Labour Movement

A country of two nations

• “Two nations between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones or inhabitants of different planets; who are formed by different breeding, are fed by different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not governed by the same laws ... THE RICH AND THE POOR”.

• Extract from Benjamin Disraeli's novel Sybil, published in 1845.

The new society

• Bourgeoisie (middle class)

• Control wealth (factories, land, money…) and put the wages at their own interest

• Live in the best areas of the cities

• Control the government and the laws

• Proletariat (working class)

• They only have their work to survive

• Live in hard conditions with poverty and illness

• They don’t participate in the government of the country

• The term labour movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and political governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour relations.

• Taken from Wikipedia

The first forms of protest

• The Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested—often by destroying mechanized looms—against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work.

• Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which stipulated the main aims of the movement as:

• Suffrage for all men age 21 and over

• Voting by secret ballot • Pay for Members of Parliament • Annual election of Parliament • The apparent failure of

Chartism as a political movement in the mid-nineteenth century proved to be temporary. Five of the six points in the Charter were adopted by 1918.

Trade Unions

• A trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in working conditions. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules…

• Early trade unions, often provided a range of benefits to insure members against unemployment, ill, health, old age and funeral expenses. Later in many developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state.

• Trade unions may enforce strikes to achieve particular goals.

• Trade unions may promote legislation favorable to the interests of their members or workers as a whole.

The first International

• The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), sometimes called the First International, was an international socialist organization which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing political groups and trade union organizations that were based on the working class and class struggle. It was founded in 1864 in a workmen's meeting held in Saint Martin's Hall, London. Its first congress was held in 1866 in Geneva. A significant decision at this event was the adoption of the 8-hour work day as one of the Association's fundamental demands.

• After the Paris Commune (1871), Bakunin characterised Marx's ideas as authoritarian, and predicted that if a Marxist party came to power its leaders would end up as bad as the ruling class they had fought against. In 1872, the conflict in the First International climaxed with a final split between the two groups at the Hague Congress. This clash is often cited as the origin of the long-running conflict between anarchists and Marxists. The Second International was established in 1889 as its successor. Meanwhile, the anarchists continued to consider that they were unfairly ejected from the IWA. Karl Marx and Mikhail Bakunin

• The international anthem, English version by Billy Bragg

• Stand up, all victims of oppressionFor the tyrants fear your mightDont cling so hard to your possessionsFor you have nothing, if you have no rightsLet racist ignorance be endedFor respect makes the empires fallFreedom is merely privilege extendedUnless enjoyed by one and all

Chorus:So come brothers and sistersFor the struggle carries onThe internationaleUnites the world in songSo comrades come rallyFor this is the time and placeThe international idealUnites the human race

• Let no one build walls to divide usWalls of hatred nor walls of stoneCome greet the dawn and stand beside usWell live together or well die aloneIn our world poisoned by exploitationThose who have taken, now they must giveAnd end the vanity of nationsWeve but one earth on which to live

And so begins the final dramaIn the streets and in the fieldsWe stand unbowed before their armourWe defy their guns and shieldsWhen we fight, provoked by their aggressionLet us be inspired by like and loveFor though they offer us concessionsChange will not come from above