Haymarket riot

When you think of the first of May, consider how many hours you typically work in a day.  That would be 8. But what seems so commonplace as to hardly worth mentioning—an 8 hour work day -- was a hard fought ‘right’ that underlies part of the story behind the infamous Haymarket riot of 1886 and the execution of unjustly accused anarchists.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly with hundreds of policemen ordered to stand at the ready.

Predictably, with that much fire power and tension, an incident occurred. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others. But the deaths caused by the Haymarket riot were just beginning.

Haymarket riot

When you think of the first of May, consider how many hours you typically work in a day.  That would be 8. But what seems so commonplace as to hardly worth mentioning—an 8 hour work day -- was a hard fought ‘right’ that underlies part of the story behind the infamous Haymarket riot of 1886 and the execution of unjustly accused anarchists.

In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution stating that eight hours would constitute a legal day's work from and after May 1, 1886. The resolution called for a general strike to achieve the goal, since legislative methods had already failed.

The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly with hundreds of policemen ordered to stand at the ready.

Predictably, with that much fire power and tension, an incident occurred. On May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.

The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others. But the deaths caused by the Haymarket riot were just beginning.