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The Success Of The Labor Movement In The Gilded Age

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The Ultimate Success of the Labor Movement
The United States’ industry boomed in the Market Revolution of the early 19th century as new means of transportation, new factories, and new technologies connected the population and transformed the States into a commercial nation. Industries boomed like never before and the working class grew steadily with the influx of immigrants and caused a shift from a rural to urban lifestyle. Rapid industrialization and a lack of workplace regulation in the Gilded Age led to little regard for factory conditions and safety and the division between the worker and employer widened. Labor unions grew increasingly popular with the formation of two influential unions in the 1880s, the Knights of Labor and the American …show more content…

The Haymarket Square Riot in 1886 was a turning point in the public view of the labor movement. In protest for an eight-hour workday, demonstrators rallied in the Square. The police were sent to disperse the crowd and a bomb was detonated, killing and injuring many. Although the identity of the bomber was never found, the incident introduced panic and prejudice against immigrants, unionists, and anarchists, creating for the labor movement the sentiment that it was radical and violent. The Knights of Labor decreased in membership and died out with the association with the Haymarket Riot, showing the failure of the protest in the …show more content…

Seen in the cartoon, “The I.W.W. And the Other Features That Go with It”, the IWW, a major radical labor union, is depicted as Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany. As the US entered WW1, opinion against Germany was highly negative, and the comparison between the IWW and the Kaiser shows the adverse social opinion of the labor movement. Additionally, The Bolshevik party overthrew the weak provisional government in October of 1917, replacing the leadership with Vladimir Lenin and the Soviet Socialist Republic. Fear that a similar revolution would occur and disrupt democracy spread throughout the United States in an era called the First Red Scare. Opponents of the government were arrested in the Palmer Raids, and individual rights of free speech were surrendered for the stability of the war cause and government with the passage of the Espionage and Sedition Acts. The labor movement’s connection with immigrants and anarchists weakened its effectiveness because the prevailing opinion of the public during the Red Scare showed little support for their

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In Lizabeth Cohen’s book, Making a New Deal, it shows a timeline of the shift that took place in the American people during the Great Depression. Before the Great Depression in 1919 there was a wave of strikes that failed after the Great War. The disappointment from the little gains for the American working class caused the labors to abandon some of their values and look for better ways to organize the Unions. When the Great Depression hit America labors had to come up with new ideas and behaviors to create a stronger Unions. Stronger Unions made it possible for them to have power in national politics and still succeed in their work life.

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On top of distrust of immigrants, the Red Scare targeted unions. Many Americans

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The feeling, shown in Nast's illustration after the railroad strike of 1877, that amalgamations simply lead to more " communistic values" and general uniformity made it very arduous to genuinely get anything done. Samuel Gompers, progenitor of the American Federation of Labor, argued that the right to strike was absolutely obligatory if any reforms were going to be made and not even this right had been officially granted to the people by regime (Document I). Gompers made it very pellucid that not even the very substratum of organized labor had been established and so up until this point the advances that had been made, were virtually frivolous. In conclusion, from 1875-1900 very few advances were made through organized labor in achieving better working conditions for workers.

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“In the United States history of unions, early workers and trade unions played an important part in the role for independence” (Union Plus). In 1866, the National Labor Union (NLU) ambitiously tried to achieve equal rights for women, African Americans, and mandate eight-hour work days. They managed to convince Congress to adopt the eight-hour work day, but only for federal employees. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) with approximately 1.4 million members was successful in wage negotiation, and enhanced work conditions for its members. “A combination of factors contributed to the debilitating Panic of 1873, which triggered what the public referred to at the time as the “Great Depression” of the 1870s” (OpenStax College, 2014).

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However, the economic crises in 1837 collapsed the labor unions because of economic hard times, and with immigrants coming in surplus willing to work for cheap, regular people could not compete and thus had to work at the beckon of the factories. Labor unions worked when the economy was resilient, but when the economy was shocked, everyone was too afraid of demanding more when there were those willing to work for

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The federal government often sends troops to fight and attack war protesters. In 1863, a massive riot broke out in New York City, killing about 400 people. It was the first time in the early 19th century that the United States formed a union to resist exploitation. Workers elect candidates in elections, but many believe the most reliable way is to get what they want through riots and demonstrations.

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The bombing happened at a labor protest event where an unknown person threw a lit piece of dynamite at police officers The American Federation of Labor (AFL) quietly grew in power during the more volatile years following the great depression, coordinating efforts for several dozen independent labor unions. The American Federation of Labor only represented skilled white men. They pursued better wages and shorter workdays for their members. Even though the AFL only represented a small group of people this union survived the Gilded Age and would become one of the most powerful labor unions in the new century.

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Industrialization skyrocketed during The Gilded Age. People became millionaires, monopolies arose, and many jobs were created as a result. However, because there were no regulations, workers were exploited by monopolists. Political Machines took advantage of immigrants by bribing their votes in exchange for helping them assimilate into American culture, Americanizing them. Americanization is the process to assimilate immigrants into American culture.

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Schneirov argues that the strike was a product of the larger social and economic crisis of the 1890s, which was marked by economic depression, political corruption, and social unrest. He highlights the role of labor unions and socialist organizations in mobilizing workers and promoting collective action. Schneirov also examines the response of the federal government to the strike, which he argues was motivated by a desire to protect the interests of capital and maintain social order. Schneirov's article provides a nuanced and insightful analysis of the Pullman Strike and its historical significance as a turning point in American labor history.

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They arranged this rally to protest the several workers that were killed by the police the day before. Later on in the rally the police showed up at the Haymarket square to get rid of the rally. Once they started to come closer to the workers a person within the crowd threw a pipe bomb(to this day he is still unidentified). The police and also some members of the crowd opened fire and chaos broke out. Seven police officers and at least one civilian died as a result of the violence that day, and an untold number of other people were

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The time period from when the Second Industrial Revolution was beginning, up until President McKinley’s assassination in 1901, is known as the Gilded Age. After the Civil War, many people headed out West to pursue agriculture, and many immigrants moved to urban areas to acquire jobs in industrial factories. It is in this context that farmers and industrial workers had to respond to industrialization. Two significant ways farmers and industrial workers responded to industrialization in the Gilded Age, were creating the Populist Party and the American Federation of Labor (AFL).

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Jessica HillisMr. GillardAP US History5 January 2007Essay 16: Gilded AgeThroughout history, certain periods of time have been given certain names based on thehappenings that occurred. Many have called the period of 1865 to 1901 the “Gilded Age”, be-cause it was “shiny and pretty” on the outside but it was “rough and ugly” underneath. The term“Gilded Age” was actually coined by Mark Twain who satired the Gilded Age with a GoldenAge.

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Farmers and Industrial Workers in the Gilded Age In a time when industrialization was booming, immigrants were racing towards the “American Dream”, and cities were growing towards the sky, the United States was thriving. As a country, the United States went from rural, to mostly urban, which made America “the world’s largest industrial power” as stated by John Green. Since the U.S. had become mostly urban, this left the very few rural workers (farmers), and even some of the industrial workers unhappy. This period of industrialization is called the Gilded Age than spans from 1865 to 1900.The farmers and industrial workers responded to the Gilded Age in significantly negative ways including unions against their authority, strikes and political

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What was the Gilded Age and why did Mark Twain refer to it as such? To help understand this question, one must know the meaning of the word gild. Per Merriam Webster, the term gild means to “to give an attractive but often deceptive appearance to” (Gild, n.d.). After the Civil War the American people had become tired of all the corruption and simply wanted to see an end to it and to have a stable economy. The Gilded Age was fashioned to be prosperous times for all Americans, promising wealth, and an end to past political corruption.

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