On anti communist Labor Day, remember Haymarket Square

[central scrutinizer]

Most of the world honors American labor martyrs on May 1. That’s the real Labor Day. Sadly, few Americans know about Haymarket Square

[tritsofme]

1. You say "anti communist" like it's a bad thing.

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

3. It was. Whether it still is is probably a matter of opinion.

Not that we shouldn't take advantage of a day off (I think there should be more of them), but at the time that U.S. deigned to consider a national holiday for it's workers (who were regarded as "scum" by big capitalists), politicians like Pres. Grover Cleveland (a Democrat) were afraid that a first day of May holiday would lead to annual celebrations of the Haymarket Square (Chicago) events of 1886 (which actually happened on 4 May). The "Haymarket riot" was a police riot, logical given that the police were empowered to brutalize anyone with the perfidy to demand decent wages and working conditions. No one has found the origin of the bomb that exploded, though folks leaning toward the left have suggested it was the police, too. In any case, the first of May Labor Day is a holiday celebrated by labor of all sorts across the world (often leftists of some sort [socialists, anarchists, communists, greens, etc.], but not exclusively), but I'm only aware of it being celebrated today by the Industrial Workers of the World in the U.S. (iww.org), though perhaps some DU members know of other unions who do.

For a VERY condensed history of the holiday, in the 1890s Cleveland and the rest looked to the American Federation of Labor which, prior to its merger with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the 20th century (ergo AFL-CIO), represented skilled white male workers. The other large union at the time was the Knights of Labor, who were a bit more open regarding membership, especially with unskilled workers. The holiday was proposed by an AFL executive, Peter J. McGuire, who had been a member of the Knights prior to the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and then the AFL executive. It's been linked to a founding conference of. the Knights (NYC, 1882). The national holiday was ratified in the aftermath of the Pullman Strike of 1894, at which point fear of radical labor by capitalists had reached a fever pitch.

The first of May became known as "Loyalty Day" in the Cold War paranoid aftermath of World War Two, to "negate" the "radical" implications of a first of May Labor Day. Loyalty Day was made official during the Eisenhower administration, as most labor unions in the U.S. submitted to taking "loyalty oaths" to profess their loyalty to the United States and the capitalists it stands for during the ridiculous purges of alleged "communists" (the definition of which varied widely) by opportunist politicians like McCarthy and Nixon, and sinister administrators like J. Edgar Hoover, supported by lawyers like Roy Cohen. Growing up in public education, I remember this being used against "undesirable" teachers. I don't speak Russian (yet), for example, because the Russian language teacher in my junior high (who also taught at the high school) was fired for "disloyalty" and rumors were spread of "communism." He was Gay. BTW, the IWW refused to do loyalty oaths from the outset and suffered mightily for it.

The sort of paranoia that the "loyalty" period engendered may have found its zenith during the revelations of Nixon's actions after the arrests at DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel and the Cole v. Richardson (1972) ruling; but the malignant legacy of it can, I think, still be seen in pretty much everything the GOP does.

[Dennis Donovan]

2. The Haymarket Affair (Wikipedia)

The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The rally began peacefully in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after the events at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, during which one person was killed and many workers injured. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing retaliatory gunfire by the police caused the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

Eight anarchists were charged with the bombing. The eight were convicted of conspiracy in the internationally publicized legal proceedings.

The Haymarket affair is generally considered significant as the origin of International Workers' Day held on May 1,. It was also the climax of the social unrest among the working class in America, known as the Great Upheaval.

The evidence put forward in the court trial was that one of the defendants may have built the bomb, but none of those on trial had thrown it, and only two of the eight were at the Haymarket at the time. Seven were sentenced to death and one to a term of 15 years in prison. Illinois Governor Richard J. Oglesby commuted two of the sentences to terms of life in prison; another died by suicide in jail before his scheduled execution. The other four were hanged on November 11, 1887. In 1893, Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld pardoned the remaining defendants and criticized the trial.

The site of the incident was designated a Chicago landmark in 1992, and a sculpture was dedicated there in 2004. In addition, the Haymarket Martyrs' Monument was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1997 at the defendants' burial site in Forest Park.

(More at link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair )