Labor Movement Origins: 19th Century Social Change
Roots of the Labor Movement in the 19th Century
The roots of the labor movement during the first half of the 19th century are found in the rise of social and political change. This era also saw the emergence of a new social class formed by industrial workers, many of whom came from the peasantry, while others were former craftsmen ruined by mechanization. The living conditions of these workers were often miserable. The Industrial Revolution and liberal ideas led to the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie. Consequently, the working class began to draw attention to their plight. England was the homeland of the first labor movements. Luddism, named after the weaver Ned Ludd, advocated for the destruction of machines. In response, the British government enacted a law in 1811 condemning to death anyone who destroyed machinery.
Trade Unions and Chartism
Trade Unions (British unions) emerged as England became the first country to grant workers the right to associate in 1824. Until then, workers who refused to accept their employers’ conditions could face imprisonment. Chartism linked the workers’ struggle with political action. Following the electoral reform law of 1832, a request was made in 1838 to the House of Commons outlining six points, known as the People’s Charter. The letter requested universal suffrage, secret ballot, abolition of property requirements for parliamentarians, and payment for parliamentarians. Chartism represented the first attempt to organize the labor movement based on purely political claims.
Utopian Socialism in France
In France, the word socialism denoted an egalitarian society with free and communal assets. These theories, often labeled as Utopian due to their strong idealism and disconnect from the real world, appeared before 1845. These individuals sought their own solutions.
- Saint-Simon (1760-1825): Believed society was divided into two classes: the idle (nobles and rentiers) and the producers (workers, bankers, businessmen). He argued that private property held by the idle was the root cause of the poverty and inequality suffered by workers.
- Fourier (1772-1837): Imagined society as a series of small communities called phalansteries.
- Robert Owen (1771-1858): Guaranteed employment stability, eliminated night work, reduced working hours to 10.5 hours, established a cooperative store where workers could exchange products of similar value, built decent housing for workers, and provided free schools for their children. In the U.S., he founded a socialist colony called New Harmony (1825), which abolished private property, religion, and marriage ties, but it ultimately failed.
Other Socialists:
- Cabet: Described a model of an ideal society in his 1842 work, Voyage to Icaria.
- Blanqui: Advocated for a dictatorship of the proletariat.
- Louis Blanc: Proposed the creation of national workshops in 1843.
- Flora Tristan: Demanded absolute equality of rights.
Marxism and Anarchism
Concept of History
- Marxism: The motor of history is class struggle (social force), based on a materialist conception (historical materialism).
- Anarchism: Emphasizes the importance of the individual.
Revolutionary Proposal
- Marxism: The protagonists of the revolution are the workers. The proletariat must achieve state power through the organization of the working class (prepared revolution).
- Anarchism: The protagonists of the revolution are the peasants. They aim to create revolutionary situations through spontaneous and isolated acts (spontaneous revolution).
Conception of the State
- Marxism: Advocates for a dictatorship of the proletariat (strong state), defending the proletarian state as a replacement for the bourgeois state.
- Anarchism: Rejects power and the state, calling for its destruction.
Influence
- Marxism: Founded socialist parties that spread throughout the world. These parties participated in the political processes of European countries, with deputies elected to parliaments. They had more influence in developed countries like Germany and Scandinavia.
- Anarchism: Did not form political parties but rather unions. They abhorred politics and spread to less developed countries in Mediterranean Europe (Spain, Italy, Greece, and Russia).
Coincidence
Both ideologies agreed on the destruction of the bourgeois order and aimed to implement a classless society without private property, achievable through revolution.
The International Workingmen’s Association
The First International (1864-1876): Marx played a significant role in its creation and development, writing the inaugural manifesto and statutes. Two key ideas were emphasized: the emancipation of the working class would be achieved by the workers themselves, and the conquest of political power. The dissolution was caused by conflicts between Marxist socialism and anarchism, the failure to prevent the Franco-Prussian War, and the failure of the Paris Commune.
The Second International
In the 1870s and 1880s, the two main currents of socialism were Marxism and anarchism. By the end of the 1880s, Marxism prevailed. The Second International, founded in Paris in 1889, excluded anarchists and was formed by socialist movements of a Marxist character. The most significant issue was the clash between moderate and radical socialists.
- Revisionism: Defended by the German socialist Bernstein, who argued that social conditions had not worsened, capitalism was consolidating, and the bourgeois middle classes were increasing in number and ceasing to be proletarian. He opposed the revolutionary path.
- Revolutionary Tendency: This form of socialism advocated for non-participation in capitalist governments and seizing power through a revolution that would establish a dictatorship of the proletariat.
Social Doctrine of the Church
The Social Doctrine of the Church emerged with Pope Leo XIII and his encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891). It condemned Marxism for its attack on private property, its atheism, and its view of class struggle as uncharitable. It advocated for a respectable working life and the protection of the property of both the employer and the worker, who should be treated well.
The Women’s Movement
The women’s movement experienced significant growth in the second half of the 19th century. In Britain, the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by figures like Emmeline Pankhurst, became a prominent force in the feminist struggle. Their primary goal was to secure women’s right to vote, which was achieved in Spain in 1931.