USII.5



=**Explain the formation and goals of unions as well as the rise of radical political parties during the Industrial Era**=


 * Topics on the Page **
 * Unions and Their Goals **
 * ** History of Labor Day and the Pullman Strike **
 * **The Pullman Strike of 1894 Dramatic Event Page**
 * **Mary Harris "Mother" Jones Influential Biography Page**
 * **The Great Railway Strike of 1877**
 * **Bread and Roses Strike (1912)**
 * **The New York Shirtwaist Makers' Strike of 1909**
 * ** Knights of Labor **
 * ** The Haymarket Riot of 1886 **
 * ** American Federation of Labor headed by Samuel Gompers **
 * ** Industrial Workers of the World **
 * Radical Political Parties and Their Goals **
 * ** the Populist Party **
 * ** the Socialist Party headed by Eugene Debs **
 * ** the Ludlow Massacre **

//Focus Question: What were the reasons for the formation of unions and what were their goals?//
1) Labor unions formed in the U.S. beginning after the Revolution but did not really become powerful until the late 19th century and even more so during the early and mid 20th century.

2) Labor unions became a way for workers to ensure that they were getting equitable wages, reasonable hours, safe working conditions, and fair treatment in the workplace. Many labor unions wanted to create representation for those in their field and hold managers and owners accountable upholding a predetermined level of standards.

[|Timeline] that describes the change in labor throughout American history. [|Timeline] for the Women in Labor Movement [|Lesson Plan] for the goals, development and results of the American Labor Movement.
 * The History of Labor Day and the Pullman Strike**

Click here for one perspective on the History of Labor Day from the U. S. Department of Labor.
 * The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City.

Click here to read Samuel Gomper's article "The Significance of Labor Day"
 * Labor Day's Violent Beginnings from the website, CNNMoney.
 * Click here for a video on the origins of the Labor Movement.
 * Listen to a segment on the "Brief History of the Labor Movement" on NPR.
 * Short [|Video] from the History channel which describes the basics of the labor movement

The Great Railway Strike of 1877

 * The first major national rail strike **
 * **initiated by railroad workers in Martinsburg, West Virginia**


 * Go here for an overview of the strike** from Ohio History Central
 * ====**Historical Background from the New York State Library**====


 * The Great Railway Strike of 1877 and Newspaper Coverage from University of Nebraska Lincoln **


 * Howard Zinn Short History of the Strike **


 * [[image:Screen Shot 2015-12-13 at 4.03.33 PM.png link="@http://teaching.msa.maryland.gov/000001/000000/000070/html/t70.html"]]The Strike of 1877: Primary Documents **



**Bread and Roses Strike (1912)**
The Bread and Roses Strike that begun on January 12, 1912 in Lawrence, Massachusetts was one of first labor strikes in which women and children played a major role.

For more on the strike, go to Bread & Roses Strike Speaks to the Present from University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Bread and Roses poem by James Oppenheim, published in 1911, and sung on this site in English and French.

Preamble and Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World (1905).
 * Image below is The great railway strike--Attempt to start a freight train, under a guard of United States marshals, at East St. Louis, Illinois. Image from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, April 10, 1886. **

**The Knights of Labor**
The Knights of Labor formed 1869 in Philadelphia, and spread to Chicago following the 1877 railroad strikes that swept through stations on the east coast, south, and midwest.


 * The Knights of Labor was one of the earliest labor organizing party that sought to diversify the worker population by enlisting workers from different races, such as African Americans, and women under the motto “An Injury to One Is the Concern of All."
 * Like other labor unions, they advocated for laws ending child labor and also wanted equal pay for women.
 * They wanted to close the widening economic gap between the rich and the poor, and therefore called for a progressive income tax. There was a desire to not strike and several of the leaders were against striking but many people saw it as an effective strategy.

Click here to read about the Knights of Labor in the New York Times.

Attached is a great YouTube video about the Knights of Labor and their successes. What is interesting about this video is that it was actually done by an AP US History student. It was well done. Knights of Labor Video.

[|Lesson plan] for the Knights of Labor and the Haymarket Riot

**The Haymarket Riot, May 4, 1886**

 * The Knights of Labor dissolved because many people saw them as a catalyst for the Haymarket Riot in Chicago which started as a massive strike and ended as a battle between working class people and the police.**

The Knights were against striking from the beginning but were seen as an easy group to blame. The flier to the right is from the Haymarket Riot time period.

The biggest impact of the Haymarket Riot was the impact it had on American Labor. Much of the success of the Knights of the Labor dissipated because of this riot.

The media used the bombing and subsequent riot to blame it on perceived anarchists in the Unions. The members in Unions fell dramatically because of this.
 * **A great summary of the entire riot itself along with it's consequences, How a Bomb Tossed in 1886 Riot Impacted the American Labor Movement**
 * **A great summary of the entire riot itself along with it's consequences, How a Bomb Tossed in 1886 Riot Impacted the American Labor Movement**
 * **A great summary of the entire riot itself along with it's consequences, How a Bomb Tossed in 1886 Riot Impacted the American Labor Movement**

Haymarket Labor Martyrs Honored, New York Times (May 4, 1986) For an excellent lesson plan on the Haymarket Riot see The American Jury: Analyzing the Haymarket Riot.

For a video on the Haymarket Riot, see Haymarket Martyrs--Origin of International Workers Day.

The American Federation of Labor (AFL)
The AFL was formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers whose mantra was "Keep it Simple." His idea was to create a labor organization that was not extremely radical. He believed that this was essential for the success of AFL's goals.

The AFL came about while the Knights of Labor still existed. Due to the growing discontent with the Knights, leadership from the Knights founded the AFL in Central Ohio.

Gompers wanted the AFL to help support the autonomy of each of its members and also chose to limit membership whereas the Knights had a far more open membership policy.

Like most unions at the time, the AFL wanted fairer wages and owner accountability and also like any middle and low class worker during the era, they advocated for tougher immigration laws and worked on keeping immigrants out. There was at first a socialist attitude present but that quickly changed to a more conservative one.

Because of it's limiting of membership, the AFL quickly came under fire from many groups. For a large part of it's history (arguable even today) the AFL only represented white males. The justification for racial exclusion was that the AFL supported skilled labor (which was predominately white) before unskilled labor (which was predominately black).

Click here for primary source document by Samuel Gompers and a Labor's Reward (1925) video outlining labor unions in the 20th century. Click here for video about the AFL done for a school project.

IWW History Project, University of Washington
Timeline for the Industrial Workers of the World

Works by Eugene V. Debs

The Little Red Songbook (1916)

**[[image:rotating gif.gif width="43" height="43"]]For more on political parties in American politics, see**

 * ===** United States Government. 3.7 **===
 * ===Political Parties and Elections===


 * Third Parties in the U.S. Political Process, PBS Newshour**

The period from the late 1890s to the first two decades of the 20th century saw an increase in political efforts for the "common working man."
 * The Populist party and [|the Socialist party [1]] emerged to help represent this working man in politics and labor unions such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor came about to help make sure there needs were being met in the workforce.
 * This era saw great growth in industry but along with it came a need for many changes in the way people were represented since they saw themselves as getting walked over by those in power.



The Populist Party
The Populist Party emerged due to fears by many farmers following the Panic of 1873 in which a severe depression hit the U.S.
 * Many groups started to come out to represent the farmers but it was not until they decided to create a political party that they were able to bring their main issues to the forefront.
 * The populist party was not just limited to farmers but also become popular among northern urban workers the too groups attempted to unite under the idea that government was in the pocket of big business. Instead they desired greater representation to prevent middle men monopolies from benefiting from the hard work of farmers and urban works combine.
 * The Democrats and the Republicans did not agree with many of their issues and so the farmers along with many other poor workers, regardless of race, started to get political. They advocated against the gold standard and wanted to see an end to the national bank. They also called for eight hour working days, and even pressed to get direct election of U.S. Senators since at the time Senators were chosen by the state.
 * At first they were very fair to all races but following a few losses in the national elections, they started to align with the racist Democrats and effectively lost their African American base.
 * The Populists were able to send a few candidates to the Presidential election and had many members in the national legislature. It is commonly referred to as the People's Party.

Read the Populist Party Platform ( 1892) Over view of the Populist Party

Click here to watch a video on Populism and the Populist Party. Click here to watch a Youtube video on the Populist Party [|Video] from Crash Course that talks about the Populist Party

Read about gender and race in the Populist Party

The Socialist Party of America came into being after a merger between two prominent Socialist parties. Different sectors of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Labor Party of America each came together to form the Socialist Party.
 * The main goal was socialism and to bring it to the U.S. Of course, this meant they wanted to get away from capitalism and bring about a society in which the community dispersed wealth and property.
 * It was a pretty large movement and sent Eugene Debs to the Presidential election. They were also able to get some seats in Congress and had members as mayors in several cities.
 * The party started to lose momentum in the mid 20th century and pretty much dissolved completely in the 1960s.

The socialist party was like any other political party in the United States. They had candidates who would run for President among other things. For an interesting article on gender dynamics within the Socialist Party of America before 1920, see For White Men Only: The Socialist Party of America and Issues of Gender, Ethnicity and Race by Sally M. Miller, Journal of the Glided Age and Progressive Era (2003).
 * The socialist party wanted social reform, in which there would be no classes, or anything of that nature.
 * The party had their own conventions like any other party would.
 * A detailed description of these conventions can be seen here, Socialist Party Conventions. What is really interesting about this is that you can see how the party quickly gained popularity in the early 20th century, and then how it dwindled as time went on.

Click here for a [|Debs biography] from Kansasheritage.org
 * A key member of the Socialist Party was also Bill Haywood. Bill Haywood Trial (1907)

Ludlow Massacre


The Ludlow Massacre occurred on April 20, 1914 at the Ludlow Colony in Colorado.
 * The conflict arose over tensions between striking coalminers and John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s Colorado Fuel and Iron Company.
 * The miners were striking about unsafe working conditions.
 * After months of prolonged protest, the state sent in their National Guard to end the strike, a confrontation that led to the death of at least 19 individuals, at least 12 of whom were women and children.

This was a turning point in American labor relations. Rockefeller was widely criticized and the event brought greater attention to the labor issues of Colorado miners.

View more photos and listen to an oral history of the event here.

Watch a video of Howard Zinn discussing the Ludlow Massacre and Woody Guthrie's song about the event.

Horrors of History: Massacre of the Miners. T. Neill Anderson (2015)

Additional Links and Sources
[1] The Socialist Party of America. Retrieved April 26, 2007, from Early American Marxism Web site: http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/socialistparty.html Labor History Timeline (2011). Retrieved 27 March 2011 from AFL-CIO's site: []. Socialist Party of America. Retrieved 27 March 2011 from Spartacus Educational's site: []. The American Jury: Analyzing the Haymarket Riot. Retrieved 27 March 2011 from CRFC's site: []. Haymarket Martyrs--Origin of International Workers Day (2008). Retrieved 27 March 2011 from Youtube's site: []. Origins of the Labor Movement (2007). Retrieved 27 March 2011 from Youtube's site: []. Eugene V. Debs Internet Archive. Retrieved 27 March 2011 from: [].