How the capitalists established the eight-hour day

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Modern people who enjoy the benefits of socialism such as an 8-hour working day, paid vacations, weekends, pensions, have long forgotten where all these things came from. They have forgotten in the same way as they have not understood the true meaning of the celebration of May 1 for a long time. As for all the listed benefits, the rights to them were literally torn out by the labor movement at one time.

At the beginning of the 20th century, everything was not the same as it is now. And in this case, we are not talking about fashion for clothes or the perception of female beauty. First of all - about the attitude of people of the exploiting classes to people from the exploited classes. For example, the relationship of the bourgeoisie to the workers.

Note:in a broad sense, the proletariat is any exploited worker, and not necessarily a factory worker. In the modern sense, the programmer sitting in the office is also a proletarian.

But back to the 19th century. Industry around the world was booming at that time, and the operation was very harsh indeed. The terrible living conditions of ordinary people constantly came into conflict with the ideas of enlightenment, which is why the left - socialist, and then communist ideas - gained more and more popularity in European countries. In 1817, British entrepreneur, philosopher, educator and leftist Robert Owen formulated a rule «8/8/8»: “Eight hours is labor. Eight hours rest. Eight hours is a dream. At that time, in the countries of Europe and America, the working day in factories and factories was 12-15 hours.

Explanation: the terms "right" and "left" appeared during the French Revolution and were originally applied to MPs sitting on opposite sides of parliament. The right advocated the preservation of the old order, the left advocated the creation of a republic in France and the separation of church from state. Subsequently, the terms began to be applied to political systems depending on their relationship to property rights and distribution of benefits. In our time, the right is a supporter of capitalism. Nationalism is considered to be the highest manifestation of right-wing ideology, and fascism is considered to be the extreme. The left are supporters of socialism. Communism is considered to be the highest manifestation of left ideology, and anarchism is considered to be the extreme.

Congress was held in 1866 International Working People's Association, which was attended by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (I think they do not need a presentation). During their speech, they called for the introduction of an 8-hour workday. As a result 1st of May That same year, workers in Chicago in the United States went on a massive strike. They demanded an increase in wages, a reduction of the 15-hour working day to 8-hour, the abolition of child labor, the introduction of social guarantees. In Chicago alone, 40,000 people took to the streets. More than 11 thousand workers came out in support of reforms in Detroit, another 10 thousand in New York.

It all ended sadly. This event went down in history as Haymarket riot … Due to the provocation of the anarchists, the police opened fire on the crowd, as a result of which there were killed and wounded. Subsequently, arrests and round-ups also began. In the course of the search for the perpetrators, several hundred more people were injured. The police used, among other things, torture. American newspapers attacked the entire leftist movement in the United States. Taking advantage of chaos and police brutality, criminal activity has intensified in many cities.

Nevertheless, despite the systematic repressions against the left movement, gradually the authorities of different countries were forced to make concessions to the workers. Interestingly, the first country in the world to establish an 8-hour workday directly was Mexico! As for Russia, the situation before the 1917 revolution did not improve much. The working day was reduced from 11.5 to 9.5 hours, while child labor remained, and the attitude towards workers in most factories was terrible, there were no social guarantees. All of the above finally changed only after the arrival of Soviet power, which enshrined social guarantees and an 8-hour working day in the constitution.

Thus, the 8-hour workday is one of the most important achievements of the left movement around the world. It is important to understand that the authorities and the bourgeoisie ultimately made concessions for a reason. Rallies, strikes and demonstrations thundered all over the world, where they were systematically dispersed and even shot by police and army. The Haymarket riot was far from an isolated incident. Similar events took place in most European countries, including the UK and France. And after the socialist revolution thundered in Russia, the entire bourgeois world shook. Fearing a similar development of events in their states, the bourgeois authorities were forced to make numerous concessions.

You should remember this the next time you have to hear the passages that fascism and communism are one and the same.

Note: many will probably remember that the Nazi party in Germany was called the "National Socialist German Workers' Party". It should be remembered that if an eggplant calls itself a stool, it will not become a stool. What matters is what policy the party pursues and what ideas it professes. Specifically, the NSDAP had nothing to do with socialism, since its policy defended the same big bourgeoisie. The word "socialist" was added by the Nazis specifically to attract the people. Let us recall that the German fascists waged a fierce struggle against the German communists (many of whom, by the way, were killed later) and wanted to show that it is possible to build a "welfare state" without communist ideas. Dr. Goebbels was generally a master of deceiving huge masses of the people with words alone.