"A Word to Tramps," by Lucy E. Parsons [Oct. 4, 1884]  Article by Lucy E. Parsons, wife of future Haymarket Affair  victim Albert Parsons and herself a committed anarchist, from the front page of the premiere issue of The Alarm. Parsons addresses herself to the 30,000 unemployed of Chicago and implores them to ascertain the reason for their hunger, ragged clothing and distress. "Can you not see that it is the industrial system and not the 'boss' which must be changed?" Parsons asks. The rich with their palatial dwellings are the cause of this despoilment, Parsons notes, people who have "never yet deigned to notice any petition from their slaves that they were not compelled to read by the red glare bursting from the cannons’ mouths, or that was not handed to them upon the point of the sword." No organization is needed to deliver a message to these "robbers," Parson indicates. She urges her readers to "avail yourselves of those little methods of warfare which Science has placed in the hands of the poor man, and you will become a power in this or any other land. Learn the use of explosives!"

NOVEMBER 1884

"Equal Rights," by Albert Parsons [Nov. 15, 1884]  This editorial from The Alarm notes that the path to wealth and leisure is a chimera, attainable by not one person in ten, of whom not one in ten is capable of maintaining the status. The only way to achieve this, in Parsons' view, is by standing on those beneath them in the role of exploiter. "Suppose some of those underneath concluded to use a little dynamite to blow off their burdens, might it not be possible that some of these ambitious ones on top would then conceive of some safer way to gratify their ambitions without taking a fellow creature for a footstool to climb up with?" Parsons rhetorically asks. "Gunpowder brought the world some liberty and dynamite will bring the world as much more as it is stronger than gunpowder. No man has a right to boost himself by even treading on another’s toes. Dynamite will produce equality."

 

"The Black Flag! The Emblem of Hunger Unfurled by the Proletarians of Chicago" [event of Nov. 27, 1884]  Lengthy and detailed first-hand journalistic account of the march of 3,000 "Social Revolutionists" (Anarchists) through the streets of Chicago, published in The Alarm. The Social Revolutionists made use of the Thanksgiving holiday as an organizing device to protest the unemployment and poverty held to be an intrinsic part of the current social and economic system. Included is the full text of the organizing leaflet, produced by a self-described "Committee of the Grateful" of the anarchist International Working People's Association, as well as excerpts of the speeches of Albert R. Parsons, C.S. Griffin, and Samuel Fielding, banner slogans, and resolutions adopted by acclamation by the demonstration's participants. According to leading participant August Spies, this demonstration marked the first time that the black flag, the "emblem of hunger and starvation," had been unfurled on American soil. The ecumenical nature of the Chicago Social Revolutionary movement at this juncture is reflected by the three cheers given for "our comrades the Anarchists of France and Austria, the Socialists of Germany, the Nihilists of Russia, and the Social Democrats of England." A brief move by some to sack the mansion of Elihu Washburn, US Ambassador to France during the Paris Commune, was turned aside by calmer participants. Also included is an account from the Chicago Tribune describing the new anti-street riot tactics in which the National Guard was training in Chicago.