In 1886, the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company installed new machinery that reduced amount of work the workers had to do. Thus, the workers had less hours, which means they were paid less. The workers had protest against McCormick, so the corporation sent out their private police to stop them. The police killed some of the strikers. This lead to the anarchists to print out flyers, calling  for a rally on the following day to seek justice for their fellow men. The fliers were printed in German and English.

This incidence led to the Haymarket Riot of 1886. In Haymarket Square, Chicago, workers gathered to protest against the police’s action at the McCormick protest. But this time the workers were armed because they learned from the last incidence that the police were going to use violence to fight back and they did. The first attack was from the workingmen, in which one of the workingmen threw a pipe bomb at the police. This automatically caused the police to open fire. In the end, there was eight policemen killed and at least four workingmen killed.