Haymarket affair

If the ruling class thinks that by hanging us, hanging a few anarchists, they can crush out anarchy, they will be badly mistaken, because the anarchist loves his principles more than his life. ~ Adolph Fischer

Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights only to the privileged classes, and none to the workers? ~ August Spies

The Haymarket affair (also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, or the Haymarket Square riot) was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded.

Quotes

• It is not generally considered a crime among intellectual people to be a revolutionist, but it may be made a crime if the revolutionist happens to be poor.
  • Samuel Fielden, Statement to the Court (1886)

• If the ruling class thinks that by hanging us, hanging a few anarchists, they can crush out anarchy, they will be badly mistaken, because the anarchist loves his principles more than his life.
  • Adolph Fischer, Statement to the Court (1886)

• Anarchy means no domination or authority of one man over another, yet you call that "disorder."
  • Louis Lingg, Statement to the Court (1886)

• I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words; and when you shall have hanged us, then, mark my words, they will do the bomb-throwing! In this hope do I say to you: "I despise you. I despise your order; your laws; your force-propped authority." Hang me for it!
  • Louis Lingg, Statement to the Court (1886)

• The capitalistic system originated in the forcible seizure of natural opportunities and rights by a few, and then converting those things into special privileges which have since become vested rights, formally entrenched behind the bulwarks of statute law and government.
  • Albert Parsons, Statement to the Court (1886)

• Can any one feel any respect for a government that accords rights only to the privileged classes, and none to the workers?
  • August Spies, Statement to the Court (1886)

• The great principle underlying the present system is unpaid labor. Those who amass fortunes, build palaces, and live in luxury, are doing that by virtue of unpaid labor. Being directly or indirectly the possessors of land and machinery, they dictate their terms to the workingman. He is compelled to sell his labor cheap, or to starve. The price paid him is always far below the real value. He acts under compulsion, and they call it a free contract. This infernal state of affairs keeps him poor and ignorant; an easy prey for exploitation.
  • Michael Schwab, Statement to the Court (1886)

• Anarchy is a state of society in which the only government is reason, a state of society in which all human beings do right for the simple reason that it is right, and hate wrong because it is wrong. In such a society, no laws, no compulsion will be necessary.
  • Michael Schwab, Statement to the Court (1886)

• The facts of the situation were slow in coming through, as they usually are in such situations, and the emphasis of the telegraphic reports was on "labor rioting...Reading in next morning's papers about the sessions I had attended, however, the case appeared in a much different light than it had in the courtroom. Did the reporters have sharper ears and keener eyes than I? Perhaps so; they were trained in this kind of work while I was new at it. Yet why was one side of the case over-emphasized, and the other subordinated? I know now, but I didn't know then...it is Louis Lingg that I remember best. Perhaps my memory of him is clearest because a ray of sunlight, coming through a little high window, was shining in his cell as I sketched him. Only twenty-two, a pale blond, he had a look of disdain for all. He sat proudly in his chair, facing me with unblinking eyes, and silent...Everything I read about the Chicago Anarchists in 1886 and 1887 and nearly everything I heard about them indicated that the accused men were guilty. The news reports of the case in the dailies were quite as biased against the defendants as were the editorials. Few who read the charges that some of them had advocated violence against the police realized that they were driven to that extreme by the wanton clubbing, shooting, and killing of workers by the police in the fight of the big industries against the eight-hour day movement.
  • Art Young: His Life and Times (1939)