THE WILSONS’ TALE

    As mentioned before, the Voces de la Frontera May Day March ended at Milwaukee’s Pere Marquette Park.  As we left the park I pointed to Marquette’s statue and said to a policeman, ”Officer, that man over there doesn’t have documents to prove he is here legally.” “Sorry Sir,” the policeman replied, “I can’t move that individual.”

The Tale of the Historian and Magistrate

   Tricia had invited two friends to lunch, Douglas and Heather Wilson, who were very knowledgeable and especially interested in local history.  Douglas is a retired solicitor for the city of Todmorden and Heather is a city magistrate.

   The Wilsons were delighted to share their knowledge of the Todmorden story with us.  Neither knew much about Sam Fielden of the Haymarket and welcomed the opportunity to discuss his autobiography and the history of the Todmorden Fielden family.  Douglas Wilson is described in a local historical pamphlet as a person with ‘inexhaustible knowledge of local Parish Registers.’

   We exchanged questions and information about the Fielden family.  Both Tricia and Douglas had ancestors who were Fieldens.  Douglas noted that the first Fielden in the area was Nicholas Fielden of Pendle who settled in Walsden near Todmorden in the late 1500’s.  Douglas Wilson described Nicholas Fielden as a Grindletonian or a pre-Quaker.  Jeremy Burgoine had told us the Fieldens were Quakers.  Joshua, founder of the Todmorden Cotton Mill and father of ‘Honest John’ was a Quaker, but Douglas Wilson makes a case the Joshua got his religious principles from his grandfather Nicholas Fielden.  According to Douglas Wilson, during the time of Nicholas Fielden, “The whole Pendle area was a seedbed of non conformity.” Grindleton is a small village north of Pendle Hill in the Todmorden area.  The Grindletonians’ formulating principle was family love which meant that, according to Douglas Wilson, “Christian communities should respect no hierarchy either in religion or society. (which) sounds like Quakerism and Anarchy in its principled form.”

   George Fox is considered to be the founder of the Quakers.  He claimed his ‘illumination’ occurred at Pendle Hill.  Does ‘illumination’ mean that he learned something talking to the Grindletonians?   The Fielden’s faith commitment is significant because Todmorden is considered a non-conformist community.  Can their non-conformist reputation be attributed to their Grindletonian and Quaker roots?  Fieldens proudly bore given names from the Hebrew Bible.  Torah, The Prophets and the Writings emphasize freedom from slavery and government oppression. 

   Max Weber’s classic work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, provides a useful guide in understanding the influence of religion on the development of capitalism. According to the pioneer sociologist Max Weber the Quaker insistence on respect for individual conscience, belief in the ability of the individual to receive direct revelation from God was crucial to capitalism overcoming mercantilism which was directed by the crown.  Quakers also saw government service as questionable and refused to pay taxes used to support the Church of England.  Strict Quaker moral principles resulted in their acceptance and trust in the business community.   Weber cites Calvinist Benjamin Franklin’s advise, ‘honesty is the best policy’ as an example of Protestant ethics.  Weber explains:

   Now, all Franklin’s moral attitudes are coloured with

   Utilitarianism.  Honesty is useful, because it assures credit;

   so are punctuality, industry, frugality, and that is the

   reason they are virtues.

Do such people stand above good and evil or are they missing the notion of the common good and responsibility to future generations?

   Sam Fielden was not the first Fielden to serve time in prison.  The Quaker Book of Suffering dated 1688 reports, John Fielden and fellow Quaker John Whalley:

   were both taken from a Meeting of the People of God who

   were mett to worship him at Padeham in Lancashire and

   sent to the house of correction at Preston in the said county

   where they remained eight weeks. (Shore in Stansfield a Pennine Weaving Community 1660-1750, Worker’s Educational Association, Todmorden, 1986, p. 48)

   Quakers refused the ‘hat honor’ (the custom of removing one’s hat to social superiors).   Sam related a story about his brother who refused to doff his cap to a boss and left Mr. Fielden’s employment.

     

   Thus must the proletariat bow the knee to the bourgeoisie

   or starve, and some people call this liberty of contract.

   There was no work to be had in the town, and he was

   compelled to go on the tramp. (The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, op. cite. P. 144)

Walsden Cemetery – The Graves of Sam’s Parents

   After lunch Douglas and Heather offered to take us to Walsden were Sam’s father and mother are buried. Again as we drove to the nearby cemetery we were treated to a view of the beautiful green landscape of the Pennine Hills area.   I felt connected to the land and the people.

   The cemetery grounds were on a hillside just below the soot blackened Walsden Church of England.  Douglas Wilson knew approximately where the graves were and after a little searching we found the grave of Sam’s father Abraham Fielden, Alice Fielden, Sam’s mother and Abraham Fielden’s second wife all buried under the same headstone.

   In his death row autobiography Sam wrote about a visit to his mother’s grave when he returned to Todmorden in 1880.

   My uncle remarked, they have been selling graves between

   the graves as the place has filled up, and crowding the

   bodies between the others.  I remarked they have crowded us

   while we live, and they are not satisfied but they must follow

   us to our graves, and make us move over there also to satisfy

   their greed.(ibid. p. 135)

   Douglas Wilson informed us that the non-conformist act passed shortly before Abraham Fielden’s death made it possible for dissenters such as Abraham Fielden to be buried in a Church of England cemetery.  The brooding soot covered Gothic Church of England looked down at the cemetery. The graveyard reminded me of the Jewish cemetery in Prague where bodies are piled on bodies under a sea of headstones.

The Unitarian Church of Todmorden

   I felt uncomfortable and alienated as we headed back towards Todmorden to see the Unitarian Church and the grave of ‘Honest John’ Fielden.  The friendly conversation of the Wilsons and the beautiful vista provided a cure.  A gigantic rainbow appeared and we were appreciative.

   ‘Honest John’ has a simple grave site and marker; Douglas assured us that he wanted it that way.  The nearby Unitarian church built by his sons is another matter.

   ‘Honest John’ was originally a Quaker but changed to Methodism, then Methodist Unitarianism.  His sons, John, Joshua and Samuel were Unitarians.   In 1864 the three brothers, wealthy from the textile business, decided to build a classical Gothic church reminiscent of the great cathedrals of Europe.  Expense was not spared.  John Gibson of London, who designed the Dobroyd Castle and the town hall, was hired as the architect.

   The church is located on a hill overlooking the town.  Its steeple seems to penetrate the heavens.  Early Quakers characterized such churches, usually Anglican, as ‘steeplehouses.’  The caretaker knew the Wilsons and opened the building for us.  We were amazed.  The inside of the church, like the exterior, looked like a cathedral. Marble pillars, a marble baptismal font, and beautifully carved choir stalls are unusual in a Unitarian church.  There were no symbols of the Trinity to be seen but otherwise cannons from the Church of England would have felt comfortable in the building.  

   The church closed in 1987 and is now owned by the Historical Chapels Trust which, according to a pamphlet, “has been established to take into care redundant chapels and other (non-Anglican) places of worship in England of outstanding architectural and historic interest.”

   We drove back to Todmorden and said goodbye to the Wilsons at their home a short way from our hotel.  We expressed our appreciation for their hospitality, and our admiration for the rich cultural heritage of Todmorden.  Heather commented that Joanne and I must have an interesting cultural heritage as well.  We agreed, and we mentioned our immigrant ancestors from Germany and Ireland.  It was then I realized that as American working people our heritage also included Todmorden.  The people of Todmorden were non-conformists.  They demanded sovereignty as did the American revolutionaries.  They were working people that demanded justice as did those of the American labor movement.  I felt I could claim Sam as one of our own.

(Why do we remember and march on May Day?    “A small percentage of Milwaukee’s fast food workforce walked off the job this week demanding a greater than 100% increase in the minimum wage – to $15.00 an hour from Wisconsin’s current $7.25 an hour.”  “The striking Milwaukee workers might be well intended, but they are only fighting the laws of economics – and that’s a fight they can’t win.”  ‘Fight for $15’ protest only fights the future, Michael Saltzman, “Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,” May 17, 2013, p. 11A)

A TOUR OF TODMORDEN

ALL BUT FORGOTTEN:  The same day of the Bay View Tragedy at the southern edge of Milwaukee (May 5, 1886), German immigrant workers who were on strike for the eight hour day gathered at the Milwaukee Garden on the north side of the city for a demonstration.  They were confronted by the police.  “Shots were fired before the crowd finally dispersed.  Had any of the bullets found their mark, the German incident at the Milwaukee Garden might have ended as tragically as the Polish march on Bay View.”

(John Gurda, The Making of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County Historical Society, 1999, p. 155)

(Why did we march and remember on May 1, 2013?  “The National Labor Relations Board in Washington, DC recently  upheld a regional ruling that found the company (Palermo Pizza) acted lawfully when it terminated 75 workers as part of the immigration audit and did not use the audit as retaliation for the workers’  effort to form a union.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, p. 3B May 9^th, 2013 )

(A continuing story – scroll down to get previous postings)

The Tourist’s Tale

   We rose early, had a sumptuous English breakfast, and walked the mile into town.  The crisp morning air and bright sunlight gave life to our step.  The well dressed joyful children heading for school were inspiring.

The Todmorden Open Market

   Our first stop was the very busy open market.  I talked to a man selling fresh fish from the western seacoast.  He was very proud of his work purchasing ‘just caught fish’ from the coast and selling the fish in Todmorden.  “I must be doing something right’” he said; “I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years.”  He was not able to relate the first of May holiday to trade unionism.  I talked to several others.  No one considered May Day as a celebration for workers. 

St. Mary’s Church

   We left the market and walked a short way to the quaint and pleasingly impressive Gothic church that demands attention on the main street of Todmorden.   The church, called St. Mary’s, is under the jurisdiction of the Church of England. There is a small graveyard in front with monuments indicating that many Fieldens were buried there.   I found that to be curious because Jeremy Burgoine told us about the Quaker origins of the Fieldens and Sam Fielden wrote that the ‘rich Fieldens’ were Unitarians.(The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, op. cit. pp.141-142)  Sam also says that his mother was a Methodist and that he had joined the Methodist Church.(ibid. p.134, p145)  Sectarian distinctions were very important in post reformation England and it would be surprising if some of the non-conformist Fieldens were members of the Church of England.  A similar grave yard could have been found in Ireland because of the prominence of a large Celtic cross.

   As indicated in his autobiography, Sam of the Chicago Haymarket didn’t think much of the English royalty or aristocracy.  A story in the St. Mary’s Church in Community magazine indicated the current absurdity of the monarchy.  Queen Elizabeth II, participates in the washing the feet ceremony for Holy Thursday.  (Maundy Thursday in England) This has been a practice of the monarchy for centuries.  The Queen, the head of the Church of England, invites special people to have their, ‘feet washed.’  Three people from the Todmorden area, Church of England adherents, were selected to participate.  Instead of getting a wash from the Queen Mother, the participants received two small bags of money, one containing a silver coin of five pounds sterling to commemorate the victory of Lord Nelson at Trafalgar and the other with 79 pence in commemoration of the writing of Ben Johnson’s English dictionary.  This year 2013 participants received two small bags of money. One contained five pounds and the other 50 pence to commemorate the 60^th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.  The ceremony in the Vatican was quite different with Pope Francis actually washing feet in a prison.

  

   “Perhaps no symbol was more poignant than (Pope) Francis’

   decision to move the Holy Thursday evening service to a

   Roman juvenile detention center, where he washed the feet

  of detainees – including two women and two Muslims.

  National Catholic Reporter,”p. 6, April 12-25, 2013)

 But did the symbolism really cover up the monarchical reality of the papacy?

   The story in the St. Mary’s magazine of the Queen doing Easter washing is told as quaint and humorous; so much for the mandatum – Maundy- command of scripture to serve.  Sam of the Chicago Haymarket in his death row autobiography wrote, “I undoubtedly inherited from my father that hatred of shame and hypocrisy which I hope I possess to some extent.”(ibid. pp.135-136)

   However, Sam would be impressed with the spiritual growth of the community.  St. Mary’s along with the other Todmorden Christian Churches cooperate in liturgical events.  Also meetings are held with the Imam of the Todmorden Mosque.

     The person that greeted us and welcomed us to St. Mary’s expressed disgust with the wars in the Middle East.  Would it be such a great leap forward to recognize the injustice of a failed economic system that has allowed free reign to the four horsemen of the Apocalypse – war, famine, poverty, and disease?  We are indeed a ‘Distant Mirror’ of the 14^th century.

Todmorden Town Hall

   Across the street from St. Mary’s is the Todmorden town hall. 

The classical edifice was built in honor of ‘Honest John’ Fielden by his three sons.  It is considered one of the finest municipal buildings in the country.  On the floor of the entrance a mosaic of the town’s coat of arms summarizes the symbols found throughout the building.  It states, “BY INDUSTRY WE PROSPER.” This statement is found below a weaver’s shuttle and a spindle.  At the top is a representation of the Stoodley Pike Peace Monument.  Does this mean the artist thought that peace was a prerequisite for industry?  Perhaps it meant that British military hegemony and enforced peace was needed to provide markets and resources for industry.   

   Another point of view is indicated by the beautiful plaster medallions that decorate the Great Hall.  At one end of the Hall is the peace medallion and at the other is a medallion representing justice.  Do these symbols indicate that peace is commensurate with justice – not military might?

   We didn’t see a specific representation that would honor the workers of Todmorden.  This would fit the classic scheme which considers workers to be of lesser value than their bosses.

   The prominent architect from London John Gibson designed the building.  He also designed two other Fielden projects, Dobroyd Castle and the Unitarian Church completed in 1869.    The Fieldens got involved in the construction of the town hall in 1866 and opened to the public in 1891.  Where did they get the labor for these projects?  Was the U.S. Civil War (1861- 1865) a factor in the supply of surplus labor?  Cotton production in the U.S. did not reach prewar levels until 1870.

   The suffering of the English mill workers during the U.S. Civil War is another example of the failure of the ‘liberal’ economic system of Adam Smith that does not value the workers -- those who create wealth -- as human persons.  International trade, with the primary goal of profit, made the staple of Irish peasants to be potatoes, and for the mill workers in Todmorden, it was cotton.  Sam wrote that for the ‘poor starving people’ of Todmorden the staff of life was cotton, American cotton. (ibid. p. 145)

   One of the causes of the U.S. Civil War was the dispute about trade and tariffs. The New England States wanted to impose tariffs on English manufactured goods to protect its nascent textile industry.  The Confederate States advocated free trade. English commercial interests supported the Confederacy, but Todmorden mill workers saw the war as a conflict over the moral issue of slavery. Despite the hardship born by the Todmorden mill workers, they were in worker solidarity with the U.S. slaves.  Sam wrote: 

   When the American civil war broke out I was an enthusiastic

   champion among my fellows of the cause of the north, and in

   fact, so were all my family, my sister not being undone by

   any of us.(ibid. p. 142)  

The Todmorden mill workers, in siding with southern U.S. slaves, disproved ‘liberal’ economic theory of the ‘Economic Man’ that people will always act according to their self serving financial best interest.  On the other side of the class divide, such action is similar to ‘Honest John’ Fielden supporting the ‘Plug Pullers’ and advocating for the ten hour day.

The Methodists

   England passed a law against British participation in the slave trade in 1807.  The driving force behind the law was William Wilberforce, M.P. a friend of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church.  In 1833 Wilberforce was able to get

legislation passed to abolish slavery.  Free labor was a basic principle of ‘liberalism’ or capitalism.  Labor was then hired or fired depending on the supply and demand.  After experiencing post U.S. Civil War conditions in the South and seeing the suffering of the newly freed slaves, Sam of Haymarket called the new capitalist form of wage slavery worse than the latter.

   Our next stop was the Methodist Church not far from the Town Hall.  Sam the Anarchist wrote that as a young man in Todmorden he joined the Methodist Church and became a Methodist preacher. In this way he developed a recognized skill as an orator which served him well as a labor activist.  In his autobiography, Sam remembers his mother Alice as a devout Methodist.  

   The Methodists appealed to the working class.  Founder John Wesley thought it was important to reach out to the people so he developed itinerant preachers such as Sam Fielden.  There was no early official break from the Church of England, but their reaching out to people and their criticism of ostentatious life styles endeared them to the working class. 

   Like the Quakers the Methodists encouraged people to take an active part in church services and meetings. Methodists insist on the primacy of conscience. In contrast to the Calvinists, Wesley taught that all could be saved, even low class workers.  Good works such as social service was crucial in achieving redemption.  Wesley had no problem with people accumulating wealth but not at the expense of others.  Wealth was accumulated for the “greater honor and glory of God.”  Charitable contributions to the community of time and substance were expected.

   The Todmorden Methodist Church is a large box like structure located in the middle of town.  Like the other buildings in the area it is blackened by the soot from the now closed cotton mills.  Compared to the Gothic Church of England St. Mary’s and the rich Fielden brothers’ more ornate Unitarian Church, the Todmorden Methodist Church is simple and functional, and reminds one of classical Roman architecture.

   We dropped in on the weekly 10:00 a.m. coffee social.  Church members welcomed us with warm greetings.  No one had heard of Sam of the Haymarket but he certainly knew of the Fieldens.  They were baffled when I asked about ‘Lord Fielden’ whose name among many others appears on one of the sandstone blocks at the front of the building.  I was assured that ‘Lord Fielden’ was not an entitled Lord, but that the name Lord was probably a family surname used as a given name.  No one knew who this person was, but someone remembered that her grandmother had told her that anyone giving even a small donation to build the church would have their name etched on the front wall.  The Church was completed in 1906, too late for Sam to have known it.

   The Todmorden Methodists were interested in Sam of the Haymarket story, and the pastor looked for a record of Sam and his mother’s baptism without success.  Someone recalled that there had been a split in the early Methodist Church and that the baptismal records of the Church may not be complete.  In his death row autobiography Sam notes that his mother was a ‘Primitive’ Methodist and that he joined the Wesleyan group years after her death. (ibid. p, 134, p. 145 )  As mentioned above, as a young man Sam honed his skills as a future effective labor speaker volunteering as a Methodist preacher in the Todmorden area. (ibid. p. 147)

Todmorden Connection to World Trade

   Before we met Trisha for lunch we walked to the canal locks not far from the Methodist Church.  The canal system is a non- designated functioning monument to the workers of 18^th & 19^th century England.  The canals allowed shipments of cotton from the seacoast to reach the interior by barges.   Because of the hilly nature of the terrain, locks needed to be built to move the boats from level to level.  The locks of Todmorden still function and tourists travel the canals to enjoy the beautiful countryside of Lancashire.

   It was now time for lunch with Tricia.  We met at Sinclairs, a small restaurant near St. Mary’s Church.  The restaurant featured local dishes including soup and sandwiches for the lunch time cliental.  I ordered the Lancashire vegetable soup – perfect for a chilly day.

(Why do we march and remember on May 1^st,  2013?  “Caterpillar contract talks stalled, union leaders say.” Company says no further negotiations scheduled.”  “Milwaukee Journal Sentinel,” p. 9A, May 11^th,   2013)

WAS PERE MARQUETTE LEGAL?

   Pere Marquette Park was the final stop for Voces de la Frontera’s annual May Day march.  Father Jacques Marquette, S.J. (1637 – 1675) camped in what is now Milwaukee in 1674.  Marquette was a French Jesuit missionary whose travels in the U.S. Midwest established boundaries for the lucrative French fur trade.

   The father of international law, Dominican Friar Francisco de Vitoria, O.P. (1483-1546) gave his opinion in Salamanca, Spain that evangelists had a legal right under natural law to preach the gospel in the New World.   Pere Marquette was well received by the Native Americans.  As impossible as it is to imagine, what if a “Sitting Jim Sensenbrenner” were chief of the Midwest tribes?  It would have been a different story.

TRICIA FIELDEN KNOWLES: LOCAL ARTIST & FIELDEN FAMILY MEMBER (A continuing story – scroll down for previous postings)

TRICIA’S TALE

   It took us about a half-hour to walk to our hotel.  After talking to Jeremy, we already knew quite a bit about the Fieldens and the town of Todmorden but we had just begun.

   Our hotel, Scaitcliffe Hall, dated back to the Middle Ages; a perfect base for our research.  Wall hangings remind guests of the history of the Scaitcliffe Hall and the area around Todmorden of  the Brontes, Emily and Charlotte.  They lived in the area, and the hills and moors above Todmorden are the setting for their novels.

   After checking in I called Tricia Fielden Knowles whom I had contacted before from London.  Tricia met us at the hotel and we talked about Sam Fielden, the Haymarket and the Fielden family.  She knew some of Sam’s story, but she didn’t know about Sam’s death row autobiography. 

  

   Tricia told us that she knew Scaitcliffe Hall well, because she and a classmate, who was the Vicar’s daughter, were invited to use the tennis court by Miss Sutcliff who lived there with her elderly mother before they sold it.  Tricia remembered the old lady sitting in a high backed chair by the big fireplace in what is now the reception area.  Before we left Todmorden we purchased one of Trisha’s paintings.  She is a well known artist.  The painting we bought was of an abandoned canal lock in Todmorden.  England’s industrial revolution was facilitated by a canal system that moved raw materials and products throughout the country.  Cotton from the U.S. Southern States was shipped inland to Todmorden through the canal system.

   Tricia showed us a photo of Sam Fielden and his two children.  The photo was taken after Sam’s pardon by Illinois Governor Altgeld in 1893.  It was sent to Tricia by Keith Fielden who lives in Richmond, VA.  The photo shows Sam with his children, Alice noted as born in 1884 and Samuel Henry noted only as born in Chicago.  Alice was probably named after Alice Jackson, Sam’s mother.

   I asked how Sam of the Chicago Haymarket and his family could have been forced to work in a mill under horrible conditions yet were members of the Fielden family.  Sam, in describing his work in the mill as a child wrote,  

  

   I think that if the devil had a particular enemy whom he

   wished to unmercifully torture the best thing for him to

   do would be to put his soul into the body of a Lancashire

   factory child and keep him as a child in the factory the

   rest of his life.(The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, op.cite. p. 137)

After a moment of thought Tricia responded that it wasn’t

unusual at all; everyone worked at the mill.  Her father who retired as “Works Manager” had also labored as a weaver in the mill.  However there was tension.  The wealthy Fieldens were called “Castle Fieldens” and have since left Todmorden.

   Looking at Tricia’s photo of Sam and his children made me think of Sam’s comments about his children in his death row autobiography.  Sam records that he went back to England, “to fulfill a matrimonial engagement which I had entered into eleven years before. … The fruit of my marriage has been two children, one a girl of 2 ½ years of age, the other a boy who has been born since my imprisonment.”(ibid. p. 154)  The size of the children indicates that this photo would have been taken after his pardon, around 1900 at their farm in Colorado.

   Samuel Fielden was a devoted family man.  An account referenced in the Chicago Historical Society website describes Sam and his Todmorden wife meeting during a brief security lapse when Sam was being transferred to another section of the jail.  Sam’s wife,

  “Holding her new born babe to her breast threw the other

   arm around his neck and showered kisses upon his homely

   face and shaggy, unkempt beard, weeping convulsively all the

   while.”

SAM’S BOYHOOD HOME

   Tricia offered to take us up to the house where Sam lived as a boy.  She had checked the 1851 census and found the location where the family lived.  The town of Todmorden is located in a valley of the Pennine hills which are called the backbone of England.  Our trip to visit Sam’s home took us up the rather steep hillsides on a narrow winding road.  The vista was a spiritual treat.  The shining emerald landscape and the neat stone hedges reminded me of Ireland.  Sam wrote,

   “It (Todmorden) lies in a beautiful valley, and on the hillsides

   are small farms; back about a mile are the moorlands, which

   could be made into fine farms, as the topography of the

   moors is more level generally than the inclosed land. But

   though thousands of starving Englishmen would be very glad

   to work them, they must be kept for grouse and the games

   keeper and the gentry.”(ibid. 131)

   We reached the house, parked in front of the gate and got out of the car to look around.  The scenery of the hills and moors was breathtaking.  Sam’s house and the area had obviously been gentrified. There was a cement driveway leading to a two car garage. The complex included a neat farm house and farm buildings for tools and animals.  We talked to the owner who told us that he worked in a nearby town.  He and his wife also owned two horses and some sheep which were out in the pasture.  It was hard to imagine this as Sam’s home. It was a moving experience to see the place, but I felt unsettled.  I doubt that the ghosts of Sam and his family find refuge in their old homestead.

   I could see how life in these hills and moors in the 19^th century would make travel by foot difficult.  The cottage industry that supplemented subsistence farming had been replaced by the machine operated mills. The trip up and down the hillside to the cotton mill everyday would have been a challenge.  Sam wrote about his mother Alice walking barefoot in the snow.

   In his autobiography Sam describes the area.  “The house that we occupied stood in the midst of some meadows that were owned by two wealthy brothers, who were engaged in flour milling.”(ibid. 136)

   The haymakers were migrant workers from Ireland.  Sam wrote: 

   “These men are compelled to harvest crops in England for

   the privilege of living in their own country; for the money

   they earn in the English harvest the English landlord

   compels them to give up again, and his lordship brings

   It back again to England, until Pat comes again and harvests

   his crops for him.”(ibid.137)

Tricia said she was amazed at the prices for the properties in the area.  She showed us a two story sand stone building, darkened with soot that was going for over 300,000 pounds.

DOBROYD CASTLE

   Our next stop was the Dobroyd Castle. The Castle sits high in the hills and can be easily seen from Todmorden located in the valley.  We stopped and walked around, awe-inspired by the magnificent building and the surrounding scenery.  Perhaps the Castle could be called a symbol of the love John Fielden felt for his wife and the Todmorden community.  The structure was built while the cotton mills were shut down by the American Civil War and provided work for the laid-off mill workers.  Then again, could it have been an opportunity to hire, for low pay, workers desperate for jobs?  If so, it would have been a symbol of capitalist exploitation for imagined personal immortality.  The building is now a Buddhist monastery and could be called a symbol for peace along with the Stoodley Pike.  Both of these structures are conflicted anchors of Todmorden identity.

   Tricia took us back to our hotel and agreed to meet us for lunch the next day. 

To read more about current May Day marches including the Milwaukee rally and march, check out “MAY DAY RALLIES UNITE WORKERS ACROSS THE GLOBE,” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, May 2, 2013)

 A continuing story - next posting, Tuesday, May 14^th…

THE TRAIN TO TODMORDEN – “WHO WAS ADAM SMITH?”

The Founder of Capitalism and
                       the Tale of the Invisible Hand

“In the neo-liberal world – i.e an autocratic world of trade and profit - today we have a new type of tyranny which, to better secure its domination, chooses to forget the past and erases completely the hope of a future alternative.”(p.15, ibid. S.C. Marcos, LA REVUELTA DE LA MEMORIA)

  

   We left Manchester in the morning for Todmorden. The train ride took only a half hour, but I had a chance to look at the day’s paper.  A headline screamed, “Who was Adam Smith, and does he deserve to be on our banknotes?”  “The Governor of the Bank of England has announced that a portrait of Adam Smith will appear on the 20 pound banknote next year.”  Smith (1723 – 1790) was the founding economist-theologian of Capitalism.  His book, Wealth of Nations, a title taken from the Hebrew prophet Isaiah, advocated free trade and belief in the ‘invisible hand.’  Smith’s ideas on free trade and non government interference in commerce are also called ‘liberalism.’  ‘Liberal’ economics advocated for freedom of merchants from government controlled mercantilism.  The ideal was completely free trade.

The article gave a rationale for Smith’s new honor. 

   Yes he is, (a controversial figure) and association with          

   Thacherite economics is one of the main reasons (for his

   new honor).  But it is not the only one.  Tony Blair’s New

   Labour accepted many of the free market capitalist

   principles of the Thatcher years.

Democrat President of the U.S., Bill Clinton, also went along with a ‘free trade’ program resulting in the tragic loss of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs. 

   Blair and Clinton are called neo-liberals.  Could we include Barack Obama – what about his trade agreement with Columbia famous for murdering union people?  Contrary to Adam Smith, trade laws are accepted, but only in so far as they favor large corporations.  Labor and the environment are left to the regulation of the Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ or the free market.

   A notable historical example of Smith’s ‘liberal’ economics causing a disaster for the working class is the Irish potato famine.  Free trade for Ireland during the potato famine years meant sending grain out of the country while the people starved.  Irish poet Lady Wilde, the mother of Oscar Wilde, wrote:

   Weary men what reap ye? – ‘Golden corn for the stranger.’

   what sow ye?-‘Human corpses that await for the Avenger.

   fainting forms, all hunger-stricken, what see you in the offing?

  ‘Stately ships to bear our food away amid the stranger’s

  scoffing.’ (The Penguin Book of Irish Verse, ed. Brendan Kennelly,               “The Famine Year,” Penguin Books, 1970, p. 232.)

Was Lady Wilde a traitor to her class?  The Irish potato famine caused a massive emigration from Ireland to the U.S. and other countries.

TODMORDEN - THE HOME OF NON-CONFORMISTS

Jeremy’s Tale and a Warm Welcome on a Cold Day

   We arrived at Todmorden shortly after  twelve noon.  It was cold and windy; Milwaukee - Chicago weather.  The station seemed deserted, however, there was a man sweeping the stairs, and we asked him how to get to our hotel.  We were chilled and anxious to get settled, but I couldn’t help but quiz him about Todmorden and the Fielden family.  He was a former high school teacher and a treasure of information.  I asked his name and he replied, “Jeremy Burgoine.”

‘Honest John’ Fielden, Member of Parliament

   Jeremy provided a very gracious and warm welcome to Todmorden.  He knew nothing of Sam Fielden, but did know about the Fielden family and was very knowledgeable about the most famous of the Fieldens, ‘Honest John’ Fielden, M.P.  ‘Honest John’ is revered in Todmorden to this day.  If I would try to be humorous and say that I would never trust anyone by the name ‘Honest John,’ the response would not be a smile or a chuckle but a glance that made me feel as if I had made another ugly American faux pas.

   My point of reference for Jeremy’s discussion and for our visit to Todmorden was Sam Fielden’s death row autobiography; written in prison after he had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death for the killings at the Chicago Haymarket. Sam wrote that the Fielden Brothers’ cotton mill was the largest of numerous mills in Todmorden.  ‘Honest John’ was one of the owner brothers.  The mill contained about 2,000 looms according to Sam and other accounts.  Sam, his father, brother, and sister all worked at this mill.  (The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, ed. Phillip S. Foner, Monad Press, 1969)

Stoodley Pike and Dobroyd Castle

   Jeremy immediately pointed out two Todmorden landmarks in the distant hills.  One was an obelisk called the Stoodley Pike Peace Monument, a community project supported by the Fieldens, built in 1815.   The other was the Dobroyd Castle built by mill owner John Fielden, son of ‘Honest John’ for his mill worker wife.  The Castle was completed in 1869.  Sam Fielden the Anarchist was born in 1847 and knew both landmarks.

   Stoodley Pike was described by Jeremy as a monument to peace constructed after Napoleon’s defeat in 1814 recognized by the Treaty of Ghent.  The Treaty of Ghent also ended hostilities with the United States, namely the War of 1812.  The dispute was about U.S. expansionism and trade, but the War of 1812 is not remembered at Stoodley Pike.  Ironically the monument collapsed in 1854 at the outbreak of the Crimean War.  It was rebuilt a year later.  It is curious that, unlike other monuments in Britain celebrating the end of a war which emphasizes the glory of the British military, the Stoodley Pike is simply described as a peace monument built on hallowed ground.  Its inscription reads, “STOODLY PIKE A PEACE MONUMENT Erected by Public Subscription.”  Jeremy commented that the Fieldens had originally been Quakers who are peace advocates. 

   As for the other landmark mentioned by Jeremy, Sam Fielden remembered the draining of the land for the Dobroyd Castle in his death row autobiography.  The mill in Todmorden had been shut down because cotton shipments from the southern U.S. were stopped during the American Civil War by the Union blockade of Confederate ports.  Sam was hired to prepare the ground for the Castle promised by John Fielden, ‘Honest John’ Fielden’s son, to his mill worker fiancée.

               “I went to work assisting to drain some land on which one  

          of my employers has since built a magnificent castle, which

          is called the Dobroyd castle.  …it was in the winter time, and

          I had to pick the tiles up out of the ice and water.  One day

          I became chilled to the marrow:  I began to grow dizzy, and

          then it grew dark and I fell to the ground insensible.  I was

          carried home and thawed out, and the next day I had to go

          out to the same work again.”  (Ibid. p. 144)

Who should be credited with building the Dobroyd Castle, John Fielden the Rich or Sam Fielden the Anarchist and his fellow workers?  We would go up to visit the castle the next day.

‘Honest John’ Fielden and the Todmorden Cotton Mill

   Jeremy recounted that ‘Honest John’ and his brothers founded the Fielden Brothers Cotton Mill where Sam, his father, brothers and sister worked.  In Sam’s time the mill was run by the sons of ‘Honest John:’  John, Samuel, and Joshua.

   As a member of parliament ‘Honest John’ Fielden, M.P. advocated for the ten hour act which passed in l847, the year Sam was born.  The ten hour act became known as the Fielden Act. A comment in a town history brochure stated, “He (‘Honest John’ Fielden, M.P.) was an employer arguing, as some people saw it, against the people of his own class.” Sam wrote that ‘Honest John’ Fielden, M.P. “fought so valiantly for the ten hour act.”  Sam also noted in his death row autobiography that his father Abraham, a mill worker, was also a ten hour a day activist and a Chartist.

   When the ten hour movement was being agitated in England

   my father was on the committee of agitation of my native

   town, and I have heard him tell of sitting on the platform

   with the Earl of Shaftesbury, John Fielden, Richard Otler,

   and other advocates of that cause.  I always thought he

   put a little sarcasm into the word Earl, at any rate he had

   but little respect for aristocracy and royalty.  He was also

   a Chartist. (P. 132)

The Chartist movement had the goal of universal sovereignty and began with the Great Charter – Magna Carta (Runnymede, 1215) when King John was forced to recognize basic rights of the aristocracy.  The movement had a great influence on the U.S. struggle for independence.

    Jeremy told us the story of ‘Honest John’s’ encounter with the ‘Plug Pullers.’  The ‘Plug Pullers’ were activist mill workers in the area who demanded higher wages for all mill laborers.  Refusal led to the workers pulling the plug on boiler tanks that produced the steam operating the mill machinery.  When the ‘Plug Pullers’ discovered that the Fielden Brothers were already paying the wages that they demanded, the activists decided to leave town without doing any damage.  ‘Honest John’ objected and told them to pull the plugs at his mill as well because all the mills had to be shut down to get an increase in wages.  The ‘Plug Pullers’ were eventually arrested and convicted.  ‘Honest John’ as a member of Parliament and the most important mill owner in the area, was able to get a reduced sentence for the offenders.  

   M.P. Fielden also proposed an eight hour day, and opposed the ‘poor laws.’  The ‘Poor Laws’ were similar to U.S. President Clinton’s welfare reform in establishing pools of cheap labor.

There were strong protests in Todmorden against the ‘Poor Laws.’   Some of M.P. John Fielden’s views on social justice are expressed in his book, The Curse of the Factory System.  ‘Honest John’ Fielden received a complimentary footnote in Engels’, The Condition of the Working Classes in England.

   There is a statue of ‘Honest John’ Fielden M.P. in the Centre Vale Park of Todmorden, but nothing to honor the ‘Plug Pullers,’ who courageously fought the greedy mill owners.  By their protests, the ‘Plug Pullers’ also challenged the “Iron Law of Wages” theory of ‘liberal’ economist David Ricardo (1722 – 1823) who tried to give a scientific reason to explain why paying starvation wages is not evil.  Ricardo was a follower of Adam Smith.  To this day defenders of Capitalism cite the Iron Law of Wages as dogma.  George Will, syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, wrote in opposing an increase of the minimum wage, “The minimum wage should be the same everywhere:  Labor is a commodity; governments make messes when they decree commodities prices.”  Capitalist dogma decrees that supply and demand set prices for all commodities including labor which is considered a commodity not as fellow human beings – creators of the ‘wealth of nations.’

   Fergus O’Connor, a supporter of the ‘Plug Pullers,’ is mentioned in Sam’s autobiography.  Sam writes that his father was “an earnest champion and admirer” of O’Connor.  Besides being a Chartist and one time M.P. from Cork Ireland, O’Connor published a radical newspaper called the Northern Star and, according to Sam, his father claimed the paper was very popular in Todmorden. (ibid. p. 132)  Marx collaborator Fredrick Engles wrote for the Northern Star.  After serving time in prison for ‘seditious libels,’ O’Connor was tried and sentenced for his part in the ‘Plug Riots’ of 1842.

Fergus O’Connor and Violence

   Was Sam Fielden of the Chicago Haymarket not only influenced by his Todmorden Quaker background on the use of violence but also by Fergus O’Connor’s views?  O’Connor at Peep Green in 1839 said,

  “Do the magistrates think of putting down our meeting

   by acts of violence?  I for one think they do, and should

   we be attacked today, come what will, life, death, or

   victory, I am determined no house will cover my head

   tonight.  I am quite ready to stand by the law, and not give

   our tyrants the slightest advantage in attacking us in

   sections; but should they employ force against us.  I am

   repelling attack by attack.”

In his Haymarket court testimony Sam Fielden stated that in his opinion, the existing economic system would be overthrown either peaceably or by force.  Sam testified that he did not own a gun or ever use one. 

   The Haymarket Martyrs were convicted because the court insisted they advocated violence as a means of social change, therefore even though they may have had nothing to do with the bomb that killed policemen, the Haymarket Martyrs were judged as guilty.  In context, the Haymarket Riot took place in the poisoned atmosphere of the hanging of the Pennsylvania Irish coal miners, the ‘Molly Maguires,’ in 1873; Federal troops in fourteen states suppressing with force the railroad strike of 1877; the killing of two striking stone workers in the Chicago suburb of Lamont in 1885 and the killing of two strikers at the McCormick tractor works the day before the Haymarket event.

The Unitarians

   Jeremy pointed out the tall spire of the Unitarian Church and explained that it was built by the three sons of ‘Honest John,’ John, Samuel, and Joshua.  Samuel Fielden, in his death row autobiography, wrote that the “rich Fielden Brothers … were the main support of the unitarian church in the town.” (ibid. p. 142)

   In Jeremy’s opinion the Fieldens may have originated in a lowland weaving center such as Flanders and emigrated to England in the 12^th or 13^th century.

    The statistical arguments showing that comprehensive immigration    reform would improve the nation’s economy are impressive and effective, but what about – it’s just the right thing to do?  Our dear friend Anne Channel, who passed away last week and will be sorely missed by her many friends and her Union A.F.T. Local 212, would say, “it’s just human decency.”

BACK TO THE OLDE SOD: A Tale of May Day in England & Ireland

THE RECOVERY OF MEMORY: “They want to erase our history because to forget history is to negate our claim for justice.” p.177.   “How can you honor the bloody sacrifice of those who were murdered for justice, who gave us our voice and our future. May I speak of these dead in this fiesta? After all they made it possible.  Can we say that we are here because of them?”  p. 221   (LA REVUELTA DE LA MEMORIA, Textos del S.C. Marcos y del EZLN sobre la Historia, Centro de Informacion y Analisis, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, 1999)

   We first visited London to be with our son and daughter-in-law and then went with them to Ireland.  While in England and Ireland, I asked people about labor unions and the first of May as International Labor Day.  Although awareness of May lst as Labor Day has been suppressed in the U.S. by a McCarthyesq mentality, I expected that most in the U.K. and Ireland, especially the working class people, would be aware of May Day as Labor Day.  During the Haymarket trial, George Bernard Shaw spoke at a protest meeting in London, and in the intervening years there have been massive labor inspired May Day demonstrations in London.

   The Roman Catholic Church in 1955 established the feast day of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1st as an alternative to International May Day celebrations which the Church considered Communist.  A reading for the mass of the day is from a letter to the Colossians purported to be from St. Paul, but scripture scholars have their doubts.

    Whatever you do, do from the heart, as for the Lord

    and not from men, knowing that you will receive

    from the Lord due payment of the inheritance; be

    slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Is this the “opiate of the people”? Let us pray that most are free of such a drug. 

  

   It surprised me that most in the U.K. connected the holiday at the beginning of May as a bank holiday and couldn’t relate it to labor.  The T.U.C. (AFL-CIO equivalent in the U.K.) representative responded by e-mail. 

   l May is indeed our equivalent of Labor Day.  The best short                       

   summary I’ve read is on wikipedia, although I’m sure there   

   are more scholarly texts.  To be honest in most countries in   

   Western Europe, Mayday is celebrated as a generic workers’

   day (and the original pagan roots of the celebrations on that

   day),  rather than a commemoration of the Haymarket Riot –    

   few people I suspect know of that connection, even in   

   organising groups.

   On the cheap Ryan Air flight to Ireland, as a first question, I asked the young stewardess if she was a member of a labor union; she responded, “What’s a labor union?”  She was a recent immigrant from Poland so I tried to relate labor unions to Lech Walesa but without success.  On a boat trip on the Irish fiord of Killary, I asked the Irish sailors about May Day and labor unions.  They had no knowledge of May Day as a labor holiday and said that they were not union members because their company was not big enough.

   On a recent trip to the Dominican Republic we discovered that May 1^st is celebrated in the Dominican Republic as a national holiday in honor of workers.  Everyone we questioned was aware that May 1st is a workers’ holiday.

MANCHESTER – THE CRADLE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

Tales of Wealth & Poverty  

 

   We returned to London from Ireland and then made plans to visit the small town of Todmorden, the birth place of Haymarket Martyr Sam Fielden.  We were advised to take the bus to Manchester then the train to Todmorden.  Helen Toft, Catherine’s sister who went to the University in Manchester, suggested that we spend some time in the city.  She claimed Manchester was the birth place of the industrial revolution and noted that Marx and Engles had been there. 

   We traveled by bus to Manchester, and at the Manchester bus depot, I asked a security guard about Labor Day and labor unions.  He said he didn’t know about Labor Day and he didn’t like unions.  He immediately went to talk to the man he said was his boss.  They looked over at me and the boss laughed.  I guess the boss didn’t consider me much of a threat.  More conversations led me to believe that Margaret Thatcher did a better job of suppressing labor in the U.K. than Ronald Reagan in the U.S.  Tops, of course is Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

   We didn’t have much time to tour Manchester, but we did visit the Church of England Cathedral and discovered some unexpected treasures.  At the back of the church is a statue of the pioneer Manchester capitalist Humphrey Chetham (Would you buy a used car from someone with such a name?) who in 1653 left money for the purchase of buildings just north of the church for the founding of a school and library.  This library is the oldest free library in the English speaking world.  Chetham’s library is where Marx and Engels met and researched the economics of Capitalism in the 1840’s.  Where else you might ask. While in Manchester Engels worked in the textile firm of Ermen and Engels in which his father was a large shareholder.  Engels described the slum condition of this area in his book, The Condition of the Working Classes in England in 1844.

   Among the other Cathedral surprises was a statue of Mary, Jesus the carpenter’s mother.  The Cathedral is dedicated to St. Mary, St. Denys and St. George.  Usually statues of the Blessed Virgin show her as a member of the royalty – a queen.  However, outside the Cathedral stands a statue called the Lancashire Madonna wearing the traditional shawl of a local mill worker. Obviously the product of a new theology, the statue was part of the post-war reconstruction of 1958.

  

  The next stop will be Todmorden, the birth place of Samuel Fielden.

  

TODMORDEN TALES - SAM FIELDEN THE IMMIGRANT WORKER – A Keystone for American Working Class Identity

    The Beginning of a May Day Pilgrimage – The Worker’s Tale

PROLOGUE

   A trip to England and Ireland six years ago to visit our son Joel and our daughter-in-law Catherine plunged Joanne and me into a living history, and we became more conscious of what it means to be working class Americans.  We would like to share with you the account of our pilgrimage as it appears in our journal with some editing.  The focus is the history of the May 1^st Labor Day memorial marches.

  

   As part of our trip we planned to visit Todmorden, the hometown of Samuel Fielden, one of the Haymarket Martyrs.  In the town of Todmorden we not only discovered the roots of Samuel Fielden but also the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution, Capitalism, and the Labor Movement.  We became aware of the influence of religion on the radical economic changes of the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

   The Chicago’s Haymarket Riot has always been a fascinating story for me.  I was born and grew up in Chicago, but Joanne and I have lived in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for over thirty years and have been active in the labor movement.  Milwaukee workers remember the events in the 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day with an annual first week of May ritual at the monument to those killed in the Bayview Massacre.  We also have a large May 1^st march with a focus on rights for immigrant workers. 

   Several demonstrators were gunned down by the Wisconsin National Guard in Bayview, a lakefront suburb just south of downtown Milwaukee.  Polish workers, the latest immigrants to the city, met at St. Stanislaus Church, then marched to the Bayview Rolling Mill in support of the eight-hour day.  At the Rolling Mill they were met with a rain of gunfire from the Polish immigrant manned Kosciuzko Guard.   The Bayview Massacre took place the day after the May 4^th 1886 Haymarket Riot in Chicago where many more were killed by contagious police fire.

   Remembering the Bayview Massacre is made easier by looking at the buildings around the Voces de la Frontera office where we volunteer.  The buildings were constructed around the time of the Bayview tragedy.  St. Stanislaus Church, where it all began, is only a few blocks away.

  The police at the Chicago Haymarket were reacting to a bomb that was thrown and killed a policeman.  Six more policemen died from wounds received in the melee that followed.  It is not known how many bystanders and labor activists were killed.  Samuel Fielden was shot in the leg trying to escape the unintended confrontation.

   Chicago police, prompted by Chicago retail mogul Marshall Field and others, arrested hundreds after the Haymarket killings.  Eight labor leaders were selected to be scapegoats for the Chicago blood bath.   One of them was Samuel Fielden.  Seven of the eight were migrant workers and the other, Albert Parsons, was born in Montgomery Alabama and was a member of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.  Parsons had ancestors who fought in the U.S. War of Independence.  

   Albert Parsons has a Milwaukee connection; Parsons, his wife Lucy, and their two children fled to the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha immediately after the Haymarket incident.  They stayed with the Hoan family. One of the Hoan children, Daniel, became the second of three Socialist mayors in Milwaukee.  He was Milwaukee mayor from 1916 to 1940.

   When the trial in Chicago began, Parsons turned himself in.  When he arrived at the court he stated, “I present myself for trial with my comrades, your honor.”  Without Parsons the trial would have been simply a judgment of migrant workers, and perhaps it would have been easier to gain sympathy for the trial and its verdict from the public.

   Those brought to trial were called anarchists because of their association with a group called the “International Working People’s Association.” One of them was Samuel Fielden of Todmorden, England.  Fielden, born in 1847, emigrated to the U.S. as a young man of 21 and became a labor activist.

   The eight were convicted of murder in a notorious trial that failed to connect any of them with the killings.  One was given a fifteen year prison sentence; the others were condemned to death including Samuel Fielden.  Of the seven condemned to death, four were hanged, one committed suicide or perhaps was murdered, and the sentences of Fielden and one other condemned to death were commuted to life in prison.  The commutation decision was delivered the day before the hangings. The three that remained in prison were eventually pardoned in 1893, Samuel Fielden being one of those pardoned. Governor Altgeld, when he issued his pardon, said, “These men are not being pardoned because they have suffered enough, but because they are innocent.”

   The violence to repress the eight-hour movement, the subsequent Haymarket trial and hangings, indicated a serious flaw in the capitalist system which has never been resolved.

Anarchists point out that the legal system is often used as the enemy of the working class. A current example would be the Milwaukee Palermo Pizza strike.

   Joanne and I found Samuel Fielden a fascinating labor icon to study because he was a man of Faith, a family man and a labor activist.  We both are volunteers at an immigrant workers center called Voces de la Frontera.  Voces includes The New Sanctuary Movement which works with families and others on the cusp of deportation.  Our volunteer work is mostly with the New Sanctuary section.  Sam fits well for us as a role model.   Both of us are descendants of Irish-German immigrants and we are active in the Latino Labor Community.  We found the struggle of 19^th century migrant workers instructive and inspiring,

 

   The 1886 struggle for the eight-hour day and the Haymarket Riot prompted the celebration of May Day as the International Day of Solidarity for labor.  I remember as high school teachers in Bolivia, Joanne and I were required to march in the annual May Day parade.  We heard speeches commemorating “Los Martires de Chicago.”  I often wondered how many working class people in Chicago knew about the ‘Chicago Martyrs?’

   Years later we saw murals in Mexico City depicting the Haymarket Martyrs.  One was by Diego Rivera in the Palace of Justice and the other appears in a union hall.

   In my next edition I will take you to Ireland and to Killary, the Irish fiord, then on to the charming town of Todmordon, the birthplace of Samuel Fielden, a town nestled in a valley, surrounded by the famous moors of Central England.

May 1st March, an Historical Perspective

   Voces de la Frontera’s annual May 1^st March is for worker rights and focuses on immigration reform while referencing itself to the historic May 1^st marches in the past.

   The story begins in 1886 when the Knights of Labor – a national labor union – campaigned for the eight-hour day.  In Chicago two demonstrations resulted in police violence.  A demonstration of workers, mostly immigrants from Germany, at Chicago’s Haymarket, between Desplaines and Halsted Streets, resulted in several being killed.  Although the workers had a permit for the public meeting, those thought to have organized the meeting were indicted and convicted of murder.  Four were executed by the state of Illinois. Those indicted and convicted are called the Haymarket Martyrs and have been memorialized in May 1^st marches since the 1890’s mostly in Europe and Latin America.

   A few days after the ‘Haymarket,’ a group of Polish workers in Milwaukee gathered at St. Stanislaus Church to march to the Bay View Rolling Mills to demand an eight-hour day.  The marchers were met with gunfire from the Wisconsin National Guard and several workers were killed. This event in labor history is chronicled as the Bay View Massacre.  The Milwaukee confrontation is not well known, but Milwaukee workers remember and so do the immigrant workers of Voces de la Frontera remember as they march on May 1^st for immigration reform and the rights of all workers.

   The above is a brief review of the events that are memorialized in the May 1^st Marches since the 1890’s.  The next postings will provide a more detailed account of the “Haymarket Riot” and the “Bay View Massacre,” starting Tuesday, April 16th and for successive Tuesdays.

  The story is related from the point of view of a trip to England to learn more about Samuel Fielden, an Immigrant from England and one of the “Haymarket Martyrs.” Again, a new posting will be made every Tuesday starting on April 16th .