The origins on May Day (the workers holiday).

Chicago, IL, was a major center for the labor movement in the 1870s and 1880s. It attracted both the mainstream, reactionary unions and the more radical ones. On May 1st, most of the Chicago workers went on strike demanding an eight out day. Within two days a shooting death occurred during a riot at the McCormick Reaper plant. Police were trying to break the strike.
On May 4th, at the Haymarket Square, protesters met to denounce their treatment at the hands of both the company and the police. There were at least eight speakers on a wagon, used as a stage. Towards the end of the meeting, police were trying to disperse the crowd. Someone (to this day no one knows who) threw a bomb and killed a cop. The cops opened fire on the crowd.


The police put the blame on the speakers for “inciting the crowd’ and arrested eight people. They were charged and convicted of murder. Four were actually hung, November 11, 1887, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel. Another, Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison awaiting her death sentence. The other three had their sentences commuted to life. On June 26, 1893, Governor John P. Altgeld pardoned the three who were still in prison. It was not a popular decision with a lot of people, but he was about to leave office and obviously realized an injustice had been done.
The one bright spot in all of this is that the strikers did win an eight hour work day, which many people today take for granted. That is most unions in the world and some countries celebrate May 1 as international Labor Day. It this country it was changed to law day and the government tried to replace it with the Labor Day we celebrate in the fall, which really has nothing to do with labor.

From the Chicago Public Library

Happy May Day!