Haymarket+Affair

The Haymarket Affair Chicago
The city of Chicago had a long running history of class issues. The laborers were in constant conflict with the upper classes. There were a few reasons for this tension. First, laborers were often immigrants who were looking for work and the upper class were American. The laborers also wanted rights, better wages, and better hours. The upper class wanted profit and was not particularly concerned in how the got it. These long running tensions led to many strikes and unions. It also led to socialism and anarchism among workers. This was a key factor in the Haymarket Affair.

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**The Laborers**
The laborers involved in the Haymarket Affair were predominantly anarchists who shared many principals with socialists. They, like many, wanted fewer hours and better pay. However, the way they asked for these changes was intentionally meant to provoke business owners refusing them. For example, they asked for ten hours pay for eight hours work. Their more moderate contemporaries only asked for an eight hour day. They did this because they hoped it would start a revolution of the working class.

This is the circulation used by the organizers of the Haymarket Affair to ignite working men's anger against police brutality. This led to the Haymarket Affair. []

**Strike!**
On May 4, a group of Anarchist laborers began a protest for the eight hour day. They drew a crowd of 3000 people which dwindled down to about 300 after it began to rain. The meeting then moved into a building. Despite this protest being called tame by the mayor, the police still tried to disperse the gathering. They told the group to disperse and the leaders began to do so after repeating that they were having a peacefully meeting. Then someone threw a stick of dynamite into the police’s ranks killing one officer. Police then opened fire into the unarmed crowd for three minutes, killing a few civilians and injuring many more. The police suffered seven casualties but only four were directly from the bomb and most were from other policemen’s bullets. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8w-z8ud_9QU media type="youtube" key="8w-z8ud_9QU" height="385" width="480" A PBS documentary on the Haymarket Affair.

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Public Reaction The anarchists accused of the bomb throwing were tried in a time were people cried for the execution of all men involved. The city demanded for revenge against all radicals because of the death of the policemen. This trial has been called the first Red Scare, as the public reacted in fear against all socialist and radical thinking. Germans, as well, were discriminated against because many of the socialist leaders were aliens. The government tried to passes laws against “undesirable aliens”, and big business owners used this riot as an excuse to back out of their promises for an eight-hour day. In the hands of those who opposed organized labor, the Haymarket Affair was used to turn the public and the government against labor unions. Many years after the trial, however, the public reaction changed dramatically. Now, this event is viewed as a tragedy, and not a success for big business. The police killed roughly 8 civilians, and wounded approximately 20 more. The men tried and accused for the murder of officer Mathias J. Degan did not receive anything close to a fair trial, and they were unjustly hanged for this crime.

This sympathetic portrait of the anarchists shows that some glorified these individuals for their pro-laborer attitudes.

**The Trial**
After the arrest of over 200 “radical” suspects, only 31 were finally indicted on May 27. Then only 8 men remained to stand trial for the murder of the police officer killed in the bombing. These men, among them were August Spies and Albert Parsons, were considered the leaders of Chicago’s anarchist movement, and this trial gave the city a chance to eliminate them. The judge of the case was a man previously considered unbiased, but this reputation proved false in the hearings. Judge Joseph E. Gary began his prejudiced trial by selecting a jury that had close relations with police officers killed in the riot, or had admitted that they would not give a fair verdict. The state made many claims against the men standing trial, such as saying that they threw the bomb, advocated violent protests, or were part of a large conspiracy, but the defense soundly disproved these arguments. Such a defense would normally have gained an acquittal, but Gary sided with the prosecution with every falsely made accusation. Mayor Harrison of Chicago told the //Chicago Inter Ocean// newspaper on May 5, 1886, "My impression is that Mr. Spies is responsible for to-night's action in his calling the meeting, together with the headlines, ‘Blood!’ ‘Revenge!’ He will be indicted for inciting riot and bloodshed at once. His paper is evidence enough." This shows how the mayor acted unfavorably to the anarchists cause. Four of the men were finally sentenced to death by hanging, and their funeral was the most largely attended in Chicago history.

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" ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login ." ABC-CLIO Social Studies Databases: Login. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display.aspx?categoryid=21&entryid=252759&searchtext=haymarket&type=simple&option=all&searchsites=4, (accessed May 10, 2010).=====

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Schneirov, Richard, and Indiana State University. "The Haymarket Bomb in Historical Context: The Events of 1866: Chicago: Albert Parsons and the Rise of Anarchism." Illinois Historical Digitization Projects: Northern Illinois University Libraries. http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/haymarket/events4.html (accessed May 10, 2010).=====

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Schneirov, Richard, and Indiana State University. "The Haymarket Bomb in Historical Context: The Events of 1866: Chicago: Storm Center of Class Conflict." Illinois Historical Digitization Projects: Northern Illinois University Libraries. http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/haymarket/events2.html (accessed May 10, 2010).=====