Socialism and the Labor Movement

1900 General Election

Working Class Politics

Trade Unions

1870s

• Skilled
• Male
• Engineers Union 34,000 members
• Labor Law Changes--Disraeli--1875
• End union liability
• Working class solidarity
• "Scabs"

Cooperative Societies

Friendly Societies

Trades Councils

• Trades Union Congress 1868
• Liberal Party

The New Collectivism 1880s, 1890s

The New Economics and "radicalism"

• W. S. Jevons
  • State intervention and wages
• John Stuart Mill
  • Iron Law of Wages (revised)
• Henry George
  • Unearned Increment (land)
• Charles Booth
  • Old Age Pensions

Socialism

Critique of Capitalism

concentrated wealth

• undemocratic

poverty

• injustice

instability

• depressions
• unemployment

inefficiency

Early Socialism ("Utopian")

Robert Owen 1771-1858

• New Lanark 1800-1829
• New Harmony, Indiana 1824-1829

Cooperative Movement

• Rochdale Pioneers

Christian Socialism

Social Democratic Federation

• H. M. Hyndman
• England for All 1881
• Marxism (English style)
• Class conflict
• Labor theory of value

Socialist League

• William Morris
• Commonweal
• Aesthetics of capitalism/socialism
• Cooperation
• Arts and Crafts Movement

Fabian Society

• George Bernard Shaw, ed.
  • Fabian Essays 1889
  • Gradualism
  • Electoral politics

The Struggle for the Unions

• Socialism and the working class
• "Who Gets The Money?"
  • Wage-earners
  • Owners/Investors
  • Transparency of exploitation
  • Labor Theory of Value

Liberals and the Unions

• Lib/Lab MPs

New Unionism

• unskilled
• firemen
• dockers
• matchmakers

Keir Hardie

Independent Labour Party 1893

Employers' Offensive

Trades Union Congress (TUC)

Labour Representation Committee 1900

• politics linked to unions
• affiliated with socialist organizations (ILP, SDF, Fabians)

Why would someone become a socialist in the 1890s?

Why would someone choose one particular form of socialism over another?