May Day 2009 - Remember the Martyrs of Chicago!

As the annual May Day arrives once again, let's disregard how the media and government wants us to see this day, and remember what it really commemorates.

The Haymarket Affair took place in May of 1886 at the Haymarket Square in Chicago, Illinois. A rally in support of striking laborers resulted in an unknown individual throwing a bomb into a crowd of advancing police officers, attempting to disperse the gathering. The explosion and proceeding violence resulted in eight dead police officers, and an untold amount of civilian casualties.

In the arrests and court decision that followed the incident, eight anarchists were tried for murder, and seven were sentenced to death. Four died by public hanging, two had their sentences commuted to life in prison, and one committed suicide while in captivity. These men were found guilty not because of their relation to the bombing itself, as the prosecution presented no evidence that directly related them to the bombing, but merely for their political affiliations as anarchists. Meanwhile, the media printed sensationalized information about the anarchists, demonizing them, resulting in an incorrect over simplified collective conscious of the incident. To this day the stereotype of the bomb wielding anarchist, who advocates random violence and destruction, survives due to this fear mongering.

The trial is widely regarded as one of the most serious miscarriages of justice in the history of the United States to this day. It is now recognized that private business security forces (Pinkerton Guards) were responsible for provoking the bombing, as a result of their unchecked shooting of striking workers in 1885. In 1893 the Governor of Illinois recognized that all eight defendents were innocent, resulting in pardons for the remaining men. The bomb thrower was never found.

The reason we must always remember this day is not for any allegiances to certain political doctrines, but to remind us of the instability of the United States (or any other nation's) justice system, and it's ability to be manipulated. Just as in 1886 as newspapers brought forth biased sensationalized stories about the Haymarket Affair, they have that same power today. In particular, these times of 24/7 corporate media sensationalism mean we must be ever more vigilant in our pursuit of objective investigation. They are subjected to bringing us information, not for the sake of truth or justice, but for the almighty dollar.

"The time will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today!"
-August Spies, moments before his execution