Summary Of Chapter 13, By Upton Sinclair

In Zinn’s chapter 13, The Socialist challenge, The working class didn’t like the conditions that they were having to work in. The Muckrakers, journalists who wrote poor things, wrote newspaper articles, books and the pieces of writing about the conditions the workers had to work in. Some of the main instigators and authors behind the writings consisted of Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, Lincoln Steffens, J.P. Morgan, Eugene Debs, Theodore Roosevelt and Jack London. Each of these individuals offered something different to the fight. Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, which was a novel that shocked the nation discussing the harsh conditions in the Chicago meatpacking plants. Ida Tarbell writings were attacking the corruption of the standard

In 1906, Jack London “wrote his novel The Iron Heel, with its warning of a fascist America, it’s ideal of a socialist brotherhood of man” to warn Americans about the possibility of becoming a fascist nation (322). Early in the 20th century was the rise of management science which was pioneered by Frederick W. Taylor. Taylor sought to simplify workers duties into different steps. The Industrialists embraced Taylor's techniques because they helped deskill the labor force and make employees more expendable. The factory conditions didn't’ improve at all but the worker's jobs became repetitive in the interest of the factory maximizing efficiency. During this time period of the 20th century, the number of strikes skyrocketed and this became the worker's main way of fighting back for their rights. “‘Strikes are mere incidents in the class war; they are tests of strength, periodical drills in the course of which the workers train themselves for concerted action. This training is most necessary to prepare the masses for the final ‘catastrophe’ the general strike which will complete the expropriation of the employers” (331). Some of the work conditions that the workers faced were “‘... dangerously broken stairways… windows few and so dirty… The wooden floors that were

“The war was hardly over, it was February 1919, the IWW leadership was in jail, but the IWW idea of the general strike became reality for five days in Seattle, Washington, when a walkout of 100,000 working people brought the city to a halt. It began with 35,000 shipyard workers striking for a wage increase.” (377). The government sent in troops to end the strike. The end of the strike was partially due to the soldiers and the difficulties of living in a shut-down city. The government sent in the troops because it showed a growing resistance to the order the government had put in place. Congress passed laws to prevent mass numbers of foreigners from entering the country. The KKK revived. While unemployment was low in the 1920s and wages increased, prosperity remained concentrated at the top of society.In the 1920s, with the Socialist party severely weakened by World War One, the Communist Party rose to a new level of prominence. The American Communist Party organized many strikes and protests. “Communists organized a strike of furriers who formed mass picket lines, battled the police to hold their lines, were arrested and beaten but kept striking until they won a forty-hour work week and a wage increase” (386). In 1929 the stock market crashed. In many ways, this was due to the instability of the American economic system. In general, Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal programs were