Sociological Aspects of the Industrial Revolution
The way people lived - before
Before the Industrial Revolution, most people were farmers. They either owned a little land or they might rent it from a landowner. The main job you did was to farm the land. You had your family with you; family meant Mom, Dad and the kids, and it also meant any relatives that might need a home, such as Mom’s mother or Dad’s father; maybe a cousin or two. There was work enough for everyone on a farm. Dad took care of the fields, planned what to grow, planted it, tended it and harvested it. He repaired the tools and the house. He also might make simple things like a table or a bench. Mom took care of the house. She cooked, cleaned, made clothes and other necessities like sheets and tablecloths, washed clothes, iron clothes, mended the clothes, took care of any sick people in the household. Older children helped their parents with the tasks that needed doing. Girls your age, for example, did a lot of the spinning of thread. Boys your age were in the fields with Dad. Little kids also did chores, like collecting eggs, taking out trash, carrying things, and helped with house chores. Grandparents helped out Mom and Dad, too. Grandmothers, for example, could help with making the clothes. Grandfathers could help in the tool shed. There was a strong sense of togetherness and family unity. The family faced challenges together. There was a great deal of pride in what the family achieved.
Before the Industrial Revolution, you were basically in charge of your life unless you were very very poor and working for someone else. You were, in a sense, self-employed, although they at that time would not have used that phrase. Whether you succeeded or failed had a lot to do with the effort you were willing to invest in what you were doing. You set your own hours, ate lunch when you wanted to stop working to eat, went inside when the work was done. The length of day, whether it was winter or summer, would change the length of your work day, perhaps, but not another man. You worked in a fairly healthy environment. What you made was your own. You could take pride in your handiwork.
The way people lived - after
With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, many people moved to the cities. They went there for three reasons. One was that the Enclosure Acts made it so they could no longer make a living by farming. The Enclosure Acts, you will remember, allowed big landowners to take the commons and add that land to the land they had already. They then put up fences to keep the poorer farmers, who used that land to graze their animals, out. The other reason they went was that people liked the idea of regular wages. Farming can be real ‘iffy’ as a source of financial security; some years the crop doesn’t grow well for whatever reason, and in those years, a farming family didn’t do too well. Another reason was that people heard that the way to get rich was to go get a city job.
The problem was, too many people thought of moving to the city as the way out of financial distress. They got to the city and found that there were thousands of others like themselves, and there weren’t enough jobs to go around. If Dad was lucky enough to get work, he worked anywhere from 12-14 hours a day. He no longer set his own hours; he was employed by a factory owner and he showed up when the owner said show up. This was hard for him to adjust to after all those years of setting his own hours and being his own boss. Dad worked for about 25 cents an hour, so in a day he might make $3.00-$3.50. He worked six days a week, so he made about $18.00-$21.00 a week. He couldn’t take care of his family on that - it probably wouldn’t have even taken care of him. So the rest of the family had to go to work, too, again if they’re lucky enough to find work. Mom probably made the same wages as Dad - maybe not, after all, she was only a woman and didn’t need as much! The children worked in the factory, too - even the little ones, the four, five and six year olds. Any children your age of course worked in the factory. Factory owners liked to hire children - they cost less, maybe only ten cents an hour, and they weren’t as likely to complain. Besides, they could do some things adults couldn’t, like clean out under the machines. Some factory owners purposely looked for and hired orphans - children with no parents. This might not cost the factory owner anything, and the kids were at his mercy - they had no parents to stand up for them. We call this kind of exploitation of children "child labor". Be sure you understand the difference between maybe having to do a few chores in your home and child labor. Child labor a) asked the child to do things he was not developmentally able to handle, like a six year old working 14 hours a day b) put the child in an unhealthful environment for many hours at a time c) asked the child to do something dangerous like work a machine that had the potential to do him serious injury, such as cut his hand off d) asked the child to work in a situation where no one cared about him and e) put the child in a situation where there was no way he could get an education of any kind. To go back to our family, with everyone working, the family might have enough money to barely get along. The family probably couldn’t afford a home of their own; families crowded into tenements where several families might have to share an apartment. Certainly there was no room for extra family members. If they absolutely had to come along to the city with the family and they couldn’t work, they might get put in some closet somewhere. Conditions in the tenements were less than sanitary. People had to share beds and bathrooms with many people, not just one or two family members. People were still throwing the garbage and sewage in the streets. The cities bred disease and it spread quickly because of how close people were to each other, because of the lack of sanitation and because everyone was overtired to begin with and they couldn’t afford doctor’s care. After Dad and Mom and the kids worked all day, all they had time for when they got home is bed. The sense of family togetherness was lost. So was the sense of pride. The kind of work these the family members did in the factory didn’t take any kind of skill; adults were doing work that children could do; obviously, since the factory owner hired them. Dad couldn’t really feel a sense of accomplishment over doing something that a child can do. Families felt depressed and helpless. There seemed to be no way out. The factory owner saw to it they never had enough money to get out of this situation. He didn’t want them to get out of the situation. He needed cheap labor and he certainly wanted no more competition in his own class. Feelings of depression and hopelessness are not good feelings for humans to have - such feelings take all the spontaneity and creativity away from them and sap their confidence.
For craftsmen, the Industrial Revolution many times meant that they were no longer needed. Their job was replaced by a machine. They, at that point, didn’t have many options. Usually they became factory workers along with all the farmers who had come to the city. As you can imagine, the change in their status and the respect people had for them was hard to take. Sometimes they even went so far that they broke and burned the machines that had taken their jobs away.
Social class changes
The Industrial Revolution made the middle class rich and powerful and gave it great influence. This was because middle class people who had the money were the factory and business owners, and this was where the action was now. Nobles on their country estates were obsolete, out of date, not with the program. What the middle class said, did and thought was what everyone was supposed to say, do and think. The middle class ran the government, ran the economy and set the social standards. Let’s see how they did this.
The middle class ran the government in America and Britain particularly because those countries had elected governments. Both countries had property qualifications for voting; you had to own a certain amount of taxable property before you had the right to vote. Poor people didn’t have this taxable property so they didn’t vote. Candidates for office, therefore, paid no attention to them; why would they? The poor couldn’t vote for them and help them win. That meant there was nobody in the government to speak for them. Poor people wouldn’t have the money it takes to run for office either. So middle class people ran for office and were voted for by their middle class friends. When the elected people went to Congress or Parliament, they voted to do things to help the people who had elected them. Therefore, the middle class benefited, but the poor did not. Things that would have helped the poor were not things that would help the middle class.
The middle class ran the economy because they were the corporation owners and the investors. They were also the spenders. Remember the system needs investors and spenders to work and you’ll see why if the middle class were removed, the whole thing would fall apart. They were also the employers. They hired people and paid them. In that way, they had influence over how much unemployment there was in a country. How much unemployment there is in a country affects the soundness of its economy. Therefore, the middle class controlled to a large degree how stable a country’s economy was.
The middle class still had the values they had had always had, ever since first appearing at the end of the Middle Ages. They had values that helped them to be successful in the kind of work they did. These values were that a person should work hard, and that if he did work hard and make high quality goods, he’d be successful and success was a highly prized thing. The middle class thought the poor were LAZY! If they were poor, it was their own fault for not trying hard enough. They were "no count", shiftless, irresponsible, and would never amount to anything. Give them extra money, they’d just go get drunk. They didn’t seem to see that they were the ones that kept the poor from getting ahead by not paying them. As long as the middle class did not pay the poor, there was no way the poor could ever invest in the system, which is the main way of getting ahead. The middle class looked down on the poor and disrespected them. Therefore everyone else in society did, too, including the poor person himself. The middle class made the poor outcasts.
Spread of the Industrial Revolution
Britain at first tried to keep the new developments in the making of cloth a secret, but she was unable to do so. The discoveries were too big to do that. The Industrial Revolution spread to France, to America, to Germany and later to Russia. The Industrial Revolution is not over as there are still countries in the world just becoming industrialized. We will read a little about the Industrial Revolution’s spread to America.
In 1791, a man named Samuel Slater opened the first cotton mill in America. Mr. Slater had memorized the plans for making the machines while he was living in Britain, and he disguised himself and came to America. However, industry grew slowly in the United States at first. For one thing, the people who came to the United States were land-starved as a consequence of living in Europe where available decent land for farming is scarce. When these folks reached America, they saw wide expanses of fertile land almost everywhere they looked. They took off for the "west" to make their own farms. Such people didn’t want to work in factories and they didn’t have to. Therefore, there was, as yet, no cheap labor supply. Money for capital investment was not plentiful. The United States did not yet know about its natural resources; people hadn’t really looked. The United States’ population was spread out, and as yet, there were not many roads to connect the various places. That meant there wasn’t enough of a market in any one place to make it worth it to industrialize, and it would cost far too much to transport the goods over the great distances. The British were big competition, and they would not sell their machines to other countries.
The change came with the War of 1812. During that war, the United States found it difficult to trade because of Napoleon’s Continental System and the British response to that. This forced the United States to explore its own possibilities. Once the United States got started, it made great strides in a short time. American contributions to the Industrial Revolution include the cotton gin, the idea of standardized parts, and mass production, among many other things.
Responses to the problems caused by the Industrial Revolution
As you have already read, the Industrial Revolution in its beginning stages caused changes in society, economic dislocation for some people and much suffering. Obviously, something needed to be done to make the problems better. However, people did not agree on what to do. The differing ideas were poles apart and there did not seem to be at the time any way to combine them. In this section, you will be learning about the different responses, and about who in society liked each one.
Laissez-faire - free market economy
Before you can really understand this one, you need to remember what you learned about capitalism and you need to know about the business cycle to which the capitalistic system seems to be subject. There are four stages of the business cycle: boom, recession, depression, recovery.
A boom occurs when times are good. Booms are characterized by high production, low unemployment, lots of investment. People are spending money. Demand for merchandise is high. During boom times, businesses will invariably overproduce because they think they can sell the goods. When the overproduction occurs, business will slow down because people can’t buy all the goods and don’t need them. When businesses don’t sell the goods, they stop producing them which leads us to the next stage.
The next stage is called recession. Recessions are characterized by a slowing down of business. This slowing down is caused by overproduction. There is less spending of money; people are not buying the goods. Factory owners lay off workers because they don’t need the workers to make more goods since the goods they’ve already made aren’t sold yet. When the workers are laid off the situation gets worse; now they can’t spend, and that will cause other businesses to lay off workers. This becomes like a game of dominoes or like a snowball rolling downhill. Unemployment grows higher and higher. The recession will get worse and worse unless somebody, like the government, stops it. In the early days of the Industrial Revolution, there was no government regulation of the economy so nothing stopped recessions. They proceeded to the logical next stage.
The next stage is called depression. Characteristics of depression are that there is little or no production; there are few if any jobs. There are no jobs since there is no production. There is no spending because people have no money. There is no investment for the same reason. The economy almost comes to a standstill. Unemployment is very high. There is much suffering during this stage. Slowly, at some point during this stage, demands picks up again. This spurs production and the next stage begins.
The next stage is called recovery. Characteristics of recovery are rising production, therefore rising employment. People begin to have money again, so spending increases. Investment increases also. Slowly the economy picks up and eventually, there will be another boom.
Economists do not understand the business cycle completely nor what would be really necessary to control it. In the days before any government regulation, the business cycle ran its course. This demonstrated that it would correct itself in time, but the question was (and is) how long did people want to wait for this to happen, and what about the suffering in the meantime?
Laissez faire economists believed that government or any other kind of influence in economics and business was harmful. Laissez faire means "let things proceed without interference". It was their contention that unregulated capitalism would benefit everyone in the long run and the wealth would "trickle down" from above - from the rich middle class. Laissez faire economists favored unregulated capitalism, letting the ups and downs in the system proceed, waiting for the system to correct itself in the bad times. The middle class liked laissez faire A LOT. It took from them any responsibility to do anything about the problems of the poor.
Social Darwinism
Charles Darwin was a brilliant scientist who lived in the 1800’s. Charles Darwin postulated the theory of evolution; that all life forms on earth today had evolved from simpler life forms that had been here earlier. His theory further stated that the life forms around today must have adapted to changing conditions better than life forms which had disappeared. This part of the theory was called "survival of the fittest" or natural selection. The species which adapted, Darwin said, lived to be old enough to reproduce the species, therefore, their species persisted while those who didn’t adapt died out.
Darwin’s theory was published in a book called The Origin of Species. This book raised a storm of argument and protest. The church had always taught that man was made separately from other animals and plants and that he was somehow special. Darwin’s theory contradicted this belief. The book raised such a storm that everyone knew about it. Darwin’s theories were picked up and used to explain many things they had not been meant to explain at all. They were used, for example, to back up racism in the South. When Darwin’s theories were used to explain the classes in society and how they got to be that way, this was called "Social Darwinism".
Social Darwinism asserted that the poor were poor because they were unfit. If they were fit, they would have adapted better to society and become rich like the middle class, who were obviously the fittest since they were the most successful. Social Darwinism suggested that, like species of life forms that did not adapt, and therefore, died out, the poor would die out eventually. The attitude was, since they would die out anyway, why bother with them? You’d be interrupting the process of nature. The middle class liked this one A LOT, too. It made it easy for them to walk away from any responsibility.
Socialism
Socialists believed that the only way to correct the abuses of capitalistic economies was to throw out capitalism altogether and to begin again with another kind of system. The basic idea behind all socialist systems is that wealth should be shared equally and that property should be owned in common. This is not a new idea nor original with socialists. It can be found in the Bible; early Christians lived like this; it was tried at Jamestown, the first English colony in America; idealists like Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa the author tried it; even the hippies tried it (they lived in ‘communes’). It sounds good, but doesn't work out too well in reality.
The basic ideas of socialism are as follows:
work in them-the workers.
property should be owned in common-that is, no one would have any private prop-
Socialists basically wanted to get rid of the capitalistic system. They disagreed, however, on how best to do it. Some socialists believed that it would just sort of happen. People would see the good sense of giving up their property and do it voluntarily. These socialists were often referred to as "Utopians". Some socialists saw that the best thing to do was to form political parties and try to work within the governments of their time to achieve their goals. As time went on these moderate socialist parties disappeared as other political parties took their ideas. In the United States, for example, the Democratic Party took many socialist ideas. Some socialists wanted to use violence to get the property out of the hands of the rich and distributed equally. Such socialists claimed that the other two approaches listed above would not work. The most famous of the socialists who advocated this later course was a man named Karl Marx. We will now turn our attention to Marx and what he thought.
Marxism
Marxism is an example of an ideology, which is a set of ideas that shapes the lives of human beings; it influences their values and therefore their behavior. Ideology is a creation of the modern world, and is probably the result of the weakening of the hold of religion over men. This weakening happened because for many people, scientific discoveries and inventions seemed to disprove religion; they believed you couldn't accept both at the same time. However, men need to believe in something bigger than themselves, and science doesn't cut it, so these belief systems were created to fill the gap. One of the first ideologies appeared in the 17th century, flowered in the 18th, and produced at least one government system, the United States. This ideology was the Enlightenment. The closer we get to our current times, the more ideologies we see. You will study two this year, Marxism and National Socialism.
Ideology is like a religion in that the people believe in it at an emotional level; they don't see the contradictions and inconsistencies in it . Also, the believers want to "spread the word" and "convert" people. In some societies ideology replaces religion as the guiding force in men's lives.
At this point, you need to learn what "totalitarian" means. Ideologies do not have to be totalitarian, but it so happens the ones you will be studying were. When you have a totalitarian ideology, the ideology seeks to control all aspects of your life. It wants to control how you think and what you believe is important in life. If a system controls this about you, it also controls the way you will act. The way this is accomplished is by "education" of the youth, censorship, secret police, propaganda and so on.
Marxist Ideology
Begun in the 1800's, the Marxist ideology flowered in the 20th century. It was the basis for the Russian government for seventy-some odd years and because of that, made a great impact on the history of the 20th century. Marxist ideology still controls the thinking of the Chinese government and people. Also, there are still Marxists in Russia and Eastern Europe; they're not in power at the moment, but they're there. True-believing Marxists still believe they will one day rule a world where everyone is Marxist. Therefore, any student of 20th century history needs to know about Marxism.
Questions About Marxism that You Should Be Able To Answer After Reading This Unit
Its Beginnings
Karl Marx and Frederick Engels were the founders of Communism. Karl Marx was born in Germany in 1818. Born into the middle class, he was later to reject its values. He grew up to study law, journalism and philosophy. He had a career as a newspaperman (journalist); this was his first job. He wrote things critical of the government in the German state where he lived and soon got himself exiled. In those days, where he lived, there was no such thing as freedom of speech; the governments censored all reading material and punished you for writing critical things. Marx went to Belgium and soon got himself kicked out of there, too. He went to Paris, which was the place to be in those days if you were the rebellious and revolutionary type (sort of like San Francisco in the 60's). There he found student radicals and other revolutionaries to hang out with. It wasn't long before he had a reputation as a radical thinker, writer and political agitator; this last means he stirred up trouble! He met Friedrich Engels in Paris in 1844. The two men complemented each other; Marx was quiet, introverted, quarrelsome at times and preoccupied with his economic studies; Engels was more outgoing and enjoyed parties and good times. Engels gave Marx a lot. He gave Marx first hand knowledge of the capitalist system and the factories; he was able to do this because his father owned cotton mills in Germany and Britain and was a capitalist businessman; he also more than once gave Marx money and supported him, and he made friends for Marx. Both men took an interest in the poor and the horrible conditions in which they lived.
In 1847, the two found a group of young radicals who called themselves the Young Communist League. The group was secret and operated underground. You don’t take this literally. It means they met in secret in peoples' homes, things like that. Most of the members were German workers in exile. The group considered themselves international. They had made up a platform, that is, the things they would do if they ever came into power. It consisted of the following:
Notice that some of these do not today sound like radical ideas-we accept, for example, the idea that everyone will vote, and that there will be free public education. But this party existed in the 1840, when, in Europe, none of these existed.
Marx and Engels were asked to write up a program and a propaganda leaflet stating the beliefs of the Young Communist League; this was for the purpose of recruitment, as well as keeping everybody within the group on the same wave length. They did so, and the booklet was published in 1848. It was called The Communist Manifesto, and it was more influential in this century than its authors ever dreamed it would be. This book is the "Bible" of Marxists everywhere. Marx wrote another book and many papers, but this book is the one that everyone read. It is not long, nor is it very difficult reading; it's quite repetitive in fact. Some of you might like to get a copy and read it for extra credit.
The Sources of Communist Belief
Marx took his ideas from three places: 1.) the French Revolution 2.) the British Industrial Revolution and 3.) the philosophy of Friedrich Hegel. From the French Revolution, he took the idea that change can be brought about quickly by force and revolution. From the British Industrial Revolution, he took information about the capitalistic system and the conditions in the factories. From Hegel, he took that change comes from conflict, that history repeats itself in a pattern, and that what happens is inevitable and could not have happened some other way.
Beliefs of Communism
The Communist Manifesto has three main ideas: 1.) it is a new interpretation of history; it tries to prove that all history can be explained in terms of economics; and that it is predetermined and repeats itself in a pattern. 2.) it is an analysis of the society resulting from the Industrial Revolution and 3.) it is a new theory of socialism; of how all factories, machines, and land should be taken from private owners and given to society; that this should be done by force if necessary.
A new interpretation of history:
Marx found three laws in the pattern of history: 1.) economic determinism; economic conditions largely determined the character of all other institutions such as: art, government, religion and society. 2.) the class struggle: Marx believed that history was a dialectical process; a series of conflicts between antagonistic economic groups, ideas and practices. In his own day, the conflict was between the "haves" -the rich middle class factory and business owners-and the "have nots"-the poor workers who owned nothing and had nothing to offer but their working skills. When times were bad, the poor had nothing to fall back on, and were at the mercy of their employers. 3.) the inevitability of Communism: Marx believed there would be one last upheaval that would raise the poor workers above the middle class.
Marx believed that change came from the clash of antagonistic elements. History is a process of development through time; every event that happens happens in due sequence for good and sufficient reason, and it could not have happened differently than it did. History is decided ahead of time. It has to happen a certain way. One single person, even many persons, cannot change it.
History is controlled by economic forces. Marx believed that the way people make their goods controls the way they organize their society (their social classes). Your social class determines your values and ideas. Religion does not teach you this. Your social class also determines your ethics-that is, what you believe is right and wrong.
All history is the history of conflict between social classes (class war). Economic forces decided the classes that made up society. Your job, or way of making a living, determines what class you are in. The class that has wealth in whatever is considered wealth for that time period -for example, in feudal days, land made you wealthy; in our times, money does- is the "ruling class". Because the ruling class does not expect to do its own work, it creates a "non-ruling" class to work for it. This does not work well for the non-ruling class since the ruling class exploits (uses) them to remain wealthy. The non-ruling class grows steadily more hostile toward the ruling class and sooner or later, they will revolt against the ruling class. The non-ruling class will overthrow the ruling class (always!) and they will become the new ruling class. Then they will create a new non-ruling class and the process will repeat itself.
Marx believed that the ruling class in his day was the middle class. They had created a non-ruling class of poor factory workers to work for them and make the products, which they sold and became rich off. The factory workers did not want the same things as the middle class factory or business owner. Factory workers wanted things like better pay, better working conditions, fewer hours and other benefits. However, if the middle class businessman gives the workers what they want, it will reduce profits, which the businessman doesn't want. Marx believed that eventually there would be a huge class war between these workers and the middle class and the lower class workers would win.
Marx's favorite example of the class struggle in action was the French Revolution. He saw this as the big class war between the nobles and the middle class. The nobles were, at that time, the ruling class and the middle class was the non-ruling class. The nobles had land but needed the middle class to make things for them. Nobles and middle class did not want the same things: nobles wanted to continue the feudal system because they benefited from it, but the middle class did not want it because they got nothing out of it and it made it hard for them to do business. The French Revolution was the end result of this conflict and the middle class won.
Marx expected another class war at any time! In this one, the workers(whom he called the proletariat) would fight the middle class and win ( because the non-ruling class always does). The workers would win by force and revolution!
It is another thing to be accepted about Marxism that Marx believed that after the big class war between the lower and middle class the repeating cycle of class war would stop! Marx does not say how or why it will stop, just that it will.
An analysis of the society created by the Industrial Revolution
This main idea contains Marx’s analysis of the society created by the Industrial Revolution. He said that in his time, capital was in the hands of the rich middle class. Marx believed that the rich middle class businessmen would destroy each other through competition. The reason this would happen was because the capitalistic system inevitably leads to the overproduction of goods. This means that not everybody can sell his goods, and some businesses fail and lose all their money. This causes mounting economic pressure-it gets harder and harder to stay on top. The system also causes mounting social pressure in that the lower class grows larger and larger. Each time a business owner loses his property he becomes lower class. Meantime there get to be fewer and fewer middle class business owners.........
Meanwhile, Marx said, the middle class is getting rich off the work of the poor. This happens because the middle class doesn't pay the poor what their labor is worth. Marx told the workers they should band together to resist the middle class. They should see themselves as an international fighting force against the middle class. Under no circumstances should they EVER compromise or negotiate with the middle class, or any of its representatives. After awhile, the number of middle class business owners would decrease to the point that the lower class would be able to revolt and take them over.
After this revolt happened and the lower class had won it, there would be a "dictatorship of the proletariat" for awhile. During this time all remaining elements of the middle class would be rooted out and destroyed. After this, the society would gradually become classless. There would be no more need for things like government, churches, schools, police, armies, etc. because there wasn't going to be any more crime or war or any of the unhappy things of this life. All the evils of society would disappear with the disappearance of social class differences. Marx called this time (should it ever arrive) "Utopia"-a perfect place. He took this name from a book written by Sir Thomas More-the book was called Utopia.
A new theory of socialism
Marx had no use for either the Utopian socialists or the moderate socialists. He thought the Utopians were a little air headed and that men would never voluntarily give up their property. Marx didn’t think much of the moderate socialists, either. He accused them of "selling out" to the middle class, of collaborating and negotiating with them, which, as you will remember, no good socialist will ever do. Marx’s socialists were different in that they a)would NOT cooperate or work with middle class governments and b) thought violence was necessary to achieve their goals, and were willing to use it.
Stages of Communism
Stage 1: FEUDALISM: In the feudal system, the ruling class was the nobles. They had land, which made them wealthy and powerful in that system. The non-ruling class was the peasants and craftsmen who had no land and who had to work for the noble. A feudal society was agricultural.
Stage 2: INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION begins. The craftsmen and merchants begin to form the middle class. They do not like feudalism because they get nothing out of it, and feudalism makes it hard for them to do business. There is growing hostility............
Stage 3: FRENCH REVOLUTION: this is the big class war between the nobles and the middle class. Middle class wins and is the new ruling class.
Stage 4: The middle class creates a lower class of workers to do their work for them. The middle class uses these workers to get rich off their labor. The workers are badly treated and poorly paid. There is growing hostility............At the end of Stage 4, there is a huge class war between the lower and the middle class and the lower class wins, using force and revolution.
Stage 5: SOCIALIST STAGE: The class war is over. There is a "dictatorship of the proletariat". The purpose of this dictatorship was to get rid of any remaining middle class people and institutions. This stage would last as long as necessary to accomplish the goal of getting rid of the middle class.
Stage 6: COMMUNIST STAGE: In the Communist stage, all the goals of socialism would have been accomplished-there would be a classless society, no private property, equal division of wealth, no competition, and so on. There would be no wars or crime or greed. There would be no government, church, etc. It would be a perfect situation-Utopia.
Marxism after Marx
Marx 's ideas caught on with the many socialist groups and parties in Europe. Marx's ideas were appealing to the poor and struggling workers. The many socialist parties banded together to form the International Working Men's Association, better known as the First International. Marx was the leader of this organization. He used the association as a means of publicizing his new book, Das Kapital. Another purpose of the group was to promote the spread of socialism. The First International was like a huge international political party. The first meeting of the group was in 1864.
In 1871, after the Franco-Prussian War, there was a mini-revolution in Paris and a Commune was set up. The Commune had Marxists in it and Marxist support. The First International watched it closely, thinking this might be the beginning of the big class war between the lower and the middle class. They infiltrated the revolutionaries and tried to egg the revolution on-encourage it. The revolution failed and the First International looked like idiots and were discredited; they had made a lot of noise about this being the big class war and it wasn't! The First International ended in 1872.
Between 1872 and 1900 socialist parties were founded in many countries. Most of these parties operated within the framework of their countries' governments as political parties. One did not. The Russian Social Democratic Party, founded by Axelrod and Plekhanov, did not operate within a government because it could not. Political parties were illegal in Russia. The RSDP members had to live in exile. They lived in Switzerland. Because they did not operate within a government, they stayed more truly Marxist and more revolutionary. They had no opportunity to see which ideas worked and which did not.
In 1883, Marx died. After his death, his followers began to argue over what he meant in The Communist Manifesto. There were two big issues over which they argued: 1) the extent to which a socialist party should collaborate with existing governments of the time and 2) whether a socialist party should actively try to bring about class war. These issues divided the socialists into moderate socialists who were willing to collaborate with the governments of their time-most socialist parties took this route-and the Marxists, who would not collaborate at all. Marxists also believed that the big class war might need a little push from behind to get it going. Therefore they were willing to try to encourage any little revolutions they saw become big ones.
Those socialists who were willing to collaborate with governments were called "revisionists" by the Marxists. Marxists pointed out that Marx said never to do that! "Revisionism" wasn't in the true spirit of Marxism! Revisionism was BAD!, BAD!, BAD! Revisionism also meant you wanted to moderate or avoid altogether the horror of class war, which was also BAD!
In 1903, the Russian Social Democratic Party split over the issue of revisionism. Two groups were formed: the Mensheviks who would work within a government and the Bolsheviks who would not. The Bolsheviks came to power in Russia. The Bolsheviks continued to live in exile until the outbreak of World War I. During World War I they got their chance. The Germans, in the hopes of knocking Russia out of the war, so they'd have one less enemy, transported Lenin and Company back to Russia in the hopes they would stir up trouble-which they did a very good job of. We will study that next.
Labor Unions
If there was one thing the workers could learn from Marx, it was that there was strength in numbers. Gradually workers began to see that this was true and they began to organize themselves in something called labor unions. One of the things that Marx didn’t realize was that the workers didn’t necessarily hate the system. They hated the conditions they worked under, but, if by some miracle, they could have property and a good life like the middle class, they wouldn’t want to give it up, either. Unions seemed to be a better way of changing the system without throwing it out.
Early unions tried violence by burning machines and factories but soon workers figured out that wasn’t very smart. All they did by doing that was destroy their jobs. The first American labor union was the National Labor Union, established in 1866. It lasted six years and had 600,000 workers. It included skilled and unskilled workers and farmers. (Skilled labor means workers who have skills they learn to do the job; you have to learn the skills to do the job - carpenters, electricians, plumbers, for examples. Unskilled labor is the workers who work on assembly lines in factories - maybe all they do all day is put door handles on car doors) The National Labor Union was able to get a shorter work day for government workers. It died in the 1870’s as the result of a depression.
The second labor union in America was the Knights of Labor. It began in 1869 as a secret organization with its own ritual and password. This was necessary because the factory owners didn’t like unions and would have retaliated against them. The Knights of Labor wanted to include all workingmen in the union. They accepted skilled and unskilled labor, both black and white, male and female. They worked for economic and social reform, including a shorter work day and health and safety codes for factories. They championed arbitration as opposed to violence. They claimed a membership of one million, but this was probably exaggerated. Whatever, they became a force to be reckoned with until they got themselves involved in a number of strikes in 1886, and they were unfortunately associated in the public mind with anarchists who were rioting and advocating overthrow of the government. This caused them to lose membership. Also, the skilled laborers did not like being in a union with unskilled labor because unskilled laborers were too easily replaced by angry factory owners. Skilled labor, since they weren’t so easily replaced, enjoyed a better bargaining position and didn’t want to give that up. So the Knights of Labor faded away and ended in the 1890’s.
The next union was the American Federation of Labor, usually abbreviated AFL. It was largely the creation of Samuel Gompers. He was president of it from 1886-1924. The AFL was (and is) a federation; an association of national unions, each one of which retained (and retains) its independence. The AFL coordinated (and coordinates) overall strategy. The AFL was (and is) for skilled workers. By 1900, the union had a membership of 500,000.
The AFL worked for social reform within the existing system. Its objectives were better wages and better hours, as well as better conditions for workers. Its chief weapons were the walkout and the boycott, enforced by "We don’t patronize..." signs. These tactics were effective because they hurt the offending business owner in the pocketbook, as well as the signs’ being embarrassing to him.
In 1935, John L. Lewis founded the Congress of Industrial Organizations. The CIO, as it is usually abbreviated is for unskilled labor. It soon boasted a membership of four million members.
Unions in America today have a lot of power. As a political force, the AFL-CIO can make or break a president’s candidacy. They have bargained for and gotten things like eight hour days, forty hour weeks, paid lunch breaks and vacations, better conditions on the job, insurance for illness, pension plans, the right of unions to strike and to bargain collectively with business owners.
In some of the other Western nations, you had somewhat the same story as in America. In some countries, instead of unions, you had political parties formed to further the cause of the worker, and the same kind of success with improving conditions for them. You might say that revolutionary socialism such as Marx preached provided an incentive for both workers and business owners and governments to solve the problems before it got so bad that there was revolution. Neither governments, business owners nor workers wanted violent revolution. It seemed best to avoid it.
Summary of Differences between Capitalism and Socialism
Capitalism:
WHO OWNS THE BUSINESSES? In capitalism, individuals do, or groups of individuals do. Individuals acquire ownership in the businesses by purchasing shares of the corporation called stock.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE SYSTEM? In capitalism, in theory anybody can. All you need is the price of a share of a corporation.
WHO BENEFITS FROM THE SYSTEM? In capitalism, people who own shares of stock do in accordance with their investment in the company.
RISK IN THE SYSTEM: a shareholder can lose everything. No corporation guarantees that they will pay you your money back.
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SYSTEM: In pure capitalism, there would be no government involvement in the system.
WHO SETS PRICES IN THE SYSTEM? In capitalism, the law of supply and demand does; if a product is popular and sells well, the price will probably go up. If the product, doesn't catch on, the price will go down.
IS THERE COMPETITION IN THE SYSTEM? In capitalism, there is, and it's considered a healthy thing. It's what has created the high standard of living that we are used to.
WHO SAYS WHAT CAREER YOU CHOOSE? In a capitalistic system you make that choice. You think of something you would like to do and think you'd be good at, and you prepare to do that thing.
Socialism:
WHO OWNS THE BUSINESSES? In socialism, the government owns all the businesses-factories, railroads, banks, farms, even things like health care, education, utilities. Supposedly, the government is the representative of the workers, since hundreds of workers could not possibly run a government efficiently.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE IN THE SYSTEM? Everyone does. The idea behind socialism is that no one is left out.
WHO BENEFITS FROM THE SYSTEM? In theory everyone does equally. The government hires you; the government pays you equally with everyone else. In practicality, the government usually benefits at the expense of the people.
RISK IN THE SYSTEM: Supposedly, there is none; one of the advantages. You can't lose what you don't own.
GOVERNMENT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SYSTEM: Total. The government owns all the businesses* (see above). The government hires you and pays you; the government tells you what job you may do. The government decides what goods will be made and how many of them will be made. The government sets the prices of the goods. The government provides your health care and your education. It may even tell you where to live.
WHO SETS THE PRICES? The government does.
IS THERE COMPETITION? NO! Remember, socialists think it's a bad thing. It
leads to inequality.
WHO CHOOSES YOUR OCCUPATION? The government does. They tell you what they need you to do and you do it. You can't go looking for a better job.
GOOD POINTS OF SOCIALISM:
BAD POINTS OF SOCIALISM:
Questions