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. A Cry for Justice

12. 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”.

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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

17. 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…

18. 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…

19. Two Pieces of Paper

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

21. 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…”

22. On the Street That Night Here are the words of an eyewitness, George Brown, quoted years later in Emma Goldman’s Mother Earth magazine…

25. 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)

26. What Was Thrown A so-called infernal machine What exploded at the Haymarket was more than a bomb: it was a volatile mix of social forces. The dynamite was merely the medium of much a more powerful social dynamic at play

28. May 5th The Arrests • 31 years old, from Landeck, Germany • Labor Organizer, leading figure in the IWPA • Editor of the German-language newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung • Journalist, author of various exposés of police abuses • Approved the printing of the Haymarket handbills • First Haymarket Speaker

29. Adolph Fischer • 25 years old, from Bremen, Germany • Compositor for the Arbeiter-Zeitung • Organizer and activist for the Typographical Union No. 9 and Chicago’s Central Labor Union • Co-editor of Der Anarchist • Printed the Haymarket Handbills

30. - 33 years old, born in Franconia, Germany - Associate editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung -Bookbinder - Founding member of the North Side Group’s IWPA - Managed the IWPA library - Stopped by the Haymarket, but left before the speakers began, because he was addressing a rally at the Deering Reaper works

31. George Engel -50 years old, from Cassell, Germany; grew up in Bremen • Member of IWPA • Co-editor of Der Anarchist • Toymaker, owned a Chicago toystore • Was at home playing cards and was not at Haymarket Square

32. - 23 years old, from Mannheim, Germany - Carpenter - Organizer for the Chicago Carpenters’ and Joiners’ Union - Admitted to bomb making • Denied specific involvement in the making of the Haymarket bomb or any conspiracy. Though ingredients were recovered in his apartment, the materials were not linked to the Haymarket

33. 39 years old, born in Lancashire, England • Family worked in the cotton mills • Became Methodist lay preacher • Self-employed teamster, stone hauler • Founder of Chicago’s first Teamster’s Union • Last speaker at Haymarket -Was descending from the cart when the bomb exploded - Was shot in the leg by police

34. - 36 years old; born in New York, to German parents, grew up in Hesse-Cassell, Germany, returned to the U.S. as a teen • Considered one of the best labor organizers in Chicago, for the Central Labor Union – organized bakers, beer-wagon drivers, brewers - On the board of the Arbeiter-Zeitung -Not present at Haymarket - Basis of his being charged was a comment made in a bar on May 2: “Some day it may come the other way.”

35. Albert Parsons The Unlikely Fugitive • 38 years old, born in Montgomery Alabama, raised in Waco, Texas • Served in the Confederate army, became an advocate of free blacks in the South • Married Lucy Parsons • Editor of the Alarm • Prominent trade unionist, Knights of Labor, IWPA • Testified before Congress in 1879 about the conditions of labor in the U.S. • Popular speaker; recruited to speak after the Haymarket meeting had begun. Disappeared following the riot.

36. 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.

37. The Hysteria It wasn’t a “Red Scare” so much as an anti-labor, anti-anarchist, anti-immigrant backlash. The rise of Captain Michael Schaack and his raids to foil “vast foreign conspiracies” in Chicago In the May 16,1886 Chicago Tribune…

38. 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

39. 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

41. The Haymarket Handbills as Evidence The wording of the handbill version that included the line “Workingmen Arm Yourselves” - which was in fact rejected by August Spies - was used as proof of a conspiracy

42. Igniting the Global Labor Movement All around the world, the cause of the Haymarket Anarchists was embraced There were rallies in London, Madrid, Paris rallies, defense funds collected and messages of support by the thousands sent to the accused. These rallies occurred as far away as Melbourne, Australia and Argentina. In Cuba, cigar workers raised over $900 for the families of the accused.

43. Parsons’ 1887 Appeal

44. 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.

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

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

47. 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.”

48. The Origin

49. A Tale of Three Monuments

50. A Word on Images - The Power of Images - The Lie Inherent in Images - Chomsky “Worthy and Unworthy Victims”