Although Haymarket was a watershed, it was not an isolated or unprecedented conf

rontation between labor agitators and law enforcement. Since 1877, shows of stre
ngth
by labor activists and anarchists took place in Chicago, as well as in other pa
rts of the United States, and in Europe and Russia. The labor activists were adv
ocating
for greater power and economic security to be given to working people, and in s
ome instances calling for the violent overthrow of the capitalists and the gover
ning
authorities. After the railroad strikes of 1877, there had been nearly a decade
of escalating strikes, political demonstrations and armed confrontations betwee
n workers
and police and private militia, hired by management.
Political agitation by labor activists in the campaign to limit the working day
to eight hours a day for workers in factories became intense during periods of s
evere
economic depression, for example, from 1883-1886. In the spring of 1886, prior
to May 4, the day of the Haymarket confrontation, mass meetings and rallies of s
everal
thousand people had been held, and a barrage of literature in English, German a
nd other languages encouraged violent confrontations and challenges to the polic
e and
the government over labor conditions and the eight hour movement.
May 1, 1886 had been declared by the federated unions at their national meeting
in Chicago in 1884 to be the date when the eight hour system would go into effec
t throughout
the country, with the support of nationwide strikes, if necessary. When that da
y passed without incident, everyone waited. In the meantime, groups of industria
l managers
and employers, citizens, and the mainstream press expressed alarm at the prospe
ct of threatened revolutionary action, and inflamed rhetoric on both sides hard
ened the
antagonistic positions of labor and management.
On May 4, 1886, several of the better known labor leaders and anarchists address
ed a crowd of sympathizers from the back of a wagon which had been pulled into a
n alley
near the Haymarket. August Spies spoke in English, followed by Albert Parsons,
who also spoke in English for almost an hour denouncing the capitalist system, a
nd quoting
statistics, as he had on numerous other occasions. Parsons speech was followed b
y a speech in a similar vein by Samuel Fielden, another well known activist.
A light rain started to fall during Parsons speech, and the crowd began to disper
se, many, followed by Parsons and his wife, Lucy Parsons, and their two children
, went
to Zepf s Hall, a nearby meeting place. As Fielden continued to speak the crowd d
windled to a few hundred. In the meantime, however, a police officer had reporte
d to
Inspector Bonfield that the speaker was using inflammatory language and exhortin
g the crowd to violence.
Just as Fielden was concluding his address, Inspector Bonfield and more than 170
armed police marched into the area and ordered those assembled to disperse. Fie
lden objected
and stepped down from the wagon. Suddenly a bomb was thrown at the police, and t
he police fired. Panic followed. One police officer, Matthias J. Degnan, was kil
led
 by the bomb, six additional officers were wounded, some by the bullets of fello
w officers. A total of seven police officers, as well as an unknown number of ci
vilians, died
in the confrontation.
The public and the mainstream press called for vengeance, the anarchists claimed
sabotage, and a wave of popular sentiment against anarchists and labor organize
rs swept
through the city and the country. In Chicago a secret organization of prominent
businessmen and employers was formed to counteract the labor activism. Many were
arrested, illegal searches were conducted, and rights of free speech and assembl
y were drastically curtailed. Some labor organizations and activists also protes
ted
the violence and supported the government's response to the bomb throwing. In t
he meantime, no one knew who threw the bomb or if it had originated in Chicago.
In short order a specially constituted grand jury indicted ten defendants, most
of whom were prominent labor organizers and activists, as accessories before the
fact
to the murder of Officer Matthias Degan by the bomb.
The trial, in July and August of 1886, presided over by Judge Gary, was the caus
e celebre of the century. Several prominent anarchists and labor activists were
among
the defendants: Spies, Parsons, Schwab, Neebe, Fielden, Fischer, Engle and Ling
g. Parsons had fled Chicago immediately after the incident and remained in hidin
g in
Wisconsin unti