On 4 May 1886, several policemen and workers were killed in a clash during a labor rally in Chicago. A bomb was thrown at police sent to break up the rally and police fired back. What followed was a hunt and a trial of eight who were accused of complicity in the bomb throwing. Four died by suicide or capital punishment and the remainder were imprisoned. This book, A Concise History of the Great Trial of the Chicago Anarchists in 1866 by Dyer L. Lum alleges that the trial of the eight was an attempt by the establishment to destroy labor activism.

The United States is an anomaly in the industrialized world in that it does not appear to have a highly developed labor or socialist movement – certainly in the role it plays in party politics. Unions and movements exist and have a long history but their weight has traditionally been relatively little compared to their European counterparts. The reasons for this are many but one thought is that the United States was built on a radically individual and classically liberal philosophy rather than one that emphasizes the whole.

The industrialization of America created huge opportunities for work, particularly for migrants and also huge wealth for those who owned the businesses that produced. However, working conditions could be incredibly tough with lengthy working weeks for comparatively small pay. Labor movements emerged to combat these injustices and bitter disputes could break out between owners and workers. Some were successful, others led to crushing defeats for workers and slashed wages.

The Haymarket tragedy was the climax to a series of labor disturbances at Chicago factories. Workers had been at loggerheads with factory owners for some time and peaceful strikes had been declared. The strikers’ demands were typical, an eight-hour day and better conditions. The real trouble emerged when strikers were killed in scuffles with private security contractors. The rally at Haymarket was called to address this issue and then the bomb was thrown. The organizers of the rally, the Knights of Labor, had their reputation seriously damaged by the event and the subsequent trial, and there was widespread support for the police. Middle-class America came to have a distrust of organised labor.

For Lum, the events that followed the Haymarket Affair were indicative of the battle between capital and labor. Although he was more based in the anarchist tradition than the socialist and labor tradition, this text on the Haymarket Affair gives us a window onto the relationship between business and the conditions of their workers.