Labor unions in the late 1800’s set out to improve the lives of frequently abused workers. Volatile issues like the eight-hour workday, ridiculously low pay and unfair company town practices were often the fuses that lit explosive conflicts between unions and monopolistic industrialists. Some of the most violent and important conflicts of the time were the Haymarket Affair and the Pullman strike. Each set out to with similar goals and both ended with horrifying consequences.The movement for the eight-hour workday was one of the most violent struggles for laborers. Their struggle is defined by protests that were broken up by the police and the Pinkertons. The Pinkertons were a mercenary police group for hire, whose services were often retained to break strikes. Many people were killed before demands to shorten the workday were finally met. In response to a protest at the McCormick Harvester factory in Chicago where the police reportedly killed six workers, local radicals led by Albert Parsons organized a meeting at Haymarket Square in downtown Chicago. Several thousand showed up to hear the speakers. The speakers were very careful to not incite violence in the already agitated crowd. After the speeches had been given large numbers of people left, however those who remained behind would be forever remembered in our history books. An army of police descended on the crowd and gave them an order to disperse. During the confusion, an unknown person threw a bomb into the crowd of police, killing one officer. Police began to fire on the crowd; the agitated strikers retaliated with a hail of bullets as well. A riot broke out in which one worker was killed and twelve were wounded, one policeman was killed and seventy were wounded.The days that followed were spiced with the same flavor as the Salem witch trials once held, as nearly every suspected person in town was arrested and detained. Many homes, meeting halls, and offices where outsp...
