News Item (May 1, 2007):
Immigration protests planned nationwide
LOS ANGELES - Demonstrators demanding a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants hope that nationwide marches will spur Congress to act before the looming presidential primaries take over the political landscape.
So just what do these "illegals" think they're doing and what does this have to do with class and labor?
Everything.
When I was a child, I learned in school that May Day was a day for colorful streamers and dancing around the maypole.
But May 1st has more significance than that, more history than they taught us (well at least me) in school. It's a day that honors labor.
The labor victories of the first week of May are celebrated throughout the world, but ironically they are not officially observed in the US.
Unlike the Alanis Morissette song, this is truly ironic - given the fact that the May Day holiday commemorates a week of heroic labor actions and protests which took place at the Haymarket Square in the city of Chicago.
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The Haymarket Protests
(There are kossacks who have already told this story wonderfully so I will use their words where I can)
kossack IvyTodd:
When thousands gathered on May 1, 1886 in cities across the United States to demand an eight-hour work day, it set in motion a movement. Within a generation, unions began to even the playing field with bosses that cared little for the living and working conditions of their employees. It helped set the stage for the eight-hour workday, a minimum wage, safe working conditions, child labor laws and the right to collectively bargain a better life.
Wikipedia:
[L]abor unions organized a strike for an eight-hour work day in Chicago. Albert Parsons, head of the Chicago Knights of Labor...led 80,000 people down Michigan Avenue in what is regarded as the first May Day Parade. In the next few days they were joined nationwide by 350,000 workers, including 70,000 in Chicago, who went on strike at 1,200 factories.
On May 3...a fight broke out on the picket lines, and Chicago police intervened and attacked the strikers, killing two, wounding several others and sparking outrage in the city's working community.
Posted fliers announced a protest against the killngs, to be held at the center of commerce: Haymarket Square. August Spies published his famous pamphlet "Revenge! Workingmen to Arms!"
Rally at Haymarket Square
The rally began peacefully under a light rain on the evening of May 4. ...The crowd was so calm that Mayor Carter Harrison, Sr., who had stopped by to watch, walked home early. Some time later the police ordered the rally to disperse and began marching in formation towards the speakers' wagon. A bomb was thrown at the police line and exploded, killing a policeman...seven other policemen later died from their injuries...The police immediately opened fire on the crowd, injuring dozens. Many of the wounded were afraid to visit hospitals for fear of being arrested. A total of eleven people died. Wikipedia
This story just writes itself! From kossack dannyinla:
dannyinla: Within hours..., the mayor of Chicago - Carter Harrison - who just hours before had described the Haymarket meeting as "tame", now declared that:
"Our great city cannot expect another day of lawlessness at the hands of the Anarchist forces that endanger our way of life."
District Attorney Julius Grinnell...: "We're making the raids first, and looking up the law later!" And that's exactly what they did.
(The above) 19th century engraving showing exaggerated flames and smoke was published in popular newspapers and magazines during the days and weeks following the Haymarket riot. It also appeared in some history textbooks. Wikipedia
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Immigrants Now and Then
Now I bet you wondering, why it is that at the beginning of this diary, I posted a news item about immigrant workers in the US marching today for their rights. Thanks for asking! :) I was just getting back to that.
Immigration was a big a factor in labor issues then as it is now. Of the 8 people arrested and charged with the murder of the police officer, 5 of them were German immigrants: August Spies, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Micheal Schwab and Louis Lingg. Oscar Neebe was German-American. The other two were Americans Albert Parsons and Samuel Fielden.
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Roundup, Trial and Death
Parsons, Spies, Fischer, and Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Lingg committed suicide in prison. The remaining three...were finally pardoned in 1893.
The jury returned guilty verdicts for all eight defendants, with death sentences for seven. Neebe...received a sentence of 15 years in prison. The sentencing sparked outrage from budding labor and workers movements, resulted in protests around the world, and made the defendants international political celebrities and heroes within labor and radical political circles. Meanwhile the press had published often sensationalized accounts and opinions about the incident, all of which tended to polarize public reaction. (link)
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Aftermath
According to dannyinla, "The execution of the Haymarket martyrs effectively stalled the American labor movement for decades."
However, the fame of the defendants led to the estabishment of May 1 as a commemoration of the events and a day for labor and workers all over the world. But in the United States in the late 1880's, in order to disassociate labor movements from the "radical" left, a new Labor Day was established in September.
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In 2006, proving that they understood history and that they appreciated the long-standing ties between immigrants and the labor movement, immigrant groups in the United States chose May 1 for a protest:
Many Americans are not even aware that May 1 is when Labour Day is celebrated throughout the rest of the world. However, in 2006, May 1st was chosen by immigrant groups in the United States as the day for the Great American Boycott, an attempted general strike of immigrant workers to protest H.R. 4437. Wikipedia
The immigrant labor movement has come full circle. The next time that someone tries to tell you that immigrant laborers have some nerve protesting for fair working conditions in the United States, you can tell them that it's simply as American as apple pie. The immigrants today are from different countries and the jobs have changed some, but the issues are the same as they ever were.
If we're to allow amnesty or legalization of "guest workers," then let's remember this: guest workers without basic rights including the right to unionize only benefit the corporations. But workers with the basic rights we all have including the free choice to unionize help every worker at every pay level, regardless of job.
Unions gave us the things we enjoy today (worker's rights and benefits) and though I've never been in one, I know how necessary they were in the past, how necessary they are now, and important they will continue to be moving on.
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Click Here for More Pictures.
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Points of Reference and Interest
dannyinla:
May Day, 1886... and how four citizens came to hang
May 3rd, 1886 - WORKINGMEN, TO ARMS!!
May 4th, 1886 - The Haymarket Bombing
May 5th, 1886 - Rounding up the Haymarket martyrs
IvyTodd: Do something proactive this May Day
gloriana:Top Comments of the Day / Labor Edition
BentLiberal (who???): Scones, Baguettes and an Arizmendi Bakery Labor Day
Arizmendi Bakery: Why the Name Arizmendi?
ActivistGuy: May 1 Roundups
PaulVa: With Elections Like These, Who Needs A Democracy?
MissLaura: Labor Writing at Daily Kos
mayday2007.org: http://www.mayday2007.org
Wikipedia articles:
May Day
Labor Day (United States)
Haymarket Riot
Thanks to Elise and MissLaura who started this diary series for allowing me to fill the spot tonight. Here is an important message from them:
Issues of class and labor seem to pop up quite a bit on Daily Kos as sidebars or as impacting other topics in important ways, but they don't get their own diaries as often as they perhaps should. Yet work and class have enormous relevance in American life. Almost all of us must work for a living. Most of us who work owe a great debt to organized labor - even if we are not ourselves members of unions, we benefit from the advances unions have made over the years, in safety conditions, limited hours and overtime pay, benefits, child labor laws. And while a shrinking percentage of American workers are represented by unions, not only do union members earn more than their nonunion counterparts, but nonunion workers in highly unionized industries and areas benefit from employer competition for workers, leading to better pay and conditions. Class issues, too, apart from the question of organized labor, are central in many of the political struggles of the day. From bankruptcy legislation to the minimum wage to student loans, legislation affects people differently based on how much they make, what kind of access to power and support they have.
With this series we aim to develop an ongoing discussion around class and labor issues. Such ongoing discussions have emerged in the Feminisms and Kossacks Under 35 series, and, given the frequent requests for more (and more commented-in) diaries on these issues, we hope this series will accomplish the same. Entries will be posted every Tuesday night between 8 and 9pm eastern. If you are interested in a writing a diary for this series, please email Elise or MissLaura and we will arrange for you to be put on the schedule.