3. the Emergence of Socialist Parties, 1848-1914
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Section XVI: Developments in Socialism, Contemporary Civilization (Ideas and Institutions 1848-1914 of Western Man) 1958 3. The meE rgence of Socialist Parties, 1848-1914 Robert L. Bloom Gettysburg College Basil L. Crapster Gettysburg College Harold L. Dunkelberger Gettysburg College See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/contemporary_sec16 Part of the Models and Methods Commons, and the Political History Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Bloom, Robert L. et al. "3. The meE rgence of Socialist Parties, 1848-1914. Pt. XVI: Developments in Socialism, (1848-1914)." Ideas and Institutions of Western Man (Gettysburg College, 1958), 30-48. This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec16/4 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The uC pola. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 3. The meE rgence of Socialist Parties, 1848-1914 Abstract The mee rgence of socialist parties frequently is treated by Marxians and non-Marxians alike, as an inevitable development. From this viewpoint, the Industrial Revolution completed the breakdown of an essentially land- based social structure, economy, and political system. New classes were creates; new interests required political expression. Working people, united by the often miserable conditions under which they lived and labored, ultimately turned to socialism. [excerpt] Keywords Contemporary Civilization, Socialism, Trade-Union Movement, Combination Acts Disciplines Models and Methods | Political History | Political Science Comments This is a part of Section XVI: Developments in Socialism, (1848-1914). The Contemporary Civilization page lists all additional sections of Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, as well as the Table of Contents for both volumes. More About Contemporary Civilization: From 1947 through 1969, all first-year Gettysburg College students took a two-semester course called Contemporary Civilization. The ourc se was developed at President Henry W.A. Hanson’s request with the goal of “introducing the student to the backgrounds of contemporary social problems through the major concepts, ideals, hopes and motivations of western culture since the Middle Ages.” Gettysburg College professors from the history, philosophy, and religion departments developed a textbook for the course. The first edition, published in 1955, was called An Introduction to Contemporary Civilization and Its Problems. A second edition, retitled Ideas and Institutions of Western Man, was published in 1958 and 1960. It is this second edition that we include here. The opc y we digitized is from the Gary T. Hawbaker ’66 Collection and the marginalia are his. Authors Robert L. Bloom, Basil L. Crapster, Harold L. Dunkelberger, Charles H. Glatfelter, Richard T. Mara, Norman E. Richardson, and W. Richard Schubart This book chapter is available at The uC pola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/ contemporary_sec16/4 XVI p. 30 3. The Emergence of Socialist Parties, 1848-1914 The jeiam:g:eflSfi-jQf--^QxxLallat..-J3art^ frequently Is treated, by Marxians and-^noa=Marxians._alike, .as an inevitable dg5!iI^m«o.t. From this viewpoint, the Industrial Revolution compTet the breakdown of~~an essentially 1 and-based social structure „ economy, and poTitTcai sysfem. "Kew""classes were created; new Interests' required political expressxono Working people,^ united by the often miserable conditions under which they lived and labored, ultimately turned to sociaXi^. ' To be absolutely content with such an explanation is to miss the complexity of history» Sgciallsm was more than an ettd-product determined by the interplay of material forcqSo It was affected declsiveij, byt:,he......impact .o.f~'persB'iia.rities ~and ideag^ The "choices made by specific men acting accord!ng_'J:o_ difJerent1 ctures,..of feaiitvl fuFEEelF; If was not the only outlet available for the expression of working-class discontent and demands« Trade unions, cooperative associations, Utopian experiments, liberal reform movements also vied for support» Perhaps no political action was inevitable5 for many workers, living at subsistence levels, drained physically and mentally by their work, Ill-educated and denied suffrage, were apolitical, or even antipolltical. A common pattern which emerged in the history of working-class movements was ai} alternatio'n between economic and polTticar action, Jn Great Britaliii t.he.„.em.ergeji..ca.,ia-f socialist, groups was bound UP closeJLsL^ although not exclusively, with the trade-union movement. Coming into common existence in the eighteenth century labor unions were organized in all of the major trades, bringing together local trade clubs which partly resembled medieval guilds in form and functiono When these groups sought to influence wage scales, they fell afoul of British common law and specific legislation, most notably the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800. Although trade unions continued to operate clandestinely, the Comb 1 nation Acts Herir>tis;)y imppded any P^ffn^tS by the laboring classes to improve their lot thrmigh Rrnnomlc pressure. This left two courses open: resort to violence, when discontent no longer could~Be~conta:lned, -in;d.,an . ajiempt .-to' s^ecare a .xo.i.ce . 1 n Bxillsh politics, Rioting and the destruction of machinery reached a peak in l8rr-1812, when the famous T.mddite riots broke out in scattered parts of England, Largely this was the work of desperate men whose livelihoods were Jeopardized by the intmduction oi new"~mac"Einery or_methC)<is of prftduction. The "alternative courseT achieving a voice in British politics, was a long-term project which actually began about the time of the French Revolution.. As indicated~1eT^wKere in tEis volume, a broa'9-^c~aTe~movement for wider suffrage resumed after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, culminating in the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867, and 1884, Although some inequities remained, the latter two acts enfranchised the working classes. With the repeal of the Combination Acts in 1824, :lon //^ 7 • XVI Po 31 of_trade unions p^rew rapidly ^in_s;ubseq'aent year.s, Thfiir pro ceeded -ander .rtriAc4il^s7'~1rowe"v'eF. when Parllamer't an in l8^5~virtiaally prohibiting strikes. Noteworthy In the 1830-s was tne extend to'wTiTch'.^tjESiife-u^ came under the lafluience of Robert„_Owe.n» This marked the beginning of Brltl"iE' socriXi'ira'''as" something more than an intellectual movement. Trade unions organ ized cooperative societies, forming a Grand National Consolidated Trades Union in 1834 5 with Owen as its leader. This experiment with one big union, which lasted a year. was concerned only partly xrt1*"™qi!iEgTlmis™oT'wages and"wd?rking' conditions, More importantly, it sought to establish workshops which would compete with private business. It toyed, moreover, with the Idea of a general strike which would bring on a new society based on the Owenite principle of cooperation. During the next few years, working people increasingly became absorbed in Chartist agitation /o'r 'c'onTrcSi: r^o:rm„ Some leading Cnartists exhibited an in"^rest in socialist "ideas. establishing confacT"with French revoiutionaries and trade unionists. While all of these efforts failed, they served as precedents for the International Working Men'^s Association, established by English and French labor groups in 1864, Almost from the beginning, the First InternationaJ. „ as it later came to be called, was dominated bv ^e personality and Intellect of Karl Marx, It sought to gather and dissemlnate inTrvriiiLj^^ to™dIscuss probiems""of"mutual Interest and0 "generally, to coordinate~~IlyE"erlatioRal'''^cIMTiT^c'tdon, While the Inf^rnatlonal di3~^erve to popularize somewhat the doctrines of socialism, particularly those of Marx, it failed tn arhimm thf> obj_eiitiye-o#-socialist uni.ty. Never more than a loose alliance, it combined divergei5it elements from several countries" chiefly, English trade unionists who becaro.e more interested in labor prob lems at home; French socialists influenced heavily by Proudhon; and other national delegations which increasingly were won over to the anarchist ideas of Mikhail Bakunin, who will be discussed in the next section. Thus the work of the International frequently was hampered by dissension, a circumstance which caused Marx to seek the expulsion of the anarchists in 1872, Injured further by the withdrawal of the English trade unionists, the organization never recovered, Marx, who now saw the possibility of losing control, moved to transfer the headquarters of the International to New York, Since Americans played an unimportant role in the group, this amounted to virtual dissolution. The International died a peaceful death at a congress held in PSiiladelphia in 1876, In England no significant sod ali at. •mootamenl.—sjaa^v-ij^ed.-t.he- chartist period, Working-cslass_ movements» nevertheless„ did exist. such as the cooperative movement" which had sprung up during the 1840"s, The prototype of this development was a store set up at Rochdale in 1844 by a small group of trade unionists, Chartists, and Owenites. Based on the idea of distributing the profits of the enterprise to members of the society in proportion to goods purchased, the Rochdale experiment inspired a consumers® cooperative movement which was to become increasingly important during the later XVI p. 32 nineteenth century. Another alternative for the British worker was offered by the Christian Socialists. In origin, this was largely a group of Anglican ciergymfen" interested in the solution ^f soci al Dxob^l-ems'througb -wri xoop^ratlve """Strcl^i impT'nvtqd ejimra 17 r>n^i f ap j 1 i ties Led by Frederick Denison Maur- jjcuel (1805-1872) jand the novelist Charles Kings ley (1819-1875), the Christian So c i aliats—iigur ed.