BLOOD, FIRE AND STEEL; ELEMENTS OF THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY CHAPTER 9 ygically, the social structures too began to change. The peasant class though evolving continued to yield and adapt to the new and more modern structures coming up. In the Scandinavia, peasants began to be organized along the lines of co-operative societies while marketing their goods in the urban areas, thereby strengthening and improving their marketing strategies while still holding on to their lands on an individual basis. As the level of awareness and education grew, more peasants began to practice better and more modern farming techniques, alongside newly introduced crops, improved seedlings and fertilizers. This trend also helped them to organize better unions that helped to fight for improved rights and government protection. As the standard of living of the peasantry continued to improve, the social order began to be defined in terms of the working class rather than as factory hands and farm workers. The growing and more complex economic structures began to create its own idiosyncrasies in terms of white collar and blue collar jobs. The blue collar ranks produced a class of workers who though educated were still different in orientation from the factory workers though facing the same innovation in working tools that were gradually becoming more complex and sophisticated. The division between blue and white collar jobs also reflected in the divide in the pay structure between the two groups and their affiliations in terms of trade unionism. At the top of the social order was a new aristocracy that began to take shape in the form of an upper class of industrialists, corporate magnates, Entrepreneurs and Estate holders. This new class dominated and controlled most of the political and economic processes in the agro-industrial sector alongside the heavy industries that churned out coal, steel and armaments. Big corporate structures founded around individual and family profiles began to be monopolistic in nature, creating such controlling concerns as to warrant government intervention in preventing completely monopolistic entities like the Krupp steel family in Germany etc. These big time business barons also tended to strengthen the power base of the ruling class whether autocratic or democratic as their weight and contributions became so immense as to make it almost impossible for any individual, group or party to attain to political power without their support and financial backing. The rise of organized labor and mass protests increased. As the 19th century progressed and workers enjoyed more income, prosperity and leisure, a class conflict ensued as the rapid pace of work and production forced the workers to adopt measures to protect their collective interests. As the corporate structure and management style were designed to extract as much profit and labor from the workers as possible, the workers likewise began to come together in groups and unions to strengthen their collective bargaining power. Unionization became more common as society and parliaments began to adjust to the pressures for liberalization of working conditions, improvement in conditions of work and living and pressure for the upholding of fundamental human rights even in the places of work and manufacture. Political hindrances to unionization and better labor practices were removed as parliaments all over Europe began to make laws protecting and upholding the rights of the working class. Parliaments were under pressure from the growing political power of the working class that was being entrenched by the adoption of voting rights for the working class all across Europe. The women suffrage movement also gained momentum all across Western Europe and the rights of the ordinary people increasingly strengthened over and above the rights of governments. Following the failures of the 1848 revolutions, the 1850s constituted a period of relatively calm labor relations. In Britain, skilled workers formed a union known as new model unionism that promoted peaceful dialogue and respectability. This movement gave rise to a number of durable unions that innovated and improved strategies for bargain and negotiation. The move towards national unions also increased at this time as more workers gained skills and experience in trade union matters. The economic down turn in the 1870s exposed a lot of workers to the hardships and uncertainties that existed without a bilateral arrangement with management in terms of protection for workers in times of difficulties. Mass unionism spread all over Europe as workers and management bargained for a collective and stable policy designed to safeguard the interest of workers in times of difficulty. The power of strikes became evident as dock workers, coal workers and other classes of workers came together to press for better working conditions and wages. In 1892 French workers embarked on a strike 261 times against 500 companies. By 1906, the year of the greatest pressure before 1914, 1309 strikes took 438,000 workers off the job. In Britain, more than 2 million workers were involved in strikes between 1909 and 1913. These strikes revealed the growing power of labor unions which played a major role in shaping the political landscape of Europe. The trend in labor union formation was such that mass unions and trade federations ballooned and spread all across the continents and groups such as the British Trade Union Congress and the French and Italian general confederations of labor emerged. The unions also endeavored to cushion their members materially and socially apart from engaging in strikes. The role of the unions in shaping the face of organized labor in Europe was unprecedented. The scale of union membership was overwhelming as practically all trades and skills came under the umbrella of one trade federation or union. With so many people aligned with unions, the threat of withdrawal of labor and strikes became the key weapon in conduct

ELEMENTS OF THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY

As societies progressed socially and technologically, the social structures too began to change. The peasant class though evolving continued to yield and adapt to the new and more modern structures coming up.

 In the Scandinavia, peasants began to be organized along the lines of  co-operative societies  while marketing their goods in the urban areas, thereby strengthening and improving their marketing strategies while still holding on to their lands on an individual basis.

As the level of awareness and education grew, more peasants began to practice better and more modern farming techniques, alongside newly introduced crops, improved seedlings and fertilizers. This trend also helped them to organize better unions that helped to fight for improved rights and government protection.

As the standard of living of the peasantry continued to improve, the social order began to be defined in terms of the working class rather than as factory hands and farm workers. The growing and more complex economic structures began to create its own idiosyncrasies in terms of white collar and blue collar jobs.

 The blue collar ranks produced a class of workers who though educated were still different in orientation from the factory workers though facing the same innovation in working tools that were gradually becoming more complex and sophisticated.

 The division between blue and white collar jobs also reflected in the divide in the pay structure between the two groups and their affiliations in terms of trade unionism.

At the top of the social order was a new aristocracy that began to take shape in the form of an upper class of industrialists, corporate magnates, Entrepreneurs and Estate holders. This new class dominated and controlled most of the political and economic processes in the agro-industrial sector alongside the heavy industries that churned out coal, steel and armaments.

Big corporate structures founded around individual and family profiles began to be monopolistic in nature, creating such controlling concerns as to warrant government intervention in preventing completely monopolistic entities like the Krupp steel family in Germany etc.

These big time business barons also tended to strengthen the power base of the ruling class whether autocratic or democratic as their weight and contributions became so immense as to make it almost impossible for any individual, group or party to attain to political power without their support and financial backing.

The rise of organized labor and mass protests increased. As the 19^th century progressed and workers enjoyed more income, prosperity and leisure, a class conflict ensued as the rapid pace of work and production forced the workers to adopt measures to protect their collective interests.

As the corporate structure and management style were designed to extract as much profit and labor from the workers as possible, the workers likewise began to come together in groups and unions to strengthen their collective bargaining power.

Unionization became more common as society and parliaments began to adjust to the pressures for liberalization of working conditions, improvement in conditions of work and living and pressure for the upholding of fundamental human rights even in the places of work and manufacture.

Political hindrances to unionization and better labor practices were removed as parliaments all over Europe began to make laws protecting and upholding the rights of the working class. Parliaments were under pressure from the growing political power of the working class that was being entrenched by the adoption of voting rights for the working class all across Europe.

The women suffrage movement also gained momentum all across Western Europe and the rights of the ordinary people increasingly strengthened over and above the rights of governments. Following the failures of the 1848 revolutions, the 1850s constituted a period of relatively calm labor relations. In Britain, skilled workers formed a union known as new model unionism that promoted peaceful dialogue and respectability.

 This movement gave rise to a number of durable unions that innovated and improved strategies for bargain and negotiation. The move towards national unions also increased at this time as more workers gained skills and experience in trade union matters.

The economic down turn in the 1870s exposed a lot of workers to the hardships and uncertainties that existed without a bilateral arrangement with management in terms of protection for workers in times of difficulties.

 Mass unionism spread all over Europe as workers and management bargained for a collective and stable policy designed to safeguard the interest of workers in times of difficulty. The power of strikes became evident as dock workers, coal workers and other classes of workers came together to press for better working conditions and wages.

In 1892 French workers embarked on a strike 261 times against 500 companies. By 1906, the year of the greatest pressure before 1914, 1309 strikes took 438,000 workers off the job. In Britain, more than 2 million workers were involved in strikes between 1909 and 1913.

These strikes revealed the growing power of labor unions which played a major role in shaping the political landscape of Europe. The trend in labor union formation was such that mass unions and trade federations ballooned and spread all across the continents and groups such as the British Trade Union Congress and the French and Italian general confederations of labor emerged.

The unions also endeavored to cushion their members materially and socially apart from engaging in strikes. The role of the unions in shaping the face of organized labor in Europe was unprecedented.

The scale of union membership was overwhelming as practically all trades and skills came under the umbrella of one trade federation or union. With so many people aligned with unions, the threat of withdrawal of labor and strikes became the key weapon in conducting trade relations and negotiations.

The activities of the trade union soon began to take on a political dimension, as in some cases workers unions soon snowballed into major political parties like the labor party in Britain. Many of the unions also adopted socialist policies and doctrines and went to the ideological left, where they found themselves romancing with socialist/communist doctrines and ideologies.

In Germany and Austria, the Socialist movements were fanned more by the leftist- leaning trade union movements. In other places like France and Italy a growing syndicalism ideology began to blossom as trade union leaders began to see the rising power of the unions as a political tool that can be used to change political leadership and transform the basis of political and economic direction.

The competing trend was to see the power of the unions in terms of struggles for better wages and shorter working hours. The leadership of the unions was quite pragmatic in their demands, and eventually did not yield to the push for a change to the social and political order.

 The pressure for reform also led to its own excesses as labor unions also became platforms for pushing through less- holistic practices like antisemitism which blamed the Jews for most of the labor issues associated with ownership and control of the big companies, and this was particularly so, in countries like France and Germany.

The struggles of labor also culminated in a women’s rights movement that took inspiration from the success of union- labor negotiations. The social condition of women did not greatly change in the second half of the 19^th century except for the noticeable decline in the birth rate.

Universal basic education of women at primary levels had brought the female literacy levels to comparable male levels by 1900. A growing percentage of women had secondary education and a number made it through the universities and professional education.

Women’s colleges were also founded in Oxford and Cambridge and a few women survived the hostile terrain to emerge as doctors, lawyers and even professors. A larger percentage however were able to gain access into new job cadres as telephone operators, primary school teachers and nurses which many entered into before marriage.

These trends however did nothing to change the social attitude that a women’s place lay primarily in the home. However, a women’s feminist movement arose, that began to press for equal rights for both sexes, particularly the right to vote.

This movement in Britain snowballed into the women’s suffragette movement that became a mass movement involving millions of women whose pressure and agitations began to change the social order, societal thinking and government policies by the close of the century.

Massive demonstrations, petitions, strikes and sit-ins by women came to dominate the political landscape of Europe which experienced drastic changes at the close of the 19^th century.

EUROPE’S POLITICAL DIRECTION- 1850-1900