One thing that the above
writeups didn't seem to make super clear was exactly WHY the people were
rallying at the
square.
Let's start with some numbers. In 1890, the year that the government first tracked worker's hours, the average workweek for full-time manufacturing employees was 100 hours and 102 hours for building tradesmen. That's a lotta hours, and American's weren't too happy about it. Almost 50 years earlier there was a push for standardized 10 hour a day work weeks, which failed. But by the 1880's, there was a call for even shorter work days, with the slogan:
"Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest and eight hours for what you will."
Much organization was necessary to get this movement going, and by 1886 the Knights of Labor had over 700,000 members. Gradually interest for a national strike grew, with May 1, 1886 chosen as the day for the strike.
The heart of the movement was in Chicago where thousands of people had already won reduced hour a day work weeks. Nearly 10,000 people participated in the Chicago strikes on May 1st in a peaceful action. However, on May 3rd, the cops were not finding it amusing anymore, and tensions rose. At one demonstration on May 3rd, unionists attacked several men who crossed the picket line. The police responded by opening fire, killing four demonstrators. That night, over 1,000 people took to the streets in outrage and protest at the killings.
At one of these rallies, the Haymarket Square rally, a dynamite bomb exploded nearby police ranks just as the last speaker concluded his speech. The explosion killed one officer and prompted the remaining police force to open fire on the crowd. One demonstrator died, and many others were injured or wounded. Eight people were arrested and tried for the explosion in an atmosphere of hysteria. Four were hanged, even though there was virtually no evidence linking them to the bombing.
So yes, ladies and germs, it really sucks when we have to work 60 or 70 hours a week. But every week I do, I thank myself for the other benefits I enjoy and for the knowledge that if I didn't want to work that much, I could always find a job that let me work 8 hours a day per week (even if it IS at McDonald's)
Most facts from: http://www.pbs.org/livelyhood/workday/weekend/8hourday.html and Jeremy Brecher, author of Strike!
Thanks to panamaus for pointing out that Americans aren't greedy enough to have asked for 10 or 8 hour workweeks, but 8 (or 10) hour a DAY workweeks.