Haymarket Was a Riot - Part 2

Labor Day & the Fight for 8-Hour Workdays

NOTE: I had planned to get this published soon after Part 1, but life and health took a turn in September. Such is the hand we are dealt at times. May the remainder of the year be kinder to us all. I appreciate the patience and hope you enjoy this wrap up of our Labor Day special. Knowing this history is more important now than ever!

Welcome back to our deep dive into the history, astrology, and impact of the Haymarket Riot on Labor Day and workers’ rights. If you have not done so already, please read Haymarket Was a Riot - Part 1 before proceeding.

We left off with a peaceful evening and dwindling crowds, so how did that serene setting erupt into mayhem and bloodshed? 

Set It Off

As Reverend Samuel Fielden, the last speaker for the evening, took the stage, the energy of the meeting began to change. Just as his short speech ended around 10:30 pm, an even larger group of police arrived and marched towards the stage, ordering what remained of the already diminished crowd to disperse. 

Suddenly, a bomb was thrown into the crowd towards the police squad by an unknown person, killing one and wounding many others in the explosion. This was the moment those throngs of officers had been waiting for! Fires began and shots were fired, ultimately resulting in the deaths of 7 officers and at least 4 civilians, although many others were injured.

In looking at the bombing chart, we can see how the pent-up energy of the mystic rectangle shifted to all-out violence. Most of the planets are in the same positions and aspects, but the houses they occupy have now changed. Our Taurus Moon and Neptune are now hanging out with Gemini Pluto in the recreational 5th House. Let’s not forget that the goal of the fight for an 8-hour workday was so that people could relax and spend time with their families (or have time to “make a family”, ifyaknowwhaddamean). 

The T-square created by Uranus, Saturn, and Venus now inhabits the 3rd (media, the press, and breaking news), 7th (foreign affairs, victims), and 9th (large gatherings, judicial proceedings, and law) Houses. Indeed, news of the Haymarket Riot and the ensuing trial of alleged offenders went international, elevating awareness of the struggle for workers’ rights. However, that same media also created increasingly inflammatory and exagerated rhetoric around the speeches that preceded the bombing, misleading the public into believing that violence was inevitable.

We now have a 29° 57’ Sagittarius ASC, an anaretic degree in the fiery mutable sign of truth and fanaticism. This is at the absolute end of that sign and the energy is intense! We also have a 24° Libra MC, the sign of legal matters and justice. This was a very publicly visible case and many questioned whether justice was truly served in the trial and sentencing.

Interception!

However, one thing to note is that the 1st and 7th Houses are intercepted. This means they are larger than 30° and an entire zodiac sign is hidden within, but not ruling, the House. The energy of intercepted signs can be “trapped” making it difficult to navigate, and any planets within that interception are exacerbated in that stuck feeling. 

When a pair of Houses are intercepted and larger than 30°, there will also be a corresponding pair of linked houses that are much smaller and live within a sign. Therefore, the same zodiac sign will rule two houses. In this case, the 6th and 12th houses are linked to the intercepted 1st and 7th houses. Let’s work our way backwards through these to see how they play out.

The 12th House is one of prisons, hospitals, and how an event will ultimately resolve. Indeed, there was a huge backlash against the unions and especially the German communities after the bombing. Over the next 8 weeks, many people were arrested on little to no evidence, questioned, and sometimes detained indefinitely. A total of eight defendants finally went on trial for the bombing, although police couldn’t single out any one person as the bomb-thrower.

Note the linked 12th House is also ruled by Sagittarius, again giving the feeling of secret enemies at work, perhaps under the guise of “truth-tellers”. Sagittarius is a fiery mutable sign known for exploration and “saying it like it is”, but they can also become fanatical in their beliefs. That unyielding commitment can work against them, so perhaps there truly was self-sabotage here, but I’m leaning towards the “hidden enemies” and we’ll get to why in a moment. 

The 6th House governs healthcare and labor unions, as well as the attitudes held towards them. Gemini is also a mutable sign and as such, can change its mind quickly. Although the Haymarket Riot brought international attention to the fight for workers’ rights, it also caused a negative shift in the public’s opinion of labor unions, igniting a “red scare” that targeted suspected anarchists and socialists.

The 7th house governs foreign affairs, victims of an event, and “other parties”, while Cancer is all about home and family. Many families were torn apart as a result of the Haymarket Riot and the ensuing hunt for its perpetrators. With this sign intercepted, families ultimately became the true hidden victims as law enforcement tossed aside search warrants in favor of raiding and ransacking homes, businesses, and social halls. Saturn is also placed here, amplifying that feeling of restriction already imposed by the interception.

Capricorn, the sign of government, is stuck in the intercepted 1st House, which rules how the nation is perceived by the public. Remember that this 1st House is ruled by Sagittarius, which can be a bit fanatical, and it is also carrying over the energy of the preceding 12th House. With a 29° 57’ ASC, this entire event has an intense feeling of culmination and combustion. All of this compounds the inkling that a hidden agent of the government was at work, and one may well have been.

Pretty in Pink(erton)

Folks, meet the Pinkerton Detective Agency, AKA: “the Pinkertons”!

Just who are the Pinkerons? Established in 1850, they are an infamous private security group that has been known for its covert operations especially against labor unions. Yes - “are.” They are still around, although now the Pinkertons operate as part of Swedish security firm Securitas AB. They work mainly in threat intelligence and executive protection, but they have also been recently hired by both Amazon and Starbucks to disrupt unionization efforts.

Oh, how times haven’t changed…

Highly paid and experts at subversion, the Pinkertons have been employed by corporations and governments alike to infiltrate, disrupt, and discredit organizers while also breaking strikes. They can be “hidden in plain sight” while going about their mission. The Pinkertons were also the forerunners to the U.S. Secret Service, having supplied protection services to President Abraham Lincoln before, uh, that “theater thing”, but we digress.

The Pinkertons had long worked as government contractors, specifically being hired by the Department of Justice to achieve “the detection and prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law',” which covers a very broad scope of work.

Throughout the late 1800s, they hunted down outlaws like Jesse James. They helped bring violent ends to labor movements such as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and many others within the coal, lumber, and iron industries. They also brought about the end of the Molly Maguires, a secret Irish-American society within the coal mining industry.

However, when the Pinkertons’ violent tactics came to public attention during the Homestead Strike of 1892, sentiment against them turned sour. Henry Clay Frick had brought in 300 Pinkerton agents to break the strike at Carnegie Steel’s Pittsburgh mill, leading to a firefight dubbed the “Battle of Homestead.” That carnage turned public sentiment back in favor of labor unions, and the following year, Congress passed the Anti-Pinkerton Act, which prohibited any Pinkerton employee from working for the federal or D.C. governments.

So, could the Pinkertons have been involved in the Haymarket Riot? Yes.

Could they have been the “spark” igniting that mystic rectangle from the peaceful speeches into the deadly bombing that ensued? Also, yes.

Could the government or a corporation have hired them to intentionally - even violently - disrupt this meeting and bring an end to these labor unions regardless of the human cost? Absolutely yes.

Now, before you go all *shocked Pikachu face* on us, let’s be clear that every government, culture, corporation, power entity, etc. does some version of this. It’s not even a matter of right and wrong so much as it is of self-preservation. Arguably, it would be naive and foolish not to hire spies and gain as much insight into the other party's actions and intent as possible. It’s also inconceivable that government and corporations wouldn’t work both overtly and subversively to influence movements, especially those that threaten the economic power structure at hand. That’s just how Money Culture plays its game.

We can’t say for certain that the Pinkertons were behind this violence, but we also can’t say they weren’t. The bomb could have been made and thrown by one of the anarchists present who foolishly believed this would further their cause for workers’ rights. Or it could have been an onlooker who hated the po-po and took this opportunity to attack them. But then again, sometimes sides don’t matter. Some people just want to see the world burn.

Getting the Point Across

Back to the astrology! The two major aspects created in the bombing chart are a Grand Cross and - you guessed it - a Yod! 

[In SNL’s Stefon voice]: “Chicago’s hottest new set of aspects is ‘The Grand Cross’. This cosmic pattern has everything - mutable fiery identity, restriction of home and family, sudden changes to legal and diplomacy matters, and intense emotions about money. It’s a blast!”

The Grand Cross is composed of two oppositions that happen to run perpendicular to one another, creating a series of squares. It’s no coincidence that it looks like the crosshairs from a rifle scope!

Grand Crosses are challenging energy that often brings conflict and tension. In this case, our Sagittarius ASC is in opposition to Saturn in Cancer, and that is crossed by Uranus in Libra opposite Venus in Pisces. That is one intense configuration that highlights the juxtaposition of family, fanaticism, money, and sudden changes.

Arguably, there are two Yods, as the Moon and Neptune points are not an exact conjunction, but the Moon is the one with the tightest orbs to the ASC and MC base. La Luna represents the people, but the watery influence of close-by Neptune cannot be ignored.

Neptune can represent leftist political views such as communism and socialism, and indeed, many socialists were targeted in response to the bombing. Neptune is also the planet of disinformation, illusion, covert schemes, and deception. This all amplifies the feeling that some nefarious players were at work to shift focus and blame for the tragedy onto the speech makers and labor rights advocates.

Let’s also remember that our Moon at 27° Taurus is conjunct fixed star Algol, AKA: the Beheading Star, which adds a violent flavor to the Yod. The Haymarket Riot gained national attention for the labor movement as the 8 alleged perpetrators were put on trial. Ultimately, 7 were sentenced to death by hanging and one was given a 15-year prison sentence. Before the executions could be carried out, one of the men committed suicide through violent means. Yeah, Algol - we see you.

Finally, a Day for Labor

Haymarket was to the labor movement what Stonewall was to the fight for LGBTQ+ rights - one defining moment in a series of activism, but a catalyst for change, nonetheless. A day to celebrate labor had been discussed for several years, and the first actual celebration was held in 1882. It was a parade of workers through New York City organized by the Knights of Labor and Central Labor Union. 

In 1887, just a year after the Haymarket Riot, Oregon made Labor Day an official state holiday. An impressive 29 additional states would follow suit by the time Congress passed legislation making it an official federal holiday in 1894, although that bill only gave the day off to federal workers. Yes, seriously. It would take until the 1930s for more workers in the public and private sectors to gain the day off.

That same year also saw the 5-month-long Cripple Creek miners’ strike, the May Day Riots in Cleveland, Ohio, a nationwide coal miners’ strike, the Pullman Strike of 3,000 railroad workers of the Pullman Palace Car Company, and a strike by 12,000 tailors in New York City who were protesting against sweatshop conditions. WOW!

Of course, having a federal holiday alone did not automatically improve working conditions. They were still largely grueling and deadly, with workers - including children - toiling as many as 100 hours over 7 days a week. There was no weekend or paid time off, no sick days, and no workplace safety.

By the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries, trade unions were becoming more organized, better led, and extremely powerful. They gained either the fervent support, or deep hatred, of politicians. The ones who aligned themselves with trade unions could rely upon the votes of their members at the polls - sometimes multiple times over in the same election, but that’s a story for another day!

One politician who was in favor of increased workers’ rights was President Franklin D. Roosevelt, but it was really Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor, who led the charge. When offered the Cabinet position, she refused to accept until she knew the president would support her mission of improving worker protections.

FDR was true to his word and signed the Fair Labor Standards Act into law on June 25, 1938. The FSLA gave us 8-hour workdays, a 40-hour workweek, overtime at time-and-a-half for any hours worked above 40, minimum wage, and child labor protections. The act has been expanded many times over the years to further protect workers, but those advancements are now in danger of being gutted by a certain Melon Felon and his Project 2025 puppeteers.

So, what can you do to prevent the efforts and sacrifices made by all these labor rights advocates from going down the ultraconservative drain?

VOTE!

Vote like your life depends on it because we guarantee that in some way, shape, or form, it does. Check with your local election office to make sure you are registered, since voter rolls have been so conveniently purged in recent months. Vote early if you can and if not, remember that so long as you are in line when the polls close on November 5, you are legally allowed to vote. Every vote counts, and the future of democracy is counting on you.