The Anarchists of Chicago

The Anarchists of Chicago by Walter Crane, 1894

Commemorating the anarchists persecuted and executed following the Haymarket Affair in Chicago in1886 during the struggle for the eight hour working day.

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In May 1886, during a national movement for an eight-hour workday, a peaceful labour rally in Chicago's Haymarket Square erupted in violence when an unidentified assailant threw a bomb at police.

The ensuing chaos led to the deaths of several officers and civilians. In a wave of intense public hysteria and anti-immigrant, anti-anarchist sentiment, eight labor activists—largely immigrants—were swiftly and controversially convicted of conspiracy, despite a lack of evidence connecting them to the bomb-thrower. 

The trial was widely condemned as a gross injustice, a political prosecution aimed at crushing the labor movement. Four of the men—Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel, and Adolph Fischer—were hanged on November 11, 1887. Louis Lingg died by suicide in his cell. The remaining three were later pardoned by a governor who declared the trial fatally flawed. Their courageous final words defended the rights of the working class and prophesied that their sacrifice would echo through history. The men transformed from convicted defendants into powerful symbols of the fight for dignity and justice.

The event is commemorated around the world on May Day (International Workers' Day), directly linking the modern holiday to the Haymarket Affair.

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Walter Crane (1845 – 1915) was an internationally renowned illustrator and artist in the late 19th Century and early 20th with a clearly recognisable style.

He was an associate of William Morris, and part of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Much of Walter Crane's work was illustrating children’s books but he was an active radical socialist, a member of the Socialist League, and produced many pictures supporting the international socialist and anarchist movements, notably cartoons printed in Justice, Commonweal and The Clarion.