Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #haymarketmartyrs, aggregated by home.social.
All four panels:
“Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”
— August Spies, Haymarket martyr, revolutionary anarchist
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#AugustSpies #subterraneanArt #calendsArt #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #illustration #drawing #anarchistArt #art #noAI
“Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”
— August Spies, Haymarket martyr, revolutionary anarchist
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#AugustSpies #subterraneanArt #calendsArt #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #illustration #drawing #comic #anarchistArt #art #noAI
More info about the Haymarket martyrs and Chicago anarchists:
Hurrah for Anarchy: A History of Haymarket, May Day, and the Chicago Anarchists, by @margaret
https://www.tangledwilderness.org/zines/hurrah-for-anarchy (scroll down for a printable zine to distro.)
Anarchism According to the Haymarket Anarchists, by Jessica Moran
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#anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #MayDay
The Haymarket martyrs fought and died for the 8-hour work day. They were revolutionary anarchists, executed in 1886 in retaliation for their labor organizing and activism.
“Anarchism is on trial!” declared the prosecutor in the Haymarket trail, as reported by August Spies in his address to the court at his sentencing.
August adds further that “the representatives of the State ... themselves have fabricated most of the testimony which was used as a pretense to convict us; to convict us by a jury picked out to convict!”
The echoes of Haymarket reverberate in the Prairieland trials with convictions and extreme sentencing blatantly intended to send a message of repression. Which is why the Haymarket martyrs have never been far from my mind during the trials of the Prairieland defendants.
And the quote in this illustration in particular.
I am filled with grief, anger, and resolve for each life lost and for each life that the State tries to destroy as it treads on the sparks of a fire it can never put out.
I keep the fire of liberation burning in my heart. Always.
I am filled with hope – and even joy, even in these times – to see it burning in the hearts of my comrades.
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#AugustSpies #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs
“Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”
— August Spies, Haymarket martyr, revolutionary anarchist
https://libcom.org/article/address-august-spies
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#AugustSpies #subterraneanArt #calendsArt #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #illustration #drawing #anarchistArt #art #noAI
And here are few more of the words of Lucy Parsons:
On the Haymarket Martyrs:
“Our comrades were not murdered by the state because they had any connection with the bombthrowing, but because they were active in organizing the wage-slaves. The capitalist class didn't want to find the bombthrower; this class foolishly believed that by putting to death the active spirits of the labor movement of the time, it could frighten the working class back to slavery.”
https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/writings/voices_of_people.html
“Oh, Misery, I have drunk thy cup of sorrow to its dregs but I am still a rebel.”
https://libcom.org/article/november-11-fifty-years-ago-lucy-parsons
On anarchism:
“Anarchists know that a long period of education must precede any great fundamental change in society, hence they do not believe in vote begging, nor political campaigns, but rather in the development of self-thinking individuals.”
https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/writings/principles_of_anarchism.html
“I trust that this country and the world will resound with the grand truths of Anarchism—the right of every man and woman upon this Earth, who contributes to the marvelous and diversified products, to their share in the same; and that to be really free is to allow each one to live their lives in their own way so long as each allows all to do the same.”
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lucy-e-parsons-a-wise-move
On voting:
“Of all the modern delusions, the ballot has certainly been the greatest. Yet most of the people believe in it.”
https://libcom.org/article/ballot-humbug-lucy-parsons
On resistance:
“John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave. But will his spirit lie there moldering, too? Brutes, inhuman monsters—you heartless brutes—you whom nature forms by molding you in it, deceive not yourselves by thinking that another John Brown will not arise.”
Southern Lynchings, 1892
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/lucy-e-parsons-southern-lynchings (harrowing description of sexual violence and lynching at link)
On labor and class struggle:
“My conception of the strike of the future is not to strike and go out and starve, but to strike and remain in and take possession of the necessary property of production. If any one is to starve … let it be the capitalist class. They have starved us long enough, while they have had wealth and luxury and all that is necessary.”
https://www.blackrosefed.org/emancipation-of-the-working-class-iww
“The working class throughout the world, proclaim the doom of capitalism and wage-slavery.”
https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/writings/be_damned_mayday.html
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#LucyParsons #JohnBrown #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #iww
The quote in the illustration can be found in Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity, Writings and Speeches, 1878-1937, edited and introduced by Gale Ahrens with an afterword by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, from AK Press.
The portrait in the illustration was drawn from a photo reference. The photo is a studio portrait made of Lucy in 1886, the year of the Haymarket Tragedy. You can see it on this page: https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/images.html
The photograph was monochrome (not a color photo); the red of the scarf in the illustration is artistic license.
This illustration is the first of a series in progress which will feature the words, wisdom, and deeds of anarchist revolutionaries.
The series is called Subterranean.
Up next: August Spies.
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#LucyParsons #subterraneanArt #AugustSpies #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #iww
“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” – Lucy Parsons, revolutionary anarchist.
Lucy Parsons was a writer, orator, labor organizer, and revolutionary anarchist. She co-founded the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) after the judicial murder of the Haymarket Martyrs, including her husband, Albert Parsons.
She worked for social revolution, not electoral reform.
In her advocacy for workers, women, Black people, and immigrants, she did not shy away from calling for direct action and propaganda of the deed.
The power of her speeches and writing caused fear in the elite and those who served them: the police in so-called Chicago called her “more dangerous than a thousand rioters”. 🔥️
https://www.lucyparsonsproject.com/about_lucyparsons.html
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#LucyParsons #subterraneanArt #calendsArt #anarchism #laborHistory #history #historyOfAnarchism #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #iww #illustration #drawing #portrait #anarchistArt #art #noAI
Teach-in on the Haymarket Anarchists and the history of May Day
At the May Day Gathering 2026 in so-called Kingston, NY
Friday, May 1st, 2 PM – 7 PM
(Teach-in time TBD)
Forsyth Park, “Kingston, NY”
Learn about the Haymarket Tragedy, the founding of the IWW, and the origins of May Day in revolutionary labor organizing.
“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” – Lucy Parsons
"Here you will tread on a spark, but there and there, behind you—and in front of you, and everywhere, flames blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out." – August Spies, 1886.
More info: https://commoningkingston.com/action/gathering/may-day-2026
#MayDay #anarchism #gathering #teachIn #Haymarket #HaymarketAnarchists #HaymarketMartyrs #LucyParsons #AugustSpies #LaborHistory
The following speech was given by Joseph #Kishore, the national secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (US), at the International #MayDay2024 Online Rally, held Saturday, May 4.
The #HaymarketMartyrs and the origins of #MayDay
"The day will come when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you are throttling today."
At Forest Home Cemetery down the street, a regular stop on the early Pandemic walks. Reverse image.