The
Haymarket Monument
Our pilgrimage was not complete. When we returned to the U.S. we made it a
point to visit the scene of the Haymarket riot at DesPlaines and Randolph in
Chicago. We also visited the Chicago
Historical Society and the Waldheim Cemetery where all of the ‘Haymarket
Martyrs’ are buried except Sam Fielden.
At present there is a monument at the scene
of the Haymarket Riot ½ block north of Randolph on the east side of DesPlaines
A at Crane’s Alley. This is just a few
blocks from where I worked as a young man.
Paving bricks that form the alley are reminiscent of Chicago streets in
1886. The monument is considered a work
of art, but is still controversial. It
consists of a base with a wagon on top and faceless speakers gesturing to an
imaginary crowd. It is much easier to
forget faceless martyrs and that they sacrificed their lives for a goal that
has not been achieved. The tragedy of
martyrs, such as the Christian martyrs, is that they can be co-opted by the
system they opposed.
The base of the monument includes plaques
that describe the event. One states that
Fielden, Schwab and Neebe were pardoned.
Written graffiti claims that all were pardoned and is signed with the
Anarchist symbol of an A within a circle.
A plaque on the street side of the monument is from the labor movement
in Columbia. Translated from Spanish it
states:
The
Fight Continues! Let live International Solidarity!
In Memory of the Workers and Union Leaders
Assassinated
In Columbia Who Gave Their Lives to Defend
Human
Rights, National Sovereignty, Social Justice
and Democracy.
Hundreds
of labor union people have been murdered in recent years in the attempts to
impose U.S. neo-liberal hegemony in oil rich Columbia. The Obama administration recently signed a ‘free
trade’ deal with Columbia. Joe Shansky, Communications Director at Voces de la
Frontera, recently witnessed resistance in Columbia to the Neo-Liberal ‘Free
Trade’ policy. Farmers blocked roadways
in and out of a small town near Bogota.
Shansky reported:
Farmers and
laborers all frequently speak in anger against ‘TLC’ (‘Free Trade’), the international free trade
agreement which has allowed an influx of cheaper agricultural products… (Joe Shansky. “Upside Down World,” 5-24- 13)
Nothing new turned up at the Chicago
Historical Society although there is a display on the Haymarket Riot. But across the street from the Historical
Society is a reminder of Sam Fielden of the Haymarket’s spiritual journey, the
Moody Bible Church. Haymarket Sam had an
encounter with the now famous Dwight L. Moody founder of the Moody Bible
Institute and the Moody Bible Church.
After serving as an itinerant Methodist
preacher in Ohio, Sam ‘overhauled’ his ‘religious opinions’ in Chicago and
became a Freethinker. Sam describes
his meeting with the Evangelist Moody by prefacing the account with a debate he
heard at one of Moody’s Bible meetings.
Someone had stated that a Christian, in good conscience, could not be a
business man. The counter argument was
classic. Sam sarcastically wrote,
I was thoroughly convinced that all a man
had to do in this
world in order to make his calling and
election sure in the
next was to sell for a dollar what only cost
fifteen cents.(ibid. p. 150)
Sam
then had a discussion with the evangelical which ended in a draw. Sam kindly stated,
We
parted at the door with the best feeling for each other.
I am only sorry to say that my opponent has
persisted in
following the wrong path to this day. I am truly sorry for
him. (ibid. p. 150)
Moody’s argument prevails to this day. Chicagoans have heard of the Moody Bible
Institute, but who knows of Sam of Todmorden and his sacrifice for the working
people of the world?
THE
END OF THE PILGRIMAGE – WALDHEIM CEMETARY, FOREST PARK, ILLINOIS
Our pilgrimage ended a few miles from my
boyhood home at the Waldheim Cemetery in Park Forest just west of Chicago.
At
one time the cemetery was a Native American burial ground. The trumpet-like announcement of a train in
the distance reminded me of my dad, grandfather and uncles who were railroad
men and knew well the massive Proviso Railroad Yard just to the west. At one time the Proviso Yards were the
largest in the U.S.
Governor Oglesby commuted the death
sentences of Sam Fielden and Michael Schwab to life imprisonment the day before
they were to be executed. Louis Lingg
committed suicide, or was murdered while in prison; the court sentenced Oscar Neebe
to fifteen years in prison. Albert R. Parsons
refused to appeal for a commutation, not wanting to abandon his foreign born
comrades. August Spies pleaded that the other
defendants be released and that he be executed to satisfy the demand for vengeance. Spies, George Engle, Adolph Fisher and
Parsons were executed on November 11, 1887.
Although Fielden and Parsons spoke at the
Haymarket they were called away from another meeting to speak. The meeting concerned the organizing of women
that did sewing in Chicago sweat shops. A messenger arrived from the Haymarket
pleading for Fielden and Parsons to speak.
As many as three thousand people were at the Haymarket; Spies was the
only speaker and more were needed.
The four that were executed, November 11, 1887, and Louis Lingg were
buried in the Waldheim cemetery where a monument to Justice marks their graves. Neebe and Schawb were also buried at Waldheim,
but not Sam Fielden, who left Chicago for Colorado after his pardon where he
and his family settled on a farm. He
died in 1922.
Also buried near the martyrs’ monument at
Waldheim are three women revolutionaries, Lucy Parsons, the wife of martyred
Albert Parsons, Voltairine de Cleyre, an anarchist and feminist who gave
speeches around the country about the heroism of the Haymarket Martyrs, and
Emma Goldman also an anarchist and pioneer feminist.
We visited Waldheim on a cold, grey November day, but the monument to
Justice inspired hope. It appeared to me
to be a modern ‘Pieta.’ Michelangelo’s Pieta depicts the slain carpenter’s mother
as an icon of compassion and love; at Waldheim, mother Justice, inspired by her
slain Son, has the Faith to move forward and create a society of compassion and
love.
Was the sacrifice of the martyrs in
vain? Spies’ words at the trial appear
on a mural at the office of an independent labor union in Mexico, Frente Autentico de Trabajo. Spies began by stating, “Your honor, in
addressing this court I speak as the representative of one class to the
representative of another.” The mural records the next lines:
Here
you will tread upon a spark, but there and there,
behind you-and in front of you, and everywhere,
flames blaze
up. It
is a subterranean fire. You cannot put
it out.
The
mural emphasizes cross border solidarity.
Today we are witnesses that the subterranean fire still burns and erupts
not only in Mexico but in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and major cities throughout the
world.
Gus Hall, in 1951 as National Secretary of
the Communist Party of the United States predicted a time when,
The working class of the U.S.A. will be in a
position to
make this day-May Day-that started in
support of the
struggle for the eight hour day, a legal
holiday celebrated
by all the people of the United States. (Foner, Philip S. May Day, International Publishers, New York, p. 160)
In
2006 hundreds of thousands marched for immigrant worker rights on May Day in
the U.S. Milwaukee had 70,000 in the
streets and Chicago had one of the largest marches with 300,000 protesters. The
revised tradition continues. In 2013 the
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline
screamed, “May Day rallies unite workers across the globe.” (Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel, May 2, 2013 p.3A). Again
thousands marched in Milwaukee. The subterranean
fire is still burning.
(Why do we march and remember on May
first? “OSHA cites Palermo’s for
violations” “ The U.S. Occupational
Safety and Health Administration has issued seven ‘serious’ violations and one
‘other than serious’ violation against Palermo Villa Inc. a Milwaukee frozen
pizza firm.” “The NLRB has ruled that
Palermo Villa Inc. did not violate labor relations laws when it fired 75
workers last year as part of an immigration audit as retaliation for efforts to
unionize the plant.” M.J.S. May 22, 2013, p. 3B.)
What was the result of these marches? “Today we march, tomorrow we vote became a
reality.” The 2006 November elections produced a dramatic change in U.S.
politics that generated hope for social justice and peace. LCLAA (Labor Council for Latin American
Advancement) report stated:
In effect, exit polls demonstrated that 6.5
million Latinos
voted in this year’s mid-terms. Why is that significant?
Because in comparison with the previous mid
term election
in 2002 when Latino voters represented 5.3
percent of all
voters, the number of Hispanic voters in
2006 increased
By 37 percent to a total of 8 percent of all
voters!
In 2012,
The record number of Latinos who cast
ballots for president this
year are the leading edge of an ascendant
voting bloc that is
likely to double in size within a
generation, according to a Pew
Hispanic Center analysis based on U.S.
Census Bureau data,
Election Day exit polls and a new nationwide
survey of Hispanic
Immigrants. (Pew Research – Hispanic Center,
November 14, 2012)
Power at the ballot box! Will it result in justice for the working
class? If it is to be, a renewed
consciousness of solidarity and identity is essential for the working class. This is not the not the solution advocated by
some anarchists, but terrorism hurts all, including workers and their quest for
justice. Farm worker founders Cesar
Chavez and Dolores Huerta taught and demonstrated that violence negates Faith
and is clearly counter-productive. My
sense is that Sam the Freethinker with the Chartist, Methodist and Quaker background
would give politics a chance.
REMEMBER NOVEMBER
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