THE CHICAGO MARTYRS.
  On the 1st of May, 1886, the United Workers of America laid down their tools and said: "Ten hours is too long for a workingman to toil each day, we therefore resolve not to again take up their tools until the em-ployers agree to an eight-hour day.' This was the first attempt at a general strike, and as a walkout it was a fair success. Every man who had promised to strike, did so and many thousands of non-union men and women marched out with their union comrades, and stayed with them until starvation drove them back to the factories and mills again at the old rate and hours. In many instances they won the eight-hour day, but since it did not become general, the employers that agreed to the demands of the workers were forced to re-turn to the ten-hour day thru the inevitable workings of the law of competition.

  The eight-hour day did, not become an actuality but a victory of far more importance was achieved by that strike. The workers learned the rudiments of social action upon which future success must be founded  --- unity, solidarity. The workers learned another thing of equal importance in the struggle against capital; they discovered that labor united and acting together, is a mighty giant, against whose strength it would be useless for even the combined forces of capital to contend. They saw clearly that the cause for their failure did not lie in the great strength of united, capital, but rather in the lack of sufficient unity among themselves. This was the most dangerous knowledge of all. So long as the toilers were kept in darkness relative to their own strength when united in a common cause the way of the exploiters was easy, but once let them see the possibility of asserting their independence, of achieving their liberties, and of improving their social and economic conditions, and they would never again rest upon their oars and adjust themselves to the miserable conditions that surround them. To be sure, they had gotten glimpses of this knowledge in previous struggles, especially in the strike of 1871, when they routed the soldiers at Pittsburgh and drove them from the city out into the tall grass; but it required a movement like that of 1886 to fix the matter definitely, and for all time, in the mind and in the traditions of the working class of America.

  As was expected, the police were extremely active during the strike, excessively cruel and harsh in many instances. They clubbed everybody, right and left, along Blue Island avenue and Madison street, where the street car men were striking. And at the so-called McCormick riot they killed and wounded many without provocation, by shooting into the crowd volley after volley. As an 'innocent onlooker," I was badly scared when a bullet plowed thru my coat, carrying a portion of my finger with it on its journey to the breast of a striker who stood directly behind me. The poor fellow swooned and fell, but was quickly carried away to his squalid "home" by his comrades. I afterwards learned he died as a result of the wound, leaving behind a penniless wife and five small children, to weep and curse the fate that brought them to "free" America. That was but one of very many similar cases that occurred all around me on that fateful day.

  The Haymarket meeting was a public protest against those atrocities. Surely, it had good and sufficient justification. But, momentous as was the occasion for it it would not now be one of the leading historic events in the world's labor movement had not the police attacked it. There was not the slightest excuse for dispersing the meeting, not even from the "law and order" point of view. The strike was in full swing, and the masters had undoubtedly become greatly alarmed at the show of unity and resistance displayed by the workers. The police certainly had special orders to use every means at their command to suppress the strike, law or no law. Law is observed by the authorities only when it can be used to suppress the workingman; when it protects him it is ignored.

  An unknown hand cast a bomb into the midst of the platoon of police that was descending upon a peaceful and orderly meeting of citizens, gathered together to discuss their just grievances. Eight policemen died as a result of the explosion. Then eight men were coldly and deliberately picked from among the leading, and, consequently, the most "dangerous," Anarchists, and put on trial for murder and conspiracy. No responsibility for the throwing of the bomb was traced to anyone of the eight men. The bomb thrower has never been discovered. The law says a case must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt before conviction can be had. This was a case where the law interfered with the execution of the wishes of the authorities, so it was quietly set aside. Here was a chance to rid the community of eight dangerous men; men whom the glare of gold could not silence; men of proven ability as organizers of the discontented; men whose teachings were farreaching and deep-rooted, the practical application of which would destroy every privilege enjoyed by the rich and powerful; here was the golden opportunity to rid themselves, once for all, of those desperate enemies of society. But the good work had to be given the semblance of legality. It would never do in this enlightened, progressive, free country to kill our enemies in the crude fashion of barbarous Russia. Besides, the Russian method might produce a reaction more terrible than the pestilence they sought to destroy.

  At last justice prevailed, and law and order were vindicated. The farce was ended. The prisoners must hang. Despicable and disgusting as was the whole proceeding up to the last, the end of it was sublime. Can imagination picture a grander climax in contrast to the whole unmanly and dishonorable proceedings of that trial, than the sight of the condemned men rising in their seats and, in words charged with dignity, honesty and a defiant indignation, denouncing the whole infamous court, with its gally of mental prostitutes, perjurers, scoundrels and hypocrites, and the entire system of wage-slavery and wealth-knavery that support and maintain it, bidding defiance to it all, and declaring themselves ready to die for the principles they loved, and which, they were sure, one day, would liberate mankind and make life a pleasure and a joy worth living?

  Parsons worried the court for six hours; the speeches of the other comrades were not so long, but they are masterpieces of their kind, and have traveled around the world and given hope and courage to hundreds of thousands of toilers, in a dozen languages.

  Spies, Fielding and Schwab signed a petition for clemency. The others refused, absolutely, to make any appeal for mercy. They insisted upon either liberty or death. Spies had signed the petition on the advice of his counsel and friends, tho under protest, and soon regretted his action, and penned the powerful letter, printed in this issue, asking that he be allowed to pay the penalty for all. This and the other letters show the true spirit of the men. No compromise; liberty o death. Schwab and Fielding were willing to accept imprisonment rather than death. Their sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life. They were afterward released by Governor Altgeld, together with Oscar Neebe, who had been given fifteen years by the packed court that condemned his comrades to death.

  The funeral was long, solemn, impressive. Thousands of workers marched behind the five hearses that slowly carried the remains of their crucified friends and comrades to the depot, whence they were conveyed by train to Waltheim cemetery. On Sunday, December 18, 1887 the five caskets were placed side by side in an underground vault, over which a monument stands, a cut of which appears on this page. The monument is inscribed with the last words of Spies. Thus I have related in brief a chapter in the great social drama of the nineteenth century.
 
JAY FOX.

Well Done

Luigi as Che. 

Gen X compares Luigi to a comic book hero.

I see a resemblance to one of the most authentic men who ever lived.  Acting on beliefs is something few of us have courage to do.  Our social matrix blinds us to inequity and the suffering of people we do not know.  Few of us have the courage to make the change that in our hearts we know the world needs.

Our system murders by the millions and we look away pretending that it is not so.


Rule by a heartless few is no way to live.

Quote from: K-Dog on Dec 25, 2024, 02:40 PMRule by a heartless few is no way to live.

Indeed, and agreed. And as both commies (good ones such as yourself or those icky other kind there are more of), democrats, aristocrats, technocrats, aristocrats, oligarchcrats, rich folk and most any other group in charge of collecting more stuff than they deserve just keep doing it anyway. Us regular folks let them do it and have been for at least a generation or longer, if you count how long communists at least have decided that communism means enslaving the people in pursuit of power for the few.  And we old geriatrics around here with not much in front of us except a dirt nap..... why does how the world works in your and all of our twilight years bother you so? Does 2+2=4 bother you as well? Gravity? The speed of light?

Quote"Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need."

Félix Ismael Rodríguez Mendigutia is a Cuban American former Central Intelligence Agency Paramilitary Operations Officer in the Special Activities Division, known for his involvement in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the execution of communist revolutionary Che Guevara as well as his close ties to George H. W. Bush during the Iran–Contra affair.

In 2005, Rodríguez oversaw the opening of the Bay of Pigs Museum and Library in Little Havana, Florida.  He became the chairman of the board of directors.

The motherfucker is alive and well in Florida.  So Free Luigi  Nobody in a suit has a right to throw a stone.

* I  would tell the AI construction of the Lugi 'che' image to use a black beret but I only had 4 free credits. 
  The red star should be a  that is a hint if anyone wants to continue the effort.

I want the T-shirt.


  Do not be killing.  He has to ask for forgiveness.  And I suggest he render a manslaughter conviction to caesar.  Other than that, none of you are fit to lift a stone against him.

Violence has no place in Politics?  Violence IS Politics.  Wars, Armies, Police, Revolutions, Riots, Assassinations, Torture, Terrorism, Prisons, Deportations, Embargoes, Sanctions...every nation-state in the world does or uses some or all of these techniques to further their political goals and agendas.  Often the actions are covert and the general population never evn know about them, much less has the ability to consent to their use. What they really mean is that the State has a monopoly on the use of violence and the individual or group opposed to the State can't retaliate in kind.

As those of us who observe the way the world REALLY works know, the violence is often the ECONOMIC kind, be it sanctions that prevent a country from purchasing energy to insurance companies that refuse to pay for life saving medicines or procedures, resulting in deaths measured in the hundreds or thousands.  As Gen. Smedley Butler wrote, his real job in the military was as an enforcer for Wall Street.



The Economic Hitmen of the IMF enslave entire countries making loans, fomenting revolutions and coup d'etats and piecemeal selling off a nation's wealth in privatization of the commons.  It's systematic large scale violence perpetrated every day in the global political landscape.

Individuals who retaliate in kind are hunted down and vilified, despite the fact their crimes are orders of magnitude less violent than the actions of the state and the corporatocracy that controls it.  Only when people grasp that they are being violently abused and defend themselves against it will they be able to break this monopoly on violence.

RE

There is a saying:

War is a mere continuation of policy by other means. - Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general and military theorist

Dude called this out in the 18th century...