City leaders are set to join union members on Labor Day for a demonstration at a significant landmark in the city's history.
You might have seen it when walking or driving around the West Loop: a statue showing a scene of chaos centered on a wooden cart, surrounded by figures that look like upturned crates.
Chicago Federation of Labor president Bob Reiter says the Haymarket Monument, 175 N. Desplaines Street, honors the participants ... and victims ... of a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886.
"There was a conflict that erupted between the police officers who were here in the square and the workers who were rallying," said Reiter, noting that the larger conflict was between labor activists and the industrial barons whose wealth controlled the city.
At one point, as speakers stood on top of a wooden cart, there was some kind of an explosion: "There was a story that a bomb was thrown ... to this day, we're not sure if there was even a bomb thrown," Reiter said. But the effect of that blast is well-documented: seven police officers and at least four other people were killed on that day, touching off a wave of prosecutions and executions.
But to this day, historians still don't know who was behind it.
Today, the monument serves as a reminder of the origins of the labor movement, and stands on a plinth that displays plaques added by labor unions from around the world.
When asked what he hoped visitors to the site would learn, Reiter said "that in our Constitution, everyone's guaranteed a right of free speech."