19.3.6

  1. Workers looked
    • a.      Workers looked to formation of labor organizations to gain decent wages and working conditions
    •                                                               i.      British government, reacting against radicalism of French revolutionary working classes, passed Combination Acts in 1799 and 1800 outlawing associations of workers
    • 1.      Failed to prevent formation of trade unions
    • a.      Formed by skilled workers in new industries, including cotton spinners, ironworkers, coal miners, and shipwrights
  2. Purposes of unions
    • a.      Unions served two purposes
    •                                                               i.      Preserve own workers’ position by limiting entry into their trade
    • Gain benefits from employers
  3. Early trade unions had limited goals
                                                                  i.      Favored a working-class struggle against employers, but only to win improvements for members of their own trade
  4. The Trade union movement
    •                                                               i.      Some trade unions willing to strike for goals
    • 1.      Carried out by hand-loom weavers, cotton spinners, etc.
    • 2.      Caused Parliament to repeal Combination Acts in 1824, accepting argument of some members that acts themselves had alienated workers that they had formed unions
    • a.      Unions now tolerated, but other legislation enabled authorities to keep close watch over activities
  5. National Unions
    •                                                               i.      1820s and ‘30s: union movement began focus on creation of national unions
    • 1.      Robert Owen (cotton magnate and social reformer)
    • a.       believed creation of voluntary associations that would  demonstrate to others the benefits of cooperative rather than competitive living
  6. Program not specifically...
    • a.      Program not specifically for trade unionists, but appealed to some of his leaders
    • b.      Under his direction, plans formed for Grand National Consolidated Trades Union, formed in Feb 1834
    •                                                                                                                                       i.      As a national federation of trade unions, its primary purpose was to coordinate a general strike for 8-hr working days
  7. Rhetoric outpaced reality
    1.      Rhetoric outpaced realityà by summer, lack of real working-class support led to federation’s total collapse and union movement reverted to trade unions for individual crafts
  8. Amalgamated Society of Engineers
    •                                                               i.      Largest and most successful of these unions was the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in 1850
    • 1.      Provision of generous unemployment benefits in return for a small weekly payment precisely the kind of practical gains these trade unions sought
  9. Luddites
    •                                                               i.      Trade unionism not only collective action by workers in early decades of Revolution
    •                                                             ii.      Skilled craftspeople in Midlands and northern England who in 1812 attacked machines that threatened their lives
    • 1.      Attacks didn’t stop industrial mechanization of Britain and viewed as naïve, as well as intense eruption of feeling against unrestrained industrial capitalism
    •                                                           iii.      Inability of 12000 troops to find culprits showed local support
  10. Chartism
    •                                                               i.      Attempt of Brit workers to improve their condition developed in movement called Chartism—the “first important political movement of working men organized in 19th century
    •                                                             ii.      Aim: to achieve political democracy
  11. People's Charter
    •                                                               i.      Took name from People’s Charter, a document drawn up in 1838 by the London Working Men’s Association
    • 1.      Charter demanded universal male suffrage, payment for members of Parliament, and elimination of property qualifications for members of Parliament, and annual sessions of Parliament
    • 2.      Women joined movement
  12. Female sections
    •                                                               i.      Chartist groups in many towns had female sections
    • 1.      Some women were active, but they fought to win political rights for husbands, not for selves, since Chartist platform wasn’t for rite to vote for women 
  13. National Petitions
    •                                                               i.      Two national petitions incorporation the Chartist demands gained millions of signatures and were presented to Parliament in 1839 and 1842
    •                                                             ii.      Attempted to encourage change through peaceful, constitutional means, although underlying threat of force
    • 1.      Chartist activists organized a general strike for goals= fail
  14. Rejection
    •                                                               i.      Despite pressures exerted by Chartists, both national petitions rejected by Parliament, who didn’t want political democracy
    •                                                             ii.      After 1848, Chartism as a movement had played itself out, never really being a threat to Britain, but not a total failure either
  15. True Significance
    • 1.      True significance stemmed from its ability to arouse and organize millions of working class men and women, give them a sense of working-class consciousness never possessed before
    • a.      This political education of working people was important to the ultimate acceptance of all points of the People’s Charter in the future
Author
DesLee26
ID
204575
Card Set
19.3.6
Description
HQII
Updated