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74-681: The Young Socialist League was a British radical political youth group founded in 1911. The group was mostly active in London, where it also had the majority of its members. According to the Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations , the group probably had its roots in the Socialist Sunday Schools . The League was linked to the British Socialist Party , a small Marxist party, also founded in 1911, who were supporters of

148-608: A SSS started in Philadelphia in the fall of 1888, with six teachers and about 150 pupils present for the launch. Additional Sunday Schools linked to the organized anarchist movement sprouted up in various American urban centers during the first decade of the 1900s, springing primarily from the so-called Modern School movement developed by the Catalan anarchist Francisco Ferrer in 1901. The Modern Schools were intended to be both instruments for self-development and social change and taught

222-511: A conceptual basis for their work. During the second decade of the 20th century the Socialist Party's "Young People's Department", headed by William Kruse , published an organizing manual for party locals seeking to establish Socialist Sunday Schools, including an extensive proposed list of books for SSS libraries. The Socialist education movement in America was closely connected with certain of

296-567: A concomitant decline in real wages and living standards for workers in urban areas. Prior to the industrial revolution, economies in Europe were dominated by the guild system which had originated in the Middle Ages . The guilds were expected to protect the interests of the owners, labourers, and consumers through regulation of wages, prices, and standard business practices. However, as the increasingly unequal and oligarchic guild system deteriorated in

370-746: A public debate or lecture hall. In 1797 the L.C.S was outlawed by parliament, temporarily crushing the British labour movement. Additionally, forming unions or combinations was made illegal under legislation such as the 1799 Combination Act . Trade unionism in the United Kingdom illegally continued into the 19th century despite increasing hardship. Determined workers refused to allow the law to entirely eradicate trade unionism. Some employers chose to forgo legal prosecution and instead bargained and cooperated with workers' demands. The Scottish weavers of Glasgow went on strike around 1805, demanding enforcement of

444-531: A round of strikes and riots throughout England. Other notable radicals at the time included John Jebb , Major Cartwright , and John Horne . With the advent of the French Revolution , radicalism became even more prominent in English politics with the publication of Thomas Paine's The Rights of Man in 1791 and the foundation of the working-class focused London Corresponding Society in 1792. Membership in

518-830: A school opened in Glasgow by Caroline Martyn and Archie McArthur , initiated by an 1895 letter to the Labour Leader by Lizzie Glasier . It was established as a protest against, and an alternative to, the perceived middle-class bias and assumptions of regular churches. Its aims were to help the schools in their teaching of socialism. A manual was prepared for the use of teachers. It contained sample lesson plans and teaching tips to help teachers, together with suggested readings for socialist education. SSS leadership maintained that public education should be secular. Socialist Sunday Schools were purely educational. Their rituals and songs were free of religious content. They worked in close harmony with

592-627: A speech by Henry Hunt, a group of Spenceans initiated the Spa Fields riots . This outbreak of lawlessness led to a government crackdown on agitation in 1817 known as the Gagging Acts , which included the suppression of the Spencean society, a suspension of habeas corpus , and an extension of power to magistrates which gave them the ability to ban public gatherings. In protest of the Gagging Acts, as well as

666-818: A system of Sunday Schools conducted by the Workmen's Circle (Arbeiter Ring), a predominantly Yiddish language socialist mutual benefit organization. Founded in 1892, the Workmen's Circle was reorganized in 1901 and had grown to a membership of 6,700 by 1905. By 1924 the Workmen's Circle was considerably larger than the declining Socialist Party, counting a membership of 85,000 in nearly 700 branches spread across 38 states and Canada. The Workmen's Circle established an educational bureau of its own in 1908 and sponsored programs for both adults and children, including some specifically designated as "Socialist Sunday Schools". Some of these Workmen's Circle schools eventually allied themselves with

740-678: Is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. — Abraham Lincoln , December 3, 1861 The labour movement has its origins in Europe during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when agricultural and cottage industry jobs disappeared and were replaced as mechanization and industrialization moved employment to more industrial areas like factory towns causing an influx of low-skilled labour and

814-409: Is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement , as well as political parties of labour. It can be considered an instance of class conflict . The labour movement developed as a response to capitalism and the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, at about

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888-650: Is why the labor-hater and labor-baiter is virtually always a twin-headed creature spewing anti-Negro epithets from one mouth and anti-labor propaganda from the other mouth. With ever-increasing levels of international trade and increasing influence of multinational corporations, there has been debate and action among labour movements to attempt international co-operation. This has resulted in renewed efforts to organize and collectively bargain internationally. A number of international union organizations have been established in an attempt to facilitate international collective bargaining, to share information and resources and to advance

962-765: The Australian Labor Party (ALP). The British Labour Party was created as the Labour Representation Committee , following an 1899 resolution by the Trade Union Congress . While archetypal labour parties are made of direct union representatives, in addition to members of geographical branches, some union federations or individual unions have chosen not to be represented within a labour party and/or have ended association with them. Many individuals and political groups otherwise considered to represent ruling classes may be part of, and active in,

1036-781: The Bolshevik Revolution . It published a paper called the Red Flag. In March 1921 the Young Socialist League merged with a section of the Young Labour League to form the Young Workers' League, a forerunner of the Young Communist League . Several of the so-called Whitechapel Boys , including John Rodker , Isaac Rosenberg , Joseph Leftwich , Samuel Winsten , Lazarus Aaronson and David Bomberg were among

1110-680: The Labour Movement and were concerned with the spiritual and social needs of the human race with regard to daily life and conduct. Socialist Sunday Schools, along with the Labour Church , were hindered by a lack of their own meeting spaces. They met resistance in hiring suitable meeting halls to the extent that, in 1907, London County Council evicted five branches from hired school buildings. A massive demonstration in Trafalgar Square ensued, addressed by Margaret McMillan who, with her sister,

1184-541: The MP John Wilkes used mass appeal to workers through public meetings, pamphleteering , and the popular press, in order to gain their support as he advocated for an increase in the voting franchise, popular rights, and an end to corruption. When he was imprisoned for criticizing King George III , his followers protested and were fired upon by the government at the Massacre of St George's Fields in 1768, which resulted in

1258-503: The Midlands started to sabotage and destroy the machinery used in textile production. As the industry was still decentralized at the time and the movement was secretive, none of the leadership was ever caught and employers in the Midlands textile industry were forced to raise wages. In 1812 the first radical, socialist, pro-labour society, the 'Society of Spencean Philanthropists', named after

1332-586: The Six Acts . In 1819 the social reformer Francis Place initiated a reform movement aimed at lobbying parliament into abolishing the anti-union Combination Acts. Unions were legalised in the Combination Acts of 1824 and 1825, however some union actions, such as anti- scab activities were restricted. Chartism was possibly the first mass working-class labour movement in the world, originating in England during

1406-615: The Workmen's Circle (Arbeiter Ring), a Yiddish language socialist fraternal benefit society. The publishers of the Socialist New Yorker Volkszeitung were quick to follow, launching a periodical to aid the effort in December 1908 called The Little Socialist Magazine for Boys and Girls . The name of the publication was changed to Young Socialists' Magazine in June 1911. By 1911 some 14 Socialist Sunday Schools were in existence in

1480-739: The foreign language federations of the SPA, which taught children in their native tongue. Known to have organized Socialist Sunday Schools during this period were the Finnish Socialist Federation , the Ukrainian Socialist Federation , the Hungarian Socialist Federation , and the Lettish Socialist Federation . In tandem with the Socialist Party of America's network of Sunday Schools there existed

1554-517: The "Philanthropic Hercules". Although this enterprise quickly folded, pro-labour political agitation and demonstrations increased in popularity throughout industrial United Kingdom culminating in 1819 with an incident in St. Peter's field, Manchester, known as the Peterloo Massacre . The British government responded with another round of draconian measures aimed at putting down the labour movement, known as

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1628-445: The 16th and 17th centuries, spontaneous formations of journeymen within the guilds would occasionally act together to demand better wage rates and conditions, and these ad hoc groupings can be considered the forerunners of the modern labour movement. These formations were succeeded by trade unions forming in the United Kingdom in the 18th century. Nevertheless, without the continuous technological and international trade pressures during

1702-527: The 1850s, fizzling out with the decline of the early radical movement. For a generation, no such schools existed in Great Britain. Only in 1886 did Socialist Sunday Schools begin to reemerge in Great Britain. The institution was popularized by Mary Gray in 1892, a member of the Social Democratic Federation , who ran a soup kitchen for the children of the dock strike . Her aim, on realising

1776-416: The 1880s to describe an innovative form of trade unionism. The new unions were generally less exclusive than craft unions and attempted to recruit a wide range of unskilled and semi-skilled workers, such as dockers, seamen, gasworkers and general labourers. The International Workingmen's Association , the first attempt at international coordination, was founded in London in 1864. The major issues included

1850-588: The 18th century. Strikes and riots by miners and framework knitters occurred throughout England over the course of the 18th century, often resorting to machine breaking and sabotage. In 1751 wool-combers in Leicestershire formed a union which both disallowed hiring non-members and provided aid for out-of-work members. In the Spitalfields area of London , weavers went on strike and rioted in 1765, 1769, and 1773 until parliament relented and allowed justices in

1924-712: The 19th century, such as the Chartist movement in the United Kingdom during 1838–48. In 1891, localised labour parties were formed, by trade union members in British colonies in Australasia . In 1899, the Labour Party for the Colony of Queensland briefly formed the world's first labour government , lasting one week. From 1901, when six colonies federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia , several labour parties amalgamated to form

1998-456: The British movement, was launched by members of the Socialist Party of America during the first two decades of the 20th century. The earliest use of secular Sunday Schools by the radical movement began in Great Britain in the early 1830s, when adherents of Robert Owen and Chartism opened Sunday training schools for their children. These schools continued to operate until the decade of

2072-534: The Industrial Revolution, these trade unions remained sporadic and localised only to certain regions and professions, and there was not yet enough impetus for the formation of a widespread and comprehensive labour movement. Therefore, the labour movement is usually marked as beginning concurrently with the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom , roughly around 1760-1830. In England the guild system

2146-532: The New York metropolitan area. The first Socialist Sunday School on the west coast was established in Oakland, California early in 1906. Coordinated by Socialist Party of California activist H.H. Lilienthal, more than 100 children were enrolled at the organization's January 28 launch, held at the headquarters facility of Local Oakland. While precise enrollment numbers are not available, one contemporary estimated in

2220-465: The SPA were organized in no fewer than 64 cities and towns spread across 20 states and the District of Columbia . While schools associated with the Socialist Party were established in such Midwestern cities as Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska , the center of greatest activity was New York City and the neighboring cities of southern New Jersey . According to one scholar, the impetus for these schools came from

2294-525: The Scottish reformers Thomas Muir , Rev. Thomas Fyshe Palmer , Joseph Gerrald , and Maurice Margarot were transported , and, in 1794, the leadership of the L.C.S was arrested and tried. Speech and public gatherings were tightly restricted by the Two Acts of 1795 which made certain words acts of treason, limited public gatherings to fifty people or fewer, and enforced licensing for anyone who wanted to speak in

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2368-484: The United States was that connected with the country's largest socialist organization, the Socialist Party of America (SPA). Approximately 100 Socialist Sunday Schools were established by SPA during the first two decades of the 20th century. These institutions were intended to supplement the general education obtained by working class children in the publicly owned school system of the country. Socialist Sunday Schools of

2442-468: The Working Classes," in which he advocated a series of reforms including limits on the length of the work day, a living wage, the elimination of child labour, the rights of labour to organise, and the duty of the state to regulate labour conditions. Throughout the world, action by labourists has resulted in reforms and workers' rights , such as the two-day weekend , minimum wage , paid holidays , and

2516-537: The achievement of the eight-hour day for many workers. There have been many important labour activists in modern history who have caused changes that were revolutionary at the time and are now regarded as basic. For example, Mary Harris Jones , better known as "Mother Jones", and the National Catholic Welfare Council were important in the campaign to end child labour in the United States during

2590-542: The area to fix wage rates. Artisans and workers would also create small craft clubs or trade clubs in each town or locality and these groups such as the hatters in London, shipwrights in Liverpool , or cutlers in Sheffield could use their clubs to unionize. Workers could also use the ubiquitous friendly societies , which had increasingly cropped up British society since 1700, as cover for union activities. In politics,

2664-414: The century, that show instances of labourers "combining" together to raise wages had become a phenomenon in various regions and professions. These early trade unions were fairly small and limited in scope and were separated from unions in other geographical areas or unions in other professions. The unions would strike, collectively bargain with employers, and, if that did not suffice, petition parliament for

2738-440: The children had little or no education, was to influence and educate them and make them aware of their socialist responsibilities and provide what was lacking in their day schools. She started the first Sunday with only one other besides her own two children, but twenty years later there were approximately one hundred and twenty schools throughout the country, twenty of them in London itself. In 1894, another Socialist Sunday School

2812-545: The closely related network of Socialist Party schools, while others retained an independent affiliation with the Jewish socialist organization which had pioneered them. The primary publication of the Socialist Party's youth movement was a monthly magazine called Young Socialist's Magazine, established in 1908. Although it would be incorrect to say that the activities of the British Socialist Sunday Schools were

2886-415: The early 19th century, but were becoming increasingly dead letter by the mid 18th century. Consequently, from 1760 on, real wages began to fall and food prices began to rise giving increased motivation for political and social agitation. As the guild system became increasingly obsolete and parliament abolished the old medieval labour protections, forswearing responsibility for maintaining living standards,

2960-755: The early 20th century. Historically labour markets have often been constrained by national borders that have restricted movement of workers. Labour laws are also primarily determined by individual nations or states within those nations. While there have been some efforts to adopt a set of international labour standards through the International Labour Organisation (ILO), international sanctions for failing to meet such standards are very limited. In many countries labour movements have developed independently and represent those national boundaries. Modern labour parties originated from an increase in organising activities in Europe and European colonies during

3034-640: The editions of the hymn book. The earliest known Socialist Sunday School in the US was launched on March 1, 1880, in New York City by Branch 14 of the Socialist Labor Party of America . Some 30 students participated at the time of the school's launch, which was lauded in the daily New Yorker Volkszeitung as an institution of great benefit to the entire German working-class neighborhood on Manhattan's East Side. The female members of Branch 14 were instrumental in

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3108-533: The enforcement of the Elizabethan statues. The first groups in England to practice early trade unionism were the West of England wool workers and the framework knitters in the Midlands . As early as 1718 a royal proclamation was given in opposition to the formation of any unsanctioned bodies of journeymen attempting to affect wages and employment. Despite the presumption that unionising was illegal, it continued throughout

3182-539: The financial support of the school, which over the next two years conducted a series of concerts, performances, and fundraising social events. Other early American Socialist Sunday Schools were launched in Chicago during the last years of the 1880s. Four such schools were identified by police officials at the time and declared by the authorities to be of "Socialistic and Anarchistic origin". Classes were conducted in German —

3256-498: The good will and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us [...] They are shocked that action organizations, sit-ins, civil disobedience and protests are becoming our everyday tools, just as strikes, demonstrations and union organization became yours to insure that bargaining power genuinely existed on both sides of the table [...] Our needs are identical to labor's needs: decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures [...] That

3330-527: The head of the labour movement demanding the lowering of taxes, the abolition of pensions and sinecures, and an end to payments of the war debt. This radicalism increased in the aftermath of the end of the Napoleonic Wars , as a general economic downturn in 1815 led to a revival in pro-labour politics. During this time, half of each worker's wages was taxed away, unemployment greatly increased, and food prices would not drop from their war time highs. After

3404-529: The labour movement. Labour festivals have long been a part of the labour movement. Often held outdoors in the summer, the music, talks, food, drink, and film have attracted hundreds of thousands of attendees each year. Labour festival is a yearly feast of all the unionism gathering, to celebrate the fulfillment of their goals, to bring solutions to certain hindrances and to reform unjust actions of their employers or government. A degree of strategic biracial cooperation existed among black and white dockworkers on

3478-527: The last of the apprentice laws which had been intended to protect wage rates and employment, but which had also fallen into serious disuse many decades before. The United Kingdom saw an increasing number of large-scale strikes, mainly in the north. In 1811 in Nottinghamshire , a new movement known as the Luddite , or machine-breaker, movement, began. In response to declining living standards, workers all over

3552-578: The main language of the immigrant-dominated American socialist movement of the day — and about 500 children are believed to have attended in all. With the memory of the Haymarket Affair still fresh, these Sunday Schools were characterized by police official Michael J. Schaack as "the most conspicuous feature of the propaganda of the Internationale in Chicago today" and condemned for their "sowing in

3626-664: The members of the League. This communist youth movement -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Socialist Sunday School In the US, a Sunday School movement linked to the German-American socialist movement emerged in New York and Chicago in the 1880s and again on a broader scale as part of the Modern School Movement during the first decade of the 20th century. An even larger network of American Socialist Sunday Schools, closely paralleling

3700-451: The mid-19th century between 1838 and 1848. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which stipulated the six main aims of the movement as: Eventually, after Chartism died out, the United Kingdom adopted the first five reforms. The Chartist movement had a lasting impact in the development of the political labour movement. In the United Kingdom, the term " new unionism " was used in

3774-522: The minds of innocent children the seeds of atheism , discontent, and lawlessness." One Chicago SSS, the North Side Sunday School, met each week for one hour of instruction by a member of the local Turn Verein , during which the ills of the capitalist system and the proposed alternative of socialism were expounded. An 1888 front-page story in the Chicago Tribune editorialized that under

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3848-513: The minds of the young people of the country with their political and anti-religious doctrines and teachings' and there were those who tried to discredit the schools by accusations of blasphemy and revolutionary teachings. The Young Socialist was a monthly periodical published by the National Council and was first issued in Glasgow in 1901. In the September 1910 edition the editor wrote that

3922-409: The old Elizabethan laws empowering magistrates to fix wages to meet the costs of living; however, after three weeks the strike was ended when the police arrested the strike leaders. A renewed stimulus to organised labour in the United Kingdom can be traced back to the 1808 failure of the 'Minimum Wage Bill' in parliament which supporters had seen as a needed countermeasure for the endemic poverty among

3996-492: The passage of the Corn Laws there was mass rioting throughout United Kingdom. Many working-class papers started being published and received by a wide audience, including Cobbet's " Weekly Political Register , Thomas Wooler 's The Black Dwarf , and William Hone 's Reformists's Register . In addition, new political clubs focused on reform, called Hampden Clubs , were formed after a model suggested by Major Cartwright. During

4070-531: The past." This legislation was intended to ensure just compensation for workers throughout the country so they could maintain a "competent livelihood". This doctrine of parliamentary involvement remained in place until about 1700 at which point the practice of wage regulation began to decline, and in 1757 parliament outright rescinded the Weavers Act of 1756, abandoning its power of wage regulation and signaling its newfound dedication to laissez-faire economics. The Elizabethan Apprentice Laws lasted in England until

4144-404: The poor working conditions in the textile industry, workers in Manchester attempted to march on London to deliver petitions in a demonstration known as the Blanketeers march, which ultimately failed. From this point onward the British government also began using hired spies and agent provocateurs to disrupt the labour movement. The most infamous early case of government anti-labour espionage

4218-425: The radical social agitator Thomas Spence , was formed. Spence, a pamphleteer in London since 1776, believed in the socialized distribution of land and changing England into a federalized government based on democratically elected parish communes. The society was small and had only a limited presence in English politics. Other leaders such Henry Hunt , William Cobbet , and Lord Cochrane , known as Radicals , rose to

4292-399: The relevance of labour to globalization is not new, and it is far more significant in shaping the world than is usually recognized. The movement gained major impetus during the late 19th and early 20th centuries from the Catholic Social Teaching tradition which began in 1891 with the publication of Pope Leo XIII 's foundational document, Rerum novarum , also known as "On the Condition of

4366-465: The right of the workers to organize themselves, and the right to an 8-hour working day. In 1871 workers in France rebelled and the Paris Commune was formed. From the mid-19th century onward the labour movement became increasingly globalised: Labour has been central to the modern globalization process. From issues of the embodied movement of workers to the emergence of a global division of labour, and organized responses to capitalist relations of production,

4440-442: The risk of ship owners pitting one race against the other. Black and white dockworkers also cooperated during protracted labour strikes, including the general levee strikes in 1892 and 1907 as well as smaller strikes involving skilled workers such as screwmen in the early 1900s: Negroes in the United States read the history of labour and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on

4514-506: The same time as socialism . The early goals of the movement were the right to unionise , the right to vote , democracy and the 40-hour week . As these were achieved in many of the advanced economies of western Europe and north America in the early decades of the 20th century, the labour movement expanded to issues of welfare and social insurance, wealth distribution and income distribution , public services like health care and education, social housing and common ownership . Labor

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4588-415: The slogan "no religion and no church" children were being subjected to "an inculcation of socialistic views at an age particularly impressionable." An annual summer picnic and outing was held by the school in conjunction with the Turn Verein, attended by several hundred children ranging in age from 3 to 16. Socialist Sunday Schools also seem to have existed in a few other major metropolitan areas, including

4662-440: The society increased rapidly and by the end of the year it may have had as many as three thousand chapters in the United Kingdom. Fearful of this new English Jacobinism , the government responded with wide-scale political repression spearheaded by prime minister Pitt the Younger . Paine was forced to flee the country after his work was deemed to be seditious , booksellers selling Paine's or other radical works were arrested,

4736-555: The sole influence upon the American movement, British publications and experiences were closely followed by American SSS activists. American SSS workers traveled to Britain to observe the activities of the thriving school movement there, and reported their findings upon their return. According to Kenneth Teitelbaum, a scholar of the socialist youth education movement, socialist schools for children also operated in Australia , Canada , New Zealand , Hungary , Belgium , and Switzerland . Labour Movement The labour movement

4810-493: The spring of 1911 that some 2,000 children participated in English language Socialist Sunday Schools, supplanted by others in schools for children who spoke German, Latvian , Yiddish, and other languages of the immigrant community. Among the leaders of the Socialist Party's effort to develop Socialist Sunday Schools was Bertha Mailly , for a time Secretary of the New York State Committee, who encouraged prospective SSS teachers to read John Dewey's School and Society to provide

4884-416: The true socialist, whatever his religious denomination, sought fellowship, a kingdom of love and happiness, not hell. The Socialist Sunday Schools were organised with this theory at its heart and although there was no formal set of rules to be followed, there were the guidelines of morality, brotherly love, and social obligation. There were also " Ten Commandments " to be followed which were printed in some of

4958-412: The values of cooperation, sympathy for the downtrodden, collective solidarity, anti-militarism , anti-capitalism, and opposition to the power of the centralized state. About 22 such schools were established. Although originally intended to be expanded and transformed into regular day schools, most of these radical "Modern Schools" proved to be short-lived. The primary Socialist Sunday School movement in

5032-422: The waterfronts of New Orleans , Louisiana during the early 20th century. Although the groups maintained racially separate labour unions, they coordinated efforts to present a united front when making demands of their employers. These pledges included a commitment to the "50-50" or "half-and-half" system wherein a dock crew would consist of 50% black and 50% white workers and agreement on a single wage demand to reduce

5106-422: The workers began to form the earliest versions of trade unions. The workers on the lowest rungs found it necessary to organise in new ways to protect their wages and other interests such as living standards and working conditions. There is no record of enduring trade unions existing prior to the 18th century. Beginning from 1700 onward there are records of complaints in the United Kingdom, which increase through

5180-406: The working classes of industrial United Kingdom. After the failure of the Minimum Wage Bill displayed the government's commitment to laissez-faire policy, labourers expressed their discontent in the form of the first large scale strikes in the new factory districts. Agitation did not end until it was agreed that weavers would receive a 20% increase in wages. In 1813 and 1814 Parliament would repeal

5254-438: Was a Christian socialist who campaigned for better education and healthcare for poor children. The Springburn branch met for many years in the Labour Party's Unity Hall in Ayr Street for lack of another venue. In 1926, Fulham Council refused the SSS permission to meet on Sundays because it was of a 'non-theological' character. Socialist Sunday Schools encountered opposition because they were 'seen as subversive and as poisoning

5328-465: Was created by trade unionist Tom Anderson. By 1912 there were over 200 Socialist Sunday Schools throughout Britain. In their early days they encountered opposition from local authorities and politicians, who argued that Socialist Sunday Schools subverted the minds of young people with political and anti-religious doctrines and teachings. A national movement, the National Council of British Socialist Sunday Schools Union, formed in 1909, traces its origin to

5402-525: Was that of Oliver the Spy who, in 1817, incited and encouraged the Pentrich Rising , which led to the leadership being indicted on treason charges and executed. In spite of government suppression, the labour movement in the United Kingdom continued, and 1818 marked a new round of strikes as well as the first attempt at establishing a single national union that encompassed all trades, led by John Gast and named

5476-521: Was usurped in its regulation of wages by parliament in the 16th century with the passage of the Elizabethan Era apprentice laws such as the 1562 Statute of Artificers which placed the power to regulate wages and employment in the hands of local officials in each parish. Parliament had been responding to petitions made by English weavers in 1555 who asserted that the owners were "giving much less wages and hire for weaving of clothes than they did in

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