On May 4, 1886, Chicago erupted in chaos during the Haymarket Affair, a pivotal moment in labor history that would ripple through industrial relations for decades. What began as a peaceful workers' protest at Haymarket Square transformed into a deadly confrontation that would become a global symbol of workers' rights and the fight for the eight-hour workday.
A labor demonstration supporting striking workers at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company had drawn hundreds of workers and activists. As police attempted to disperse the crowd, an unknown assailant hurled a dynamite bomb into their ranks. The explosion killed one officer instantly, and the subsequent police response resulted in the deaths of several workers and more officers.
Eight anarchist leaders were subsequently arrested and tried, despite dubious evidence linking them directly to the bombing. Four were eventually executed, becoming martyrs in the labor movement. The trial was widely considered a miscarriage of justice, fueled more by anti-immigrant sentiment and fear of radical labor organizing than by actual evidence.
The incident would ultimately help galvanize the international labor movement, with May Day (May 1st) becoming an annual commemoration of workers' rights worldwide. The Haymarket Affair stands as a complex, brutal snapshot of industrial-era social tensions, where the struggle for basic workers' protections collided violently with established power structures.
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