Industrial Revolution: Societal Impact and Labor Movements
The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution marked the transition from a traditional agrarian economy to one marked by industry and machine production. Bringing about a radical change in society, the economy, politics, and more, it began in England in the middle of the 18th century.
Agricultural Transformation
There were changes in land ownership, and new techniques and crops were introduced. Newly invented machines were used in farm work, improving crop yields.
Population Changes
Death rates went down while birth rates remained high. Improvements in diet and hygiene gradually reduced mortality.
Technical Innovations
Key innovations included energy (steam engine), textile production (spinning and weaving), metallurgy (steel), and transport (locomotive).
The integration of production machines largely replaced manual labor. Work moved from craft workshops to factories.
Key Industrial Sectors
- The Textile Industry: The rise of consumers in this market allowed for investment in innovation and growth. The sector was favored by large cotton farms in the United States and the use of slave labor.
- The Steel Industry: With the high demand for steel and metal parts of good quality, the industry had to improve its production methods. It was closely linked to coal.
Taylorism
Taylorism is a system consisting of the elimination of wasted effort on the part of workers, due to the creation of assembly lines, implying extreme specialization of the worker.
The Proletariat
The proletariat was the working class of peasant origin that enabled the great profits of the first modern industries and mines.
These masses of people were joined in the industrial towns and mining centers in depressing neighborhoods, lacking the most minimal conditions of hygiene.
There were no laws or rules to regulate the new working conditions, and working hours were long and wages were poor.
The Labor Movement
In the situation of uncontrolled exploitation and the great development of industry, the working class began to organize and fight for their rights.
Anarchism: Key Features
- The individual freedom of each person is above all things.
- No institution, party, or government should impose its will or make decisions on behalf of the community of individuals who freely choose to associate.
- Anarchism intended to destroy the bourgeois state through a revolutionary general strike, thus rejecting the creation of political parties for workers.
Marxism: Key Features
- The creation of a social system without private property and economic inequalities, in which the means of production are in the service of society.
- The Communists proposed an armed revolution of the working class, led by the most developed sector of the proletariat, which was organized into a political party.
- The Communist Party, once it seized power by revolution, would establish a dictatorship.
- Through force and repression, the elimination of bourgeois private property, and with it inequality, could be achieved.
Differences Between Anarchism and Marxism
Marxism seeks to create a social system without private property and economic inequalities, while anarchism seeks the disappearance of the state.
Influence of Marxism and Anarchism in Spain
Anarchist ideas spread in Spain and were very popular with the working class in Catalonia and the masses of workers in the countryside of Andalusia. In some cases, they adopted violent means in the form of peasant revolts and terrorist attacks.
Marxist ideas were more accepted in Madrid and the Basque Country. When the Spanish Federation of the International Workingmen’s Association (AIT) chose to follow the anarchist line, Spanish Marxists decided to leave it and found a party and a union.