The Socialist Challenge
Tritia Lukito
Ch S 245
OL- 14003
Socialist Authors
Upton Sinclair
Jack London
Top: Theodore Dreiser
Bottom: Frank Norris
Lukito, 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
Lukito,
Taylorism
Frederick W. Taylor
•worked out a system of finely
detailed division of labor,
increased mechanization, and
piecework wage systems, to
increase production and
p
r
o
f
i
t
s
•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
Lukito,
Tritia
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
manufacturing, transport, and agriculture
•
In New York factories, 50,000 accidents occurred
•
Lead to workers striking for better working conditions
in
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”
Lukito, Tritia
Wobblies
I.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
Lukito, Tritia
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
Lukito, Tritia
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
Lukito, Tritia
“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 Actto 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
Lukito, Tritia
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.
Lukito, Tritia