Tussen traditie en emancipatie. De Engelse vakbeweging en haar strijd
tegen de industriele arbeidsdisciplinering (1780-1914).
Hoefnagel, A.H.J.M.
Citation
Hoefnagel, A. H. J. M. (2005, March 23). Tussen traditie en emancipatie. De Engelse
vakbeweging en haar strijd tegen de industriele arbeidsdisciplinering (1780-1914). Eburon,
Delft. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/2307
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BETWEEN TRADITION AND EMANCIPATION
The English trade unions and their battle against disciplining of industrial labour (1780-1914)
The earliest inspiration for this research originated from the ever fascinating study by Herbert Marcuse, (URV DQG&LYLOL]DWLRQ (1955), on the pressure and coercion that social systems – along with their organising and regulating functions – can exert over man and society and on the other hand on the possibility of a non-suppressive culture. With its new economic order and dynamics, the industrial capitalist system brought unprecedented economic prosperity, but, in the words of Max Weber, it also turned out to be an ‘iron cage’ and :HOWKHUUVFKDIWGHU 8QEUGHUOLFKNHLW [world supremacy of unbrotherliness].
England was the first nation to experience the transition from an agricultural to an industrial society, a turn-round which encroached deeply into the character of labour and the fabric of life and which did not occur gradually and easily, but rather abruptly, laboriously and painfully. No longer did working man himself in the first place control the pace, level of physical exertion and mental intensity of industrial labour, but a continuously developing technology controlled it.
Workers could expect hardly any protection or support from the political system and from the churches; only by combining their forces in WUDGHXQLRQV and fighting as one were the workers to gain power to defend their interests. The English trade unions of the nineteenth century and particularly those active in engineering and in the cotton industry, the first branches of industry, were the first in history to successfully take on the excrescences of an out of control UDW UDFH and performance culture, against GULYLQJ and VZHDWLQJ, and to fight for GLJQLW\ DW ZRUN and UHVSHFWDELOLW\ and for DIDLUGD\¶VZDJHIRUDIDLUGD\¶VZRUN.
The best evidence for the results the English trade unions managed to achieve, which to us perhaps seem limited but which were acceptable and important at the time, is the revolting pressure of work and working conditions in the VZHDWVKRSV, in the VZHDWHG LQGXVWULHV and VZHDWHGODERXU, sectors in which the trade unions had little or no power at all, such as the English clothing industry after 1840. The central aim of this study is to persuasively present the English trade unions’ pioneering and emancipating struggle within a cultural sociological and social historical exposition on changing and controversial standards, values and authority on labour, work effort, terms of employment and working conditions. As social historians, Fr. Engels and K. Marx play a major role in this, but this research ignores their ideological points of view much as the English trade unions themselves did. Contemporary social democrats and .DWKHGHUVR]LDOLVWHQ [pulpit socialists] such as Lujo Brentano, Max Weber, Gerhard von Schulze-Gaevernitz, Allen Clarke and Sidney and Beatrice Webb have a more defining role in this research.
the industrial and societal establishment. In as far as this could be considered emancipation, it was a ‘victory through obedience’ .
Part I, 3UHYLRXV +LVWRU\, discusses the pre-industrial cotton industry (1600-1770) and the work processes in the first cotton mills (1770-1800). In the latter period, the enormous contribution of child labour was very significant. There were hardly any trade unions at this stage nor did they play a significant role. Work discipline and work pace were maintained by the external coercion of machines set at high speeds, by strict supervision, by sanctions and fines and by the piece-rate system.
Part II, 7KH 6WUXJJOHIRU6XUYLYDO (1790-1850) focuses on the process in which workers joined forces in unions to defend their interests, a process which was severely hindered by the opposition of entrepreneurs and authorities. A sharp contrast arose between the strong spinners’ unions and the weak weavers’ unions. Apart from the aforementioned factors of external coercion, internal motivation – PRUDO PDFKLQHU\ – became important to the disciplining of labour. Religion and religious education were very significant in this respect, and the important role of Methodism and Sunday schools will be discussed in this context. Part III, 7KH 6WUXJJOH IRU 5HFRJQLWLRQ (1850-1880) discusses the period of 9LFWRULDQ 3URVSHULW\, in which period greater economic stability and prosperity created more room for recognizing the interests and position of workers and their unions, which together with more adequate legislation relieved some of the tension in labour relations. The engineers’ union, the $PDOJDPDWHG6RFLHW\RI(QJLQHHUVacted as a pioneer for the QHZPRGHOXQLRQV, in which local and regional unions joined in national DPDOJDWHG VRFLHWLHV. These were particularly aimed at a professional protection of interests (including their own medical insurance and pension schemes) and at a strong negotiating position within the capitalist system. Strike is used only as a ODVWUHVRUW and the first steps towards LQGXVWULDOUHODWLRQV are made. Periods of militant strategies keep alternating with periods of consultation and reconciliation. Although the unions increasingly have to relinquish their authority over the organisation of labour, they attempt to translate the intensification of labour as a result of faster technology into better pay, but are only partially successful. The trade unions vehemently battle against rushing systems, VZHDWLQJ and GULYLQJ.
Part IV, 7KH6WUXJJOH IRU3RZHU, deals with opposing developments: on the one hand, the groundbreaking rise of the QHZXQLRQV, trade unions for unskilled and semi-skilled labourers, and on the other hand, the spreading situation of exploitation and oppression in the so-called VZHDW WUDGHV. The management’ s grip on the labour process is tightened even more than before: speeding up production by using continuously advancing technology and heightening the pressure to perform by sophisticated forms of supervision and driving. The trade union struggle against these practices shows a highly variable picture of victories, defeats and compromises. The trade unions lose the long and vehement struggle for the FORVHGVKRS (an enterprise can only employ union members).
