Almost 130 years ago on May 4 1986, socialists, anarchists and labour supporters gathered in Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest for and support the eight-hour work day, and to protest the killing of strikers by police at a demonstration the day before. The events of the day are well known. An explosion at the end of the rally, the deaths of seven police officers and four demonstration participants, followed by a witch hunt and arrest of eight anarchists, and the execution of four (one militant committed suicide in prison).
While May Day was being celebrated within a few years of the Haymarket Massacre, its true history is largely unknown. In North America May Day is virtually unknown. (Its pallid cousin Labor Day merely signifies the last long weekend of summer). For much of the Twentieth Century May Day was seen as a military celebration of the State-capitalist regimes in Eastern Europe and Asia.
Yet, amnesia and misdirection have not buried that dream of a better world. And it is still necessary to recall and to loudly proclaim the worlds of the Internationale,
The world is about to change its foundation
We are nothing, let us be all.
