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1. SOCIALIST MOVEMENT
2. Early Socialists
1. Babeuf Conspiracy
2. Utopian Socialists
3. Blanqui
3. Communist League
4. Marxian Socialism
5. After 1848 revolution
6. The First International, 1864
7. The Paris Commune, 1871
8. The Second International
1. 2nd international: achievements
2. 2nd International: cry against colonialism
3. 2nd International: Limitations
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9. EXERCISES
In the last part we saw unification of Germany and Unification of
Italy (click me), now continuing on to the 4th and last part:
You have read in Chapter 7 about the emergence of a new social
and economic system called capitalism. Under this system, the
means of production such as factories and the things produced by
factories were owned and controlled by a few people. The vast
majority of the people who worked in the factories had no rights.
Their conditions of work and living were miserable. They were
frequently without jobs. The workers gradually began to organize
themselves into trade unions to protect their common rights though
for a long time there were laws against workers combining
themselves into unions. The governments were also forced to pass
laws against some of the worse features of capitalism. For example
Laws to protect workers from unsafe conditions of work were
passed in many countries. Some progress was also made in
regulating hours of work.
Some workers had begun to think that machines were the cause of
their misery. In England, there was a movement to machines led
the Luddites so named after their leader Ned Ludd. However, they
soon realized that the destruction of machines would not put an end
to their misery. In England, a new political movement started which
aimed at winning political rights for workers. This was the Chartist
movement about which you have read before.
The greatest challenge to capitalism came from the ideas of
socialism and the movements based on those ideas. The idea grew
that capitalism itself is evil and that it needs to be replaced by a
different kind and economic system in which the means a
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creating.
One of the finest examples of workers solidarity was evidenced at
the time of the war between Prussia and France in 1870. You have
read about this war earlier in the context of the unification of
Germany. The war was condemned both by the German and
French workers as a crime committed by the French and Prussian
dynasties. The French and German branches of the International
sent messages of good wishes and solidarity to each other. The
Social Democratic Party in Germany in a message to the French
workers, said,
we shall never forget that the workers of all nations are our
friends and the despots of all nations are our enemies. After the
defeat of the French army, the German government announced its
intention to annex Alsace-Lorraine from France. The German
workers protested against this and there were many
demonstrations in various cities of Germany. All the leaders of
German workers were arrested on charges of treason.
The war between France and Prussia led to another important
developmentan uprising by the workers of Paris and the seizure
of-power by-them. This is one of the most important events in the
history of socialism. Within a few weeks of the war the French army
had been defeated and the French emperor Louis Bonaparte had
been taken prisoner. A new government had come into being and
had declared France a republic. This government was dominated
by the propertied classes and had agreed to Bismarcks terms for
truce including the surrender of Paris, cession of Alsace-Lorraine
and the payment of a huge war indemnity. The workers of Paris
regarded the surrender by the government as treacherous. They
refused to surrender. The government withdrew from Paris on 18
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February 1871 and asked for German help to crush Paris. The
workers of Paris elected a council which on 28 March 1871
assumed the title of the Paris Commune. It was elected by
universal adult franchise and represented the workers and the
lower middle classes of Paris. It proclaimed as its aim the
endingof exploitation, stock-exchange speculation, monopolies
and privileges to which the proletariat attributes its slavery, and the
fatherland its misery and ruin. All public offices were elected by
universal suffrage with people having the right to recall.
The Paris Commune was the result of an upsurge in which the
workers had played the dominant role, the result of the first
workers revolution in history. It was soon drowned in blood. The
French government which had established its headquarters in
Versailles attacked Paris with a huge army. In this they received the
help of Germany also. The attacks on Paris had begun in April. On
21 May the troops entered Paris. The battle continued in the city of
Paris up to 28 May when the Commune was finally exterminated.
The government which had surrendered to the German invaders,
however, turned on the workers of Paris with unusual ferocity. It is
estimated that between 14,000 to 30,000 defenders of the
Commune were slaughtered in the streets of Paris or killed by firing
squads. Thousands were deported and imprisoned. The French
government called it the victory of order, justice and civilization. The
Internationals address on the Commune to its members, written by
Marx, concluded with the words, Working Mens Paris, with its
Commune, will be forever celebrated as the glorious harbinger of a
new society. Its martyrs are enshrined in the great heart of the
working class. Its exterminators history has already nailed to that
eternal pillory from which all the prayers of their priests will not avail
to redeem them.
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the 1890s. Thus though the First International had been dissolved,
the movement had become a mass movement.
To unite the socialist parties in various countries into an
international organisation, a Congress was held in Paris on 14 July
1889, the centenary of the French Revolution of 1789. The result of
this was what has come to be known as the Second International.
The formation of the Second International a new stage in the
history of socialism. An important step taken at the Congress was
to make the first May every year as a day of working class
solidarity. It was decided to organise on that day a great
international demonstration in such a way what the in all lands and
cities will simultaneously demand from the powers that be a
limitation the working day to eight hours.
On the first May 1890, millions of workers all over Europe and
America Struck work and held massive demonstrations. Since then
the first of May is observed as the international class day all over
the world.
The period after the formation a the Second International saw a
steady increase in the strength of the socialist parties and of trade
unions. In 1914, the membership of the socialist party of Germany
was over a million and it had polled over 4 million in France, the
socialists has polled about 1.4 million votes; in Austria, over a
million. The total number of trade union membership in Germany,
Britain and France alone was about 8 million. The socialist and
workers movement had become a major force in almost every
country of Europe.
nd
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the war that the Second International suffered a fatal blow. When
the First World War broke out, most of the socialist parties
extended their support to their respective governments. This had
serious consequences for the socialist movement. The Second
International ceased to function and the socialist movement in
every country was split. With the outbreak of the First World War,
an important phase in the history of the socialist movement came to
a close.
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