Economic Crises and Workers’ Movements (1873–1914)

Posted on Oct 3, 2025 in Social sciences

The Second Industrial Revolution (Late 19th Century)

The Second Industrial Revolution introduced new energy sources, primarily oil and hydroelectricity, and fostered new industries: electrical, automotive, chemical, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, and food processing.

Transformations in Transport and Communication

Significant technological milestones included:

  • 1884: Electric Metro Tram.
  • 1885: Automobile.
  • 1886: Submarine.
  • 1890: London Underground expansion.
  • 1892: Tractor.
  • 1903: Airplane.
  • 1912: Transatlantic communication established.

Communication Milestones: 1895: Films. 1901: Radio. 1926: Television (TV).

The Great Depression (1873–1896)

This period marked the first major crisis of capitalism.

Causes and Consequences

Causes: Oversupply (super offer) combined with reduced demand led to a progressive reduction in prices. This benefited large businesses while causing the closure of small, less technologically prepared firms, thereby favoring monopoly capitalism.

Solutions to the Crisis

The responses to the crisis included:

  • Protectionism: Imposing customs taxes.
  • Diversification of production.
  • Technical improvements.
  • Mass emigration: 44–45 million Europeans emigrated to the United States and Australia.

Early Labor Movements and Ideologies

Luddism: Resistance to Mechanization

The introduction of machines caused job losses, labor surplus, low wages, and worsening working conditions. The workers’ response was the destruction of machines.

Luddism was a primitive form of struggle that did not question the capitalist system itself, but rather the object perceived as causing their misfortunes (the machine).

Unionism and Workers’ Rights

Unions are associations of workers, usually within a single trade, with three main objectives:

  1. Improving labor conditions.
  2. Mutual aid societies (creating common funds).
  3. Claiming fundamental workers’ rights (right of association, unionization, and the right to strike).

Chartism: Political Demands

Chartism was a labor movement focused on deepening political demands. Key claims included: universal male suffrage, secret ballot, and the right for all men to vote.

Major Political Ideologies

Anarchism: Freedom and Collective Ownership

Anarchism advocates for total individual freedom, rejecting the state and religion, and promoting collective ownership. Key tenets include: total criticism of religion (seen as an instrument of oppression), differences regarding violent action, concern for gender equality, free love, and appreciation for nature.

Key Thinkers: Bakunin and Proudhon

  • Bakunin: Advocated for the elimination of the state and the organization of individuals united by a free federation. Emphasized the spontaneity of individuals and the conception of violent revolutionary change.
  • Proudhon: Believed it was possible to balance the economic and social system through contract. Concerned with the territorial organization of anarchism.

Marxism: The Dictatorship of the Proletariat

The central concept is the Dictatorship of the Proletariat: the conquest of the state by the working class and the imposition of a power that will repress opposing classes and dismantle the bourgeois capitalist order.

Communist Society: A society where the means of production are administered by the state (or society), leading to the disappearance of private property. Everything belongs to all (a society without social classes).

The International Workers’ Movement (MO)

The First International (1864, London)

The movement was based on three core ideas:

  1. The emancipation of the working class must be the work of the workers themselves.
  2. This emancipation is linked to the conquest of political power.
  3. Emancipation is an international, not merely a national, problem.

The basis for action was support for national strike actions and the power of international solidarity. Its failure resulted from strong repression following the Paris Commune and divergences between Marxists and Anarchists.

The Second International (1889)

This period was marked by the appearance of the first socialist parties (e.g., the German Social Democratic Party). It instituted the celebration of May 1st (1890) in honor of the Chicago martyrs (executed in 1887) and the demand for the 8-hour workday.

Internal Discussions and Revisionism

Key internal debates included:

  • Relations between Unions and Parties: Controversy over whether unions should be linked to political parties or maintain independence.
  • Revisionism Problem: A new strategic model based on:
    • Denying the inevitability of capitalism’s collapse.
    • Rejecting the violent nature of class struggle.
    • Advocating for the humanization of social relations.
    • Reviewing Marxist economic theories.
    • Considering the possibility of alliances with the bourgeoisie.

This Revisionist position was condemned at the Amsterdam Congress, reaffirming Marxist orthodoxy.