Questions on Excerpt From: the Socialist Challenge

Questions on Excerpt from: “The Socialist Challenge” From Howard Zinn’s, A People’s History of the United States

1. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, while wealthy businessmen accumulated more and more wealth, the US economy was not immune from crises. In 1907 the US economy collapsed and some businesses, to save money, started to operate according to the principles of Taylorism.  Explain what Taylorism is and how it affected workers.  Provide two examples of Taylorism in practice.

2. What were working conditions like in the garment factories and sweatshops? Who were the people who mainly worked in these conditions?

3. What tragic event happened at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in 1911?

4. What factors do you suppose led to the growth of unionization in the early 1900’s?

5. In 1913, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote: “The net result of all this has been to convince the American Negro that his greatest enemy is not the employer who robs him, but his fellow white workingman.” Why? 6. Fed up with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), a convention of 200 socialists, anarchists, and radical trade unionists met in 1905 to form what new union? How was this union different from the AFL?

7. How did the government respond to the organizing campaigns of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)?

8. Who was Joe Hill, why has Zinn called him “a legend in his time and after,” and how did Joe Hill die?

9. What took place in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912?  How was the IWW involved?  When food began to run out, what did the strikers do with their children and how did the authorities respond?  Did the Lawrence strikers win? Explain why or why not. 10. What does the IWW’s slogan, “One Big Union,” mean?

11. What working conditions led women to organize themselves into unions?

12. Who was Eugene Debs?

13. Why do you suppose so many workers were in favor of socialism in the early 1900’s?

14. What do you think Debs meant when he said, “Capitalist courts never have done, and never will do, anything for the working class.”?

15. If you could summarize the labor movement of the early 20th century in only three words, what would they be?