3fajt.pdf
