Working Class Resistance

From Haymarket to Pullman

A Land of Contrasts “Gilded Age” Aristocracy

– 3/100 of 1 percent owned 20 percent of national wealth

– 9 percent owned 71 percent of national wealth– The bottom 52 percent owned only 5 percent of

the nation’s wealth “proof of industry and foresight on your

part or your father’s…”

A Land of Contrasts

$300 average annual per capita national income (1880 Census)

Earning power actually dropped 1877-1900.

“Over-supply” vs. “Under-consumption”

Labor Conditions Family wages Periodic unemployment Industrial fines and expenses The “Company Town” Payment in “tickets” The Work Day Hazardous working conditions Skilled vs. unskilled labor “I regard my employees as I do a machine, to be used to my

advantage, and when they are old and of no further use, I cast them in the street.” –Massachusetts manufacturer.

Labor Organizations and the Struggle with Capital

Community organizations and craft unions The Knights of Labor (1869)

– Terence V. Powderly (1879) – Union Pacific and Southern Railway Strike

(1885) – Race, gender, and the K.o.L.

Eight Hour Day Movement (1882-1886) Haymarket Square “Riots” (1886)

“Business Unionism” to Socialism

(AFL) American Federation of Labor (1881) – Samuel Gompers– “business unionism”

Homestead Steel Strike (1892) The Pullman Strike (1894)

– Eugene V. Debs (American Railway Union) – “A contest between the producing classes and the

money power of the country”

Union Membership as Percent of National Workforce, 1870-1900

1870 1880 1886 1890 1900Union members (thousands)

300 50 1,010 325 791

Nonagricultural workforce

6,140 8,470 11,404 13,360 17,390

Percent organized

4.89% 0.59% 8.86% 2.43% 4.55%

Haymarket Defendants

Haymarket Square “Riots”

Samuel

Gompers

“Our victory is now complete and most gratifying. Do not think we will ever have any serious labor trouble again.”—Carnegie (Nov. 20, 1892)

Sing ho, for we know you, Carnegie;God help us and save us, we know you too well;You're crushing our wives and you're starving our babies;In our homes you have driven the shadow of hell.Then bow, bow down to Carnegie,Ye men who are slaves to his veriest whim;If he lowers your wages cheer, vassals, then cheer. Ye are nothing but chattels and slaves under him.

- 2nd verse, "A Man Named Carnegie," anonymous, California, 7 July 1892

Eugene V. Debs