HIST 221 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Wage Labour, Deskilling, Scientific Management
19 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Immigration and the State
Who controlled immigration policy?
Decades of conflict between the federal government and state
governments
○
Different interests
○
Congress
○
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Gatekeeping spurred growth of federal bureaucracy, increased power
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US bureau of immigration (1891)
Standardized immigrations operations, enforced legislation passed by
the US congress
○
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Ellis Island, Angel Island
Can see how people create a concept that is embedded in ideologies
○
-
Changing Labour Conditions
Industrialization, mechanization, scientific management
Large scale move to wage labour and urbanization
1092 the US was more urban than rural (more people were living
in urban areas)
§
○
Deskilling and replaceable workers
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Increasing managerial hierarchy
○
Radical uncertainty of economy
Yearly wages rose between 1869 and 1890, but so did lay-offs,
industrial accidents
§
○
Lack of safety regulations and enforcement in the workplace
Mining, railroads
§
○
-
Streets Paved With…
1889: 70% of the nations wealth belonged to 1/300th of the US population
-
NYC's slums mortality rate was 80% which was higher than the national
average
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In the Chicago slums, 50% of children die before the age of 5
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Ghettos as heavens and prisons
-
Company towns and "scrip"
Fake money was called scrip and was given to miners by the company
instead of them actually paying people, scrip was used at the company
store and would charge insane prices
○
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Railroad Strike of 1877
Spurred by panic of 1873, cuts in jobs and wages
-
First national general strike in the US
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Started in WV (West Virginia) and MD, spread to Baltimore, Chicago, Kansas
City, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco all saw violent strikes
-
Ten states mobilized 60,000 militia members, supported by President Hays
By the end, there were more than 100 dead
○
Re-deliniation of public space
Every good citizen should be inside during the strike
§
Even going and looking is something that can hold you
accountable for this situation
§
People who are doing the striking are foreign
§
○
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Knights of Labour
Founded in 1869 as a union for skilled craftsmen Trade Unions
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In the 1880s, it opened to include farmers and industrial workers, women,
even African Americans
Supported by the Chinese Exclusion Act
○
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Included many immigrants
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Uniting goal was for an 8 hour work day
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KoL Constitution
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Grew dramatically through the 1880s, uniting goal of an 8 hour work day
8 hours to work, 8 hours to sleep, 8 hours to do whatever we want
○
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Almost totally disappeared by the 1900s
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Haymarket Affair
Chicago, 1886
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KoL movement, anarchist activists
Particularly influential German press
○
-
Began as a general strike on May 1
Workers get locked out by their employers for striking, they will only let
them back in when they sign a contract saying that they will not join any
unions
○
McCormick Reaper Co.
These companies try to call in the military militia but the mayor
will not let them use the milita
§
○
-
Strike breakers, police action
Private security force that employers can get to come in with guns and
to break up the strike
○
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Rally at Haymarket Square
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Dynamite bomb thrown into the crowd , chaos, 7 policemen and 4 workers
killed
Prominent people in the strike movement were rounded up and thrown
in jail
○
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Haymarket
8 people charged with conspiracy, 7 people sentenced to death
Some of the people were not even there and were still charged
○
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Illinois vs. August Spies et al
No one even asks if he was even there, they just start reading the
constitution and charge him with whatever
○
-
4 people are hanged, 1 commits suicide
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International influence
May Day - Lucy Parsons makes sure she publishes her husbands writing
every year and keep the movement alive (commemorate the
miscarriage of justice that happened during Haymarket)
○
Dangers of anti-capitalism and danger in the US
○
-
American Federation of Labour (AFL)
Founded in 1886
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Knights of Labour got too radical and people decide it would be better to
break up and have a smaller and less radical organization
"Craft Unionism" or "Business Unionism"
○
Skilled craftsmen and hierarchical organization
○
-
Based on specific crafts, more centralization organization
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Focused on income and working conditions of its members, "male wage"
Should make enough money so no one else in his family has to work,
specifically wife or children
○
-
Women, African Americans, "unskilled" labourers
Excluded
○
-
548,000 members by 1900
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Allies - traditional parties rather than advocating for a new one; accepting
capitalism and wanted to expand its benefits
Choose to work with national parties (republicans)
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Expand capitalist benefits instead of overthrow it
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Homestead Steel Strike
1892 in Homestead, PA
Started by the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers
Andrew Carnegie's company
§
○
Workers get locked out because they wanted increased wages so they
go on strike, as a result the manager of the company hires the
Pinkertons (security) to shut down the strike
Then the state militia gets involved
§
○
Strikers charged with murder, conspiracy (not convicted by the jury)
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Blacklisted, end of steel unions
○
Carnegie donates new buildings to Homestead because he felt back
about the strike: library, a concert hall, a swimming pool, bowling alleys
and gymnasium
What he does infuriates radical people within the labour
movement and there was an assassination attempt of Henry Clay
Frick
Because of this, people start to stop feeling bad for the
workers
□
§
○
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Assassination of President William McKinley (1901)
Becomes a pivital moment where there is anti-worker sentiments
○
The same year, 35,000 workers died during that year by working at
unregulated companies
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Wealth inequality
Produced so much instability
○
Was it necessary to progress?
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Was wealth a sign of worthiness?
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Should it be redistributed? How and by whom?
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Labour and property
What was the most effective way to organize?
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Were labour unions and striking "American"?
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Should the state intervene? On whose behalf?
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Lecture 7 -Striking Bodies
Monday, January 22, 2018
9:31 AM
Document Summary
Decades of conflict between the federal government and state governments. Gatekeeping spurred growth of federal bureaucracy, increased power. Standardized immigrations operations, enforced legislation passed by the us congress. Can see how people create a concept that is embedded in ideologies. Large scale move to wage labour and urbanization. 1092 the us was more urban than rural (more people were living in urban areas) Yearly wages rose between 1869 and 1890, but so did lay-offs, industrial accidents. Lack of safety regulations and enforcement in the workplace. 1889: 70% of the nations wealth belonged to 1/300th of the us population. Nyc"s slums mortality rate was 80% which was higher than the national average. In the chicago slums, 50% of children die before the age of 5. Fake money was called scrip and was given to miners by the company instead of them actually paying people, scrip was used at the company store and would charge insane prices.
