World History: The Zulu Kingdom

A depiction of Shaka

One of the mythologised part of pre-colonial African history is that of the Zulu kingdom. In 1879 Zulu forces defeated the British at Isandlwana first brought the Zulu into the European imagination, and since a pervasive myth of feather clad warriors has persisted. Even among modern Zulus the old kingdom, and its famous leader Shaka, has been used in nationalist rhetoric - the semi-independent KwaZulu bantustan under Apartheid saw some support by hearkening back to the Zulu Kingdom. Today we will be looking about what is fact, and fiction, about the Zulu.

Who and Where, and Problems of Sources

What would become 'Zululand' originated in what is now South Africa in a vibrant region. Nestled between the Phongolo and Thukela rivers, and the Drakensberg mountains to the west and the Indian Ocean to the east, it provided fertile grasslands for various cultures. The names of the various peoples are often retroactively given to them - it is important when reading about these cultures and ethnicities that at the time they did not refer to themselves as that. For example, many of the local linguistic groups belong to the 'Bantu' family - a term coined by German ethnologist W.H.I. Bleek in 1862 - and, specifically, the Zulu now belong to the 'Nguni' language group - a term coined in 1929 by A.T. Bryant. When we look at imperialism and colonialism we will expand on this concept, but before rigidity introduced by colonial officials ethnic identities were often fluid. One could hold several different ethnic identities at once. For example, the Nguni linguistic group shows a lot of overlap with the San linguistic group; Nguni languages like Zulu and Xhosa contain clicks, something not seen in other Bantu languages like Swahili. A variety of cultures in the region had different social structures and organisations. One common important point of similarity is the importance of cows and cattle in society - cattle went beyond simple prestige and held great symbolic value for Zulu communities. Although milk was was staple of diet, cattle slaughter for food was done reluctantly.

The region today

We often encounter a troubling aspect of pre-colonial African history which we will see when discussing the Zulu. Until a paradigm shift beginning in the 1980s, historians really only focused on written sources, especially those from official archives. However, as many African languages and cultures had no written sources, this meant that many initial sources were written by European colonialists. Africans did influence these narratives - most of the initial sources about Shaka's life was written by Natal administrator James Stuart who used oral testimonies from informants - but is is important to understand that African voices were filtered through colonialist ones. There are also other issues. Stuart was writing between 50 to 80 years after Shaka's death, and many other primary material, like Nathaniel Isaacs' Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa, contain fabrications or holes in their stories. Since the 1980s historians have been engaging increasingly with alternate forms of primary material. By focusing on archaeological material and oral sources from Africans have started dispelling prior held notions about various pre-colonial, and colonial, societies.

Before the Rise

A stereotype that has emerged was that, before the rise of Shaka, 'total war' did not exist and warfare was 'negotiable' and 'gentlemanly' in the Thukela-Phongolo region. This narrative was even adopted by Zulu peoples themselves, one of James Stuart's informants called Lugubu said:

In the fights that took place in former days, the men would hurl assegais at one another. They did not approach closely. If one side was defeated and a man was left exhausted, he would say, 'Mo! I am defenceless!' He would be taken captive, but never killed... Chiefs had not yet begun putting people to death, even if they had done wrong.

However, historians now believe that this is an exaggeration. According to Martin Meredith, 'As the population of northern Nguniland expanded, however, the character of the chiefdoms began to change'. Dan Wylie disagrees about overpopulation leading to an escalation of violence - he agrees that it did help, but was not the most important factor. Instead, he places increased presence of Europeans at Delagoa Bay to the north, and the voortrekkers, Dutch/Afrikaan farmers, moving up from the south. As early as 1780 Xhosa and Boer clashes were taking place over land use, and slavery and the ivory trade at Delagoa aided escalations of violence. Eagerness to access lucrative Portuguese trade at Delagoa meant that local leaders were willing to use violence to solidify their access to it. Delagoa Bay was not an intensive site of the slave trade, as it was in West Africa, so slavery was part of a series of larger factors - such as the arrival of voortrekkers, growing population, and the ivory trade - which increased violence. In 1810, the eruption of Krakatoa caused crops to fail worldwide as global temperatures dropped - this aided in the violence as land for food became more heavily contested. Shaka's reforms had their origins in this time period as well; the armed regiments known as ambutho and strict control over customary initiation rites began in this period. It was not all violence. Regularly different communities, of various ethnicities, intermarried - a war around 1795 the Swazi 'queen mother' and the Ndwandwe ruler were siblings. In the 1810s two Nguni 'kingdoms' had emerged in the region: the Ndwandwe under Zwide in the north-west, and the Mthethwa under Dingiswayo in the south-east. In 1817, Ndwandwe defeated the Mthethwa army killing Dingiswayo, but then Shaka came around.

Shaka and the Rise of the Zulu

A European depiction of a dance at Shaka's kraal, c.1827

The figure of Shaka has become heavily mythologised over the almost two centuries after his death - partly by colonialists, partly by nationalists. Oral histories have started to shed greater light on the life of Shaka, and the rise of the Zulu, as many of the original primary sources were written fifty years after his death. Shaka's father, Senzangakhona, was sworn to Dingiswayo, and, possibly, had an illegitimate son with a woman called Nandi - Shaka. Nandi was a skilled negotiator, and could have aided in getting the young Shaka the leadership of his own regiment aged 23 to serve Dingiswayo, so much so that when Senzangakhona died in 1816 Dingiswayo organised for Shaka to replace him in a coup. This was not done alone - Nandi was an influential figure in organising the coup, and the reigning Queen Regent Mnkabayi kaJama eagerly aided in Shaka's rise to power. Dingiswayo's policy of aggression, and war against the Ndwandwe, created ample opportunities for combat which allowed Shaka the opportunity the distinguish himself, and the iziCwe regiment which he served. Aged 28 Shaka's coup ousted his brother, Sigujana, and soon enough the Ndwandwe killed Dingiswayo. Despite leading a small clan of just a few thousand Shaka managed to expand Zulu rule quickly. Skilful diplomacy forged alliances with smaller clans who were brought under his rule, and the vacuum left by the destruction of the Mthethwa allowed quick conquest. A big reason for this was the amabutho regimental system - this existed before Shaka and has often been referred to as simple military regiments. The amabutho were segregated based on sex and age to foster a central bond and identity, each one was meant to have its own song, war cry, and sign of identification, so they would enforce Shaka's rule. Very strictly disciplined they were trained in new fighting styles in order to streamline battle - short spears called iklwa replaced traditional throwing issegai as the primary weapon, shields were made thicker but more manoeuvrable, light runners were used for resupply, and a 'bull formation' used to battle. This involved senior veterans serving as the 'chest' directly engaging in frontal melee; the 'horns' would flank the opposing forces; and the 'loins' who would sit with their back to the battle (as to not get demoralised) until the enemy possibly broke out of their encirclement. Through this Shaka managed to build up conquests quickly.

Initially, the Zulu Empire's main opponent was the Ndwandwe who had conquered their former rulers, the Mthethwa. The small Zulu clan within two years managed to conquer the Ndwandwe by using Shaka's military reforms. It is, however, heavily debated how much Shaka borrowed, and how much he invented, but, regardless, it proved incredibly effective. From the capital of kwaBulawayo conquests went out with a relentless fury, and impis (armed warriors) were sent out on raids. They were done to seize cattle, booty, and to destabilise possible opponents. As mentioned earlier, cattle was a major sign of prestige in Zulu society, so the loss of cattle could potentially delegitimise rival rulers. Impis raided south of the Tegela River, and to the west forced the Hlubi under Mpangazitha to retreat from the Drakensberg foothills. These, in turn, could cause a ripple effect - in 1822 the Hlubi attacked Sotho clans in order to enrich their own lost herds. Sometimes these raids could lead to the creation of new polities. Mzilikazi of the Khumalo near the Black Mfolozi River, and happened to be the grandson of Ndwandwe's ruler Zwide, had joined Shaka in 1818. However, Shaka was angered when Mzilikazi kept the booty from a raid on the Sotho in 1820, so he moved and conquered a region between the Vaal and Limpopo rivers. To gain legitimacy he even called his people 'Zulu', but became known as the Matabele, or later the Ndebele, meaning 'strangers', who are now one of the largest ethnic groups in Zimbabwe.

Ruling an Empire

A depiction of a Zulu kraal

Unlike other conquerors, like Alexander the Great, the sudden death of Shaka in 1828 did not see the immediate collapse of the empire - Dan Wylie placed more emphasis on European encroachment half a century later for the empire's collapse. A big reason why the empire had such cohesion was the amabutho. Young men, and some women, were conscripted into the army in order to both conquer and rule. At times Shaka's brutality has been exaggerated, but it was well earned at times. The amabutho were rigidly disciplined and were used to hunt down opponents, at times entire villages could be wiped out, and Donald Morris alleges that up to 7,000 were executed for showing disrespect to the deceased Nandi after 1827. Prohibited from marriage, segregated from the rest of society, prevented from disbanding, and with a familial bond forged between members of each amabutho it ensured that an efficient force was formed. John Omer-Cooper has argued that this was a part of the building of a new state. They were also not only used for the enforcement of power. Women were tasked with cultivating the king's fields while men hunted for ivory or herded the cattle. With up to 40,000 at one's service it ensured that more attention could be devoted to other means whenever the king needed. What would become important over the next century is the forging of a Zulu identity. Although never complete, competing identities continued to exist, the implementation of one language and the forging of the amabutho allowed populations to see themselves as being one. Increasingly, those within the empire saw themselves as 'Zulu' - the People of the Heaven - and, therefore, Zulu identity was the most reified. Shaka, in particular, was keen to present himself as the father of the Zulu. His sentencing of 'kill the wizards' was to eliminated potential threats, and he was keen in 1825 to purchase Rowland's Macassar Oil from Port Natal traders as it could hide grey hairs - to him, a king 'must never have wrinkles, nor grey hairs, as they are distinguishing marks of disqualification for becoming a monarch of warlike people'. That does not mean that Shaka's rule went unchallenged - rivals at times came close to assassinating him, and his half-brothers, Dingane and Mhlangana, assassinated him on September 24, 1828. 

Women and Power

A depiction of Queen Nandi

It is undeniable that the Zulu kingdom/empire was patriarchal - contemporary misogyny and patriarchy can find its roots to pre-colonial culture. Sifiso Ndlovu while praising traditional feminist ideas, argues that it does obscure the possibilities where traditional gender relations could offer channels of influence and power. Of course, women were subjugated to men - adult women were seen as possessing ritual impurity so were barred from cattle ownership and, therefore, the marker of prestige in society. However, there were opportunities for women to exert influence. Zulu patriarch Ndukwana kaMbengwana in 1897 explained that children performed the same tasks regardless of sex, and girls could be 'be in charge of the calves if the father is going to the royal kraal'. As we have already seen, female amabutho regiments were used by Zulu kings - in 1827 incursions into amaMpondo territory was done by women and a former attendant to Dingane in 1904 stated that Shaka had launched campaigns with married women. Zulu oral tradition also gives insight to the agency of elite women in ruling the kingdom. Traditionally, an institution named the izigodhlo has been described as a harem, but Ndlovu has argued that the women of the izigodhlo could have great influence in deciding who were members of other institutes. Furthermore, post-menopausal women were not seen as 'unclean' so could serve in the very influential amakhanda which helped decide important rituals and policies. Queen Mkabayi, the paternal aunt of Shaka and his brothers, held incredible sway in the empire, it was largely thanks to her influence that Shaka could become king, and possibly influenced his brothers in assassinating him when his reign became too despotic after his mother's death. However, it must be stated that this was largely an elite aspect of Zulu life - your average woman was likely unable to benefit from the same benefits which elite women did.

The mfecane debate

Throughout the period of the Zulu conquests the bloodshed and war caused mass displacement of peoples in southern Africa which has become known as the mfecane. From one conquest figures like Mzilikazi went on to conquer more regions, who would move and conquer new regions, and all the while displacing people wanting to escape the war. Traditionally, this has been seen as being due to the Zulu conquests, and John Omer-Cooper even argued this was essential for the build up of a Zulu state. However, in the 1980s Julian Cobbing rejected this notion of the mfecane arguing that it was an 'alibi' and oversimplified. As we have seen, the wars and displacement occurred before the rise of the Zulu, so if we do use the term the Zulu were just part of a wider series of violent displacements. Cobbing has argued that more emphasis should be placed on European slaving at Delagoa Bay instead, although this has been debated as well. Cobbing argued that the need for slaves influenced displacement, although archaeological evidence has revealed the absence of large-scale slaving as seen in West Africa. However, Cobbing's other argument has become increasingly part of historiography - the influence of Europeans in mfecane. Voortrekkers helped place greater pressure on the land influencing displacements and violence, and white narratives helped forge a 'myth'. Early narratives, such as by Nathaniel Isaacs, tried to paint Shaka's rule as being barbaric as possible in order to justify annexation of African land by the British, or Boers. A myth which existed in Apartheid narratives, and among current white nationalist narratives, was that the land was 'empty' thanks to the mfecane, so white farmers were not displacing Africans from their land. Of course, this is wrong - lands were never 'emptied' - but the mfecane became a convenient myth for Europeans to ignore their own actions and justify disappropriation of African.

Cracks in the Empire

Cetshwayo

Before the complete fall of the Zulu Empire cracks emerged, however, these cracks were not entirely the reason for the downfall of the empire as what happened with most others in history. A key reason why these cracks emerged was due to power and accountability. Shaka's brutality has been exaggerated for various reasons, but that does not mean that he wasn't brutal. This brutality led to his assassination, and his successors had to resort to harsh means to solidify their own rule. Dingane's defeat by the Swazi in 1839 caused Mpande to flee to the Boers, and he later returned in 1840 routing Dingane's forces at the Maqongo Hills - the defeated king would die as a fugitive. We will shortly get to why this became an issue, but the next crack in Zulu power came thanks to succession. Shaka and Dingane solved this by having no legitimate offspring, but Mpande's many wives had given him many legitimate sons. Before he died he played several against one another - principally Mbuyazi and Cetshwayo - who battled at Ndondakusuka in 1856. Cetshwayo came out on top forcing Mpande to share power with him until his death in 1872. Meanwhile, the most important reason why Zulu power cracked was growing stronger: Europeans. Decades prior to the Zulu's rise white settlers had clashed with African polities, particularly the Xhosa, and in 1824 the Zulu came into contact with British traders and hunters at Port Natal (now Durban). Originally, they had been welcomed. They offered better goods than the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay, and Shaka was eager to access European goods - especially firearms. For decades southern African elites used European goods as a marker of prestige - the Comaroffs write about this very well among the Tswana at the end of the century. Shaka had hoped to use the British as intermediaries, but Boer settlers developing contacts with Port Natal settlers would deeply affect the Zulu. In October 1837, Boer settlers, armed with firearms, started seizing land threatening Dingane's rule. Clashing with Boer settlers Dingane was initially defeated leading to the formation of the Republiek Natalia, and the Zulu Civil War between Mpande and Dingane. Mpande had used Boer alliances to take control of the kingdom, and in return he ceded all the land between the Thukela and the Black Mfolozi to the new Natal Republic. The rise of white presence in the region would spell the end of the Zulu Kingdom.

The Anglo-Zulu War and an End of a Kingdom

Isandlwana today

As Boers formed their own republic the British proceeded to annex them. At the same time, in the 1870s there was a series of uprisings against British rule among black African polities - the ninth Xhosa War saw Gcaleka Xhosa and Ngqika Xhosa resist the British for seven months from September 1877, and a rising by Griqua in Griqualand East in February 1878 quickly spread to other ethnic groups. The new high commissioner, Sir Bartle Frere, saw the risings as being part of a 'black conspiracy', as long as independent black policies existed he saw them as encouraging uprisings. Mpande had maintained cordial relations with Britain after they annexed Natal in 1856, particularly with Theophilius Shepstone, the Natal secretary of native affairs. Cetshwayo continued these relations with Shepstone describing him as 'a man of considerable ability, much force of character, and has a dignified manner'. Cetshwayo feared British annexationist policies, and their placating of Boer land claims; to diffuse the situation Cetshwayo said that 'I love the English. I am not Mpande's son. I am the child of Queen Victoria. But I am also a king in my own country and must be treated as such...I shall not hear dictation...I shall perish first'. The British were eager to oblige. When Cetshwayo refused to abolish the amabutho the British invaded on January 11, 1879 beginning the Anglo-Zulu War. This war has gone down in British, South African, and Zulu memory as a decisive war. 20,000 Zulu warriors swept into the British camp at Islndlwana annihilating six companies of the 24th regiment - out of a garrison of 1,760 troops only 450 survived to just 1,000 Zulu deaths. This battle has remained a key focal point in Zulu nationalism, and even caused Lord Chelmsford to be disgraced back in Britain. However, the Zulu's attempt to wipe out the British at the thinly defended base at Rorke's Drift. Despite British victory at Rorke's Drift the Zulu army made Natal's white community terrified, and Britain was angered that an unsanctioned war was humiliating them. Ignoring Cetshwayo's call for peace the British captured him after the Battle of Ulundi on July 4, and annexed Zululand, abolished the monarchy and the amabutho system. In 1882 Cethswayo was allowed to rule some of his land as 'a flea in the blanket of Britain', but Zulu formal power had been broken. His son, Dinuzulu, made an alliance with a newly formed Republic of South Africa in 1881 after Boer victory in the First Anglo-Boer War, but like the British the Boers continued to chip away at his land. Eventually, Zululand was annexed by the British and opened to white settlement by 1897.

Conclusion 

The Zulu Kingdom forged a myth and lasting legacy for Zulu populations to this day. Zulu identity was one of the few somewhat centralised identity before the rise of European rule, and this identity proved to be a lasting beacon of resistance to white rule after initial annexation in 1879. When Apartheid South Africa forged the batustans in the 1970s a Zulu batustan was created, and Zulu elites hearkened back to the Zulu Empire to justify their co-operation with the Apartheid regime. The far-right Inkatha party would brutally implement a patriarchal, ethno-nationalist regime in the region, and openly ally with white nationalists against anti-Apartheid groups in the 1990s. Myths of the Zulu Empire has been shaped continuously. White settlers justifying land expropriation or Apartheid exaggerated or created stories of Zulu barbarity - it's not appalling if you were doing it to brutal peoples. Meanwhile, Dan Wylie has discussed how the rise of African nationalism inspired white writers to create a series of literature fawning over Shaka in particular - E.A. Ritter's 1955 novel Shaka Zulu is a good example of this. Zulu nationalists, for better or ill, later adopted this rhetoric. Oral histories from Africans have been shedding light on new narratives concerning the Zulu. Speaking as a white European, white historians have too long ignored African voices in the writing of their own history - Zulu history shows that white voices need to step back to show a fairer depiction of the past of colonised cultures.

Thank you for reading and our next World History post will be about the rise of capitalism and socialism. The sources I have used are as follows:

-Martin Meredith, The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavour, (London: Simon & Schuster, 2014)

-Dan Wylie, Myth of Iron: Shaka in History, (Scottsville: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2006)

-Donald Morris, The Washing of the Spears: The History of the Rise of the Zulu Nation under Shaka and Its Fall in the Zulu War of 1879, (London: Jonathan Cape, 1966)

-Benedict Carton, John Laband, and Jabulini Sithole, (eds.), Zulu Identities: Being Zulu, Past and Present, (London: Hurst & Company, 2008)

-Julian Cobbing, 'The Mfecane as Alibi: Thoughts on Dithakong and Mbolompo', The Journal of African History, 29:3, (1988), 487-519

-Fred Fynner, Zululand and the Zulus: being an enlargement upon two lectures delivered by Fred. B.

Fynney ... under the titles of The rise & fall of the Zulu nation and Our native tribes:

their customs, superstitions and beliefs, (Manchester: Foreign and Commonwealth Office Collection, 1885)

-John Omer-Cooper, The Zulu Revolution: A Nineteenth-Century Revolution in Bantu Africa, (London: Longmans, 1966)

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For other World History posts please see our list here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Godzilla: A Viewing Guide

Godzilla: King of the Monsters is almost in cinemas, as of writing, and is coming out in to celebrate Godzilla's 65th anniversary. 65 years, countless comics and video games, 34 movies, and two more movies on the way (King of the Monsters and Godzilla vs. Kong) the King of the Monsters has become a pop culture icon. Originating as a haunting allegory for Japan's post-war nuclear nightmares Godzilla has changed repeatedly going from Japan's tormentor to its protector, from a force of nature to the friend of children, and from nuclear to environmental allegories. One of my original ideas for my history undergraduate thesis was to actually look at how Godzilla has reflected Japanese, and at times American, worries, and we did a blog post about this topic here. After so many movies it can be difficult to know where to begin - in December 2018 I vowed to watch every movie in order of release before the release of the newest one and I still am not finished (albeit part of that is due to me being busy with my undergraduate thesis, and I've been really dragging my feet about watching the three anime movies). Hence, I thought a nice little list of my own recommendations would be nice. I want to also give a shout out to the fantastic James Rolfe of Cinemassacre for doing his own version which I would definitely recommend watching here - I had this post planned in early April but was debating whether to actually write it, but his video was so good it confirmed my commitment to actually writing it. Would highly recommend. 

A Note on Continuity

Other than the sheer number of movies, one of the biggest tasks for a new Godzilla fan is making sense of the various continuities. Luckily, you can watch any Godzilla movie out of order and the plot would make sense - imagine it like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, skipping one entry will leave you confused by a plot point or two but you'll be able to catch up fast. Also, the Godzilla franchise is a shared universe. Several weapons, monsters, and, occasionally, characters debuted in non-Godzilla films made by the same company (Toho). Two of the most iconic monsters of the Godzilla franchise - Mothra and Rodan - debuted in their own movies before meeting Godzilla, and in the 1990s Mothra got its own film series called Rebirth of Mothra. Toho in 1973 made its own version of Ultraman called Zone Fighter which featured several Godzilla monsters, including Godzilla himself. Incidentally, Ultraman was created by Tsubaraya Eiji - the man who helped create Godzilla - and some of the kaiju (giant monsters) that Zone Fighter fought were old Godzilla costumes with added extra parts.

The friendlier design of Godzilla for the later Showa movies

The simplest movie to explain is the original 1954 classic - almost all successive series position themselves as sequels to this original. The first series is the 'Showa series' starting with 1955's Godzilla Raids Again and ending with 1975's Terror of Mechagodzilla. In Japan, periods of time are named after the reign of the emperor, so these movies were released during the reign of the Showa Emperor. All these movies are sequels, but you can largely watch them in any order seen as for almost all of them the only recurring character is Godzilla. The only two movies which are sort of 'out of continuity' are 1968's Destroy all Monsters, set in the 1990s so is chronologically last in the Showa series, and 1969's All Monsters Attack which is set entirely in the imagination of a Godzilla loving child. These movies are often known for their cheesiness with bad acting, goofy costumes, Godzilla slowly turning from villain to hero, and wobbly sets - and that is why they are so beloved. The second series, Heisei, ignores the Showa series, and positions itself as a direct sequel to the original. Gone is the cheesiness, the tone is mostly darker, Godzilla is an intimidating villain or anti-hero, and each movie somewhere there is an allegory or message. Some fans refer to this series as either the 'Second' series as it can get a bit confusing when looking at the Heisei era. The first film in the Heisei series actually came out during the reign of the Showa Emperor, and as the Heisei Emperor only abdicated this April meaning that King of the Monsters is actually the first actual post-Heisei Godzilla movie. After the Second series ended with 1995's Godzilla vs. Desotroyah there was the brief TriStar series. The 1998 American made Godzilla was hated by both Godzilla fans and non-fans, so plans for a sequel were scrapped - if we count the decent animated series which ended in 2000 then the TriStar ended in 2000. The disaster of Godzilla (1998) inspired Toho to immediately release a new movie, Godzilla 2000, starting the Millennium series. Each of these (bar two) are direct sequels to the original, and largely had new directors experimenting with Godzilla - this produced both successes, like GMK, and failures, like Godzilla X Megaguirus. Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla brought some non-Godzilla Showa movies back into continuity, and is the only in the Millennium series to have a sequel with Godzilla: Tokyo SOS. The final entry, Godzilla: Final Wars, was intended as Godzilla's swansong coming out on Godzilla's fiftieth anniversary, and exists in a vacuum - it has no prequels or sequels in terms of continuity.

The Heisei Godzilla

There would not be another Godzilla movie for a decade until Legendary's Godzilla in 2014. This started the 'Monsterverse' and includes Kong: Skull Island in preparation for 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong. However, a Japanese series co-exists with the Monsterverse. In 2016 Shin-Gojira, or Godzilla Resurgence, was released and is a standalone movie - right now we don't know if there will be a sequel, or if Toho will start a new series. Finally, we have the, thankfully, completed anime series. They exist independently of all other Toho kaiju movies, and exist in their own continuity. I would recommend the World War Z like prequel novels, but the anime movies themselves aren't the best. Now that continuity is out of the way, we can get into the movies I most recommend.

Godzilla (1954)

There is no doubt that you have to start with the original. Although not all of the acting and effects have lasted the test of time, most still hold up today. Tsubaraya Eiji can be credited for revolutionising special effects, and Steven Spielberg cited him for paving the way for Jurassic Park decades later. A haunting tale of the horrors of nuclear weaponry coming back to haunt Japan has been discussed many times, and was almost what I wrote about for my undergraduate thesis. I what recommend the Japanese version over the American. It was common at the time for foreign movies to be edited for American audiences, and the American version - Godzilla: King of the Monsters! - made quite drastic changes. An American journalist called Steve Martin, played by Raymond Burr, was edited in, at times quite clumsily, and harsh allegories and denunciations were completely left out. Consequently, the American version is not only shorter, but also a shallower movie - especially as the smart and organised Dr Yamane is given a goofy voice. They would repeat this with 1984's The Return of Godzilla - the, fairly conservative, American distributing company inserted comical characters, goofy voices, obnoxious product placement, and removed allegories and internationalism. They would have butchered the Japanese version even more if not for Raymond Burr, in a stellar performance, putting his foot down. Godzilla, King of the Monsters! is not a bad movie, it feels very much like a Japanese take on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (which inspired Godzilla), and Burr's narration over Godzilla's destruction of Tokyo creates a feeling of dread. The Japanese version is just far better - a deep, allegorical meaning mixed with revolutionary special effects creating a cinematic classic.

Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)

This is not to be confused with the Heisei 'remake' - Godzilla vs. Mothra - and you may see it referred to as Godzilla vs. the Thing. This was the big clash between Toho's monsters - Mothra had been introduced beforehand in her own movie, and Godzilla had appeared in three other movies, including his infamous battle with King Kong. A staple of most of Mothra's appearances the movie takes an environmentalist and a quasi anti-capitalist stance as a company, Happy Enterprises, claims an unearthed egg of Mothra in order to make money. Godzilla raises from the earth, after being buried by a hurricane, and starts devastating Japan, so Mothra has to fight him. Good special effects and interesting human characters it is the first of the many times that Godzilla and Mothra shared the big screen.

Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster (1964)

My personal favourite of the Showa series this not only introduced Toho's greatest villain, the three-headed dragon King Ghidorah, but it also brought together Toho's three biggest monsters. Naturally, Godzilla and Mothra returned - although Mothra remains a larvae - but the pterosaur Rodan joins them. It also has a fantastically zany plot. Millennia ago a monster destroyed Venus, some translations Mars, and the remaining Venutians travelled to Earth where they bred with humanity. A princess, descended from the Venutians, wakens her alien side as this monster begins its way to Earth, just as assassins try to kill her! On top of this, Rodan emerges from Mt. Aso, where it had been buried since Rodan, and Godzilla rises from the sea. The princess and her new friends manage to get Mothra to try and unite the other two monsters as the awe-inspiring Ghidorah arrives. Tsubaraya's effects are just superb with intricate miniatures being realistically destroyed by kaiju, and the costume design of Ghidorah is fantastic. The clumsy looking costumes of Godzilla and Rodan add to the charm. This was also the first time when Godzilla wasn't firmly a villain, and it began a trend when the movies were aimed at a younger audience. The monster fights are more choreographed and with instances of humour, and there is even a little dialogue between Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. The English translation adds more humour as Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan argue about whether to help humanity, with Mothra's fairies translating, and apparently Godzilla has a foul-mouth. 'Oh, Godzilla, what terrible language' says Mothra. Prepare for a few references to this movie in King of the Monsters: Michael Dougherty is a Godzilla fan and the new movie features these four monsters.

Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

This is not a good film, but you have to see it. Made on virtually no budget it features clumsy costumes, bad acting, shaky sets, and enough cheese to make a fondue. Like The Room or Birdemic it is a classic 'so-bad-it's-good' movie, perfect for a bad movie night. A scientist, his kid brother, and friend create an Ultraman-esque robot called Jet Jaguar which is captured by an undersea race angered by nuclear testing, so they unleash a cockroach monster Megalon onto Japan. As Godzilla comes to save the day the undersea people use an alliance with aliens who send their scythe-wielding chicken-cyborg Gigan to ally with Megalon. Made on such a low budget it recycles a lot of scenes from prior Godzilla movies - an American reviewer praised the effects not realising that the destruction scenes were actually from Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster. As a result, as the monsters are fighting or stomping around the time of day changes regularly. Hilariously bad and super cheesy it is a classic. Also, Jet Jaguar has his own song...

Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

My personal favourite of the Heisei series it is a sequel to 1984's The Return of Godzilla - a critical and financial bomb Toho was reluctant to bring back Godzilla, and decided to take note from the Showa series. While Return was more realistic, (as realistic as a Godzilla movie can be), and darker vs. Biollante introduced a more fantastical plot with a new monster. A tale detailing the fears over genetic modification and terrorism a grieving scientist merges his deceased daughter's DNA with that of a rose and Godzilla inadvertently creating a new kaiju - Biollante. Bio-terrorists, meanwhile, threaten to release a sleeping Godzilla if the Japanese government does not give them the monster's DNA. This movie also introduced the psychic Saegusa Miki, and she would become the most recurring human character in the Godzilla series appearing in all future Heisei movies. One of my favourite scenes in the series - at Miki's psychic school children are drawing, and when asked to show their drawings each one turned out to have drawn Godzilla. As the adults look fearful the famous Godzilla theme plays. Finally, the design of Biollante is fantastic. One of the things that cannot be denied about the Heisei series is the quality of the kaiju designs and the special effects, and vs. Biollante is a perfect example of this.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)

My favourite in the series, after the original, it reinvents many of the Godzilla monsters, and reflects a current issue in Japan. With fantastic special effects it also is directed by Kaneko Shusuke who reinvented the other giant monster Gamera. GMK happens to be one of the most political entries to the series; when it was made prime minister Koizumi Junichiro created controversy by visiting the Yasukuni Shrine who honours the war dead, including over 1,000 war criminals. Japan's memory and outright denial of its imperial and wartime atrocities has been the centre of culture wars, so GMK came out during a spike in these debates. It was not the first time that Godzilla had been caught in wartime controversy - Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah in its time travel plot featured a non-mutated Godzilla saving the Imperial Army from American GIs. In GMK the souls of those killed by Japan during the Second World War, angered by Japanese war crime denial, attach themselves to the remains of the original Godzilla and attack Japan. However, the guardians of the land - Baragon, Mothra, and Ghidorah - awaken to fight Godzilla. Godzilla's design in this movie reflects the dark origin of the monster - he has pale white eyes of the dead.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)

Of course, Godzilla basically had a live-action mecha anime in the early-2000s. The staggering success of the mecha anime Neon Genesis Evangelion reinvigorated the anime industry, and mecha, in particular, became a popular genre. Mechagodzilla, called Kiryu in this movie, offered a way for Godzilla to fight a mecha. Lieutenant Yashiro Akane is a pilot helping remotely co-pilot the new Kiryu - a giant robot using the bones of the original Godzilla to fight a new Godzilla. Straight out of Evangelion when hearing the roar of Godzilla the bones inside Kiryu go mad and start attacking Japan once more. Akane is a great character and her actress, Shaku Yumiko, does a stellar job. The effects are great and the design of Kiryu is perhaps my favourite of any other incarnations of the robot. If you like anime you will like Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla. It is the only one in the Millennium series to have a sequel - Godzilla: Tokyo SOS was released in 2003. Good, but not as good as its predecessor, Mothra threatens to attack Japan if they do not lay Godzilla's bones to rest, and saw a cast member from Mothra return. Another fun fact about these two movies, they are canon with some Showa movies including Rodan and even War of the Gargantuas. 

Godzilla (2014)

Of course, to watch the sequel you have to watch its predecessor. Legendary's movie I can triumphantly call a Godzilla movie - Godzilla is intimidating, fights another monster, and serves as an allegory (natural disasters and climate change). Bryan Cranston and Ken Wantanabe are naturally fantastic, and the design of the kaiju are really good. However, it does have its flaws. The film is slow at times, it shies away from wanting to openly show the kaiju, the secondary cast is somewhat uninteresting, and the last act is very dark - you struggle to actually see it. Luckily, early reviews of King of the Monsters have, at the moment of writing, seem to suggest that this is the opposite in the new film.

Godzilla: Resurgence (2016)

The most recent live-action Godzilla movie it again returns back to allegory. Instead of a radiated dinosaur, Godzilla is now a rapidly evolving organism mutated thanks to pollution and radiation from nuclear waste dumping in Tokyo Bay. Godzilla's last form (he takes four in the movie) is truly intimidating - I would say it ties with GMK's design for the most terrifying Godzilla. It is also the first Japanese Godzilla movie to use CGI over practical effects, but, surprisingly, the effects are really good. The destruction scene adds so much detail that previous films often overlook - such as tiles falling from roofs as Godzilla walks. CGI also allowed more creativity with what they could do with Godzilla, so they even turn Godzilla's tail into a weapon. Only with 'Kamata-kun', (the fan name for the second form), does the CGI seem poor. It does fall apart with the lengthy human scenes which largely comprises of meetings. This was a satire of the government's bureaucratic and lacklustre response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and tsunami - very apparent with the destruction scenes. If you go in knowing this it makes the movie better, if not it makes the human scenes drag.

Other Godzilla Media?

If you want to more Godzilla media you have plenty of things to choose from. A good animated series was released to tie-in with the 1998 American movie - the creators were genuine fans of Godzilla so the cartoon is far better than the movie. There are books, both fiction and non-fiction, concerning Godzilla - the prequel novels to the anime series are very interesting, but are unfortunately only in Japanese at the moment. For non-fiction, there are several recommendations. William Tsutsui's Godzilla on My Mind (2004) gives brief reviews of all the movies which were out at the time, details the impact on pop culture, and the history of the fandom. However, at times his writing can be cringe-worthy, and he gets the plot to GMK wrong. The Official Godzilla Compendium by J.D. Lees and Marc Cerasini I would highly recommend. Although out of date now, it was written in 1998, it goes into detail about previous movies and the monsters featured in it. Finally, if you like comics read Godzilla: Rulers of Earth by IDW Publishers - a love story to Godzilla fans it features just about very monster featuring aliens, undersea civilisations, and plenty of monster fights.

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Eighty Years of Batman

In May 1939 the comic book Detective Comics in issue 27 released a new story featuring a new superhero. A superhero craze had begun in the 1930s, and all comic strips and radio shows were eager to introduce their own heroes. However, Detective Comics #27 would introduce perhaps the most important pop culture icons, never mind comic character, of all time: Batman. Superman is perhaps the only other comic book character to possibly rival Batman's importance in shaping pop culture. Over the last eighty years Batman has gone through many stories, took many forms, and has been adapted many times over. Today we'll look at Batman's creation, and some of the best stories to read to understand the Dark Knight.

Creation

After seeing the success of Superman, a new genre of comics emerged: the superhero comic. Already, DC's predecessor company had given Superman his own comic, but they wanted more. Editor Vin Sullivan had hired two new figures, Bob Kane and Bill Finger, to create a new hero for Detective Comics. As what was regular at the time, Kane and Finger were given great creative control over creating a new hero. Finger recalled that, 'Kane had an idea for a character called 'Batman,' and he'd like me to see the drawings'. Kane had got the idea of 'Batman' from watching the 1930 movie The Bat Whispers. A remake of the 1920 silent movie, The Bat, (the director of The Bat would remake his own movie in The Bat Whispers), featured a bat-themed thief who hid in the shadows. Kane's original design was very reminiscent of Superman, and a bat-wing cape based off of a design by Leonardo da Vinci. Finger would alter the design, being very inspired by fictional characters like Zorro, including giving Batman a cowl. In fact, Finger did most of the work in the creation of Batman - even down to choosing the name 'Bruce Wayne' - but for over fifty years he was largely forgotten. Kane was an aggressive self-promoter, and despite only writing the first issue, for a long time he was credited as Batman's sole 'creator'. It took until 2015 for Finger to be actually credited in a comic for creating Batman! In his debut most of what we recognise as Batman today was fairly limited - most of his backstory was created for the later Detective Comics #33 in November. Now that we've briefly gone over the creation of Batman we can look at some key stories.

Detective Comics #27 and #33

The best way to start with Batman is his first appearances. Little of what we recognise as Batman exists in these early days, but it is interesting to see how he has evolved over the years. His debut opens with a Commissioner Gordon discussing the newly emerged 'Bat-Man' to his socialite friend Bruce Wayne. The bored Wayne joins Gordon to a crime scene - chemical manufacturer Lambert had been killed and his son taken into custody. Bored, Wayne leaves, Lambert's associates start turning up dead, and Gordon is trying to track both the mysterious Bat-Man and the killers. It turns out, one of Lambert's business partners, Alfred Stryker, was planning to buy out the other partners, but grew tired of waiting and decided to kill them all off. Bat-Man confronted Stryker and knocked him into a vat of acid stating that, 'A fitting end for his kind'. The comic ends with Wayne laughing off Gordon's story, and for him to enter another room where, 'his door slowly opens and reveals its occupant... if the commissioner could see his young friend now... He'd be amazed to learn that he is the Bat-Man!'. Most of Batman's recognisable features were absent: no Alfred, the Batmobile is just a regular car, there's no Bat Cave, and even no Gotham! Batman, spelt 'Bat-Man', operated in New York instead. His 'no kill' rule, as you can probably already tell, wouldn't come around till the late-1940s - in his debut he even threw a man off of a building killing him!

Batman become the central character in Detective Comics, and in #33 he got his now famous origin story. The beginning of the comic quickly goes over the Dark Knight's origin. Returning home from the cinema via an alley the young Bruce and his parents, Thomas and Martha, were confronted by a mugger. When trying to steal Martha Wayne's pearls the mugger shot Thomas, and then shot Martha to silence her screams. Days later, the young Bruce makes a vow by candlelight, 'I swear by the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring on all criminals!'. He spent the rest of his life training, but he realised that 'Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot, so my disguise must be able to strike terror into their hearts'. Just then, a bat flew through his window giving him his moniker. 

The Joker and the Cat

Batman was so popular that within the year he had gained a sidekick in #38, 'The Sensational character-find of 1940...Robin - the Boy Wonder!', and his own comic. In this comic, Batman #1, two of Batman's major characters debuted: the Joker and Catwoman. Half the stories featured a new villain, based off of Conrad Veidt's character in the German silent movie The Man who Laughs, who was a maniacal clown named the Joker. The Joker would announce his crimes, mostly murder and robbery, and leave his deceased victims with a devilish smile on their face through an unknown poison. At the end of the first story Batman managed to apprehend the Joker, but two days later, in the second story, the Joker escapes to continue his crime spree. It only ends when, during a trap, Batman and the Joker clash where the Joker stabbed himself in the chest, narrowly surviving. Originally, it was intended for the Joker to die - a last minute change of heart by Bill Finger meant that comics' most classic villain could become a cultural icon. Meanwhile, another story, called 'The Cat', dealing with a mysterious woman attempting to steal a $500,000 emerald from a wealthy socialite. Batman managed to capture the Cat, but smitten, he lets her go. Thus started one of the most endearing will-they/won't-they romances in comic history.

The Killing Joke - the Most Controversial Batman Comic

From the mind of Alan Moore, the author of Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and drawn by Brian Bolland, 1988's The Killing Joke remains one of the most controversial Batman comics. Alan Moore has even stated that he regrets writing it. The story is split into two. The first, deals with the origins of the Joker. A loving father-to-be and husband an unnamed failure of a stand-up was on the brink of destitution. Desperate to give his emerging family a better life he agreed to take part in an extreme robbery - dressed as a villain 'the Red Hood' he was to distract any police who arrived on the scene. They would assume that he was the mastermind, not the other gang members. However, the day of the robbery his wife had a deadly fall, and the gang made him push on with the robbery regardless. Naturally the robbery went wrong. The police shot the gang members, and the scared Red Hood fell into a vat of chemicals upon seeing Batman. The chemicals bleached his skin and left him with a devilish smile. With all that happened that day it drove him insane, and now the Joker wanted to show that 'one bad day' could drive anyone insane. Arriving at the home of Jim Gordon he knocked out the commissioner and shot Barbara Gordon, who at the time was Batgirl, in the spine paralysing her. Batman tracks the Joker to a carnival where he has had Gordon beaten, tortured, stripped, and forced to look at photos of his abused and shot daughter. However, Gordon was not broken as Joker intended, and the comic ends with Batman finally laughing at one of Joker's jokes. Grant Morrison has suggested that Batman may have even killed the Joker at the end - the last panel makes reference to the joke where one man is implied to die. Although praised for the story and art it has earned controversy for the treatment of Barbara Gordon. She suffers disproportionately compared to the other characters, her abuse became a plot tool, and she remained paralysed for decades. The only redeeming part from this is that Barbara Gordon became a major disabled superhero in the form of Oracle.

Batman: White Knight

This story by Sean Murphy finished just last year, and I would highly recommend getting your hands on it. Set in one of DC's many alternate realities, and heavily inspired by the Tim Burton Batman movies, it features a broken and harsher Batman alienating himself from his allies. Publicly force feeding the Joker pills that the clown said could cure him it transpired that the pills actually worked. A sane Joker, called Jack Napier, planned to run for office and bring Batman to justice for aggressive violence, and we find out there are two Harley Quinns. The original left the Joker thanks to the events of Death in the Family but returned when her love seemed sane. However, Joker's rehabilitation may not be all that it seems, Alfred is close to death, and the second Harley becomes a new Joker. A must read.

A Death in the Family

This story was released the same year as The Killing Joke, but unlike Moore's story it was very much intended to be canon. The second Robin, Jason Todd, had become fairly disliked by fans who saw him as overly moody and whiny - quite ironic considering the later introduction of Damien Wayne as Robin. For 50 cents, DC allowed fans to ring in and answer a simply question: should Jason die? Quite possibly some fans rang many times to rig the competition, but regardless DC got an answer - fans honestly decided to kill a child. In A Death in the Family Jason finally reunited with his mother, only for the Joker to capture them, and he savagely beat Jason with a crowbar. Before Batman could rescue them Joker detonated a bomb killing Robin. The second half went down hill extremely quickly - including an overtly racist plot point towards Arabs and Iranians (a topic I'm hoping to write about one day). One of the most iconic scenes in comics came from the story - Batman holding the broken body of Jason Todd. Later adaptations changed the story to omit the racist ending, and Jason Todd would later be resurrected as the violent vigilante Red Hood.

The Dark Knights Returns

This story is perhaps the most famous comics of all time, and inspired Tim Burton's adaptations, and has been partially adapted into an episode of The Batman, The Dark Knight Rises, and Batman v. Superman, as well as having its own animated adaptation. Expertly written by Frank Miller, and beautifully drawn by Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, it depicts a bleak and very violent version of Batman. A retired Batman, depressed from the death of Jason Todd (actually written years before A Death in the Family) and being alienated from Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement as Gotham's crime rate explodes. Satirising everything from media sensationalism to Ronald Reagan's Cold War policies a bitter Wayne has to contend with a cannibalistic gang called the Mutants, murderous vigilantes acting in his own name, a murderous returned Joker, and Superman acting on Reagan's orders. It also introduced my favourite version of Robin, and one of the few female Robins, who was inspired by Batman: Carrie Kelley. Every panel of this story has become iconic and has inspired future gritty reboots of other heroes, however, none can compete with this one.

Knightfall

This was also partially adapted into The Dark Knight Rises, Knightfall is a good story, albeit written for the wrong reasons. In the 1990s many comic companies, including DC, almost went bankrupt, and DC hoped to boost sales through big stories. In January 1993 Superman was killed, and in May we got Knightfall. In this story, a new villain named Bane plans to both mentally and physically break Batman. Breaking all of the inmates from Arkham Asylum he lets Batman fight them all, slowly exhausting himself as he went, until Bane finally fought him. Bane then broke Batman's back over his knee paralysing him. Unfortunately, DC ruined a good story. The new Batman was the textbook definition of 'edginess' and was hated. DC resurrected Superman and had Bruce Wayne heal from his paralysis to get more people reading - sadly killing permanency in comics with it.

Batman: Year One

My second favourite Batman comic Year One served as the comic which inspired Batman Begins. Written by Frank Miller, and illustrated by David Mazzuchelli, it depicts a revamped origin for Batman. Jim Gordon tries to fight blatant and rampant corruption in the GCPD, Selina Kyle begins a life of crime, and Bruce Wayne returns to Gotham to begin his career as Batman. There are none of Batman's traditional Rouge's Gallery - no Penguin, Scarecrow, or Riddler. Two-Face is just the normal Harvey Dent, and only at the end of the comic is the Joker mentioned. The villains are instead the GCPD and Gotham's mob. A noir-esque story, realistic, and a great introduction.

The Long Halloween

I've saved the best for last...it's also perhaps the longest story on this list. Written by Jeph Loeb it is set early on in Batman's career. His villains from Year One are angered by the increase in masked or themed criminals like the Penguin, Joker, and Poison Ivy who are edging them out of existence. At a Halloween party a major mobster is killed and a jack-o-lantern is left at the scene. Batman, Gordon, and Harvey Dent have to find the killer - the 'Holiday Killer' as they kill a major member of the mob on holidays - while also dealing with the mob itself, and the rise of the supervillains. At the same time, Harvey's mental health is failing thanks to exhaustion, and his marriage is falling apart. It ends with a new supervillain on the scene... 

Thank you for reading. These are just some of the stories I would recommend reading if you want to become acquainted with the Dark Knight. I haven't mentioned many other fantastic stories including the creepy Court of Owls, the alternate reality steampunk Gotham by Gaslight, and one of my all-time favourite comics, Grant Morrison's Arkham Asylum. Batman for eighty years has given comic book fans story after story to love, and has brought himself fully into popular culture. How many other comic heroes can claim to have such a cultural presence than Batman? Only perhaps Superman and Spider-Man. Everyone not acquainted with comics know many of the key details and aspects of his comics. To another eighty years!

Thank you for reading and I hope you found it interesting. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby. 

Left-Wing and the 'Other' History: The Haymarket Affair

The Haymarket Affair was one of the major turning points in labour and leftist history in the United States. An explosion at a labour rally in Chicago killing seven police officers and four civilians led to a red scare, and a deep lasting impact on the labour movement. Today we shall look at the Haymarket Affair, the background to the Affair, and the impact that it had on the American labour movement.

American Labour before 1886

The Knights of Labor's logo

Industrialisation in the United States resembled industrialisation elsewhere - workers had to work long hours in dangerous conditions in return for little pay. By 1890 12% of the American population owned 80% of the country's wealth; in contrast, during the 1880s 45% of workers earned barely enough to keep themselves above the poverty line. A fifty-nine hour work week was common for many industrial labourers, and the periodic economic depression, such as the devastating 'Panic of 1873', could cause instant unemployment. At a drop of a hat in the 1880s just under a third of workers faced the risk of unemployment. Labour leader Samuel Gompers once claimed that a manufacturer had once declared that, 'I regard my employés as I do a machine, to be used to my advantage, and when they are old and of no further use I cast them in the street'. It is hard to verify this claim, Gompers never stated which manufacturer stated this, but it is easy to see why these statement's may have been made. Following the end of the US Civil War in 1865 industrial production in the north boomed: 1874-1882 Bessemer steel ingot production jumped from 191,933 tons to 1,696,450; in Pennsylvania from 1875-1885 steel production rose from 148,374 to 1,109,034 tons; and the production of iron and steel rails doubled from 1874 to 1880. This expansion, when times were good, meant that jobs were in high demand - if you quit or could not keep up there was someone to take your place. Fairly often exploitation was incorrectly blamed on immigration. Factory owners hired desperate labourers from China, Europe, and Mexico who were willing to work for lower wages and longer hours in poorer working conditions; instead of blaming exploitative industrialists nativist workers, and labour organisers, blamed immigrants. Sections of the movement could be very antisemitic - August Spies blamed 'Jewish capital' on exploitation.

However, groups started emerging, primarily trade unions, to resist exploitation. As argued by Bruce Nelson, the American labour movement had no real history of labour agitation as their counterparts in Europe had. In 1878 a leftist publication named The Socialist argued that, 'With us there is no necessity for an appeal to arms involving a bloody revolution. We have a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution, and under them we have the right, now enjoyed for a century, of promolgating [sic] our ideas and of establishing a party in support of them'. US labour, consequently, had nativist and conservative streaks, and radical anarchist and Marxist streaks. While the International Workers of the World (IWW), formed in 1905, was co-founded by figures including Irish women, Jewish eastern Europeans, and a mixed-race woman, the Knights of Labor (KOL) supported the Chinese Exclusion Act. This diversity of ideology largely existed due to the diversity and size of the labour movement. The KOL had managed to get 700,000 members by the Haymarket Affair in 1886, the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 managed to cripple several states, and the Molly Maguires (an Irish union) in Pennsylvania terrorised mine overseers. One thing that united all unions was the desire for an eight-hour work day, and that became the focus of the movement before 1886.

Chicago and Anarchism

In the industrial Chicago the labour movement naturally flourished. A multi-ethnic and polyglot crowd between 20,000 and 40,000 people came to the Exhibition Building in March 1879 to celebrate the anniversary of the Paris Commune. In 1880 40.7% of the population was foreign born - the overwhelming majority being German making up a third of the populace. Employment was also divided along nativity; white-collar jobs were dominated by those who were native-born whereas immigrants dominated blue-collar work. There was often little interaction between communities, the German-republican Illinois Staats-Zeitung in 1871 stated, 'Between the Germans and the Irish, the Germans and the Americans there is, on the whole, little social intercourse'. Following the crushing of the 1848 Revolution German radicals had fled to the US, and they brought with them their ideas. As early as 1854 Chicago's first socialist paper was founded, the German-language Der Proletarier, and by 1865 the First International had its own section in the city. Throughout the 1870s openly socialist parties had been formed in Chicago, and in 1883 the major socialist party, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, joined the anarchist International Working Peoples' Association (IWPA). The campaigns for an eight-hour work day were particularly strong in Chicago due to the vibrancy of the labour movement. 

Albert and Lucy Parsons

Anarchists were particularly prevalent in Chicago. We'll briefly look at some of the leading anarchists here. Two key figures was the husband and wife pair of Albert and Lucy Parsons. We know more about Albert's upbringing than Lucy - born in 1848 he was the youngest of a family of ten, and surprisingly he originally served as a Confederate soldier. Returning to civilian life he started criticising slavery, white supremacy, and secession after seeing Confederate general James Longstreet start supporting Reconstruction, his studies at Waco University, and the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. Opening a Radical Republican paper, The Spectator, he began campaigning for equality for whites and African-Americans. Meanwhile, Lucy Gonzalez was an orphan at the age of three, and took pride in her Mexican-Creek indigenous heritage - she once stated that 'I am one whose ancestors are indigenous to the soil of America' to a crowd of London socialists. However, she was regularly described as 'Negro' or 'mulatto' by papers in Waco and Chicago - her biographer Carolyn Ashbaugh concluded that Lucy was born a Texan slave. Regardless, Albert and Lucy rebelled against post-war white supremacy and married in Austin in 1872 - due to Lucy's indigenous ancestry they could marry. However, due to their politics they were forced to leave Texas for the north in 1873 - Albert's brother stated that 'He was practically a political exile. He had either to fight every day or leave'. Moving to Chicago they became heavily involved with the local labour movement.

August Spies

The Parsons were not the only important anarchists in 1880s Chicago. August Spies was born in Germany in 1855 but migrated to New York in 1872 when his father died. Working alongside other immigrants he realised that the 'Land of Opportunity' was severely flawed, and seeing police brutality against police meant that he fully embraced socialism. While in Chicago he became one of the major editors of the Chicago Arbeiter-Zeitung, and his disappointment with the Socialist Labor Party drew him to anarchism. Spies was not the only German to be active in the Chicago anarchist scene - Adolph Fischer from Bremen became one of Arbeiter-Zeitung's major contributors, Michael Schwab became the paper's deputy editor, Louis Lingg was an active union member, and, after his release from British prison in 1882, leading anarchist Johann Most arrived in the US. Although operating from New York Most built up ties with radical German emigres, such as Spies, in Chicago. Germans were not the only migrants to become active in the movement. English migrants weren't discriminated against as other migrants, but that did not prevent Samuel Fielden from engaging in workers' liberation. A Methodist pastor he became the treasurer for the International Working Men's Association, and wrote for the Arbeiter-Zeitung.

The Haymarket Affair

The Arbeiter-Zeitung's call to the rally

In 1885 the powerful iron moulders union had threatened a strike at the McCormick plant; the plant owners brought in private police and strikebreakers, including the infamous Pinkertons, to clash with the union. Fearing a costly clash, the mayor and major business leaders got the company to settle on the union's terms - this peace lasted until February when the introduction of new machinery weakened the union. This emboldened the company to announce that the factory would operate on a nonunion basis causing a new strike. On May 3, 1886 four strikers were killed by police enraging the labour movement. Already the unions were emboldened thanks to May Day. Two years prior it was decided that on May 1 a general strike would occur across the country to protest for an eight-hour workday - in Chicago Albert and Lucy Parsons had led a march of 80,000 in favour of this. The strike and protests had been peaceful, so August Spies was disgusted upon seeing the one-sided violence. He published a leaflet denouncing the murder, but his compositor, Hermann Pudewa, added 'Revenge' to the text without consulting Spies. Published in English and German (although not the other major language Czech) it read:

Revenge! Workingmen to Arms!!! Your masters sent out their bloodhounds - the police... They killed them to show you, 'Free American Citizens', that you must be satisfied and contented with whatever your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will get killed!

The German edition was even more direct calling for 'Slaves... avenge the atrocious murder that has been committed upon your brothers today and which will likely be committed upon you tomorrow'. Schwab in Arbeiter-Zeitung wrote that 'The war of the classes is at hand. Yesterday workingmen were shot down in front of McCormick's factory, whose blood cries out for revenge!'. The next day, May 4, at 8.15 PM at the Haymarket several speakers arrived to speak for a crowd of over 2,000, however, the speakers believed a lot more would come. Spies gave the first speech, in English, saying 'There seems to prevail the opinion in certain quarters that this meeting has been called for the purpose of inaugurating a riot, hence these warlike preparations on the part of so-called "law and order". However, let me tell you at the beginning that this meeting has not been called for any such purpose. The object of this meeting is to explain the general situation of the eight-hour movement and to throw light upon various incidents in connection with it'. Despite starting radical Spies' speech toned down his rhetoric, and Albert Parsons followed him declaring that the only hope of workers was with socialism. The Haymarket rally remained peaceful. Even the mayor, Carter Harrison, felt safe enough to be in the crowd; this may have been as he was more pro-union compared to past mayors. Parsons, in his speech, even denounced attacking individuals. When he mentioned railway speculator Jay Gould causing someone to yell 'Hang Him!' Parsons responded by stating, 'This is not a conflict between individuals, but for a change of system, and socialism is designed to remove the causes which produce the pauper and the millionaire, but does not aim at the life of the individual...Kill Jay Gould, and like a jack-in-a-box another or a hundred others like him will come up in his place under the existing social conditions'.

The type of bomb used at Haymarket

Shortly after 10 PM when Parsons finished his speech Samuel Fielden started his own speech, and the mayor started to head home with other members of the crowd. Parsons, Lucy, their children, and French anarchist Lizzie Holmes even started backing out of the limelight. As Fielden's speech was seen as being more inflammatory, the police decided to close the rally down. However, disaster struck. As Fielden stepped down from the stand a bomb flew over their heads and into the ranks of the police. The bomb was so powerful that windows were shattered for blocks around. Henry Spies reportedly asked 'What's that?' for August to reply 'A cannon, I believe'. Mayor Harrison had been getting ready for bed when the bomb went off and he originally thought a thunder storm had broken out. The startled police started firing their pistols adding to the casualties. Sixty-seven casualties came from the Haymarket Affair - seven officers were killed (most died of their wounds days later), four civilians were killed, and the rest were injured. According to Paul Avrich, most of the injuries had been thanks to the shots fired by frightened police officers. The Chicago Tribune had even stated that the police had been 'Goaded to madness' and were 'unable to distinguish between the peaceable citizen and the Nihilist assassin'. Despite the bomb, in the words of Avrich, 'it was the police and not the anarchists who were the perpetrators of the violence at Haymarket'.

After the Bomb

Drawings of the seven sentenced to death

A red scare erupted after the Haymarket 'Riot'. It was made worse thanks to nativist, anti-immigrant hysteria - ironic considering that the same year the Statue of Liberty was erected in New York. Germans and Bohemians were directly blamed for the violence and subjected to increased police repression. Of the eight who were arrested for the bombing seven were immigrants - showing anti-German hysteria six of them were German. We still do not know who was behind the bomb. Parsons and the Workmen's Advocate believed an agent provocateur was behind the bomb in order to destroy the eight-hour movement, the Advocate proclaimed 'that the bomb was thrown by a Pinkerton'. The police, and recently historian Timothy Messer-Kruse, blamed anarchist Rudolph Schnaubelt, the brother-in-law of Michael Schwab, who later fled to avoid arrest. Meanwhile, the police was arresting anarchists and raiding pro-eight-hour movement offices. The Arbeiter-Zeitung was one such to be raided. Eight anarchists were put on trial for being accessories to the murder. They were: Albert Parsons, Samuel Fielden, Adolph Fischer, Michael Schwab, August Spies, militant radical George Engel, Arbeiter-Zeitung writer Oscar Neebe, and known bomb-maker Louis Lingg. Of those put on trial, only two were present at Haymarket that night, and Neebe was even having a cards game night when the bomb went off. Their trial was done in an atmosphere of prejudice where the judge showed open hostility, and the media whipped up anti-immigrant frenzies. 

All eight anarchists were declared guilty, where seven were sentenced to death, and Neebe to fifteen years. This outraged the labour movement worldwide drawing condemnation from figures as widespread as the writer Oscar Wilde to playwright George Bernard Shaw. Appeals were made and the governor decided to reduce Fielden's and Schwab's executions to life imprisonment, and Lingg commit suicide on November 10 via a smuggled explosive. On 'Black Friday', November 11 1887, the four remaining individuals - after saying bye to their families and singing Marseillaise - were executed via hanging. In 1893 the progressive German-born John Peter Altgeld was elected governor of Illinois, and he was very sympathetic to the labour movement. According to leading anarchist Mother Jones, Altgeld 'committed political suicide by his brave action' of pardoning the three remaining Haymarket anarchists. In his own words, he described them as victims of 'hysteria, packed juries, and a biased judge'. 

Aftermath and Legacy

Parsons in later life

Thanks to the Haymarket Affair the eight men were martyred, the 'Haymarket Martyrs', and they became the symbols of the labour movement. The Haymarket Affair initially weakened the labour movement. Middle-class support for workers and anarchism started to diminish as it was seen as being by foreign, violent, radicals. Police captain Michael Schaak, who had been in charge of the investigation of the bomb-throwing, in 1889 wrote Anarchy and Anarchists accusing anarchists of being as bloodthirsty and foreign to generate hatred to both anarchists and immigrants. The somewhat conservative KOL saw most of its members leave, so much so that the Panic of 1893 resulted in the destruction of the union. However, the blatant abandonment of judicial process divided American society and enabled the martyrdom of the eight. Lucy Parsons remained a very significant figure in the labour movement, and she joined with other leading leftists, including James Connolly whom we saw when we looked at the Easter Rising, to form the IWW. Unions managed to shake the nation during the 1892 Homestead Strike and the 1894 Pullman Strike, however, Altgeld's support of both the Pullman strikers and the Haymarket martyrs made conservative opponents smear him. Future president Theodore Roosevelt said that he 'condones and encourages the most infamous of murderers' and 'would substitute for the government of Washington and Lincoln a red welter of lawlessness and dishonesty as fantastic and vicious as the Paris Commune'. Regardless, the Haymarket Affair remained a key point of reference for the American Left. Lucy Parsons ensured that the labour movement continued, and through the twentieth century Chicago has continued its history of radical politics.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Paul Avrich, The Haymarket Tragedy, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984)

-Bruce Nelson, Beyond the Martyrs: A Social History of Chicago's Anarchists, 1870-1900, (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1988)

-Leon Stein and Philip Taft, (eds.), The Accused and the Accusers: The Famous Speeches of the Eight Anarchists in Court, (New York, NY: Arno Press, 1970)

-'The Haymarket Tragedy', in Mother Mary Jones, The Autobiography of Mother Jones, 1925, Marxists.org

-Philip Foner, (ed.), The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs, (New York, NY: Humanities Press, 1969)

-Henry David, The History of the Haymarket Affair: A Study in the American Social-Revolutionary and Labor Movements, (New York, NY: Russell and Russell, 1936)

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