Understanding Engels

Last semester I took a class called Employee & Labor Relations. We talked a lot about American unions in the early 20th century and these few pages from Mary Barton's Appendix C (Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England) reminded me a lot of what I learned.

Free Association: "the individual right to come together with other individuals and collectively express, promote, pursue and defend common interests"

bourgeoisie: middle class

proletariat: lower working class

Goals of the Unions
1. to deal with the employers
2. "to regulate the rate of wages"
3. "to keep up the demand for labour by limiting the number of apprentices"
4. "to counteract, as far as possible, the indirect wages reductions which the manufacturers brought about"
5. "to assist unemployed working-men financially"

How the Employees handled their Employers
1. "a deputation is sent or a petition forwarded" [deputation: a group of representatives]
2. they go on strike

knobsticks: while the union workers are on strike, some workers (who may receive extra payment from employees, or may just not want to strike) will continue to work and not go on strike. They are parallel to the American union's "scabs"

Overall, it seems the author has a negative view of unions. However, the essay is not purely negative. The thing that I liked the most was how the author described the lower class toward the end of the essay. He writes "it is, in truth, no trifle for a working-man...to endure hunger and wretchedness for months together, and stand firm and unshaken through it all." He gives the lower class strength in his descriptions. He even writes, "...that they, as working men, a title of which they are proud..." I think despite all of the negativity towards unions throughout this essay, the description of the workers really stands out.



[Victorian Literature]