Urban ReformsActual Responses to the Industrial Revolution:

Europe After 1830

The New Industrial City

Early 19th Century London

Worker Housing In Manchester

Foundation of the Factory System?

1. Wealthy (investors and owners)

2. Mid Level (factory managers, supervisors)

3. Low Level (machine operators)

Improvement of Health and Living Conditions

Public Health Act of 1875

• Pave, light, clean town streets

• Appoint a Medical Officer of Health

• Appoint a Surveyor and Sanitary Inspector

Late 1800’s – Urban Conditions Improve Dramatically

• Finding uncontaminated water supplies

• Water purification

• Sewers built

• Streets swept

Public Bath Houses

?

Soup Kitchens

Metropolitan Police Force

A government inspector visiting a factory in England to regulate child labor in the mid-1800s

The Reform Act of 1832

Child Labor

Why Employers Preferred Hiring Women and Children

• Men expected higher wages

• Men wouldn’t take orders as readily

• Unskilled nature of factory jobs deemed “inappropriate” for men

Child Labor in the Mines

Child Child “hurriers”“hurriers”

Dangers?

• Drowning from underground floods

• Suffocation from poisonous gasses

• Frequent explosions (candle flames)

• Cave-ins

1833 – Althorp’s Act

• Banned employment of children under 9 yrs old

• 9 hour workday for children 9-13

• 12 hour workday for children 13-18

• Forbade night work

Other Reforms

• Mine owners couldn’t employ women, girls, or boys under ten years old

• Working hours of women and children further limited

• Fencing around machines

• Mandatory school attendance

Factory Workers At Home

1700’s – Trade Clubs

1824 – Unions legal again

1868 – Trade Union Congress

1870’s – Unions win the right to strike

End of 1800’s – “New Unions”

Unions: The Good, The Bad

• Strength through unity

• Threat of a strike (bargaining tool)

• Social security measures

• Bargaining power

• Lack of government and legal support

• Union funds not legally protected

• Picketing was illegal

• Coercion

Hold the Fort

We meet today in freedom’s cause

And raise our voices high;

We’ll join our hands in union strong

To battle or to die.

Hold the Fort

Look, my comrades, see the union

Banners waving high

Reinforcements now appearing

Victory is nigh.

Hold the Fort

CHORUS:

Hold the fort for we are coming.

Union men, be strong!

Side by side we battle onward;

Victory will come.

Hold the Fort

See our numbers still increasing;

Hear the bugle blow.

By our union we shall triumph

Over every foe.

Hold the Fort

Fierce and long the battle rages

But we will not fear.

Help will come whene’er it’s needed

Cheer, my comrades, cheer.

Hold the Fort

CHORUS:

Hold the fort for we are coming.

Union men, be strong!

Side by side we battle onward;

Victory will come.

An allegory of class struggle

Communism Is Born!

The Communist Manifesto (1848)

• “Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.”

• Wealth and power?– Bourgeoisie (upper and upper-

middle classes)– Proletariat (working class)

• Dictatorship of the Proletariat

• “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Socialism Grows

• London (1864) – International Workingmen’s Association

• Germany (1875) – German Socialist Democratic Party

• Belgium (1879) – Belgian Socialist Party

• France (1905) – Socialist Party

• Britain (1901) – Labour Party*