A tip of the hat to those Chicago labor martyrs who gave us an 8 hr day&May Day that we honor today

[papau]

As Today - Labor Day - is the US avoiding the its own history of the Haymarket May Day murders - a tip of the hat to those that fought for the 8 hour day in 1886 - and gave their lives.

Indeed it was an early case of the government causing something that they blamed on others - so as to disrupt and destroy the labor movement. The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada and the International Working People's Association set May 1, 1886 as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become "law", calling for a general strike to make it happen. On Saturday May 1, rallies were held throughout the United States. There were an estimated 10,000 demonstrators in New York and 11,000 in Detroit. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, some 12,000 workers turned out; four days later, Wisconsin National Guard troops opened fire on the crowd of protesters, killing seven people in the Bay View Massacre. The largest rally was in Chicago, where an estimated 90,000 people participated. Albert Parsons, an Anarchist and founder of the International Working People's Association, along with his wife Lucy Parsons and seven children, led marchers down Michigan Avenue. In the next few days, an estimated total of 350,000 workers nationwide went on strike at 1,200 factories.

On May 3 striking workers in Chicago met near the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. plant, where a fight broke out when replacement workers attempted to cross the picket lines. Chicago police intervened and attacked the strikers, killing four and wounding several others, and sparking outrage in the city's working community. Indeed those "uneducated workers" felt that the police had murdered the strikers on behalf of business interests and urged workers to seek justice. The nest day on May 4th the "riot" took place at a rally protesting the murders - the riot caused by a bomb tossed by "unknown persons".

In the evening of May 4. as August Spies spoke told the large crowd that he was not there to incite anyone, "a large number of on-duty police officers watched" as the police ordered the protesters to disperse and began marching in formation toward the speakers' wagon - at which point a bomb exploded in the area of the police, killing policeman Mathias J. Degan. The police then Opened fire killing at least 4 workers (at least as those were the bodies left behind) and taking hits from the crowd that killed 6 more police.

Eight workers connected directly or indirectly with the rally were charged with Degan's murder despite there being no witnesses that said they saw any of those charged throw a bomb or make a bomb or plan to throw a bomb. Of course the jury returned guilty verdicts for all 8 - causing protests around the world and the beginning of May 1st as Labor Day around the world - just not in the US.

After all appeals were exhausted, the Illinois Governor (Richard James Oglesby) commuted 2 sentences to life in prison. one prisoner on the eve of his scheduled execution "committed suicide in his cell" via a dynamite cap shoved in his mouth and set off, blowing off half his face as he survived in agony for several hours. The next day 4 were hanged on a slow drop so they would not die of a broken neck but would strange slowly. Later a new Illinois Governor (John Peter Altgeld) signed pardons for the 2 commuted persons and the other one not yet hung, having concluded all eight defendants were innocent. The governor stated that the real reason for the bombing was the city of Chicago's failure to hold Pinkerton guards responsible for shooting workers.

The corporations saw to it that the 3 pardons ended Illinois Governor Altgeld's political career.

SO ON THIS LABOR DAY THAT IS NOT A MAY DAY, A TIP OF THE HAT, A SAD PRAYER, AND A RAISED TOAST TO THOSE THAT BROUGHT US A LABOR MOVEMENT AND THE 8 HOUR DAY.

[bleever]

1. Thank you for posting this piece of labor history.

:thumbsup:

[spag68]

2. don't forget

The steel workers in Homestead who were killed by the pinkertons Ashole Andrew Carnege, whose offspring is the scaife who paid for the clinton investigations. Also the organizing of the miners,coal workers paid a high price to be organized.Don't forget, we still have a majority of states that are "right to work" states. Right to work harder and longer for less.

[sueh]

3. K & R