New York police violently attacked a demonstration of the unemployed. In 1873 the Great Depression began and unemployment was increasing. Workers organized in the US rejected the government’s charitable measures and called for a public works programme to guarantee employment for the unemployed. The unemployed movement was gaining strength and 7,000 people gathered that day in Tompkins Square, the city’s most massive demonstration. 1,600 police officers, without notice, loaded on the drunk and on the horse countertops.