GroupA

= The American Labor Movement =

The American Labor Movement sought to improve the working conditions for laborers in factories. The main purpose of the American Labor movement was to decrease the amount of hours factory workers had to work, and to increase the wages that they earned for that work. In order to do this, they set up many organized strikes in which laborers did not attend their shifts for work, demonstrating their distaste for their working situation. Throughout the course of the struggle, the overarching goal of the movement remained the same: improve working conditions. However, the means through which their goals were achieved changed with the social norms and current events. The part that race played in the Labor Movement changed as American race relations fluctuated. Throughout history, the labor movement was inspired by societal ideals such as social equality, and it was also inspired by the Ricardian Labor Theory. Because the average lifespan of a Caucasian male was much shorter than it is today, families started putting younger children into the factories to work and earn money for their family. These children were worked as hard as the adults and frequently paid much less in these ‘sweatshops’ and the Labor Movement sought to end this exploitation of children. In 1768 there was the first recorded strike, held by New York tailors who wanted to object about a possible wage decrease. As the conditions of industrial workers began to deteriorate, more unions began to form in order to earn better working conditions for them, and while they were not all connected directly, they all set out to achieve the same goal. It was difficult for the Labor movement to protest, as greedy factory owners sought to maximize their own profits by underpaying their workers. Rather than fighting against a specific law, the Labor Movement struggled against a lack of laws detailing healthy and proper working conditions and wages for industrial workers. The Labor Movement employed many strategies throughout their quest for improved workers’ rights, and these strategies ranged from simple meetings to more dangerous demonstrations. The most well-known of their tactics was the classic labor strike: a disruptive demonstration that aimed to put their employers in an economic position where they were forced to hire back their workers under new and better conditions. This type of labor strike was difficult because it was harder to recruit people to participate. Many times, demonstrators lost their job and their only source of income, however meager it was. There were also marches and protests that sought to catch the public gaze and bring attention to the lacking rights of laborers. The Labor Movement had many weaknesses in their strategy to bring about change. As stated above, the strikes that they went on were very risky for protesters and as a result, people in support of the cause were less likely to demonstrate it. Other times, groups would end up with unintended consequences from their actions. Such was the case with the Anti-Child Labor Campaigns. People would often boycott products that were made with child labor; however this would just decrease company profits and force children out of their jobs, forcing them into more dangerous sources of income. A [|__UNICEF__] study found “that after the [|__Child Labor Deterrence Act__] was introduced in the US, an estimated 50,000 children were dismissed from their garment industry jobs in [|__Bangladesh__], leaving many to resort to jobs such as "stone-crushing, street hustling, and prostitution", jobs that are ‘more hazardous and exploitative than garment production’” Unfortunately some of the methods that were used in the fight against unfair work conditions had the opposite effect they had intended. On the other hand many time unions and strikes where very effective. Through cutting off necessary resources for companies to make money, the unions would have the company’s hands tied and force them to change their policies and compromise. The Labor Movement has resulted in the formation of unions and laws in order to prevent violation against workers. Today, unions work on bargaining agreements with company’s over wages, benefits, and working condition. Unions allowed workers to fight for rights through depriving the company of the resources (manual labor) that they needed to make money. The company would often give in to the union in order to keep their factories or plants open and continue to be profitable. Unions tended to have a mixture of success and failure. Sometimes the union would be met with force and was banned from continuing their strike. In the 18th and 19th century in Europe, some groups were punished for forming unions. At the time unions were against the law and could be met with violence. Some unions were not successful due to internal failures. For example, The [|__Knights of Labor__] collapsed because of poor organization, lack of effective leadership, and disagreement over goals. Other times however unions where very good at achieving their goals. An eight hour work day was achieved thanks in great part to unions. Another way to achieve an outcome in the labor movement was to boycott certain items. Many people boycotted goods made by children to reduce child labor. The Labor Movement has had success throughout history especially in the United States however in other countries there is still a lot of work to be done.

= Primary Source: =

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//"Is there a man in this audience, looking at me now, and hearing me denounce this association, who longs to point his pistol at me ? I tell him that he has as good chance here as he will ever have again. I tell him that if there is another murder in this county, committed by this organization, every one of the five hundred members of the order in this county or out of it. who connives at it, will be guilty of murder in the first degree, and can be hanged by the neck until he is dead. I tell him that if there is another murder in this county by this society, there will be an inquisition for blood with which nothing that has been known in the annals of criminal jurist prudence can compare. //=====

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//And to whom are we indebted for this security, of which I now boast? To whom do we owe all this? Under the divine providence of God, to whom be all the honor and all the glory, we owe this safety to James McParland; and if there ever was a man to whom the people of this county should erect a monument, it is James McParland the detective. It is simply a question between the Molly Maguires on the one side, and Pinkerton's Detective Agency on the other; and I know too well that Pinkerton's Detective Agency will win. There is not a place on the habitable globe where these men can find refuge and in which they will not be tracked down." //=====

 Speech by Franklin B. Gowan at the trial of the Molly Maguires
=Analysis:=

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This speech was made at the trial of the Molly Maguires which was a group of miners who would band together to take down the restrictions on their working conditions and take drastic and sometimes even fatal actions to do so. Their protests were unsuccessful and Gowan makes this speech which shows that it was really hard for many groups protesting labor conditions to take an action because the officials had strict and tight rules on them and like many of the Molly Maguires, many of the protesters were publically killed. This killing was common for the movement and many of the workers even died during the protests themselves. The tactics used were drastic and big to get their points across, but the officials used threatening and death threat tactics to rid the country of these protestors, like the Molly Maguires. =====