IMMIGRANTS

Fear of immigrants was widespread in the United States. In this cartoon, published five years after the Haymarket Square riot and one year before the Homestead Strike, illustrator Grant Hamilton placed a judge scolding Uncle Sam: "If Immigration was properly Restricted you would no longer be troubled with Anarchy, Socialism, the Mafia and such kindred evils!" From New York Harbor behind them comes a horde of arriving immigrants labeled "German socialist," "Russian anarchist," "Polish vagabond," "Italian brigand," "English convict," and "Irish pauper."

HAYMARKET SQUARE

By the spring of 1886, the movement for an eight-hour day had grown. On May 1,
350,000 workers in 11,562 establishments all over the country went out on strike
Chicago Mail on May 1 asked that Albert Parsons and August Spies, the anarchist leaders of the International Working People's Association, be watched

On May 3, in front of the McCormick Harvester Works, where strikers and sympathizers fought scabs, the police fired into a crowd of strikers, wounded many of them, and killed four

A meeting was called for Haymarket Square on the evening of May 4, and about three thousand persons assembled. the hour grew late, the crowd dwindled to a few hundred. A detachment of 180 policemen showed up, advanced on the speakers' platform
A bomb then exploded in the midst of the police, wounding sixty-six policemen, of whom seven later died. The police fired into the crowd, killing several

With no evidence, the police arrested eight anarchist leaders in Chicago

accessories to crime, anyone inciting a murder was guilty of that murder.

The evidence against the eight anarchists was their ideas, their literature; none had been at Haymarket that day except Fielden. they were sentenced to death. This created an international excitement

A year after the trial, four of the convicted anarchists-Albert Parsons, a printer, August Spies, an upholsterer, Adolph Eischer, and George Engel-were hanged. Louis Lingg, a twenty-one-year-old carpenter, blew himself up in his cell by exploding a dynamite tube in his mouth. Three remained in prison.

GROUP DISCUSSION

I think one think that would be helpful is if stack was taken more
consistently and a notebook was kept with hands raised. There begins a
trend toward informal hierarchies when people have to talk over one
another. One thing that could promote our legitimacy as anarchists would
be by demanding MORE organization in our lives with others so they know
we're not against structure, just hierarchy, out of their own personal
experience in dealing with us.

The stack is the list of people who have raised their hands and in what order. It's really important or people start to get aggravated. Name tags help.

I hate when people say that it wouldn't work for a few reasons.

1) A Republic or Democracy was thought not to work at one time. Before the
American revolution there were those who thought that a monarch was more
efficient because he can make decisions on the spot. For this reason they
wanted a monarch. All progress gets the same treatment, which is why it is
so slow to change.

2) The US Articles of Confederation, later replaced by the Constitution,
was very democratic indeed and outlined congress as being run by
recallable delegates and unanimous votes for constitutional changes. This
is very similar to the organization of large anarchist federations today
and in the past.

3) There are examples at work in every instance of living. Our going to
church is anarchistic because it is completely voluntary. It could be more
democratic, but it is a democratic institution. More than that even, it is
federated with the UUA, just like cooperatives are federated through the
US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. Cooperatives the world over are
examples as well as some community land trusts and mutual organizations.

I don't know if you've seen this or not, but this video by Mondragon is
amazing. The potential of worker self-management is incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NORmQ8zaL1c

BENEFIT SOCIETY

A benefit society or mutual aid society is an organization or voluntary association formed to provide mutual aid, benefit or insurance for relief from sundry difficulties. Such organizations may be formally organized with charters and established customs, or may arise ad hoc to meet unique needs of a particular time and place.

Benefit societies can be organized around a shared ethnic background, religion, occupation, geographical region or other basis. Benefits may include money or assistance for sickness, retirement, education, birth of a baby, funeral and medical expenses, unemployment. Often benefit societies provide a social or educational framework for members and their families to support each other and contribute to the wider community.

Examples of benefit societies include trade unions, friendly societies, credit unions, self-help groups, landsmanshaftn, immigrant hometown societies, Fraternal organizations such as Freemasons and Oddfellows and many others. Peter Kropotkin posited early in the 20th century that mutual aid affiliations predate human culture and are as much a factor in evolution as is survival of the fittest.

FRIENDLY SOCIETY

A friendly society (sometimes called a mutual society, benevolent society or fraternal organization) is a mutual association for insurance, pensions or savings and loan-like purposes, or cooperative banking. Some friendly societies, especially in the past, served ceremonial and friendship purposes also, while others did not. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose. Before modern insurance, and the welfare state, friendly societies provided financial and social services to individuals, often according to their religious or political affiliations.

Before large-scale government and employer health insurance and the development of other financial services, friendly societies played an important part in many people's lives. In some countries, half the population was covered by such societies.