- The Haymarket affair of 1886 climaxed the bitter industrial battle between capital and working class. Believers in the “Chicago idea” which combined revolutionary trade unionism, direct action, and equality of race and sex supported the eight-hour workday. By 1886, this movement had become the focus of labor struggles. May 3, during a clash between pickets and scabs at McCormick Reaper Works, Chicago police killed two strikers and wounded others. As the speeches ended at the Haymarket rally held in protest on May 4, police marched in to disperse the 300 people remaining at the peaceful assembly. A bomb was thrown, and police opened fire, killing and wounding both civilians and police. The anti-labor hysteria that followed contributed to the unjust trial and conviction of eight anarchists who championed the “Chicago idea.” Four of the men were hanged, one committed suicide, the others received prison sentences. In 1893, the three survivors were pardoned. Haymarket was a source of inspiration to many and for such women as Emma Goldman and Voltairine de Cleyre, it was a catalyst for lifelong commitments to labor activism, feminism and idealism.
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