The Socialist Challenge

Tritia Lukito

Ch S 245

OL- 14003

Socialist Authors

Upton Sinclair Jack London Top: Theodore Dreiser

Bottom: Frank NorrisLukito, Tritia

Socialist Authors

• These authors are the most famous American literary figures of the early twentieth century who spoke for socialism and criticized the capitalist system harshly.

• The Jungle (1906) by Upton Sinclair portrayed the lives of immigrants in Chicago in the United States and discussed the working class in poverty, absence of social programs, unpleasant and harsh living and working conditions.

• “Socialists were the enemies of American institutions– could not be bought, and would not combine or make sort of a “dicker” –The Jungle, 268

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TaylorismFrederick W. Taylor

•worked out a system of finely detailed division of labor, increased mechanization, and piecework wage systems, to increase production and profits

•published “The Principles of Scientific Management” in 1911

• “Taylorism with its simplified unskilled jobs, became more feasible” (Zinn, 324)

•Taylorism allowed workers to be far more productive by eliminating unnecessary motion

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Working Conditions• “In unaired rooms, mothers and fathers sew by

day and by night. Those in the home sweatshop must work cheaper than those in the factory sweatshops” –Edwin Markham

• “In these disease-breeding holes we, the youngsters together with the men and women toiled from seventy and eighty hours a week! Saturdays and Sundays included! –A woman recalling work conditions (325)

• Fires, Accidents, and sickness arose because of the working conditions.

• In 1904, 27,000 workers were killed in manufacturing, transport, and agriculture

• In New York factories, 50,000 accidents occurred

• Lead to workers striking for better working conditions Lukito, Tritia

American Federation of Labor

• 80% of the 2 million members of labor unions were in the AFL

• It was an exclusive union- for mostly white, skilled male workers

• Samuel Gompers, head of AFL, made speeches about equal opportunity, but blacks were excluded

• Excluded women and foreigners as well

• Based their philosophy on “business unionism”

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WobbliesI.W.W

• Aimed to organize all workers in all industries into “One Big Union” undivided by sex, race, or skills

• Didn’t believe in initiating violence, but fought back when they were attacked

• Became a threat to the capitalist class ten years after the IWW birth

• “Their energy, persistence, inspiration to others, ability to mobilize thousands at one place, one time, made them an influence on the country far beyond their numbers” –Zinn, 331

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Women Workers• Doubled from 4 million in 1890 to

8 million in 1910

• 1/5 of the labor force

• 1 in 100 belonged to a union

• By the 1900’s, 500,000 women worked in offices

• In the Winter of 1909, at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company, women began to organize a strike

• Created the unions: Teachers League and Women’s Trade Union Industrial League

• “Socialist women were active in the feminist movement of the early 1900s” –Zinn, 342

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African American Workers

• Organized a National Afro-American Council (1903) to protest against lynching, peonage, discrimination, disfranchisement

• The National Association of Colored Women condemned segregation and lynching

• W.E.B. Du Bois, who was a Socialist, was the first black to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University

• “Persistent manly agitation is the way to liberty” –Du Bois, 349

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“The Progressive Period”The Start to the Age of Reform

• Intended to stabilize the capitalist system and restore measure of class peace

• Aimed to quiet popular risings instead of making fundamental changes

• Laws were passed such as: the Meat Inspection Act, the Hepburn Act-to regulate railroads and pipelines, a Pure Food and Drug Act

• Victor Berger was the first member of the Socialist party elected to Congress in 1910

• In 1911, 73 Socialist mayors were elected and 1200 lesser officials in 340 cities and towns

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Works Cited

Sinclair, Upton. The Jungle. Cambridge, MA: R. Bentley, 1971. Print

Zinn, Howard. A People's History of the United States: 1492-2001. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

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