Capitalism, Labor Movements, and Industrial Revolution
Capitalism and Labor Movements
Capitalism: An economic system where capital dominates labor. The means of production are privately owned, operating on profit, with firms competing for consumer markets and wage labor.
Luddism
A protest movement against machines causing unemployment. Early actions involved disorganized revolts. Workers soon realized employers, not machines, were their real adversaries.
Corporations
Capital is divided into shares. Shareholders receive benefits and risks based on their share count.
Stock Exchange
Establishments where shares are bought and sold.
Division of Labor
A change in work organization introduced by the Industrial Revolution. Large factories replaced small workshops. Workers performed single tasks, increasing production speed and volume, but creating routine work.
Anarchism
Developed by Proudhon and Bakunin, it aimed to maximize individual freedom by fighting limitations like the state, private property, and religious beliefs. Bakunin proposed a revolution by oppressed social sectors, leading to egalitarian communes.
Socialism/Marxism
Developed by Marx and Engels, it aimed to end private property, the cause of social division between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. A proletarian revolution, led by a Socialist Party, would establish a dictatorship of the proletariat, replacing private property with collective ownership, leading to a classless society.
First International (TIA)
The International Association of Workers, founded in London in 1864. It integrated unions, socialists, and anarchists to fight capitalism internationally. Marked by disputes between Marxists, who favored political parties and elections, and anarchists, who supported revolutionary unionism and general strikes.
Norfolk System
A system replacing crop rotation with continuous rotation, eliminating fallow periods and using turnips and forage seeds.
Laws of Enclosure
Legislation modifying land ownership by requiring fencing of plots, ending communal ownership. Privatization of land led peasants to become laborers or migrate for work in industries.
Industrial Revolution
A process starting in England around 1760, consolidating by 1780, affecting all economic sectors and social groups. It replaced old structures with capitalism.
Class Society
A social division based on wealth, characteristic of capitalism. The bourgeoisie owns the means of production, while the proletariat sells their labor for wages.
Trade Unions
Workers’ associations that emerged first in Britain.
Unions
Employee associations defending their interests. Objectives include improving working conditions, political demands, and using negotiation, demonstrations, and strikes.
Proletariat
The social class within capitalism forced to sell their labor to capitalists for not owning the means of production.
Agrarian Revolution
A revolution caused by changes in English agriculture in the mid-18th century.