By Oscar William Neebe CHICAGO As a grandson of Oscar William Neebe, one of the Haymarket defendants, May Day 1980 has a personal significance for me. Oscar W. Neebe was born in New York in 1850. Shortly afterwards, his parents took the family back to Hesse-Cassel, now part of the Federal Republic of Germany, so their children would receive their edu- cation there. Oscar returned to New York when he was 14 and found work as a goldsmith. In 1866 he moved to Chicago and worked as a bartender at the Lake House Saloon. From the men who ate there he learned of the poor working conditions of workers at the McCormick Machine Company. In 1881 Oscar, his brother Henry and two other men formed the Acme Yeast Company. It was as a yeasi salesman that Oscar became more aware of the deplorable living and working conditions of Chicago’s brewery workers. When Oscar was later arrested as one of the vic- tims of the Haymarket hysteria, he believed it was because of his work in organizing brewery workers. He was the Brewery Workers Union’s first president. Certainly his role as a manager and writer for the German language workers’ paper, Arbetier Zeitung, contributed to his arrest and imprisonment in May 1886. The Arbeiter Zeitung was the leading publica- tion of the Socialist Publishing Society. On May 4, 1886, a meeting was called at Haymar- ket Square to protest the police brutality and killing of workers on strike at the McCormick plant. Just three days before, the first mass protest in support of the eight-hour day was held in Chicago. As the peaceful Haymarket rally was breaking up, a squad of police charged the remaining protesters. A bomb was thrown that killed a policeman and wounded several others. Eight men were arrested as a result: Albert Par- son, August Spies, George Engles, Samuel Fielding, Louis Lingg, Adolph Fischar, Michael Schwabb and Oscar Neebe. After a shametull trial, tour ot these innocent men were condemned to death by hanging; Parsons, Spies, Engel and Fischer. Neebe believed the death of a fifth martyr, Lingg, resulted from being May Day, which is celebrated as a workers’ holiday throughout the world, has its origin in the U.S. it is the date of the eight-hour-day general strike in Chicago in 1886, which was a key battle in the struggle for the shorter workday. On May 3, 1886, six striking workers were mur- dered at the McCormick Reaper Works. At a de- monstration at Haymarket Square to protest the mur- der of the workers, a bomb was thrown which re- sulted in the death of seven policemen and four | workers. Four workers were framed and hanged for | the kilings and four more were imprisoned. ; in 1889 at a meeting of the Second (Socialist) international, May 1 was adopted as a day of remem- jbrance, solidarity and celebration for workers { Beroughout the world. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 9, 1980—Page 6 The martyrs of Haymarket given a loaded cigar by prison guards. The cigar exploded as Lingg smoked it, killing him. The three remaining victims served seven years in Joliet prison. They were pardoned by the fearless Illinois Governor John Peter Altgeld. Altgeld not only set them free but declared they were innocent of the charges, stating that all the men were victims of hys- teria, a packed jury and a biased judge. In his pardon, Altgeld noted that the state ‘‘has never discovered who it was that threw the bomb which killed the policeman and the evidence does not show any con- nection whatsoever between the defendants and the bomb.” Altgeld also attacked presiding Judge Gary’s rul- Cops charge demonstration at Haymarket Square in 1886. ing that it was not necessary for the state to identify the bomb thrower or even prove that he came under the advice or influence of the accused. Altgeld pointed out, “In all the centuries during which government has been maintained among men and crime has been punished, no judge in a civilized country has ever laid down such a rule.”’ In a more personal manner, I became aware of Judge Gary and his role as presiding judge several years ago at a party. A business friend at the party asked me several times to ‘‘forgive him.’ I did not know what he was saying. Finally I asked him what he was talking about. He told me that his grandfather was Judge Gary and knowing that had made him feel guilty over the years. Today, throughout the world, labor celebrates the May First holiday, honoring the victims of injustice. I regret that the majority of labor unions in the U.S. and particularly in Chicago, do not celebrate May Day and honor the struggles of workers around the world. As we enter the current decade, we approach the 100th anniversary of May Day and the Haymarket martyrs. In this so called ‘‘land of the free and home of the brave”’ there is no more than a minority brave enough to honor these men who lost their freedom and lives in an anti-working class hysteria induced by the power structure of the ruling class. Today there are many who appear to be victims of the same kind of group think, as illustrated in George Orwell’s book 1984. For example the government-sponsored Law - Day is now being pushed to blot out May Day. This smoke screen saturates the mass media in order to hide and distort the actual meaning of May Day. The invisible propaganda forces of our government are not the only ones contributing to the conspiracy to hide the true facts from the American people. Labor unions are often equally guilty by turning their backs and ignoring this bloton the American justice system. © | Time has arrived, I believe, to correct the dis- honor done these men. I urge a coalition be formed of citizens of conscience in all sectors of society, espe- cially of government and labor. The coalition could work to introduce legislation recognizing the Haymarket victims’ innocence and exonerating them. Also Labor Day should be observed with May Day to join with sister and brother workers around the world. I hope we take this action by the 100th anniver- sary to recognize the proper role the Haymarket vic- tims played in the historic evolution of labor in our country.