syndicalism and the Knights of Labor upheaval were related chapters in the revolutionary movement of the eighties.  Whether in its conscious or unconscious form, this syndicalism was characterized by an extreme combativeness, by the ease with which minor disputes grew into widespread strikes involving many trades and large territories, by a reluctance, if not an out and out refusal, to enter into agreements with employers however temporary, and lastly by a ready resort to violence.  In 1886 the membership of the Black International probably was about 5000 or 6000 and of this number about 1000 were English speaking.

The circumstances of the bomb explosion were the following.  A strikers’ meeting was held near the McCormick Reaper Works in Chicago, late on the third of May.  About this time strike-breakers employed in these works began to leave for home and were attacked by strikers.  The police arrived in large numbers and upon being received with stones, fired and killed four and wounded many.  The same evening the International issued a call in which appeared the word "Revenge" with the appeal:  “Workingmen, arm yourselves and appear in full force.”  A protest mass meeting met the next day on Haymarket Square and was addressed by Internationalists.  The police were present in numbers and, as they formed in line and advanced on the crowd, some unknown hand hurled a bomb into their midst killing and wounding many.

It is unnecessary to describe here the period of police terror in Chicago, the hysterical attitude of the press, or the state of panic that came over the inhabitants of the city.  Nor is it necessary to deal in detail with the trial and sentence of the accused.  Suffice it to say that the Haymarket bomb showed to the labor movement what it might expect from the public and the government if it combined violence with a revolutionary purpose.

Although the bomb outrage was attributed to the anarchists and not generally to the strikers for the eight-hour day, it did materially reduce the sympathy of the public as well as intimidate many strikers.  Nevertheless, Bradstreet’s estimated that no fewer than 340,000 men took part in the movement; 190,000 actually struck, only 42,000 of this number with success, and 150,000 secured shorter hours without a strike.  Thus the total number of those who secured with or without strikes the eight-hour day was something less than 200,000.  But even those who for the present succeeded, whether with or without striking, soon lost the concession, and Bradstreet’s estimated in January, 1887, that, so far as the payment of former wages for a shorter day’s work is concerned, the grand total of those retaining the concession did not exceed, if it equalled, 15,000.