The labor movement emerged in the nineteenth century with the association or group of salaried workers, which fundamentally come together to achieve a series of objectives such as the defense and protection of their labor and economic rights. Next we will study the origins of the labor movementhow they arise, why they arise and what consequences it had.
Industrialization and trade associations
the labor movement arises in England in the eighteenth century, as a consequence of the Industrial Revolution and therefore of the Industrialization.
Its main objective was to improve working conditions of the workers since in a first stage of Industrialization, there was no type of labor legislation that fixed the hours or wages of the workers.
The workers or proletariansdepended on the decisions that in terms of labor issues, take the entrepreneurs or bourgeois. These conditions that the employer offered were:
- Excessive working hours.
- child exploitationwhere children worked the same hours as their elders.
- minimum wages that did not allow them to cover basic needs and dismissals without compensation and above all misery.
- Suburban Housingovercrowded, in terrible hygiene conditions, the consequences of which were constant epidemics.
All these unfortunate conditions in which the workers lived, got them to take what was called “class consciousness” and consequently, they began to group calling for improvements in their working conditions.
Workers they were organized into brotherhoods, following the model of the old guilds formed in the Late Middle Ages. These brotherhoods, in addition to claiming labor and salary improvements, began to help each other in the face of tragic situations such as unemployment, widowhood, orphanhood, illness. etc.
They created the first union associationsattending to the different labor sectors, as was the cotton union in England.
In this situation, some unions that were protagonists of the labor movement began to question the benefits of industrialization.
The labor associations or movements sought to improve working conditions as they were, the improvements in wages, shorter working hours, job security, etc.
To these claims began to be added others of political character how were they:
- freedom of expression
- The right to vote
- The right of association
The workers union It was achieved thanks to the debates that were carried out within the same associations or unions. The first ones appear symptoms of rebellion among the working classes as were the strikes or demonstrations workers.
The strength of these labor movements was the teamwork, where the strength of the collective was more effective than individual demonstrations. Taking dialogue and negotiation as a way to reach an understanding between workers and employers.
Repression and radicalism
The workers demonstrations and demands of workers turned out to be excessive for employers. These protests and strikes the businessmen did not like them at all and as a consequence of this, came the problems and confrontations between these two social classes.
The workers began to suffer the repression On the part of the employers, they began to be a very annoying sector and it was not only because of their demonstrations and strikes but also because the ideologies of the workers clashed with their own.
The vindictive forms of the working masses, also suffered the rejection of society since they used, in some cases, the violence to achieve the objectives, violent acts that were quickly repressed by the authorities.
The consequences of these demonstrations in many cases were suffocated with mass layoffsan attitude that soon had other kinds of consequences.
Combination Laws
In England, labor organizations or Trade Unions, they were outlawed through the Combination Laws. Some laws that allowed the persecution of these labor movements, also supported the employers, facilitating complaints. Some laws of repression that had already been imposed in France, years before.
The unions were persecuted for a few years, imprisoning the leaders of the workers’ movements, giving rise to another type of workers’ protest such as luddism. Nevertheless, the labor movement was too big as to be able to control it.
In 1824, the social and labor pressure forced to repeal the law of repression, allowing the creation of labor unions. In 1825, the Combination Actwhich decriminalized the right to strike and trade unionism but it punished intimidation of non-union workers.
Luddism
With the Industrial Revolution, arise the first machines textile steam. These achieve greater production and a better finish than the artisanal works up to now.
The demand for industrial textiles increases at the same speed as the demand for crafts decreases, forcing the latter to abandon their trade and move to the cities looking for work.
The massive influx of these to the cities generated so much labor that the incipient industries could not absorb. The amount of unemployed it was huge and they blamed the new machines squarely for its ruinous situation.
The way they found to protest their situation was the destruction of the new machines. More or less organized groups sent threats to businessmen before undertaking violent acts against the machines themselves.
All of these threats were signed in the name of Ned Ludd, who is believed to have been the first to take violent action against a loom. This is how he is born movement called Luddism between the last decades of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth.
These violent acts were harshly persecuted and its consequences were paid even with death sentences. These actions against the machines were eventually extended to the businessmen themselves, this time due to the harsh conditions of their workers.
The first trade union organizations
In 1824 after the abolition of the Combination Lawsas we have previously commented, the workers’ association begins its legal journey.
The immediate consequences were that worker associationism increased quickly, giving rise to two fundamental models, the Trade Unions or trade unions and cooperatives.
These two models claimed only the professional and economic improvements. The Trade Unions were associations formed by workers from the same locality and from the same union, these trade unions, provided help to unionized workers, in case of need.
The way in which they were financed was through monetary contributions which would later result in workers’ pensions as well as subsidies.
Little by little, the trade unions broadened their horizons until they ceased to be unions dedicated to certain trades and localities, to start having a scope of state action.
Thus we can say that the first labor union, of a state nature, that was created:
- In 1829 the cotton union was created in Great Britain.
- In 1834, Robert Owen unified various craft unions, creating the Great Trade Uniona union that was outlawed due to the important scope it once had.
- Political demands arise with chartism.
- In 1871, it is legally constituted the Trade Unions
- In 1863, the German General Association of German Workers
- In 1886, in the United States, the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- In 1888, the first labor union emerged in Spain, the General Union of Workers (UGT)
- In 1895, in France, the Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT)
chartism
In Britain, workers began to unionize directing his fight to politicsthey were looking for equality of all citizens in terms of Rights. These political demands gave rise to Chartismwhere the struggle to obtain political rights for wage earners, had its maximum expression between 1838 and 1848.
The first movements appear in favor of suffrage for men from the age of 21, in the year 1838. A claim that was carried out by the London Workers Associationwhich among other requests, such as:
- secret ballot
- annual elections to Parliament
- Elimination as a requirement, to be in possession of a property to become a member of Parliament,
- Salary for parliamentarians
Chartism sought the democratization in Parliamentwith more than 1 million signatures, the first petition they made was rejected in Parliament.
This rejection motivated the insurrection and strike of the most radical members of the movement, a fact that was harshly repressed.
Finally the Chartist movement began to fade after not having achieved any of the objectives set. However, little by little these demands were achieved through a process of reforms in the work environment.
Chartism was a first incursion of what would later be, political and social struggles late nineteenth century, whose consequences were the appearance of new political parties, such as socialism, Marxism and anarchism.
But if something got this labor movement was to verify the organization of the working mass and its mobilization to achieve common goals, as proposed by Karl Marx.
The labor movement fought in each country to achieve the same social rights. Marx’s idea of worker organization and union of all workers on a common and international front, had its consequences, the foundation of the International Workers Association (IWA)better known as the First International.
Utopian socialism was an ideological current where thinkers proposed a egalitarian economic systemthat is, against capitalism that had generated inequalities and injustices, between social classes.
utopian socialism He advocated equality. It was called utopian because the thinkers themselves knew that this was impossible.
Among the most important thinkers of the utopian socialist current we highlight Henry de Saint-Simon, Robert Owen and Charles Fournier.
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