Anarchist Terror

Topics of Inquiry: The Chicago bombing during the Haymarket Riot caused uproar throughout the crowd. It was supposed to be a peaceful protest, but turned out to be an unplanned event. Many argue that the bombing itself did not help the cause, but I will be arguing that the bombing helped the eight hour movement.

Q1. Terrorism is an act done by an individual or a group, using violence or the threat of violence to frighten people, in order to achieve a political, social or religious goal. The word “terrorism” comes from the French word terrorisme, meaning “to frighten.” Terrorism was originally referred specifically to state terrorism, which the French Government practised during the years 1793 – 1794 in the “reign of terror.” The roots and practices of terrorism can be traced back to 1st century AD in Judea where there was an assassination of Roman rulers. Terrorist ideology and aims vary from each individual and/or group. There has been over 2000 cases of terrorism driven by religious purposes. Religious terrorism is carried out due to motivations and goals in relations to religions or religious figures. An example of this are extremist groups such as Al Qaeda who justify their attacks by believing that these are commands given to them by the Koran. Political terrorists carry out violent acts to make a point with government leaders. An example of this is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 15, 1865. Moral beliefs is another aim of terrorism. Moral issues such as anti-abortions have led to attacks, including abortion clinics and their staff in the late 1980’s.

The bomb was set off by Timothy McVeigh, a Persian Gulf Veteran. He was a right wing radical linked to anti-government, white-supremacist, survivalist and militia groups. The events at Waco and Ruby Ridge influenced Timothy McVeigh, prompting him to take action against the United States government (“FBI”, The Oklahoma City Bombing: 20 Years After). Right wing ideology, as in the Turner Diaries, led him

There has been speculation that the bombing of the federal building was to demonstrate the anti-government feelings over the 1993 government raid of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco Texas. Both McVeigh and Nichols were once sited at the compound in Waco and were openly supporting the other Branch Davidians. The bombing occurred exactly two years to the day after the compound burned to the ground killing 80 men, women, and children after a 51-day standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI. The bombing definitely put the spotlight on other groups with anti-government sentiments.

Many people were injured or killed in the explosion. Of those who survived some ended up being permanently disabled. While many felt betrayed and hurt that someone from their own country would do something like this, they wondered why this would happen to them. Although, most of them have now moved on, they try not to think about the things that happened. Most people who survived still live in Oklahoma City, the children who survived still stay in touch. It is still a very rough and emotional thing to talk for many people, so it usually does not get talked about very much. The Oklahoma City bombing was a tragic event, things like this should never

On September 16, 1920, an explosion tore through the streets of Lower Manhattan’s “Corner”. The Wall Street Bombing of 1920 was the deadliest terror attack on American soil until the Oklahoma bombing 75 years later. The blast killed 38 people and injured hundreds of

The use of terrorism started in 1795 relating to the reign of terror leaded by the French Government. The reason people become terrorist is because they see it as their only choice or is a sign for defending their religion. “The personal pathway model suggests that terrorists came from a selected, at risk population, who have suffered from early damage to their self-esteem,” (psychologist Eric D. Shaw). This explains how young adults are becoming terrorist to find themselves, also because they are not happy with who they are. Terrorist technology has changed over the course.

The Haymarket bombing was directly caused by strife between the working class and employers. August Spies was one of the anarchists who called the meeting. In a pamphlet he disseminated around chicago to gather labor advocates, he wrote inflammatory statements such as “Your masters sent out their bloodhounds—the police—they killed six of your brothers at McCormick's this afternoon. They killed the poor wretches, because they, like you, had courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses.” (Spies) This rhetoric shows how the anarchist movement was in direct response to perceived tyranny on the part of employers and the backlash towards this perceived tyranny was what drove the movement. Furthermore, Spies proclaims in the pamphlet “To arms,

An example of this was the Haymarket bombing towards the Chicago police during the pace of events. The bombing’s hurt workers’ rights and limited the union use of mass strikes. The rally began peacefully in the evening of May 4. Spies, Albert Parson and Samuel Fielden spoke to the crowd which was estimated to be about 3000 persons. A home-made bomb with a brittle metal casing filled with dynamite and ignited by a fuse, was thrown into the path of the advancing police. Its fuse briefly sputtered, then the bomb exploded, killing policeman Mathias J. Degan with flying metal fragments and mortally wounding six other officers. The police assumed that an anarchist had thrown the bomb as part of a planned conspiracy; their problem was how to prove

Although the Haymarket bombing is an extremely important event, it should be seen in a much larger context rather than an isolated event. The Haymarket bombing was an important incident in America’s history nevertheless, it falls under a much bigger category which is the labor movement. The labor movement was started because of the unjust ways that labor had on the working class in America during the 1800s. It first started out with wage cuts for the working class in America, which then led to an increasing amount of strikes. Then leading to the formation of labor unions, which is the people who were attending the meeting at Haymarket the day of the bombing. So if the labor movement had never started, then the bombing at Haymarket may have

Cicero famously once said inter arma silent leges, or “In times of war, the law falls silent.” It has been argued, that in times of war, a temporary trade off must occur in favor of national security over liberty. There has been an abundance of conservative and liberal scholarship on the subject, all differing in opinions. In this essay, I will focus on three books, Terror in the Balance, Terrorism and the Constitution, and Wartime while demonstrating their key arguments on how the United States should handle the delicate balance of security and liberty.

Terrorism, a word most people fear, but so often misinterpret. The textbook definition of terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims”. But how does that compare to domestic terrorism? Domestic terrorism or “homegrown terrorism” can be defined as “the committing of terrorist acts in the perpetrator’s own country against their fellow citizens”. Throughout the years, America as a nation has experienced quite a few occurrences of both types. An early example of homegrown terrorism would be the Haymarket Affair which occurred May 4, 1886 where in Chicago’s Haymarket Square, labor protesters detonated a bomb during a rally. Chicago police then responded by firing

The Romanov dynasty ruled Russia for over 300 years . The eldest son of Emperor Alexander II, Tsar Nicholas II was the last Romanov ruler of Imperial Russia. Many factors have been credited to the eventual downfall of the entire Russian family, with most of them stemming from the First World War. The French Revolution over a hundred years before Nicholas’ reign had taught the European people a valuable life lesson. Middle classes could not only demand legal constitutions from their rulers but have them granted if they pushed enough. By granting these legal constitutions, monarchies across Europe had subconsciously transformed themselves into a symbol of democracy, whether they meant to or not. This was a majority. Some monarchs however,

The Dynamite Club is a portrayal of fin-de-siècle Paris and how a bombing in 1894, led to the foundation of the age of modern terror. The author, John Merriman, focuses on a particular individual, Émile Henry, and how his motives for becoming an anarchist turned him into the first modern terrorist. An anarchist is a person who believes in the abolition of government and the organization of society. Anarchism is closely associated with terrorism due to the kinds of people it attracts, mainly the poor. During the1850s-1900s anarchism was common because of poverty and political exclusion; Henry saw this, causing his hatred to grow.

However, even though there was evidence pointing to these four men as the perpetrator, the FBI, led by J. Edgar Hoover at the time, dragged its feet in the investigation and held evidence back. This was due to the fact that Hoover wasn’t fond of Martin Luther King and some circles say that he personally believed the bombing to have been committed by people interested in gaining sympathy for the civil rights cause. Whatever the case may be, it wasn’t until 1977 that a conviction could be obtained for just one of the men accused of the bombing. The bombing itself had the effect of uniting all of the civil rights organizations in the South and also giving a face, four faces to be precise, to the rest of the nation as a kind of message about the evils of racism.