Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Tompkins Square Park Riot 1874

Prelude 

In 1873 the United States suffered an economic panic followed by a prolonged depression, at the same time a more refined version of the American Workers Movement was beginning to rise as the American proletariat increasingly saw through the lie of the United States being a land “beyond classes and class struggle” which was a popular idea of the bourgeoisie and petty bourgeois at the time. 

At the beginning of 1874 many working men found themselves without work and even those who had managed to stay employed found themselves unable to provide for themselves or their families resulting in a rise of underaged laborers as many working class childern had to join the workforce to keep their families from starvation and poverty. At the sametime The landlord class, caring only for its own pockets, began mass evictions of workers soon the homeless population of New York City had reached 90,000 (around 1 in every 10 workers NYC population was 942,292 in 1870) 

A reformist organization called The Committee of Safety in New York City was formed and would make up the leadership of the majority of the demonstrations. At several points however militants assumed control of the struggle for example on January 8th when 1,000 people led by the militant Patrick Dunn attempted to march on city hall to present their demands, this was vetoed by the reformers. 

Soon the planning for further demonstrations began, the workers rejected bourgeois charity and demanded the immediate donation of $100,000 to the labor relief bureau, the expansion of the public work program and the 8 hour working day. Even at this time, many years before the Soviet Union was even established, the capitalist class already knew the danger communism posed to its class rule. Bourgeois newspapers declared that the New York workers were being armed by ex Paris Communards who were funding the movement using jewels stolen from Paris. Regardless of the capitalist bluster the workers carried on after several abortive demonstrations in the first week of January the decision was made to meet for a peaceful discussion at Tompkins Square Park on January 13th.

The riot 

On January 13th around 7,000 workers gathered at Tompkins Square Park, including 1,200 of the German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association (unclear if this was part of the International Workingman’s Association). The crowed at Tompkins Square Park had no way of knowing that the night before the permit for this demonstration had been revoked and that nearby 1,600 policemen were preparing for action against the “illegal demonstration”

At 10a.m the police sprung into action attempting to clear the park with nightsticks however the militant German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association staged a desperate defense of the park with hammers and whatever else could be found to defend the workers however they were finally pushed out after a brief pitched battle . The bourgeois instantly took upon the news spreading rumors that immigrants were going to burn down NYC and that revolt was imminent. Several of the German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association were sent to prison for their bravery in the defense of the square the anarchist Justus Schwab, who had carried a red flag and whose saloon was used as a meeting place for labor radicals, was charged with incitement to riot. With this the labor movement was smashed in NYC but only temporarily as just a generation later the same city would be the beating heart of the CPUSA. 

Lessons

First, while the workers themselves were organized in their conduct they did not have any political and ideological leadership, what leadership did exist was thoroughly reformist and was unable to properly meet the demands of the workers nor where they conducted the struggle in the correct manner. The necessity of political and ideological clarity is obvious today for example without the leadership of the Comintern/SH the labor movement will flounder in the waters of revisionism and all the other muck the bourgeois pumps in to drown out the labor movement.

Second. While the bourgeoisie likes to delude us with lies that events such as these never happen anymore, recent years have shown otherwise. The German Tenth Ward Workingmen's Association acted bravely and we must follow their example in the ranks of the Red Front Fighters League to defend the proletariat from the blows of the capitalists and fascists and led the advances against them when the time is right.

1988

Tompkins Square Park riot

After 150 years as a center of immigration and working-class rebellion, the Lower East Side and Tompkins Square Park have finally been changed into an ‘elite playground’.

Twenty years after the (1988) Tompkins Square riot, New York’s Lower East Side has transformed from a class-war battleground to an increasingly sterile and staid high-rent enclave. The park’s bandshell is but a memory for old-timers, and neighborhood newcomers are not even cognizant of the years of political and physical struggle that cleaned the district for their arrival. They have less awareness still that they are the beneficiaries of a cycle of confrontations over the district going back nearly two centuries.”