The Haymarket Handbills

1. The Haymarket Handbills A cry for justice • The eight hour day • The pieces of paper from Chicago that ignited the global labor movement • David Fernández-Barrial Steward, Library of Congress Professional Guild, AFSCME Local 2910

8. The printed handbills were at the center of the Haymarket Massacre in 1886. Though these events seemingly took place in a world quite different from our own experience, this story has a number of modern sensibilities: - Terrorism - Free Speech - Immigration/Immigrant Rights - Police Brutality -The nature of American justice: capital -punishment and the legal system -Free Assembly • Fair wages - Class conflict: the one percent versus the ninety-nine percent - Popular journalism and “social” media • Race - There are even a couple of love stories

11. Saturday, May 1stThe Campaign for the Eight Hour Day • In 1884, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions – the Samuel Gompers led federation that became the AFL – resolved that “eight hours shall constitute a legal day's labor from and after May 1, 1886”.

12. Albert Parsons,The Knights of Labor, and Working Class Activism in Chicago There was an unprecedented public outpouring of support for the eight hour day movement in the spring of 1886. The Knights of Labor exerted much influence in Chicago. The experiences of Mary Harris “Mother” Jones are worth noting. The singular trajectory of Albert Parsons, the most effective labor organizer in Chicago

13. The Anarchists and the Chicago Idea The anarchists of Chicago were the cutting edge of a labor movement in a city that was progressive by all standards. They were not doctrinaires; they were interested in lasting change. The International Working People’s Association (IWPA) and the Chicago’s Central Labor Union Alliances were formed; an impressive working class movement took root.

14. A Word about Violence, Dynamite, and the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts In the 1870s and 1880s, the notion of a war between classes was not a mere euphemism. As state militias and private security companies proliferated, promoting self-defense became a reality; technology became a game-changer. Nevertheless, the campaign for the eight-hour day – and the demonstrations on May 1, 1886 – showed that hundreds of thousands ands of people could be mobilized peacefully. 30,000 in Chicago alone.

15. Monday, May 3rdThe McCormick Reaper Works An eight hour day demonstration merges with angry striking workers. Police respond by clubbing the crowd; workers throw rocks; police open fire. Albert Spies, editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung witnesses the shootings; 2 dead, indiscriminate shooting - even women and children were shot at. The printing of the Revenge circular

16. August Spies and the Revenge Circular The emotions of this activist ran high; dozens of these circular were circulated, but it was the actions of the next day that set events in motion…

17. As a way of mobilizing, Spies wanted to print up handbills convening a mass-meeting to denounce the police violence the day before. Adolph Fisher was a young compositor in the offices of the Arbeiter-Zeitung tasked with setting the handbill. When Spies came to examine the proofs, he told his younger colleague to remove some of the wording. These were the pieces of paper that called this historical event to order; it was the social media, the handbill that was printed and distributed in the thousands, calling on people to show up. They represented the strength of the labor movement of Chicago, the union of working class people across various social, political and ethnic lines. It was bilingual, emphasizing the multiculturality of the movement And the unused version urging self-defense would have grave consequences…

18. Two Pieces of Paper

19. May 4, 7:30 PM Randolph Street between Desplaines and Halsted Streets

20. 10:20 PM The Last Speaker of the Evening Samuel Fielden, stone hauler from Lancashire, England, renowned labor orator Weather was getting worse, 200-300 remained in the square Captain Ward: “I command you in the name of the people of the state of Illinois, to immediately disperse!” “But we are peaceable…”

23. Mattias Degan A bomb fragment severed an artery in his thigh; he bled to death at the scene George Mueller (May 6) John J. Barrett (May 6) Michael Sheehan (May 9) Thomas Redden (May 16) Timothy Flavin (May 8) Nils Hansen (June 14)

25. The Common Threads The fact that they were immigrants made them suspect. That they were anarchists meant that the authorities could easily convict them, using prejudice about their beliefs. But what drew the nooses around their necks was the fact that they were all successful labor leaders in Chicago. They had the ability to mobilize thousands of people in a moment’s notice and they were thus a direct threat to the status quo.

26. Elusive Justice in the 1880s • “…the police received the moral and financial support of the Chicago business community. Immediately after the bombing some three hundred citizens, including Marshall Fields, Philip D. Armour, and George Pullman met and subscribed more than $100,000 to help stamp out anarchy and sedition. A share of the money went to the families of the officers that had been killed and wounded at the Haymarket. The remainder was put at the disposal of the police and the prosecution in the anarchist trial. It was “blood money” critics maintained, that secured the conviction of the defendants for it encouraged witnesses for the state “to see things that they never would have seen.” A comparable sum was raised every year until 1891 for the use of police in combating subversion. Among the biggest contributors was Cyrus McCormick, Jr, whose stand against labor earned him the gratitude of business interests throughout the country.” Paul Avrich The Haymarket Tragedy, 1984

27. July 16th High Drama This was the first American “trial of the century” – with a sensationalist press and drama in the courtroom. The Haymarket Anarchists were charged with accessories to the murder of Matthias Degan– which was odd because generally in order to have an accessory, you need to have a principal perpetrator. The prosecution made no effort to show their direct involvement of the accused. Prosecutor Julius Grinnell went so far as to say: “Although perhaps none of these men personally threw the bomb, they each and all abetted, encouraged and advised the throwing of it and are therefore as guilty as the individual who in fact threw it.” The trial was at best, a farce, at worst, one of the worst miscarriages of justice in American history. There were, though, intense, heroic moments in the trial

29. For Naught On August 19, the Haymarket Anarchists are found guilty. 7 are sentenced to death, with Neebe given 15 years in the penitentiary at Joliet. Appeals are filed into the next year. The Supreme Court refuses to hear the case. The execution date of November 11, 1887 is set. On the eve of the executions, commutations are given to Fielden and Schwab who are sent to the penitentiary for a life term.

30. Endings November 10 The Suicide (or Murder) of Louis Lingg

31. Endings The Gallows [As the May 1886 Chicago Tribune cartoon predicted: the foregone conclusion.]

32. 1893 Pardons In 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Atgeld meticulously reexamined the case pardoned Fielden and Schwaab. “No man’s ambitions have the right to stand in the way of performing a simple act of justice.”

33. The Origin

34. The Last Word “There will come a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today.” August Spies

35. Artifacts • The two versions of the Haymarket Handbill (1886) • Albert Parsons’ “An Appeal to the People of America” (1887) • “First Dynamite Bomb Thrown in America” print (1886) • The Accused, The Accusers: Speeches of the Haymarket Anarchists (1886) • August Spies’ Autobiography (1887) published by Nina Van Zant • Life of Albert Parsons (1887) published by Lucy Parsons • The Eight Hour Work Day: It’s Inauguration, Enforcement and Influences by Samuel Gompers (1897: AFL pamphlet) • Anarchy and Anarchists: A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America by Michael Schaack (1889) from the Paul Avrich Collection

36. The End, Really