Most people are taught that during the Industrial Revolution workers were mistreated and a typical work day consisted of 12-14 hours per day. What isn't taught, for the most part, is that the 8-hour work day was not an action by benevolent employers or a compassionate government, but a demand by the workers.
In 1884, a nationwide movement began to call for the 8-hour workday. As lobbying government officials had been unsuccessful, the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions passed a resolution calling for a general strike to achieve the goal by their specified deadline--8 hours would constitute a legal day's work beginning on and following May 1, 1886.
From May Day - the Real Labor Day
The heart of the movement was in Chicago, organized primarily by the anarchist International Working People's Association. Businesses and the state were terrified by the increasingly revolutionary character of the movement and prepared accordingly. The police and militia were increased in size and received new and powerful weapons financed by local business leaders. Chicago's Commercial Club purchased a $2000 machine gun for the Illinois National Guard to be used against strikers. Nevertheless, by May 1st, the movement had already won gains for many Chicago clothing cutters, shoemakers, and packing-house workers. But on May 3, 1886, police fired into a crowd of strikers at the McCormick Reaper Works Factory, killing four and wounding many. Anarchists called for a mass meeting the next day in Haymarket Square to protest the brutality.
The meeting proceeded without incident, and by the time the last speaker was on the platform, the rainy gathering was already breaking up, with only a few hundred people remaining. It was then that 180 cops marched into the square and ordered the meeting to disperse. As the speakers climbed down from the platform, a bomb was thrown at the police, killing one and injuring seventy. Police responded by firing into the crowd, killing one worker and injuring many others.
Although it was never determined who threw the bomb, the incident was used as an excuse to attack the entire Left and labor movement. Police ransacked the homes and offices of suspected radicals, and hundreds were arrested without charge... [E]ight of Chicago's most active were charged with conspiracy to murder in connection with the Haymarket bombing. A kangaroo court found all eight guilty, despite a lack of evidence connecting any of them to the bomb-thrower (only one was even present at the meeting, and he was on the speaker's platform), and they were sentenced to die. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolf Fischer, and George Engel were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg committed suicide in prison, The remaining three were finally pardoned in 1893.
It is not surprising that the state, business leaders, mainstream union officials, and the media would want to hide the true history of May Day, portraying it as a holiday celebrated only in Moscow's Red Square. In its attempt to erase the history and significance of May Day, the United States government declared May 1st to be "Law Day", and gave us instead Labor Day - a holiday devoid of any historical significance other than its importance as a day to swill beer and sit in traffic jams.
Nevertheless, rather than suppressing labor and radical movements, the events of 1886 and the execution of the Chicago anarchists actually mobilized many generations of radicals. Emma Goldman, a young immigrant at the time, later pointed to the Haymarket affair as her political birth. Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, called upon the poor to direct their anger toward those responsible - the rich. Instead of disappearing, the anarchist movement only grew in the wake of Haymarket, spawning other radical movements and organizations, including the Industrial Workers of the World.
Since then, most industrialized countries recognize May 1st as May Day - the workers' day - and as an official holiday.
Yet, here, in the United States, where textbooks and curriculum are chosen by and for the lowest common denominator, this rich history of dissent, and activism is suppressed. Workers in this country do not see the relevance of the Labor Movement, because they have never heard of their success.
In Lies My Teacher Told Me, James Loewen discusses the reality of a near systematic dilution of the people's power to affect change. If these stories of labor struggles were taught accurately, students would at least have a better understanding of how unions are important, and at the most, believe that they could affect real change. The labor movement has a rich history that is interwoven into our history as a nation, but is ignored as it is empowering, and would ultimately teach students that governments, including our own, do not always act in the best interest of their citizens, but in the interests of business.
If the story of the Haymarket Affair, and the Ludlow Massacre were taught in our high school classrooms they would open the door to teaching students that our government is fallible, and is at odds with the goal of blind obedience.
Instead, we have students whose knowledge of unions is limited to the Baseball Strike, and Jimmy Hoffa. They know nothing of the sanitation workers strike in Memphis that Dr. Martin Luther King was supporting when he was assassinated. They are not taught about the textile workers that struck for a fair wage and basic human dignity - bread and roses.
Our lives shall not be sweated from birth until life closes –
Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses.
So tomorrow, think of the workers that fought the battle to limit the number of hours they could work. Tomorrow is the Workers' Day.
