Today in Labor History June 25, 1893: The Haymarket Martyrs Monument was dedicated at Forest Home Cemetery, Chicago, to honor the anarchists who were framed and executed for the bombing at Haymarket Square on May 4, 1886. More than 8,000 people attended. Unions from around the world sent flowers to be laid at the base of the monument, where there is a plaque containing the last words of Haymarket martyr August Spies: “The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today.” The Haymarket anarchists had been organizing for the Eight Hour Day. The monument was erected by the Pioneer Aid & Support Association, an organization created by African-American anarchist and IWW cofounder Lucy Parsons, widow of Albert Parsons, another of the Haymarket martyrs. In 1997, the monument was designated a National Historic Landmark—a hypocritical whitewashing considering that the U.S. is one of only 2 countries in the world that does not recognize May 1 as International Workers’ Day, in honor of the Haymarket martyrs, and that it created Labor Day in an attempt to suppress the more radical May 1 commemorations.
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