Oscar
Neebe,
the son of German immigrants, was born
in New York City on 12th July, 1850.
Educated in Germany, he returned to the United States after the Civil
War. He moved to Chicago where he
became a tinsmith. He joined the Socialist
Labor Party and became active in trade union activities.
On 1st May, 1886 a strike was began throughout the United States in
support a eight-hour day. Over the next few days over 340,000 men
and women withdrew their labor. Over a quarter of these strikers were
from Chicago and the employers were so
shocked by this show of unity that 45,000 workers in the city were
immediately granted a shorter workday.
The campaign for the eight-hour day was organised by the International
Working Peoples Association (IWPA). On 3rd May, the IWPA in Chicago
held a rally outside the McCormick Harvester Works, where 1,400 workers
were on strike. They were joined by 6,000 lumber-shovers, who had
also withdrawn their labour. While August Spies,
one of the leaders of the IWPA was making a speech, the police arrived
and opened-fire on the crowd, killing four of the workers.
The following day August Spies, who was
editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung,
published a leaflet in English and German entitled: Revenge!
Workingmen to Arms!. It included the passage: "They
killed the poor wretches because they, like you, had the courage to
disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them to show
you 'Free American Citizens' that you must be satisfied with whatever
your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will get killed. If you
are men, if you are the sons of your grand sires, who have shed their
blood to free you, then you will rise in your might, Hercules, and
destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you. To arms we
call you, to arms." Spies also published a second leaflet calling
for a mass protest at Haymarket Square that evening.
On 4th May, over 3,000 people turned up at the Haymarket
meeting. Speeches were made by August Spies,
Albert Parsons and Samuel
Fielden. At 10 a.m. Captain John
Bonfield and 180 policemen arrived on the scene. Bonfield
was telling the crowd to "disperse immediately
and peacebly" when someone threw a bomb into the police ranks
from one of the alleys that led into the square. It exploded killing
eight men and wounding sixty-seven others. The police then immediately
attacked the crowd. A number of people were killed (the exact number
was never disclosed) and over 200 were badly injured.
Several people identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw
the bomb. He was arrested but was later released without charge. It
was later claimed that Schnaubelt was an agent provocateur
in the pay of the authorities. After the release of Schnaubelt, the
police arrested Samuel Fielden, an Englishman,
and six German immigrants, Neebe, August Spies,
Adolph Fisher, Louis
Lingg, George Engel, and Michael
Schwab. The police also sought Albert
Parsons, the leader of the International Working Peoples Association
in Chicago, but he went into hiding and
was able to avoid capture. However, on the morning of the trial, Parsons
arrived in court to standby his comrades.
There were plenty of witnesses who were able to prove that none of
the eight men threw the bomb. The authorities therefore decided to
charge them with conspiracy to commit murder. The prosecution case
was that these men had made speeches and written articles that had
encouraged the unnamed man at the Haymarket
to throw the bomb at the police.
The jury was chosen by a special bailiff instead of being selected
at random. One of those picked was a relative of one of the police
victims. Julius Grinnell, the State's Attorney, told the jury: "Convict
these men make examples of them, hang them, and you save our institutions."
At the trial it emerged that Andrew Johnson, a detective from the
Pinkerton Agency, had infiltrated
the group and had been collecting evidence about the men. Johnson
claimed that at anarchist meetings
these men had talked about using violence. Reporters
who had also attended International Working Peoples Association meetings
also testified that the defendants had talked about using force to
"overthrow the system".
During the trial the judge allowed the jury to read speeches and articles
by the defendants where they had argued in favour of using violence
to obtain political change. The judge then told the jury that if they
believed, from the evidence, that these speeches and articles contributed
toward the throwing of the bomb, they were justified in finding the
defendants guilty.
All the men were found guilty: George Engel,
Albert Parsons, August
Spies, Adolph Fisher and Louis
Lingg were given the death penalty. Whereas Oscar
Neebe, Samuel
Fielden and Michael
Schwab were sentenced to life imprisonment. On 10th November,
1887, Lingg committed suicide by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth.
The following day Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel mounted the gallows.
As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There
will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices
you strangle today."
Many people believed that the men had not been given a fair trial
and in 1893, John Peter Altgeld, the
new governor of Illinois, pardoned Neebe, Samuel
Fielden and Michael
Schwab.
(1)
Oscar Neebe, Autobiography
of Oscar Neebe (1887)
I
worked in a factory where they made oil cans and tea-caddies. This
was the first place where I saw children from 8 to 12 years old work
like slaves, working on machines; most every day it happened that
a finger or hand was cut off, but what did it matter, they were paid
off and sent home, and others would take their places. I believed
that children working in factories has for the last twenty years made
more cripples than the war with the south, and the cut off fingers
and mangled bodies brought gold to the monopolies and manufacturers.
How often has the sweat of a poor man or child paid for the silk dress
of a kept woman of these men, whose only desire is "to have lots
of fun and a good time."
(2) Oscar Neebe, speech made
when found guilty of conspiracy to murder (September, 1887)
I
established the Arbeiter Zeitung and issued it to the working
men of the city of Chicago. That is the crime I have committed - getting
men to try and establish a working-man's paper that will stand today,
and I am proud of it. I say it is a verdict against Germans, and I,
as an American, must say that I never saw anything like that.
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