Haymarket Riots

Haymarket Riot events occurred on May 4, 1886 in Chicago, Illinois is the origin of the celebration of the birth of international Labor Day or commonly called May Day. The cause of this incident still have controversy.

Strike action demanding 8-hour work day

In April 1886, hundreds of thousands in the U.S. working class is a strong desire to stop the domination of the bourgeois class, workers' organizations to join the Knights of Labor. Massive class struggle to find momentum in Chicago, one of the central organizing unions in the U.S. big enough. Union movement in this city greatly influenced the ideas Workingsmen Association International. The movement has done agitation and propaganda without stopping before May to realize the demands of "Eight Hour Day".

By the May 1, about 50,000 workers have been on strike. Approximately 30,000 workers joined them in the future. The workers took to the streets with the children and wife to demand universal shout 'Eight Hour Day. " This strike brought industrial activities in Chicago was paralyzed and make panic bourgeois class.

On May 1, 1886 (then known as May Day), as many as 350,000 people were workers organized by the American Federation of Labor went on strike at many places in the United States.

Two days later, May 3, the government sent some policemen to quell strikes by workers at the McCormick factory. Police blindly firing strikers are scattered, at this moment there are four people were killed and a lot more injuries. This caused anger among the workers, some suggested that they may retaliate by taking up arms.

A number of anarchists led by Albert Parsons and August Spies, was also an active member of the Knights of Labor, called on the workers to arm themselves and participate in the demonstration the next day.

Because of bad weather a lot of participants and the action to disperse the remaining crowd of about a hundred people. At that moment, 180 police arrived and ordered the meeting adjourned. When the last speaker to come down the pulpit, according to the police warning, a bomb exploded in the police ranks. One person was killed and injuring 70 of them. The police response to the bomb explosion by shooting the assembled crowd of workers, so that 200 people were injured, and many died.