On a sunny Sunday afternoon, hundreds gathered at the Bay View Rolling Mills historical marker on the shores of Lake Michigan to commemorate the seven workers who died fighting for the eight hour workday in 1886.
The annual event pays tribute to the 1,500 workers who marched toward the Bay View Rolling Mills (then the area’s biggest manufacturer) urging workers to join the fight for the 8 hour work day. The State Militia lined up on a nearby hill with guns poised. The workers were ordered to stop from some 200 yards away; when they didn’t, the militiamen fired into the crowd, killing seven people.
For the fourth straight year, this year’s event featured the popular re-enactment of the Bay View Tragedy performed by the Milwaukee Public Theatre with the Milwaukee Puppet and Mask Theatre as well as music from the Solidarity Singers and folk singer Larry Penn.
Phil Neuenfeldt, President of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, addressed the crowd connecting the past to current struggles for worker rights, reminding attendees to 'mourn for the dead and fight like hell for the living.'
The courage and sacrifice of the victims of the Bay View Massacre lives on. It lives on in fast food workers and all those fighting for a living wage; it lives on in those who stand together to stop the separation of families and end deportations; it lives on in those who join together for collective bargaining rights and strong unions which lead to safer workplaces, better wages and stronger communities; it lives on in those who fight for safer roads and better bridges, stronger schools and cleaner air.
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