art-and-anarchism:Remembering the Haymarket Martyrs In the city of Chicago on the evening of May 4
art-and-anarchism: Remembering the Haymarket Martyrs In the city of Chicago on the evening of May 4th 1886, a protest meeting was held in the Haymarket Square. The meeting was organized by the anarchist community to protest the murder and wounding of several workers by the Chicago police the day before. The murdered men had been protesting outside the Mc Cormick Reaper Factory, from which they had been locked out by the owners. As some scabs were leaving the factory a confrontation occurred involving fighting and rock throwing. The police attacked the locked out workers first with clubs and then with revolvers. August Spies a militant anarchist labor agitator witnessed the shootings, became infuriated and wrote up a circular calling for “Workingmen to Arms.” A compositor unknown to Spies added the word, “Revenge!” so the circular read, “Revenge! Workingmen to Arms!!!” The evening of May 3rd at Greif’s saloon on West Lake Street, at a gathering of German anarchists, it was decided to hold the protest in the Haymarket Square the following evening at 7:30 pm. The meeting was not well attended, the sponsors had hoped for a crowd of 20,000 and only 4,000 at best had showed up. The meeting got started late and was attended by none other than Chicago’s mayor Harrison. After listening to most of the speakers the mayor informed his police captain Bonefield he could dismiss most of his forces. Bonefield insisted on keeping his main force of men assembled at the police station only a block away for fear the meeting was only a diversion for some other violent activity. By ten o'clock a storm was blowing in and the crowd was down to only a few hundred listeners as Samuel Fielden was finishing up his speech. Having been informed by one of the many undercover officers in the crowd that Fielden had urged the crowd to “throttle the law,” captain Bonefield marched his police force into the crowd and demanded they disperse. Fielden pleaded “but we are peaceful” and anyway he was just finishing up, he started to climb down from the wagon that was being used as a stage for the speakers. Just then someone (nobody knows to this day who) threw a bomb into the ranks of the police. What ensued was a police riot in which many civilians and several police were shot dead and wounded. As a result of the bombing eight anarchists, Albert Parsons, August Spies, Samuel Fielden, Michael Schwab, Oscar Neebe, George Engel, Adolph Fischer and Louis Lingg, were arrested, tried and convicted of murder. In his charge to the jury, Judge Gary declared of the defendants, “If they conspired to overthrow the law by force, and if, in the pursuance of such a conspiracy, a bomb was thrown by a member of the conspiracy, resulting in the death of Officer Degan, then the defendants were accessories to the murder whether or not the identity of the bombthrower had been established. Further and even more damaging, if the defendants, by print or by speech, advised, or encouraged the commission of murder, without designating time, place or occasion at which it should be done, and in pursuance of and induced by such advice and encouragement, murder was committed, then all of such conspirators are guilty of such murder, whether the person who perpetrated such murder can be identified or not.” Of course not knowing the identity of the bombthrower, makes it impossible to know the motive of the said bombthrower and therefore whether he actually was a part of the alleged conspiracy. The judge was as partial as any judge could be, ruling every contested point in favor of the prosecution and making hostile remarks about the defendants throughout the trial. He allowed the prosecutor to heap abuse on the defendants throughout the trial. During the opening and closing statements he allowed the prosecution wide latitude as well in the presentation of evidence. The defense was strictly limited to specific points in cross examination while the prosecution was allowed to wander to questions which were not relevant to the questions put to the witnesses. The audience was never reprimanded when it applauded the prosecutor’s prejudicial remarks. During the trial the judge surrounded himself with women, who giggled and ate candy, while the judge joked with them, and drew pictures during testimony. The major media of the day consisting mainly of newspapers, convicted the defendants before the trial even began, and helped create an atmosphere of hatred and hysteria against them. The media conveyed the feeling to the public that neither life nor property would be safe until these anarchists were hung. The New York Times offered the following solution to the anarchist threat, “In the early stages of an acute outbreak of anarchy a Gatling gun, or if the case be severe, two, is the sovereign remedy. Later on hemp, in judicious doses, has an admirable effect in preventing the spread of the disease.” The St Louis globe said, “There are no good anarchists except dead anarchists.” The Chicago Daily News, stated, “The anarchists are amenable to no other reason except that taught by the rifle and the club.” An appeal was filed with the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois and a great international movement was created to save the lives of the anarchists. Despite all efforts on September 14th 1887 in a unanimous opinion the court upheld the verdict of the lower court and denied the motion for a new trial. The court set the date for the executions for November 11th 1887. An appeal was filed with the Supreme Court of the United States, which ruled on November 2nd 1887, that it lacked jurisdiction in the case because no federal issue was involved. Critics pointed out that, during the arrests and trial, fundamental constitutional rights had been violated, including freedom of speech and assembly, protection from illegal search and seizure, and due process of the law. read more -- source link
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