The Indian Bolshevik

May 1, 1886, Chicago socialists, reformists, anarchists, and ordinary workers combined to make the city the center of the national movement for an eight-hour day. Between April 25 and May 4, workers attended scores of meetings and paraded through the streets at least 19 times. On Saturday, May 1, 35,000 workers walked off their jobs. Tens of thousands more, both skilled and unskilled, joined them on May 3 and 4. Crowds traveled from workplace to workplace urging fellow workers to strike. Many now adopted the "radical demand of eight hours' work and increased wage". Police clashed with strikers at least a dozen times, three with shootings.  At the McCormick reaper plant, a long-simmering strike erupted in violence on May 3, and police fired at strikers, killing at least two. On May 4 a peaceful meeting at Haymarket Square became even more so. The meeting was almost over and only about two hundred people remained when they were attacked by 176 policemen carrying...