Haymarket Books is a progressive book distributor and publisher. We believe that activists need to take ideas, history and politics into the many struggles for social justice today. We take inspiration and courage from our namesakes, the Haymarket Martyrs, who gave their lives in 1886, fighting for the eight hour day and a better world. As August Spies, one of the Martyrs who was targeted for being an immigrant and an anarchist, said: “If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement,” Spies told the judge, “then hang us. Here you will tread upon a spark, but here, and there, and behind you, and in front of you, and everywhere, the flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out. The ground is on fire upon which you stand.”