Karl Marx Communism PSA

Marx, Karl and Frederich Engels. The Communist Manifesto.  Modified from the Avalon Project.  1848. Yale University. http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/mancont.asp(accessed September 28, 2013).

Karl Marx believed that everyone should be paid equally by working to the best of their ability. To inform people of these ideas, he wrote The Communist Manifesto, with the guidance of Frederich Engels. It explains Marx’s “revolutionary social change” ideas intended for German workers who were called the Communist League. Marx was raised as a Protestant in Treves by a father who dreamed of his son to study law. After doing so at the University of Bonn for one year, he transferred to the University of Berlin and studied philosophy, history and literature. These subjects helped Marx become an expert at discovering new ideas to improve society. Joining the group called the Young Hegals, who were influenced by the philosopher, Hegal, guided Marx to create the idea of communism. In addition to his educational background, Marx had many radical writings other than The Communist Manifesto, including an article in the Rheinische Zeitung, The Class Struggle in France, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon, and A Contribution to the Critique Political Economy. He was known for expressing his ideas, even though they were different from most peoples’ thoughts in that time. He married Jenny von Westphalen, whose father was an important government official. Even though he was surrounded with people who are involved with the government, he still displayed his beliefs.  Marx grew up in poverty, so he was not part of the bourgeois.  However, he did not work in a factory; he spent most of his time writing. During that time, people were either extremely wealthy or in poverty in Europe. Proletarians, the working class, got paid little to nothing while spending long hours in harsh conditions, like cotton mills with almost no air or breaks. The bourgeois, property owners, were paid in high amounts. In the Communist Revolution, Marx desired for proletarians to standup to the bourgeois in order to protest for communism. From the manifesto, readers understand these wishes of Marx, although it is written only in the perspective of someone who grew up in poverty. Engels had money, but the writing piece of the manifesto came from Marx, and not Engels. Marx was a philosopher, not a mill worker. This document does not show the thoughts of the factory workers or the bourgeois. However, readers do know that Marx wanted all citizens to have the same wealth and the government should not be involved with the economy. As evidence of the unfair economy, Marx explained how the proletarian population was greater than the bourgeois population, yet the smaller population received higher wages.  Owners were paid more than workers by doing less labor than the workers. To display this evidence, Marx uses words like “spectre” and “Power” to describe communism. He compares the difference between the proletarian and the bourgeois class during capitalism with “freeman and slave, patrician and plebian, lord and serf, guild master and journeyman” to show the wide gap between the two.

 

***Dear Ms. Gallagher,

I know that all lines after the first should be indented. However, the blog would not allow me to format the PSA that way.

Letter to Anne About Luddites

The Luddites were artisans that destroyed factories and machines during the Industrial Revolution. They believed in “Ned Ludd,” their mythical king. They protested by attacking machines while cross-dressed, in order to make their riots events that people would never forget. Luddites were against technology because people were mistreating it. Unfair jobs also caused them to protest because low wages were given to people working on the machines. In this letter a ten-year-old girl, who was forced to work in a factory during the Luddite riots, explains how she felt about the Luddites. She wrote the letter one year after beginning her working experience in the factory. Her father died two years before the letter was written and her mom must work at home in order to take care of her toddler.

       http://media.smithso nianmag.com/images/presence-King-Ludd-520.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dearest cousin, Anne,

I am writing to you today to tell you about a group of people brave enough to stand up for what they believe in, known as the Luddites. They have been coming to factories and destroying machines. They are against the factories because the people that work in them, like me, do not get paid enough for all of the hard work that we do. The Luddites believe that people misuse technology, and I am on their side! I have even seen them dress up as women when they protest. That is something I will never forget. I must work in a factory because as you know, my dad has been gone for two years, so that is one income that we lost. At the factory, everyone I work with is my age or younger. Can you imagine working with kids that are all ten years old and younger? My mother cannot leave home, since she has to take care of Bobby. Bobby is almost three years old now! Mom does not have a job, so I have to provide money for the family to live, even though I do not make much. After long hours in the factory, I barely make enough money to get food for the three of us. The Luddites are right for protesting against that. Also, industrialism is hard on me because I am not able to spend time at home with mom and Bobby. An education is not on my daily agenda anymore either. The Luddites inspire me because they have the same feelings against industrialism as I do and they are willing to fight for their rights. I have decided that as soon I get a new job to support the family, I am going to join the Luddites and protest against industrialism. I will not be a part of smashing the machines because I do not agree with the violence part of the riots. That does not solve any problems. However, I will do all that I can to teach the community that industrialism is unfair.

Sincerely,

Jenna

Exhibits of Curators

            The analysis process is an important part of curating because it helps the curator fully understand the topic of child labor and the sources that are used. It guides curators into what the viewers should get out of the exhibit. In order for viewers to understand the topic, the curator must be an expert in the topic, by analyzing each source used in the exhibit. This exhibit displays how child labor was popular during the Industrial Revolution. The picture of the young boys working a machine in the top left corner explains that even though these children were young and small, they were forced to operate dangerous machines. This picture was created in 1909,which was at the end of the Industrial revolution. Below that picture shows the dangerous working conditions of young children. It was made in 1854,during the Industrial Revolution. The picture underneath that states the fact that children were risking their lives to have a job during this time. They did intense work in risky mines.This source came from an English Factory Act hearing in 1819, which is the time that this child labor problem was present. The article in the middle at the bottom explains that delicate girls had to work in unfair conditions. It was written in 1794, which is when women were forced to make textiles on handlooms at home. This was written before the spinning jenny was invented. The chart in the middle at the top shows how the greatest percent of cotton factory workers in 1818-1819 was under the age of ten. At the same time, the number of people this age had the lowest percent. This source was written in Manchester in 1818, the time and place that this child labor was occurring. The article in the bottom right corner tells about the use of child labor decreasing in 1833. This act helps the problem, but does not completely end it. This article is the only positive source in the exhibit, so the background of it is brighter than all of the other sources. It was written in 1833, when the Factory Act was created. The title of the exhibit tells the viewer that this exhibit is about how the Industrial Revolution relied on child labor. Children were the main workers at this time and without them, all of the products would not have been manufactured. It grabs the viewer's attention by saying, "An Era Built on the Backs of Children," instead of plainly saying, "Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution." I hope the visitors will understand that during the Industrial Revolution, people were not only worked extremely hard under poor conditions with little pay, but that these workers were as young as under ten years old. The Industrial Revolution created fantastic products and ideas, however that is not worth the suffering of these children.
            While visiting the "Cotton and Slave Boom in the Industrial Revolution" exhibit, I learned that while the number of cotton textile mills were increasing, so were the number of slaves. A graph displayed that in 1834, there were twenty-two cotton mills and 2,300,000 slaves. After only twenty-four years, there were fifty-two textile mills and 3,953,696 slaves in a United States region. By visiting "Before and After the Industrial Revolution's Textile Industry" I now understand that before the spinning jenny was invented in the 1800s, women and girls had to spend time manufacturing textiles in there homes on handlooms. The spinning wheel made the work easier and faster, however the factories that these machines were in forced families to overwork with little pay. The "Transporting the Industrial Revolution" exhibit taught me that the steamship helped transport merchandise across canals when the amount of goods being made increased. The picture in the bottom left corner was in the exhibit and helped me understand how the steam engine operates. From visiting the "Industrial Revolution Brings Poverty and Pollution" exhibit, I have interpreted that people were in poverty when their living expenses increased, but their wages did not. The living conditions were crowded, polluted, and filthy. In this exhibit, it stuck out to me that a wealthy Scottish doctor and scholar claimed that the working-class had satisfying living conditions, while a French political thinker and historian stated that these conditions were horrifying.

 

Engel's Thoughts on the Industrial Revolution Workers

Engels, Friedrich. The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844. London:                    

             Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892.

Engles believed that the workers during the industrial revolution had terrible conditions. He wrote about the conditions to inform readers on how the working-class was being treated during this time. Friedrich Engels is a trustworthy source. In 1842, two years before he wrote this book, his parents sent him to Manchester in order to make thread with “Ermen and Engels’ Victorian Mill.” He observed the Old Town of Manchester at the time when the living and working conditions were awful. He helped his partner, Marx, write three books on what he had observed. He had no reputation of lying in his writing. Engels wrote this entry at the end of his life, three years before he died. He was reflecting on what he remembers from this time. This document teaches the reader that Friedrich Engels, a philosopher, political theorist, social scientist, and author, thought that the working-class had poor conditions. It was written 48 years after Engels experienced this, so there is not much detail. It is from the perspective of an observing author, not the actual workers. Engels states that the quarters were filthy in the Old Town of Manchester. Also, the shelters that the workers lived in were small and chaotic. Engels believed that the workers were treated unfairly in the industrial revolution.

Deep Thoughts on Syrian Crisis

How would you feel if your family and town got destroyed? Currently in Syria there has been over 100,000 innocent citizens harmed by the usage of chemical weapons and civil war. On Friday, September 6, I attended a meeting for the United Nations Advisory Council, discussing the tragedy in Syria and what their options are to try and help solve the problems in Syria. The members discussed their personal opinions on intervention, a drone strike, economic sanctions, and a diplomatic statement. The council members understand the facts about this crisis with detail. Members included the exact number of adult and child deaths, along with the names of important leaders. The council felt strongly about the fact that if the United States used military force to intervene, that would cause more deaths and chaos in Syria. However, only a few times did they mention who they thought obtained the chemical weapons. Most people believe that the government had the weapons, but there were no strong opinions. I am aware of the fact that United Nations Investigators tried to look at the attack site in Syria, but the government would not allow them to. The council discussed that the pros to intervening are that we could banish the weapons and discover who is responsible for them. The cons are that military intervention would lead to more damage and disasters. They agreed that the best solution is to intervene with limits and no military forces. From my viewing of the meeting, many members understood the crisis and had helpful opinions, which lead to productive meeting. The most productive point in the discussion was the idea of a drone strike. The majority agreed that it is wrong and dangerous because we do not know exactly what we are hitting. Numerous members stated that a drone strike is basically using a robot to kill innocent people. There was not much talk about economic sanctions and refugees. Only a few gave their opinion on how refugees help citizens without backlashes from other countries. In contrast, a small number of members insisted that refugees do not solve the problem, but they only delay it. The idea that military intervention would cause more damage stood out to me. After listening to this meeting I believe that the United States should intervene in Syria but without any military intervention. Syria needs foreign help because these problems have been going on for two years already, so clearly the country cannot control this issue on their own. If they could, then this problem would not still be happening. I also agree that if military intervention is used, then there would be even more chaos and destruction.