American governor who advocates for workers' rights: Who is John Peter Altgeld?

John Peter Altgeld; (born December 30, 1847, Niederselters, Prussia – died March 12, 1902, Joliet, Illinois, USA) was the reformist Democrat governor of Illinois (1893-97). He was recognized for his amnesty (June 26, 1893) for the German-born Americans involved in the Haymarket Uprising of May 4, 1886. This protest rally, organized by workers in Chicago's Haymarket Square, resulted in the deaths of seven police officers.

What are Haymarket events?

After the Industrial Revolution, working hours were up to 14-16 hours. While only men were employed in the factories, women and children were forced to enter the factory life as workers due to the low wages.

John Peter Altgeld (December 30, 1847 – March 12, 1902) was an American politician and the 20th Governor of Illinois, serving from 1893 until 1897. He was the first Democrat to govern that state since the 1850s. A leading figure of the Progressive movement, Altgeld signed workplace safety and child labor laws, pardoned three of the men convicted in the Haymarket Affair, and rejected calls in 1894 to break up the Pullman strike by force. In 1896 he was a leader of the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, opposing President Grover Cleveland and the conservative Bourbon Democrats. He was defeated for reelection in 1896 in an intensely fought, bitter campaign.

At the beginning of the 1800s, the starting age for children was 5 in textiles and 8 in mines. The average life expectancy of workers was between 32 and 35 years, due to long working hours, early employment, unhealthy working and living conditions.

With the rising working class struggle since the middle of the 19th century, tough struggles were made to reduce the working hours from 14 to 16 hours. Due to the disorganization of the workers and the weakness of the unions, the actions and protests of the workers were violently suppressed by the bourgeoisie, and the workers who took action were punished.

The American working class acted around the slogan of "Eight Hours of Work, Eight Hours of Rest, Eight Hours of Whatever We Want!" in all the meetings, mass actions, and marches held until May 1886. On May 1, 1886, nearly 400,000 workers across the country went on strike. The strike was so effective that some states were entitled to an 8-hour day. The capital forces of the period, while receiving their first major defeat, began to prepare for revenge.

The 8-hour day struggle of the workers in Chicago, one of the largest industrial cities in the USA, made them the pioneers of the US labor movement. On the other hand, the Chicago police were known for their brutal and aggressive attitude towards workers' protests. Apart from the police, special militias were trained by Chicago's big bosses, and scabs were used to neutralize strikes.

Strikes and demonstrations continued after 1 May. On May 3, strikers kicked out of a McCormick factory that produces agricultural equipment, marched towards the factory to protest the boss's use of strikebreakers. The police, who opened fire on the striking workers, caused the death of 4 workers. A rally was held in Haymarket Square on May 4 to protest this attack. As the rally was breaking up, a bomb was thrown in front of the podium. 7 policemen died due to the bomb explosion. Hundreds of workers were arrested on false accusations. Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, and George Engel, who were targeted by the press before the protests, were arrested and executed on 11 November 1887 after a show trial.

The Haymarket conspiracy was a planned move to thwart the working class struggle, which grew massively throughout the 1880s and reached its peak in 1886, and to weaken the unions, which became workers' organizations of struggle. As a matter of fact, the capital forces of the period started to take away this right of the workers, who won the right to eight hours by striking on May 1. However, they could not prevent the workers from uniting and organizing in unions and fighting.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF MAY 1

The date of May 1 was on the agenda for the first time in 1888, when the American Federation of Labor (AFL) decided to strike on May 1 of each year until the 8-hour workday was adopted. Organized unions in countries where the labor movement was strong at that time, especially the unions in England, Germany, France, and Belgium, announced that they would participate in this decision.

The 2nd International, which met in Paris in 1889, decided to celebrate May 1 every year as the "Day of Unity, Struggle and Solidarity of the Working Class". The working class, whose numbers are increasing day by day, has been taking to the streets to celebrate May 1 with economic, social, democratic, and political demands all over the world since 1890.

Who is Altgeld?

Altgeld grew up in Ohio, where his parents came from Germany and settled. He went to Chicago in the 1870s. He soon made a small fortune as a real estate owner. He showed his sympathy for the poor and needy people in those days with a small treatise on crime called Our Penal Machinery and Its Victims (1884). He entered politics in the Democratic Party and was elected to the Cook County Supreme Court (1886-91). He won the party's candidacy for governor (1892) because of his popular aspirations for reform laws and was subsequently elected governor by the votes of farmers and workers.

The following year, a group including prominent criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow and labor leaders appealed to Altgeld to exercise its power of pardon for three of those convicted of participating in the Haymarket Uprising. Analyzing the minutes of the hearing, Altgeld decided that the detainees were not given a fair trial, on the grounds that the judge was biased the jury was selected from certain individuals, and that convicting someone for incitement to murder "with the interpretation of the court" was a mistake of law.

The decision was lauded by labor leaders and has since been widely adopted in the judiciary, but sparked raucous protests in both business circles and the conservative press. Altgeld was accused of being a friend of the anarchists. A year later, Altgeld protested President Grover Cleveland over the use of federal troops in the Pullman strike, further fueling the attacks.

The public anger caused by these events overshadowed Altgeld's successes during his term as governor, such as the development of the penal system and the enactment of the child labor law, and led to his losing the election in 1896. After Altgeld left office, he returned to the legal profession in partnership with Clarence Darrow. Altgeld's life story is told in Harry Barnard's Eagle Forgotten: The Life of John Peter Altgeld (1938).