A Non-Native Movement?

Hello all, this continuing issue of the Haymarket Blog features a look at the conversation that exists between different historians regarding the events through out the first week of May, 1886, in Chicago. There are, obviously, many different accounts written by historians about this important time period in American history. The various sources that contributed to the ideas in this blog and represent some of the different angles that historians have utilized to better understand this event and the movement that it represented. The sources utilized for the information of this blog are Paul Avrich's "The Haymarket Tragedy", "Beyond the Martyrs" by Bruce C. Nelson, "All-American Anarchist, Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement" by Carlotta R. Anderson, an excerpt from James Green's, "Remembering Haymarket: Chicago's Labor Martyrs and Their Legacy", details from the website of The Chicago Historical Society, a look into the ideas of "State Socialism and Anarchism" by Benjamin R Tucker and, finally, "The Autobiographies of The Haymarket Martyrs".
A very common historical judgment of what happened at Haymarket Square and after is that injustice was served to the Anarchist movement leaders. This is typical in most accounts written. It is important to understand that the person responsible for the deadly bomb was never found. Furthermore, many of the leaders indicted were not even present at the legal demonstration at Haymarket. Of the defendants, Albert R. Parsons, August Spies (pronounced Spees), Samuel J Fielden, Michael Schwab, Adolph Fischer, George Engel, Louis Lingg, and Oscar Neebe, only Spies, Parsons, and Fielden were present at the rally (Foner 8). Thus, historians commonly report that the men were not on trial for the act of murder but for the ideas of Anarchy they represented and the resultant murder that it caused.
What becomes important in the study of this time period goes beyond the injustice served to the martyrs. What historians have discovered about the cause of the labor movement in Chicago and the first American "Red Scare" sheds light on early American radicalization. There are many reasons why Chicago was one of the focal points of working party agitation in the late nineteenth-century. Chicago, during this time period, was a tremendous boom town. The presence of a new industrial society, in the same equation with the opportunistic location of Chicago, resulted in historic immigration. "Beyond the Martyrs" focuses on these industrialization ideals and the ethnic make-up of the immigrants in understanding the rise of the working party in Chicago. In this book it is suggested that the tremendous ethnic variety of the immigrants led to shared experiences of alienation (Nelson 24). The struggles of the lower working class led to an identification with class status more than an association with ethnicity (Nelson 24). Furthermore, Nelson suggests that the concentration of German immigrants, first and second generation Germans equaled 33 per cent of the city, led to an influx of Socialist ideas, imported across the Atlantic, consequently published in the various ethnic newspapers in Chicago (Nelson 17). Additionally, the drastic ebb and flow of the work cycle resulting in various depressions, one 1873-1878, and 1882 through 1886, produced sustenance problems. In 1885, it is reported that "39 percent of the working classes were in enforced idleness." (Nelson 13). What this resulted in was a huge separation of wealth and a situation ripe for various, separate types of ethnicity to come together in labor dispute.
So then, why did America get caught up in a frenzy that resulted in the execution of the movements leaders and the failure of the eight hour labor movement. First of all, the public perception was influenced by many different outlets. In a time period where communication was limited, newspapers had the distinct power to influence many. Paul Avrich states, "The press, as extracts indicate, was bitterly one-sided in its reports of the incident." and "Throughout the country newspapers and journals called for severe reprisals." (Avrich 217). A quote from the St. Louis Globe Democrat says, "There are no good Anarchists except dead Anarchists." (Avrich 217). Additionally, Theodore Roosevelt, is quoted as stating that his cowboys "would like a chance with rifles at Chicago's unruly mobs." (Avrich 218). So the public was caught in a frenzy for revenge. The idea that socialism was considered foreign and attributed to immigrants furthers this cause.
The irony of the perception that Socialism and Anarchism is a foreign invention begs a little research in itself. First of all, the leader of the Anarchist movement, a confederate soldier, Albert Parsons, happens to be as American as they come. His many American descendants fought in the major U.S. wars, including the Revolutionary war (Foner 27 - 28). Another testament to Socialism and Anarchism being native to American soil, from the words of Benjamin Tucker who was the founder and editor of one of America's most famous periodicals Liberty, is that the economic ideas of Socialism originate briefly in Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations, but, are pronounced more soundly by an American, Josiah Warren (Tucker 12 - 13). It is from these ideas that the Frenchman Pierre J. Proudhon and the German Karl Marx developed their point of view (Tucker 13). Thus, in contrast to the popular opinion of the American press and the profiting elite, socialism can be considered an American and European creation.
The disruptions to profit and productivity that the various labor parties caused are understandably the reasons that the elitist of the country were interested in developing a mass frenzy about the horrors of Anarchism and Socialism. The tenets of Anarchism run directly counter to the ideas of a Capitalistic society. In fact, the process of making profit off another man's work is the idea that is divergent between the two systems. Anarchism features the idea that "the only reason why the banker, the stockholder, the landlord, the manufacturer, and the merchant are able to exact usury from labour lies in the fact that they are backed by legal privilege, or monopoly; and that the only way to secure to labour the enjoyment of its entire product, or natural wage; is to strike down monopoly." (Tucker 13). The fact that the tenets of this movement seek to completely destroy the status quo of the American capitalistic system is the fuel for the anti-labour party fire of late nineteenth century America. In the words of Karl Marx' Communist Manifesto, "Let the ruling classes tremble." (Anderson 47).
The effects the Haymarket Affair had on the labor movements were severe. The death and injury caused by the one anonymous toss of a bomb stalled the movement for an eight hour workday as well as drastically decreased the relevancy that various labor unions had. Capitalism took on more steam as the nineteenth century wore on culminating in the huge corporations of the turn of the century such as the Carnegie, Morgan steel enterprise. The effect on American public opinion, against various strains of communism was obvious in the McCarthy scares of the 50s, as well as the general feeling against the Soviet's communism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, Carlotta R., All American Anarchist: Joseph A. Labadie and the Labor Movement (Detroit: Wayne State University Press,1998).
Avrich, Paul, The Haymarket Affair (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984).
Green, James, Remembering Haymarket: Chicago's Labor Martyrs and Their Legacy,in Taking History to Heart: The Power of the Past in Building Social Movements
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000).
Foner, Philip S., ed. The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs (New York: Pathfinder, 1993).
Nelson, Bruce C., Beyond the Martyrs: A Social History of Chicago’s Anarchists 1870 - 1900 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1988).
Tucker, Benjamin R., State Socialism and Anarchism, and other Essays (Colorado Springs: Ralph Myles Publisher Inc., 1972).