The Labor Day Disconnect

[May 1st is celebrated as Labor Day internationally in memory of the Chicago workers who were killed by police during a rally in 1886. Except in the US where Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September. US Labor day was made into a national holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland and Congress quickly put it into law 6 days after the Pullman strike in which 13 strikers were killed by US Army troops. He avoided putting Labor Day on May 1st because of the association with the Haymarket massacre.]

I have been spoiled by Google and Wikipedia. I'm accustomed to quickly checking one or the other for my questions. Today, I actually had to click several links when searching for Haymarket Massacre Chicago to find a complete and balanced history of the events.

A Wikipedia article titled Haymarket Affair slants in favor of the law enforcement officials. It also neglects to mention that Labor Day is celebrated, at least partly, in memory of the workers who died in Chicago on May 4th, 1886. While a second article on the reason for Labor Day doesn't mention Haymarket until near the end of the page, it does present a more objective summary of events.

May 1st, 1886 was a day of general strikes across the US by labor unions. They were striking in support of the 8 hour workday which many people take for granted today.

At that time in Chicago there was much violence from both sides whenever a strike or rally was held. The protesters came with rocks and clubs and police responded with bullets.

Haymarket was the scene of a protest organized by labor leaders on May 4th, 1886. The rally was organized in response and outrage to the killing of two factory workers by police at a strike the day before. Police arrived near the end of the demonstration to break it up.

The major controversy was over the bombing that occurred during the 1886 protest, which killed at least one police officer. The ensuing chaos caused the police to open fire killing several of their own as well as many protesters. The bomber was never found and both sides accused the other of conspiracy. The trial that followed was unable to connect the men indicted with actually planning the bombing or throwing the bomb. Yet the court was able to convict the defendants.

The men accused had preached often of using dynamite to start a working class revolution. It is not hard to understand the fear and anger that accompanied their trial. Nevertheless it is and was believed to have been a show trial, with both sides claiming a special interest in the rights and liberties of the worker.

Of the eight men convicted of murder; one was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, two were granted a stay of execution by the governor of Illinois, one committed suicide in jail and the other 4 were executed on November 11th, 1887. All of this occurred despite the lack of a direct link between them and the bomb.

Further complicating matters is that in November 1892 a new governor of Illinois was elected and on June of the following year granted not only clemency but an complete pardon to the 3 living defendants due to the trial, which he claimed was so full of errors it was his duty to release them.

Over the many years since Haymarket, both memorials dedicated to the slain police officers as well as those dedicated to the protesters who were killed and those who were tried have been repeatedly defaced.

Apparently on the internet as in the real world, the line between history and emotion is hard to resolve.