Haymarket Riot

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Haymarket Martyr's Memorial in Waldheim Cemetery (since 1969: Forest Home Cemetery), Chicago. It has been a National Historic Landmark since 1997 .

At the 1. May 1886 began in Chicago ( Illinois , USA ) is a multi-day, from the trade unions organized strikes to enforce a reduction of the working day from twelve to eight hours. The events associated with this and the following days are known as the Haymarket Riot , Haymarket Affair and Haymarket Massacre and established the tradition of the international labor movement and trade unions to celebrate May 1st as working class day .

background

In October 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada (today's successor American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations ) called for a nationwide strike on May 1, 1886. The aim was to limit working hours by introducing an eight-hour day . On May 1, a total of between 300,000 and 500,000 people went on strike in the United States, according to various estimates. The largest strike took place in Chicago and involved around 90,000 participants. The situation was tense, the militia was put on standby and z. For example, the Chicago Mail called for an example to be made to the protesters, August Spies and Albert Parsons , if problems should arise.

course

Bilingual call to gathering on May 4th. The second edition of the leaflet no longer contained the request to arm.

On the evening of May 1, 1886, a workers 'meeting was held at the Haymarket in Chicago , the speaker of which was the editor-in-chief and publisher of the anarchist workers' newspaper , August Spies . In addition to the strike for the eight-hour day, one of the reasons for the meeting was that the union had won its first major victory in Chicago three weeks earlier: in a factory for agricultural equipment, the majority of workers had expressed their solidarity with the management and because of the inhumane working conditions Threatened a strike at the factory . An average of 3 US dollars was paid for a 12-hour working day  (current value: in 1886 you could get a lean dinner in a restaurant for US $ 3). The result was mass lockouts . The resulting 800 to 1000 vacancies should now be filled with new immigrants who, in such cases, stood in line at the factory gates. As a result of the Arbeiter-Zeitung campaign , however, only 300 new workers registered, which can be seen as the union's first major victory. The Haymarket meeting was followed by a strike that lasted several days in Chicago.

When police stepped in on May 3 to break up a gathering of strikers near the McCormick harvester operation, six workers were shot dead and several others injured. The following night a crowd of several thousand strikers gathered and marched to Haymarket Square . Again the police tried, also under the impression of the violent clashes before, to dissolve the meeting. The protest march continued and was peaceful. The city's mayor, Carter Harrison Sr., also went home early after checking the situation.

The situation escalated the next day, May 4th, when someone dropped a bomb on the crowd that had gathered again in Haymarket Square. Twelve people, including the policeman Mathias J. Degan, died on the spot. Six other police officers later died from their injuries. Police then opened fire, killing and injuring an unknown number of protesters. Since some of the speakers that day had been anarchists , it was believed that an anarchist had dropped the bomb. However, no proof of such a connection could be provided. To this day it is unclear who dropped the bomb.

Illustration of the seven people sentenced to death, 1887

Although no one had even recognized the bomb thrower, eight men who helped organize the strike were charged and found guilty. There was no evidence of any link between the defendants and the bombing. Rather, Judge Joseph Gary argued that the bomb thrower had acted on the ideas of the men and that they were just as guilty as having carried out the attack themselves. August Spies, Albert Parsons , George Engel and Adolph Fischer were hanged . Louis Lingg committed in his cell suicide with a stick of dynamite smuggled through which he himself decapitated (a source called a revolver cartridge which, clamped between the teeth, has been associated with a candle for explosion) itself. Oscar Neebe was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The death sentences of Michael Schwab and Samuel Fielden were commuted to life imprisonment by Governor Richard James Oglesby under pardon .

The convictions sparked an outcry in international working circles and protests around the world. Supporters of the protest included George Bernard Shaw , William Morris and Peter Kropotkin . 25,000 people attended the funeral of the executed in Chicago.

August Spies is further quoted as saying:

"The time will come when our silence is stronger than the voices you are strangling today."

and in the words he said several times during the workers' meeting at Haymarket on the evening of May 1, 1886 in Chicago:

"You can't live like a head of cattle forever!"

On June 26, 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld issued a pardon for Samuel Fielden , Oscar Neebe, and Michael Schwab , who were released. He had come to believe that all of the accused were innocent. The reason for the bombing is the lack of investigation and prosecution of two killings by the Pinkerton detective agency . This decision was unpopular among the population and contributed to the end of Altgeld's political career.

Commemoration

Bronze statue of a Chicago policeman erected in 1889

In 1889, a 9-foot (2.74 m) high bronze statue of a Chicago policeman was erected near the source of the uprising. The statue was a subject that has been debated for a long time. The erection was seen as an act of provocation. After being moved from its original location, it was blown up twice by the Weathermen in the late 1960s and temporarily moved to a police building in the 1970s. In 2007 it was placed in the lobby of the police headquarters.

Memorial plaque at Waldheim Cemetery in Chicago (1997). Lingg, Spies, Fischer, Engel and Parsons are buried there.

A square bronze plaque was attached to the original site in 1992, which reads:

“A decade of strife between labor and industry culminated here in a confrontation that resulted in the tragic death of both workers and policemen. On May 4, 1886, spectators at a labor rally had gathered around the mouth of Crane's Alley. A contingent of police approaching on DesPlaines Street were met by a bomb thrown from just south of the alley. The resultant trial of eight activists gained worldwide attention for the labor movement, and initiated the tradition of 'May Day' labor rallies in many cities. ”

“A decade of quarrel between workers and industry culminated here in a confrontation that led to the tragic deaths of workers and police officers. On May 4, 1886, spectators had gathered at a workers' meeting at the top of Crane's Alley. A contingent of police from DesPlaines Street was hit by a bomb dropped from the south of the alley. The ensuing trial of eight activists attracted global attention to the labor movement and ushered in the May Day tradition with workers' meetings in many cities.
dedicated on March 25, 1992 to
Mayor Richard M. Daley "

In 2004, the mayor, trade unions and police agreed on a monument in the form of a bronze statue depicting a speaker on a car. The memorial is meant to symbolize both the Haymarket strike and free speech.

Ideological aftermath

The Haymarket Affair led to the demise of the Knights of Labor in the United States . It also led to a purge of socialist teaching institutions - supposed and real, Christian and Marxist.

Before Haymarket, J. Bates Clark was skeptical that competitive conditions would lead to fair wages and demanded that “big business” be offset by “big labor”. He wrote (1878): “It is a dangerous mistake to praise competition too much and regard all attacks on it as revolutionary. [...] We do not eat people ... but we do it through such indirect and refined procedures that we generally do not notice that we are cannibals. "According to Haymarket, Clark (1891) stated:" What a social class is given is - under natural law [competition] - that which it contributes to the general production of industry. ”Clark became a pioneer of neoclassical distribution theory and since 1947 a John Bates Clark Medal has been awarded to the best American economist under 40 every two years.

literature

  • Jürgen Alberts : The anarchist from Chicago. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1995, ISBN 3-498-00041-1
  • Paul Avrich : Haymarket Tragedy. Princeton University Press , 1984
  • Helge Döhring: Adolph Fischer. A militant anarcho-syndicalist. online .
  • Frank Harris : The Bomb. (A novel). John Long, London 1908. (Also: Feral House, Portland OR 1996, ISBN 0-922915-37-7 ),
    • Frank Harris: The bomb. Novel . E. Laub'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1927.
  • Friederike Hausmann : The German Anarchists of Chicago or Why America Doesn't Know May Day (Wagenbach's Pocket Book, 320). Wagenbach, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8031-2320-8
  • Horst Karasek (Ed.): 1886 Haymarket. The German anarchists of Chicago. (Wagenbach's pocket library, 11). Wagenbach, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-8031-2011-X .
  • Bernhard R. Kogan (Ed.): The Haymarket Riot. Anarchy on trial. Heath, Boston MA 1959
  • Timothy Messer-Kruse: The Trial of the Haymarket Anarchists: Terrorism and Justice in Gilded Age . Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-230-12077-8 .
  • Heinrich Nuhn : August Spies, a Hessian social revolutionary in America. Victims of the tragedy on the Chicago Haymarket in 1886/87. With personal reports and documents (= Friedewälder contributions to regional folklore and culture 1). Jenior & Pressler, Kassel 1992, ISBN 3-928172-11-5 .
  • Harry Maximilian Siegert: Also a son of Mannheim: Louis Lingg and May 1st. In: Ulrich Nieß, Michael Caroli: History of the City of Mannheim. Volume 2: 1801 - 1914. Verlag Regionalkultur, Heidelberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89735-471-5 , pp. 426-445.

Web links

Commons : Haymarket Riot  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listing of National Historic Landmarks by State: Illinois. National Park Service , accessed July 22, 2019.
  2. ^ A b How May Day Became a Workers' Holiday . In: The Guide to Life, The Universe and Everything . BBC . October 4, 2001. Retrieved September 10, 2010.
  3. ↑ Paul Avrich estimates the number at 300,000: The Haymarket Tragedy. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1984. p. 186; Eric Foner (chairman of the American Historical Association since 2000) to 500,000: May Day. P. 27, Howard Zinn gives 350,000 participants: A People's History of the United States, New York 2005, p. 270.
  4. ^ Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States . Harper Perennial, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , p. 270.
  5. ↑ Gabriel Kuhn : "New Anarchism" in the USA , Unrast Verlag 2008. ISBN 978-3-89771-474-8 , page 14 f.
  6. ^ A b Howard Zinn: A People's History of the United States. Harper Perennial, New York 2005, ISBN 0-06-083865-5 , pp. 271-272.
  7. ↑ Stephen Kinzer: In Chicago, an Ambiguous Memorial to the Haymarket Attack . In: The New York Times , September 15, 2004. Retrieved September 10, 2010. 
  8. ^ Clark, JB, 1878, How to Deal with Communism , New Englander, XXXVII, pp. 533-542.
  9. ↑ Clark, JB, 1891, Distribution as determined by the law of rent, pp. 229-318 in: Quarterly Journal of Economics, April 5, p. 312

Coordinates: 41 ° 53 ′ 5.6 "  N , 87 ° 38 ′ 38.8"  W.