Reference no: EM13510446

Haymarket riot in Chicago at 1886, the Media, and Agent Provocateurs

In the 1960s and 1970s there was a widespread FBI and police effort to plant agents in the Civil Rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement who were "agent provocateurs." These police agents tried to stir up violence, arguing in meetings that activists should attack the police, break store windows, and burn American flags, knowing that when it happened it would lead to police repression, negative publicity, and the discrediting of the movement and its goals. For example, see (on the Chicago "red squads" in the police): https://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1049.html a PBS show on the history of unconstitutional actions by the government: https://www.pbs.org/now/politics/cointelpro.htmlOr

Q1: In your opinion, what should labor do when the government and corporations initiate the violence, then blame unionists in false stories carried widely by corporate-owned newspapers, precisely in order to swing public opinion against unions?

The murder of the Haymarket martyrs led to May 1 being named as international workers holiday. May 1 is celebrated in Europe and most of world as their labor day, but our labor day is the first Monday in September. Why is that? Because the AFL at the time denounced the bomb-throwing, joined the media's red-baiting, and viewed May 1 as being identified with radicals, anarchists, and socialists. The conservatism of the American union movement led to our own country, where Haymarket took place, being the only one that doesn't recognize May 1 as labor day.

Q2: What are your thoughts on this? Please offer insightful thoughts?