may 1st, aka may day or international workers' day, is a celebration of solidarity and revolution for the working class of the world, commemorating the general strike of 1886 & the haymarket affair. the 1886 general strike in support of the 8-hour work day in the united states brought as many as half a million workers together across the country to strike and protest and march for their rights:
eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will.
may 3rd, 1886
may 4th, 1886
police came around 10:30pm to break the peaceful rally up by force. a bomb was thrown at the police officers, killing one policeman, and police again began firing into the crowd (and at each other). at least four workers were killed, and the chicago herald described at least 50 dead or wounded workers lying in the streets. the source of the bomb remains unknown — police, obviously, blamed the anarchists, and workers suspected infiltration from the violent strike-breaking pinkerton agency.
the aftermath led to a brutal crackdown on labor activists and anarchists. eight anarchists were convicted of the murder of the one policeman killed by the bomb, though only 2 of them were present when the explosion happened, and none of them had made or thrown the bomb. seven were sentenced to death via hanging, and one was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
when a group of workers confronted strikebreakers at the mccormick plant in chicago, police fired into the crowd and killed as many as six people.
local anarchists organized a rally for the following evening at haymarket square, where somewhere between 600 and 3,000 people gathered to hear various anarchists speak.
august spies (1855-1887) - editor for the german language anarchist newspaper arbeiter-zeitung & was the first speaker at the haymarket rally. hanged in 1887, age 31.
LAST WORDS: the day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.
albert parsons (1848-1887) - a printer for radical and labor causes, member of the knights of labor organization & founding membor of the central labor union. husband of lucy parsons, another really fascinating anarcho-communist activist. editor of the english language counterpart to arbeiter-zeitung, the alarm. parsons moved to a different state immediately after the bombing to avoid being arrested, but later turned himself in in solidarity with his comrades. hanged in 1887, age 39.
LAST WORDS: let the voice of the people be heard!
george engel (1836-1887) - a labor activist and member of the international working people's association. was at home playing cards at the time of the haymarket bombing. engel wrote to the governor of illinois after his conviction that "not being conscious of any guilt, the powers that be may murder me, but they cannot legally punish me. I protest against a commutation of my sentence and demand either liberty or death." hanged in 1887, age 51.
LAST WORDS: hurrah for anarchy!
adolph fischer (-1887) - a typesetter for arbeiter-zeitung & co-editor for der anarchist. hanged in 1887.
LAST WORDS: hurray for anarchy! this is the happiest moment of my life!
louis lingg (1864-1887) - an organizer for the chicago carpenters' union. strongly opposed police violence, and said "if they use cannons against us, we shall use dynamite against them." committed suicide via bomb in jail the day before his scheduled execution in 1887, age 23.
michael schwab (1853-1898) - a co-editor of arbeiter-zeitung & member of the international working people's association. arrested alongside the other haymarket martyrs, but had his sentence commuted to life in prison after writing to the governor for lenience, and was pardoned in 1893 and continued to write for arbeiter-zeitung until his death at age 44.
oscar neebe (1850-1916) - office manager for arbeiter-zeitung & member of the communist party. neebe was not present at the haymarket rally at all, but was sentenced to 15 years in prison & pardoned in 1893. died age 65.
samuel fielden (1847-1922) - member of the international working people's association (and treasurer of its american group faction) & the final speaker at the haymarket rally. wrote to the governor alongside schwab and had his sentence commuted to life in prison. pardoned in 1893. died age 74.
the 1890 strike took place in dozens of cities, and may day demonstrations and parades continue today as a demonstration of worker solidarity and commemoration of the death of the haymarket martyrs.
in 1904, the international socialist congress of the second international called on "all Social Democratic Party organisations and trade unions of all countries to demonstrate energetically on the First of May for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, for the class demands of the proletariat, and for universal peace."
in the united states, "labor day" is celebrated in september, and patriotic (read: capitalist) organizations have designated may 1st as "loyalty day" and "law day" to prevent filthy commies from influencing the poor innocent capitalists. may day rallies, protests, and strikes continue anyways.
she was arrested repeatedly throughout her life for crimes such as "inciting to riot", distributing information about birth control, encouraging draft-dodging, being a communist during the first red scare era, etc.
j. edgar hoover (head of what would later become the fbi) wrote about goldman & her comrade alexander berkman that they were "beyond doubt, two of the most dangerous anarchists in this country."
goldman is a historical figure i find myself very fascinated by — a lot of her beliefs on anarchism and the ideal state of society are very closely aligned with my own.
emma goldman on may day 1939: Again we are celebrating the first day of May, marching in parades, singing songs, listening to pretty speeches delivered by politicians and labor leaders. But is this the purpose of the first of May?We are being told that here in Canada, prosperity is back again. The barons of industry are harvesting millions of dollars from the sweat and toil of the Canadian workers.
Yes, our masters will grant us ‘democratic rights’ when it comes to elections. They know as long as we are using our “powerful” slips of paper nothing is threatening their privileges. But when we use direct action, your collective strength, and strike for higher wages, then our bosses tell us that we have overstepped our “democratic rights.
Our strength lies in the field of economics, in the factories, in the workshops, in the mines, and not in the lobbies of parliament or the steps of city halls. Therefore, fellow workers, let us mark this first of May by the realization that organization in the economic field is our only effective weapon against war and its creator the state, against Capitalism and its offspring Fascism.
I feel sure that the police are helping us more than I could do in ten years. They are making more anarchists than the most prominent people connected with the anarchist cause could make in ten years. If they will only continue I shall be very grateful; they will save me lots of work.quoted in The San Francisco Call, 1902
Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labelled Utopian."Socialism: Caught in the Political Trap", a lecture c. 1912
Emma Goldman as sketched by Marguerite Martyn, 1908
“What I believe” is a process rather than a finality. Finalities are for gods and governments, not for the human intellect. While it may be true that Herbert Spencer’s formulation of liberty is the most important on the subject, as a political basis of society, yet life is something more than formulas. In the battle for freedom, as Ibsen has so well pointed out, it is the struggle for, not so much the attainment of, liberty, that develops all that is strongest, sturdiest and finest in human character.What I Believe (1908)
The history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming at the suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the people. A vast country, rich enough to supply all her children with all possible comforts, and insure well-being to all, is in the hands of a few, while the nameless millions are at the mercy of ruthless wealth gatherers, unscrupulous lawmakers, and corrupt politicians.The reign of these kings is holding mankind in slavery, perpetuating poverty and disease, maintaining crime and corruption; it is fettering the spirit of liberty, throttling the voice of justice, and degrading and oppressing humanity. It is engaged in continual war and slaughter, devastating the country and destroying the best and finest qualities of man; it nurtures superstition and ignorance, sows prejudice and strife, and turns the human family into a camp of Ishmaelites.
A New Declaration of Independence (1909)
"Why do you not say how things will be operated under Anarchism?" is a question I have had to meet thousands of times. Because I believe that Anarchism can not consistently impose an iron-clad program or method on the future. The things every new generation has to fight, and which it can least overcome, are the burdens of the past, which holds us all as in a net. Anarchism, at least as I understand it, leaves posterity free to develop its own particular systems, in harmony with its needs. Our most vivid imagination can not foresee the potentialities of a race set free from external restraints. How, then, can any one assume to map out a line of conduct for those to come? We, who pay dearly for every breath of pure, fresh air, must guard against the tendency to fetter the future. If we succeed in clearing the soil from the rubbish of the past and present, we will leave to posterity the greatest and safest heritage of all ages.Anarchism & Other Essays (1910)
If love does not know how to give and take without restrictions, it is not love, but a transaction that never fails to lay stress on a plus and a minus.Anarchism & Other Essays (1910)
The inherent tendency of the State is to concentrate, to narrow, and monopolize all social activities; the nature of revolution is, on the contrary, to grow, to broaden, and disseminate itself in ever-wider circles. In other words, the State is institutional and static; revolution is fluent, dynamic. These two tendencies are incompatible and mutually destructive. The State idea killed the Russian Revolution and it must have the same result in all other revolutions, unless the libertarian idea prevail.My Disillusionment in Russia (1923)
At the dances I was one of the most untiring and gayest. One evening a cousin of Sasha, a young boy, took me aside. With a grave face, as if he were about to announce the death of a dear comrade, he whispered to me that it did not behoove an agitator to dance. Certainly not with such reckless abandon, anyway. It was undignified for one who was on the way to become a force in the anarchist movement. My frivolity would only hurt the Cause.I grew furious at the impudent interference of the boy. I told him to mind his own business. I was tired of having the Cause constantly thrown into my face. I did not believe that a Cause which stood for a beautiful ideal, for anarchism, for release and freedom from convention and prejudice, should demand the denial of life and joy. I insisted that our Cause could not expect me to become a nun and that the movement would not be turned into a cloister. If it meant that, I did not want it. "I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody's right to beautiful, radiant things." Anarchism meant that to me, and I would live it in spite of the whole world — prisons, persecution, everything. Yes, even in spite of the condemnation of my own closest comrades I would live my beautiful ideal.
Living My Life (1931)
lucy parsons, 1886
Most anarchists believe the coming change can only come through a revolution, because the possessing class will not allow a peaceful change to take place; still we are willing to work for peace at any price, except at the price of liberty.
Remind them that the sword still hangs upon the wall and the heart still beats within the man, and that that sword will be unsheathed again, if necessary, in defense of your rights. Given them to understand that you will not stand patiently by and see your hard earnings squandered by a luxuriating class of idlers. If the American manhood will arouse itself and speak to those fellows in plain language, not to be misunderstood, they can save themselves, their country and their children, from the fate of poverty which awaits them. Will you do it?Wage Slaves vs Corporations (1905)
I came to understand how organized governments used their concentrated power to retard progress by their ever-ready means of silencing the voice of discontent if raised in vigorous protest against the machinations of the scheming few, who always did, always will and always must rule in the councils of nations where majority rule is recognized as the only means of adjusting the affairs of people. I came to understand that such concentrated power can be always wielded in the interest of the few and at the expense of the many. Goverment in its last analysis is this power reduced to a science. Governments never lead; they follow progress. When the prison, stake or scaffold can no longer silence the voice of the protesting minority, progress moves on a step, but not until then.The Principles of Anarchism (1890s)
My mind is appalled at the thought of a political party having control of all the details that go to make up the sum total of our lives. Think of it for an instant, that the party in power shall have all authority to dictate the kind of books that shall be used in our schools and universities, government officials editing, printing, and circulating our literature, histories, magazines and press, to say nothing of the thousand and one activities of life that a people engage in, in a civilized society.The Principles of Anarchism (1890s)
To my mind, the struggle for liberty is too great and the few steps we have gained have been won at too great a sacrifice, for the great mass of the people of this 20th century to consent to turn over to any political party the management of our social and industrial affairs. For all who are at all familiar with history know that men will abuse power when they possess it, for these and other reasons, I, after careful study, and not through sentiment, turned from a sincere, earnest, political Socialist to the non-political phase of Socialism, Anarchism, because in its philosophy I believe I can find the proper conditions for the fullest development of the individual units in society, which can never be the case under government restrictions.The Principles of Anarchism (1890s)
And what of the glowing beyond that is so bright that those who grind the faces of the poor say it is a dream? It is no dream, it is the real, stripped of brain-distortions materialized into thrones and scaffolds, mitres and guns. It is nature acting on her own interior laws as in all her other associations. It is a return to first principles; for were not the land, the water, the light, all free before governments took shape and form? In this free state we will again forget to think of these things as "property." It is real, for we, as a race, are growing up to it. The idea of less restriction and more liberty, and a confiding trust that nature is equal to her work, is permeating all modern thought. From the dark year-not so long gone by-when it was generally believed that man's soul was totally depraved and every human impulse bad; when every action, every thought and every emotion was controlled and restricted; when the human frame, diseased, was bled, dosed, suffocated and kept as far from nature's remedies as possible; when the mind was seized upon and distorted before it had time to evolve a natural thought-from those days to these years the progress of this idea has been swift and steady.The Principles of Anarchism (1890s)
People have become so used to seeing the evidences of authority on every hand that most of them honestly believe that they would go utterly to the bad if it were not for the policeman's club or the soldier's bayonet. But the anarchist says, "Remove these evidence of brute force, and let man feel the revivifying influences of self responsibility and self control, and see how we will respond to these better influences."The Principles of Anarchism (1890s)
Let every dirty, lousy tramp arm himself with a revolver or a knife, and lay in wait on the steps of the palaces of the rich and stab or shoot the owners as they come out. Let us kill them without mercy, and let it be a war of extermination.quoted in the Chicago Tribune in 1885
haymarket is hardly an isolated incident throughout history — those in power have always delighted in crushing any resistance. as emma goldman said, The history of the American kings of capital and authority is the history of repeated crimes, injustice, oppression, outrage, and abuse, all aiming at the suppression of individual liberties and the exploitation of the people.
the right sees anarchism as pure disorganized violence, but i think it looks more like the student encampments at various colleges — people taking care of each other and fighting for a better future, holding passover seders and shielding their muslim comrades with blankets so they can pray in peace, sharing resources and protecting one another. the fact that this scares those in power (police, the national guard, biden, heads of universities) is important.
i'm a little bit terrified all the time these days, but i'm also hopeful that change will happen.
this may day, i'm thinking about the haymarket martyrs who died for the 8-hour workday, and i'm thinking about those killed at kent state in 1970 during student protests against the vietnam war, and i'm thinking about every person who has been murdered in palestine. i want all of us to have freedom, the right to self-expression, and beautiful, radiant things.
the haymarket affair & emma goldman
current protests
dispatches from the solidarity encampment at columbia university
some good podcast episodes on the subject of workers' rights:
another list/spreadsheet of bail funds
bail funds for protestors at johns hopkins university in baltimore
barnard, columbia, cornell venmo @ bcabolitioncollective
operation olive branch to directly support palestinian families
read more
podcasts
donate
bail funds for arrested student protesters