Labor Movement Origins and Socialist Theories

Early Supporters of the Labor Movement

The first supporters of the labor movement were wealthy middle-class intellectuals. They were the first to denounce the exploitation of workers and raised the need to improve the living conditions of the working class. Robert Owen founded the New Harmony community, based on economic collaboration and the social and economic equality of its members.

MARXISM

Marxist socialism is named after the German philosopher Karl Marx. He lived in exile in various European cities. He studied the process of industrialization and the inequalities it caused. In their most famous work, The Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote that the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat against the moneyed middle class would result in the triumph of the working class and the creation of a communist regime—a society where there would have been no social classes or private property.

Core Principles of Marxism

• Historical Materialism: This is based on ownership of the means of production. Those who do not own this only have the strength of their work and are exploited.
• The Class Struggle: Society is divided into economically unequal classes: the oppressors and the oppressed. The relationship is difficult, and the workers fight against their exploitation through revolutions.
• Social Change: The revolutionary struggle of the workers will make the oppressing class, the rich middle class, disappear. A dictatorship of the proletariat is implemented, where the working class will control the state and will be the sole owner of the means of production.

ANARCHISM

Anarchism stands for a classless society, without a state or private property. It was developed by thinkers who defended a society without any political, economic, or religious authority, organized in communes directed by the workers themselves. The anarchists were opposed to parliamentary political action and wanted the peasants to play a leading role in the fight against capitalism.

Historical Terms and Concepts

Labor and Political Terms

• Unionized: Working-class parties and international organizations to protect rights.
• Luddism: People who use violence to destroy machines and thus prevent them from replacing workers.
• Criollos: White people born in the United States (Note: This term usually refers to people of Spanish descent born in Spanish colonies, often in the Americas).

Land Ownership Terms

• Manos Muertas: Land owned by the church that could not be sold.
• Mayorazgo: Land owned by noble families that is later inherited by the son.
• Realengos: Land owned by the King.

Government and Economic Concepts

• Nueva Planta Decrees: Law, approved by Felipe V, which imposes the laws of Castile in the kingdom of Aragon.
• Office Secretaries: Ministers who were in charge of major government affairs: state, navy, finance.
• Physiocracy: Theory in which the wealth of the nation derives from agriculture; they criticize dead hands and elderships because they think they are not productive.

Key Historical Events

• Mutiny Aranjuez: Uprising of Fernando VII to dismiss Godoy.
• Fontainebleau Treaty: Treaty allowing French troops to cross Spain to invade Portugal.
• Central Board: Government established to attack the French and allied with England.
• Guerrillas: Armed groups that attack the French army by surprise.