Social Democracy: Individuals in Community

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1 O Neill Media: PN R9 S73 Social Democracy: Individuals in Community Week 3 Lecture 2 31 January

I. The Proletarianization of Labor : A side-effect of inventing capitalism Pre-revolutionary guild system: Hierarchical: based on skill Apprentice-> Journeyman-> Master of the Guild Key for 19 th

2 I. The Proletarianization of Labor : A side-effect of inventing capitalism Pre-revolutionary guild system: Hierarchical: based on skill Apprentice-> Journeyman-> Master of the Guild Key for 19 th century: Master is not the one who owns the means of production; Rather: the one within the system who has most skill / seniority 2

php Artisans : no distinction between arts and crafts; no fine arts A chef-d oeuvre [ masterwork

3 Jewelers guild Armorers guild Victuallers, Textile Trades, Leather Trades, Metal Trades, Building Trades, and Others. Artisans : no distinction between arts and crafts; no fine arts A chef-d oeuvre [ masterwork ]: demonstrates how skilled you are and hence your place in the hierarchy. chef-d oeuvre [ masterwork ] for a metallurgist 3

4 Who did this? Master of the Guild 2) Monopoly and Protectionist : Guild provides -- Tools and training -- Quality control -- Pricing [based on intrinsic value] Thomas Aquinas: Question: What is the just price? Answer: A quality product at a fair price [cf. Marx: labor theory of value ] 4

5 3) Social -- a total social system: you live in the same neighborhood, pass trade on to sons, marry them to others daughters, financially interdependent Saint-Jacques tower ( ): 16 th quartier of Paris (butchers) [church demolished 1797] 5

6 Brussels: Medieval guild halls END: approx France (1789) England (1791- Le Chapelier Law ) PROLETARIANIZATION OF LABOR: 1) Master : not because of skill but because he owns the shop, i.e., the means of production 2) Class : owner of the means of production becomes bourgeois management; those who work for him become proletariat workers 3) End of protection: supply and demand (competition and profit) replace quality as pricing criterion From Aquinas to Adam Smith! Associations become illegal. Unfair competition of individuals against groups. 6

ENLIGHTENMENT THEORY: Economic / Political

his/her self-interest, everyone benefits.

the mills, 1830s [Factoid: Child laborers in 2002:

coal cart along a low mine passage near Halifax.

7 ENLIGHTENMENT THEORY: Economic / Political Liberalism Adam Smith: When one person acts in his/her self-interest, everyone benefits. Abbé Sieyès -- equidistant ACTUALITY: Child labor in the mills, 1830s [Factoid: Child laborers in 2002: 250 million] ACTUALITY: Half-naked girl dragging coal cart along a low mine passage near Halifax. Engraving from First Report of the Commissioners of the Children s Employment Commission 7

URBAN SLUMS St. Giles: most notorious slum in London (Became a tourist attraction) Masters and owners look out!

Ye hav no family and you're just one man on the colliery, I see ye hav a great lot of rooms and big cellars and

Now I know some at our colliery that has three or fower lads and lasses and they live in one room not half as good

The only place we can go to at the week ends is the ale house and hav a pint.

ought to be, and a great filosopher says, to get noledge is to know you're ignorant.

8 URBAN SLUMS St. Giles: most notorious slum in London (Became a tourist attraction) Masters and owners look out! (1831) I was at yor hoose last neet and made mysel very comfortable. Ye hav no family and you're just one man on the colliery, I see ye hav a great lot of rooms and big cellars and plenty of wine and beer in them which I got me share of. Now I know some at our colliery that has three or fower lads and lasses and they live in one room not half as good as your cellar. I dont pretend to know very much but I know there shouldnt be that much difference. The only place we can go to at the week ends is the ale house and hav a pint. I dinna pretend to be a profit, but I know this, and lots of me mates know it too, that we're not treat as we ought to be, and a great filosopher says, to get noledge is to know you're ignorant. But weve just begun to find that out and you maisters and owners may look out, for youre not going to get so much of your own way, were going to hav some of our own From A Radical Reader (Penguin, 1984) Declaration of the Rights of Man??? 18 th -19 th cc: from equality as political to equality as social 8

9 NB: Primarily political categories Third Estate Aristocrats Problem??? The Third Estate is not that simple!!! 9

10 NB: Adds social (i.e., economic) dimension to political categories 1819: Peterloo Massacre 1830s: English Chartism: first large-scale workers political movement--- they sign Charters [never passed in Parliament] 1830s: Luddites hand-loom weavers destroy the machines NB: Marx against these reactionaries! 1819: Peterloo Massacre 1831: Mary Shelley s revised Frankenstein Not choice but FATE: NATURE a machine that grinds up humans 10

11 What is Socialism? A HYBRIDIZATION of Tradition [ association ] and Innovation [ social equality ] Syndicalism: Guilds are conservative ; Unions are progressive NB: Adds social (i.e., economic) dimension to political categories 11

changed including consciousness (e.g., access to professors!

12 II. Proletarianization of Labor -- A side-effect of the Industrial Revolution Historical Change: Hardware [material conditions] Software [culture = ideas + values] Hardware : railroad/ steam /water Software : everything else that must be changed including consciousness (e.g., access to professors! net anonymity ) What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes in character in proportion as material production is changed? Marx, Manifesto

13 Hardware of the Industrial Revolution: Railway / steam / water power Software : Change in the way work is organized, e.g., wage labor Change in relations of production.e., PEOPLE!!!--- both progress & grief A. Hardware 13

14 1712: Thomas Newcomen invents first successful steam engine Coal industry starts approximately

labor into spinning 1786: Power Loom Connect to Newton / Enlightenment:

15 1712: Thomas Newcomen invents first successful steam engine 1733: Flying shuttle loom 1767: Spinning Jenny 1769: Water Frame NB: Introduces non-human labor into spinning 1786: Power Loom Connect to Newton / Enlightenment: Applied science Left Newtonians = mechanists Image is from Diderot s Encyclopédie 15

16 Materialism might lead to atheism but it also inspires religious responses of wonder and awe!!! 16

Marx the Romantic Hero

Marx the Romantic Hero Week 5 Lecture 1 12 February 2008 1 I. ARTISTIC / LITERARY ROMANTICISM A. Marx as Romantic Hero / Genius 2 Cf. John Stuart Mill: genius vs. mediocrity Cf. John Stuart Mill: genius