On May 1, 1886, workers throughout the United States engaged in a massive strike for the eight-hour day. Chicago was the strike’s center. On May 4, 1886, a rally was held at Haymarket Square (at the corner of Desplaines and Randolph streets) in Chicago to protest a police attack on a group of strikers. As this peaceful rally was winding to a close, 176 cops moved in to stop the rally. Then someone threw a bomb. It killed one police officer instantly and wounded many others.
In June 1886, several leaders of the Chicago union movement and the fight for the 8-hour day were put on trial, charged with being accessories to murder at Haymarket Square. Most had not even been present when the bomb was thrown.
Tried before a biased judge and jury, the defendants were convicted. Four were hanged.
On July 14, 1889 – the 100th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille Prison — at the International Labor Congress in Paris, a delegate from the American Federation of Labor proposed that the Congress adopt May 1 as International Labor Day and a day to remember the “Martyrs of Chicago.”
This important labor holiday is celebrated every year with huge parades and rallies all over the world – and it began just a few blocks from the heart of the Loop.
Chris Mahin is a writer, speaker and teacher on contemporary U.S. politics and history, particularly on the significance of the American Revolutionary War and Civil war eras for today. He is the Electoral Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
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