Labor Movements: From Luddites to the First International
ITEM 5: The Luddite Movement
The Luddite movement, also known as mecanoclastas, emerged as a response to the fear of mechanization’s effects on employment. Awareness of the working class began for many reasons, and this fear was a significant factor. These initial reactions, considered by the authorities, had two objectives: to oppose the introduction of machinery and, at the same time, to create an environment for certain claims. In these cases, actions were also directed against the raw materials. Proclamations, attacks on machines, and their owners were signed by a “General Ludd.” The Luddite movement is notable for its high degree of organization and an insurrectionary character that was close to larger revolutionary objectives. The Luddites sought to impose conditions not only for workers but also as the first resistance movement against a social order that imposed a process of proletarianization.
In Britain, these actions resulted in the destruction of machines, leaving workers without jobs and leading to low wages. The movement peaked with the destruction of thousands of steam-driven looms, which led to clashes with the army and a tightening of legislation, punishing the destruction of machines with the death penalty. This reaction is explained by the serious problems faced by the working classes. Also, in Europe, there were demonstrations of workers’ resistance to the introduction of machines. Textile workers and other similar trades were the protagonists of actions such as the destruction of “Jennies” by weavers from the north, which culminated in the insurrection of the silk weavers. In Spain, the mutiny of weavers and artisans in Alcoy and the destruction of carding machines and spinning “self-acting” machines, as well as the burning of a factory, were notable events.
First Union Associations
The state remained outside the new worker-employer relations. If it intervened, it was to supervise the workers and prevent the formation of associations. In France, the basis of new relations established that the employment contract could not be more than an individual-to-individual contract, from employer to worker. This allowed the first impulse of British labor through two paths: one building trade unions, whose objectives were only getting better working conditions, and the other, cooperative, with the purpose of changing the production system, ultimately the capitalist economy, based on the cooperation of all producers. Both trends lacked practical political action.
Chartism
The Chartist movement benefited from the first failures of unionism. Moreover, the continuation of workers’ claims, poor working conditions in factories, the low purchasing power of wages, the disenchantment with electoral reform, as well as the poor law, turned attention to the issue of universal male suffrage. The People’s Charter, a basic document in the history of the English labor movement, became the cry of the radical reformers. The Chartist program was limited to political issues: universal male suffrage, the elimination of property requirements for becoming a deputy, equal electoral districts, secret ballot, annual renewal of Parliament, and allowances for members. However, these six points had underlying economic and social reasons. For the first time, the call for political and social democracy was joined.
Utopian Socialism
The response to the abuses of industrial capitalism and the helplessness of the workers against their employers led to the development of the first social theories attempting to remedy that situation. Thus, early socialists were born. They denounced the exploitation and misery suffered by workers, criticized the capitalist system based on private ownership, competitiveness, and unlimited desire for profit. They proposed replacing it with systems of social organization and production made collectively, whose incomes were equally distributed. They hoped that the task of reforming capitalist society and its ills could be eliminated peacefully, without a revolution or class struggle that clashed violently with workers and capitalists. However, they differed, among other things, on the ideal form of organization of society, private property, and the role of the state.
Utopian Socialism
Saint-Simon
A noble, enlightened advocate of removing the former regime, Saint-Simon elaborated on one of his industrial socialisms. For him, the ideal society would be one in which injustice is eliminated and society is divided into workers and idle, creating an industrial society in which streaming technology was intended to benefit all and ruled by the most capable.
Charles Fourier
Coming from a bourgeois business family, Fourier elaborated his theories that rejected the existing social organization, emphasizing the inhumane aspects of large-scale production and competition. As an alternative to the capitalist organization, he planned to establish a social organization most suited to human nature and eliminate the evils of industrial society. This new form of social organization would be the phalansteries. These are small communities that would be created by voluntary action, in which each worker would bring minimal capital, perform the job most suitable to their character, and work in harmony.
Marxism
The fundamental concepts of Marxism are:
- The materialistic interpretation of history or historical materialism: His materialist conception of history starts from the principle according to which production and exchange of products are the basis for the ordering of society. In any society in history, the production and distribution of products originate the division of social classes or social strata based on how it occurs and how what is produced is distributed or exchanged. Consequently, the cause of all ultimate social change and all political revolution must be sought not in the mind of man, in his growing knowledge of the truth, or in eternal and absolute justice.
- The theory of class struggle as a historical motor: Class struggle and revolution are inseparable in the media transformation of the capitalist system into a classless society.
- The state theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat in the communist society:
- Violent social revolution or total revolution producing the destruction of the bourgeois political apparatus.
- The proletariat must organize not only for improvements in the economic struggle but also has to organize an independent political party from the bourgeois parties.
- The goal of that party will be the conquest of the state and, through it, to wield a dictatorship during a transitional period, taking the socialist road to communism.
Anarchism
Anarchism is the modern ideology that believes in the abolition of all power, hierarchy, authority, and forms of social control. It rejects the state, church, patriarchy, and especially capital, believing that each of these things denies human freedom and causes moral and spiritual decline. Anarchists also reject any tax treaty without the approval or support of the people. Anarchism also rejects discrimination, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and the difference between social classes. It seeks to develop anarchy, recognizing the full freedom and autonomy of individuals and communities, based on the libertarian model of the autonomous region, whose foundations are free contracts, voluntary association, and especially philosophical values such as initiative, mutual support, solidarity, and attempting success as a whole and not as individuals.
The Origins of the First International
After the revolutions, there was a general decline in workers’ rights regarding the right to organize and strike. However, despite this, a committee was constituted in London and developed a call to organize a congress that met the workers of all countries to make a common front of struggle against the governments. In 1864, the first meeting was held in London, which founded the International Workingmen’s Association, known as the First International. There, they approved the creation of a draft of international statutes.
Guiding Principles of the First International
The statutes defended that the emancipation of the working class should be the exclusive work of the workers themselves, regardless of pacts with other social sectors. The emancipation of the working class should have an international reach to avoid past failures. The influence of the First International was modest. Its recruitment came more from the former textile trades or metallurgy. The First International created two bodies: a General Council, an executive body between congresses, which had representatives from the national sections of the International, and Congress, the highest organ of decision.