ILRGL 1100 Final Exam Terms

Separation of Spheres

WHAT: A cultural ideology separating home (women's labor) from wage work (men's labor).

WHEN: industrial capitalism (19th century)

WHY: shaped gendered labor norms and justified paying women less while hiding the economic value of reproductive labor.

Productive vs. reproductive labor

WHAT: Productive labor creates goods/services for profit; reproductive labor sustains daily and generational life.

WHEN: 19th-20th century

WHY: Explains how capitalism relies not only on factories but on unpaid or underpaid care work that produces "labor power."

Use value vs. exchange value

WHAT: useful something is; exchange value is what it trades for in markets

WHEN: Central to capitalist economies since early industrialization.

WHY: Shows capitalism shifts production toward commodities for sale, not human need, creating alienation and inequality.

Enclosure of the commons

WHAT: Process where European landlords privatized communal land and pushed peasants off it.

WHEN: Mainly 15th–18th centuries.

SIGNIFICANCE: Forced peasants into wage labor and accelerated migration to the Americas, shaping the labor supply for colonial economies.

Settler Colonialism

WHAT: A system where settlers seize Indigenous land and replace native societies.

WHEN: 17th–19th centuries in North America.

SIGNIFICANCE: It depended on Indigenous displacement and forced labor, laying foundations for racialized labor systems in the U.S.

Encomienda System

WHAT: Spanish tribute and labor system forcing Indigenous people to work under colonial “protection.”

WHEN: 16th–17th centuries.

SIGNIFICANCE: Created massive exploitation, population decline, and a labor structure that foreshadowed later coerced systems like repartimiento.

Pope’s Rebellion

WHAT: A coordinated Indigenous uprising against Spanish forced labor and rule in New Mexico.

WHEN: 1680.

SIGNIFICANCE: One of the most successful Indigenous revolts; it halted Spanish control for 12 years and challenged coerced labor regimes.

Gendered division of labor in Europe vs. Indigenous North America

WHAT: Europeans assigned labor strictly by gender, while many Indigenous societies had different or more flexible divisions.

WHEN: 1600s–1700s.

SIGNIFICANCE: Revealed deep cultural misunderstanding that Europeans used to justify colonization and forced “correction” of Indigenous labor norms.

Indentured servitude

WHAT: Contract labor system where migrants worked 3–7 years in exchange for passage and “freedom dues.”

WHEN: 1600s–1700s.

SIGNIFICANCE: Provided the initial labor force of the colonies, but mortality, exploitation, and Bacon’s Rebellion pushed elites toward racialized slavery.

Partus Sequitur Ventrem

WHAT: A 1662 Virginia law declaring that children inherit the enslaved status of their mother.

WHEN: Late 17th century.

SIGNIFICANCE: Codified hereditary chattel slavery and deepened racial hierarchy by tying Blackness to permanent enslavement.

Middle Passage

WHAT: The Atlantic journey enslaved Africans were forced to endure to reach the Americas.

WHEN: 16th–19th centuries.

SIGNIFICANCE: Millions were transported under horrific conditions; the passage created laborers for plantation capitalism and produced racial categories themselves.

Chattel slavery

WHAT: A system where enslaved people were treated as movable property, permanently and heritably enslaved.

WHEN: 17th–19th centuries.

SIGNIFICANCE: Formed the economic backbone of early U.S. growth and shaped racial capitalism through both productive and reproductive exploitation.

DuBois's "psychological wage"

WHAT: idea that white workers received social status benefits that compensated for low wages

WHEN: Reconstruction through Jim Crow

SIGNIFICANCE: explains why white workers often aligned with elites instead of Black workers; shows how racism fractured labor solidarity

Self-emancipation as the "General Strike"

WHAT: mass withdrawal of enslaved labor during the Civil War

WHEN: 1861-1865

SIGNIFICANCE: collapsed plantation economy; turned war into fight over slavery; showed enslaved people's central role in securing their own freedom

The market revolution

WHAT: shift from household/local production to industrial production + national markets

WHEN: 1820s-1840s

SIGNIFICANCE: expanded wage labor; increased inequality; accelerated urbanization and factory growth

Lowell mills

WHAT: early large-scale textile factories employing mainly young women

WHEN: early-mid 19th century

SIGNIFICANCE: introduced factory discipline; relied on gendered wage inequality; sparked early labor protest over wage cuts

Workingmen's parties

WHAT: early worker-led political parties pushing economic reforms

WHEN: 1820s-1830s

SIGNIFICANCE: mobilized labor politically; demanded debt reform and shorter hours; first attempt to create a working-class political agenda

"Wage slavery"

WHAT: term used by workers comparing exploitative wage labor to slavery

WHEN: mid-19th century

SIGNIFICANCE: expressed fear of loss of independence; highlighted class divisions and anxieties over industrial capitalism

National Labor Union

WHAT: first national labor federation seeking broad labor reform

WHEN: 1866-early 1870s

SIGNIFICANCE: pushed eight-hour day; encouraged Black organizing (separately); showed ability to coordinate national labor politics

Convict leasing

WHAT: system leasing prisoners to private companies for labor

WHEN: post-Civil War into early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: re-created slavery through the 13th Amendment loophole; targeted Black people through vagrancy laws; generated brutal exploitation

Vagrancy laws

WHAT: laws criminalizing poverty, unemployment, or "idleness"

WHEN: mostly reconstructed and revived post-Civil War

SIGNIFICANCE: funneled freedpeople into convict leasing; denied true free labor; enforced racial labor control

William Sylvis

WHAT: leader of Iron Molders' Union and president of the NLU

WHEN: 1860s

SIGNIFICANCE: expanded national labor organizing; built strike funds; pushed eight-hour movement; shaped early labor federation strategy

Eight-hour day movement

WHAT: nationwide push for legal eight-hour workdays

WHEN: 1860s

SIGNIFICANCE: first major coordinated labor reform campaign; framed shorter hours as economic justice; won limited early federal/state laws

"The second industrial revolution"

WHAT: shift to large factories, national corporations, steel, oil, railroads

WHEN: late 19th century

SIGNIFICANCE: intensified deskilling and wage labor; created huge inequality; expanded industrial conflict

Draft riots

WHAT: violent NYC riots protesting Civil War draft and racial tensions

WHEN: 1863

SIGNIFICANCE: exposed deep racial division in working class; white workers attacked Black people; undermined cross-racial labor solidarity

Transcontinental railroad

WHAT: first rail line linking the U.S. from Atlantic to Pacific (Union Pacific + Central Pacific)

WHEN: completed 1869, post-Civil War

SIGNIFICANCE: transformed movement of people and goods; accelerated westward expansion and empire; depended on exploited labor (especially Chinese workers)

Railroad Chinese Strike

WHAT: strike by Chinese railroad workers protesting lower wages and brutal conditions

WHEN: 1860s

SIGNIFICANCE: showed Chinese workers' collective power; exposed racialized wage structures and employer dependence on immigrant labor

Great Railway Strike of 1877

WHAT: massive national railroad strike sparked by wage cuts

WHEN: 1877

SIGNIFICANCE: first national industrial uprising; met with state/military repression; revealed scale of worker anger under corporate capitalism

Chinese Exclusion Act

WHAT: first federal law banning immigration based on race/nationality

WHEN: 1882

SIGNIFICANCE: restricted Chinese labor; institutionalized racial hierarchy; shaped future immigration policy and labor markets

Craft unions vs. industrial unions

WHAT: craft = skilled, trade-specific; industrial = all workers in an industry

WHEN: late 19th-early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: shaped labor movement's structure; debates over inclusion vs. exclusivity; industrial unions later powered CIO growth

Knights of Labor

WHAT: inclusive labor organization aiming to unite all "producers"

WHEN: 1870s-1880s

SIGNIFICANCE: pushed broad reform (cooperatives, end to child labor); mobilized massive membership; collapsed after Haymarket backlash

Uriah S. Stephens

WHAT: founder of the Knights of Labor

WHEN: 1869

SIGNIFICANCE: built the KOL's structure and ideology; promoted uplift and broad labor solidarity before Powderly's leadership

1887 Sugar Cane Strike

WHAT: strike by Black sugar workers demanding fair wages in Louisiana

WHEN: 1887

SIGNIFICANCE: met with violent repression; showed limits of Black labor organizing in Jim Crow South; highlighted planter terrorism

Samuel Gompers

WHAT: founder and longtime leader of the American Federation of Labor

WHEN: late 19th-early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: promoted craft unionism, bread-and-butter bargaining; shaped AFL's conservative, skilled-worker strategy

American Federation of Labor

WHAT: national federation of craft unions focused on wages/hours/jobs

WHEN: founded 1886

SIGNIFICANCE: dominated early 20th-century labor; excluded many immigrants, women, and Black workers; resisted radical politics

Haymarket Square

WHAT: Chicago labor protest where a bomb explosion led to crackdown on radicals

WHEN: 1886

SIGNIFICANCE: discredited eight-hour movement temporarily; used to criminalize anarchists; weakened Knights of Labor

Homestead Strike

WHAT: steelworker strike at Carnegie's Homestead mill against wage cuts

WHEN: 1892

SIGNIFICANCE: violent clash with Pinkertons; major defeat for industrial unionism; strengthened corporate control

Pullman Strike

WHAT: national railroad strike after Pullman wage cuts and rent exploitation

WHEN: 1894

SIGNIFICANCE: shut down rail traffic; federal troops broke strike; showed federal alignment with corporate interests

Depression of the 1890s

WHAT: severe economic collapse with mass unemployment and wage cuts

WHEN: early-mid 1890s

SIGNIFICANCE: intensified labor conflict; fueled major strikes (Pullman); exposed instability of industrial capitalism

The Gilded Age

WHAT: era of rapid industrial growth, huge corporations, and extreme inequality

WHEN: late 19th century

SIGNIFICANCE: produced harsh working conditions; expanded wage labor; created the setting for explosive labor organizing

Eugene Debs

WHAT: labor leader who founded the American Railway Union and later became a socialist leader

WHEN: 1890s-1910s

SIGNIFICANCE: led Pullman Strike; shifted from trade unionism to socialist politics; symbol of class-wide labor vision

The American Railway Union

WHAT: industrial union organizing all railroad workers

WHEN: founded 1893

SIGNIFICANCE: coordinated Pullman boycott; showed potential of industrial unionism; crushed by federal intervention

The "Labor Question" in the Progressive Era

WHAT: debate over how to address industrial conflict, inequality, and worker rights

WHEN: early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: produced reforms (protective laws, regulation); shaped early state involvement in labor conditions

Ludlow Massacre

WHAT: violent attack by Colorado National Guard on striking coal miners' tent colony

WHEN: 1914

SIGNIFICANCE: exposed brutality of company towns; sparked national outrage; pushed momentum for labor reforms

The Lochner Era

WHAT: Supreme Court period striking down labor regulations as violating "freedom of contract"

WHEN: ~1897-1937

SIGNIFICANCE: blocked minimum wages, hour limits, and protections; favored employers over workers; limited state labor power

Muller v. Oregon

WHAT: Supreme Court decision upholding hour limits for women using "Brandeis Brief"

WHEN: 1908

SIGNIFICANCE: opened door for some protective laws; reinforced gender inequality by framing women as weaker workers

The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

WHAT: radical industrial union aiming to organize all workers into "One Big Union"

WHEN: founded 1905

SIGNIFICANCE: pushed direct action and strikes; organized immigrants and unskilled workers; crushed by wartime repression

William "Big Bill" Haywood

WHAT: prominent IWW leader and organizer

WHEN: early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: promoted militant industrial unionism; symbol of IWW radicalism; targeted heavily by state repression

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

WHAT: IWW organizer active in free speech fights and textile strikes

WHEN: early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: mobilized immigrant/unskilled workers; represented power of radical rank-and-file organizing

Sedition Act of 1918

WHAT: WWI law criminalizing antiwar speech and dissent

WHEN: 1918

SIGNIFICANCE: used to arrest IWW and socialists; crippled radical labor; expanded federal repression of labor activism

Bisbee Deportation

WHAT: illegal roundup and deportation of striking copper miners in Arizona

WHEN: 1917

SIGNIFICANCE: employers + vigilantes violently removed workers; exposed limits of labor rights in the West; highlighted anti-union corporate power

Seattle General Strike of 1919

WHAT: citywide shutdown in solidarity with shipyard workers

WHEN: 1919

SIGNIFICANCE: demonstrated power of coordinated labor; triggered national Red Scare fears; strengthened employer backlash

Palmer Raids

WHAT: federal raids targeting radicals, immigrants, and labor organizers

WHEN: 1919-1920

SIGNIFICANCE: crushed left-wing labor; expanded surveillance/policing; fueled anti-immigrant repression

Nicola Sacco & Bartolomeo Vanzetti

WHAT: Italian immigrant anarchists controversially convicted and executed

WHEN: 1920s

SIGNIFICANCE: symbolized anti-immigrant and anti-radical bias; mobilized global labor/left solidarity

The shift from live-in to live-out domestic work

WHAT: change from domestic workers living in employers' homes to working daily shifts

WHEN: early-mid 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: increased worker autonomy; reflected urbanization; still low wages and racialized exploitation

Washerwomen's unions

WHAT: Black domestic laundry workers' organizations demanding control over rates and conditions

WHEN: late 19th century

SIGNIFICANCE: early example of Black women's labor organizing; asserted independence in Southern labor markets

Troy Female Collar and Laundry Workers Union

WHAT: women laundry workers in Troy, NY organizing against wage cuts

WHEN: 1860s-1870s

SIGNIFICANCE: one of earliest sustained women-led unions; fought industrial sweatshop conditions; showed gendered labor militancy

Sweating system

WHAT: subcontracting system using small shops with low wages and long hours

WHEN: late 19th-early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: created extreme exploitation in garment trades; relied on immigrant women; central to calls for labor reform

Piece work

WHAT: payment system paying workers per unit produced

WHEN: common in 19th-20th century light manufacturing

SIGNIFICANCE: drove speed-ups and competition; kept wages unstable; intensified exploitation in garment and domestic industries

The Uprising of 20,000

WHAT: massive garment strike led by young immigrant women in NYC

WHEN: 1909-1910

SIGNIFICANCE: won safety and wage concessions; showcased women's labor leadership; challenged garment sweatshop conditions

Clara Lemlich

WHAT: garment worker who sparked the Uprising of 20,000 with her speech

WHEN: 1909

SIGNIFICANCE: symbol of women's radical labor activism; showed immigrant women at the center of garment organizing

"Mink brigade"

WHAT: wealthy progressive women who supported garment strikers

WHEN: 1909-1910

SIGNIFICANCE: brought publicity and protection to strikers; showed cross-class alliances in Progressive Era labor struggles

Triangle Shirtwaist

WHAT: deadly garment factory fire killing 146 workers

WHEN: 1911

SIGNIFICANCE: exposed lethal sweatshop conditions; led to major safety regulations and strengthened labor reform movements

The Lawrence textile strike

WHAT: multiethnic strike by mill workers ("Bread and Roses")

WHEN: 1912

SIGNIFICANCE: showed power of immigrant organizing; won wage gains; symbol of IWW inclusive unionism

Scientific management

WHAT: Taylorist system breaking tasks into timed, simplified motions

WHEN: early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: increased productivity; intensified deskilling; reduced worker autonomy

Welfare capitalism

WHAT: employer programs offering benefits, recreation, or housing

WHEN: 1910s-1920s

SIGNIFICANCE: aimed to weaken unions; tried to build worker loyalty; limited actual worker power

Industrial democracy

WHAT: idea that workers should have voice/control in workplace decisions

WHEN: 1910s-1920s

SIGNIFICANCE: pushed alternatives to autocratic management; influenced New Deal labor policy; connected workplace power to democratic ideals

Frederick Winslow Taylor

WHAT: engineer who created scientific management ("Taylorism")

WHEN: early 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: maximized productivity through time-motion studies; intensified deskilling; reduced worker autonomy and control

Deskilling

WHAT: process of breaking jobs into simple, repetitive tasks requiring less skill

WHEN: early 20th century onward

SIGNIFICANCE: shifted power to management; allowed easier worker replacement; lowered wages and job security

Speed-ups

WHAT: managerial tactic increasing pace of work or machine tempo

WHEN: early-mid 20th century factories

SIGNIFICANCE: raised output but hurt workers; caused fatigue, injuries, and labor conflict; major target of union resistance

Collective bargaining

WHAT: formal negotiation between unions and employers

WHEN: became standard after early 20th century, solidified in New Deal

SIGNIFICANCE: increased worker leverage; set wages/hours/conditions; cornerstone of modern labor rights

Company unions

WHAT: employer-controlled "unions" designed to prevent independent organizing

WHEN: 1910s-1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: weakened real worker power; used to block genuine unions; outlawed by Wagner Act

Railway Labor Act

WHAT: law regulating labor relations in rail (later airlines)

WHEN: 1926

SIGNIFICANCE: mandated collective bargaining and mediation; model for later New Deal labor laws

Hoovervilles

WHAT: shantytowns built by unemployed people during the Depression

WHEN: 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: symbolized mass joblessness; highlighted failures of Hoover-era relief; created pressure for New Deal reforms

"Slave markets" during Great Depression

WHAT: street corners where domestic workers waited for day labor under exploitative conditions

WHEN: 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: showed racialized and gendered labor desperation; exposed exclusion of domestic workers from New Deal protections

The meatless summer of 1935

WHAT: protest where Black domestic workers refused to buy overpriced meat

WHEN: 1935

SIGNIFICANCE: example of consumer-based labor resistance; challenged price-gouging and economic injustice

Unemployed councils

WHAT: grassroots groups organizing jobless workers for relief and eviction defense

WHEN: 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: militant organizing that pressured governments for aid; built solidarity among unemployed workers

The Share Croppers' Union

WHAT: Black tenant farmers' union in the rural South

WHEN: 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: fought planter exploitation; faced violent repression; highlighted racialized agricultural labor struggle

Repatriation

WHAT: mass deportation/expulsion of Mexican and Mexican American workers

WHEN: 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: removed hundreds of thousands, including citizens; exposed racialized labor scapegoating during Depression

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

WHAT: New Deal law guaranteeing rights to unionize and bargain collectively

WHEN: 1935

SIGNIFICANCE: empowered mass industrial organizing; created NLRB; excluded domestic/agricultural workers, reinforcing racial inequality

Social Security Act

WHAT: New Deal law creating unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, and welfare programs

WHEN: 1935

SIGNIFICANCE: built welfare-state foundation; excluded many Black/Latino workers via job-category exclusions; strengthened state role in labor security

Fair Labor Standards Act

WHAT: law establishing minimum wage, overtime rules, and child labor restrictions

WHEN: 1938

SIGNIFICANCE: set national wage floor; reshaped low-wage labor markets; left out domestic and agricultural workers

Frances Perkins

WHAT: Secretary of Labor and key architect of New Deal labor policy

WHEN: 1930s-1940s

SIGNIFICANCE: drove creation of Social Security, FLSA, and labor protections; major force behind pro-worker legislation

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

WHAT: federation of industrial unions organizing mass-production workers

WHEN: mid-1930s-1950s

SIGNIFICANCE: united immigrant, Black, and unskilled workers; transformed labor power; drove sit-down strikes and industrial unionism

Flint Sit-Down Strike

WHAT: occupation strike by auto workers against GM

WHEN: 1936-1937

SIGNIFICANCE: won union recognition; key victory for CIO; validated sit-down tactic as major labor weapon

Big Steel / Little Steel

WHAT: contrast between large steel firms accepting unionism and smaller firms resisting

WHEN: late 1930s

SIGNIFICANCE: showed uneven employer acceptance of CIO; Little Steel violence (Memorial Day Massacre) revealed ongoing anti-union brutality

Japanese internment

WHAT: forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans during WWII

WHEN: 1942-1945

SIGNIFICANCE: disrupted West Coast labor markets; revealed racial state power; many internees used as replacement agricultural labor

The Bracero program

WHAT: U.S.-Mexico agreement bringing Mexican guest workers for farm and railroad labor

WHEN: 1942-1964

SIGNIFICANCE: supplied cheap labor; depressed wages for domestic workers; normalized exploitative guestworker systems

National War Labor Board

WHAT: federal agency controlling wages and mediating disputes during WWII

WHEN: 1942-1945

SIGNIFICANCE: froze wages but expanded union membership; institutionalized grievance procedures; strengthened collective bargaining structures

Smith-Connally Act

WHAT: wartime law restricting strikes and allowing government seizure of industries

WHEN: 1943

SIGNIFICANCE: limited labor rights during war; previewed postwar anti-union laws; reflected state priority of production over worker power

The postwar strike wave (after WWII)

WHAT: massive wave of strikes demanding higher wages after wartime wage freezes

WHEN: 1945-1946

SIGNIFICANCE: showed pent-up worker frustration; biggest strike wave in U.S. history; triggered corporate and political backlash

Taft-Hartley

WHAT: law restricting union power and expanding employer rights

WHEN: 1947

SIGNIFICANCE: banned secondary boycotts/closed shops; enabled right-to-work laws; weakened CIO militancy and reshaped labor landscape

Labor feminism

WHAT: movement of women pushing for workplace rights through gender-specific protections and equality measures

WHEN: 1940s-1960s

SIGNIFICANCE: expanded debates over equality vs. protection; pushed childcare, equal pay, maternity rights; reshaped labor law around women workers

The Women's Bureau

WHAT: federal agency researching and advocating for women workers

WHEN: founded 1920

SIGNIFICANCE: documented wage inequality; influenced protective laws; central to shaping women's labor policy in mid-20th century

Protective legislation (for women workers)

WHAT: laws limiting hours or improving conditions specifically for women

WHEN: early-mid 20th century

SIGNIFICANCE: provided some protections but reinforced gender inequality; used to exclude women from higher-paid work

The Lavender Scare

WHAT: campaign targeting LGBTQ federal workers for dismissal as "security risks"

WHEN: 1950s

SIGNIFICANCE: deepened discrimination in public-sector workplaces; pushed queer workers out of unions and government jobs

Merger of the AFL and CIO

WHAT: unification of craft-oriented AFL and industrial-oriented CIO

WHEN: 1955

SIGNIFICANCE: ended decades of rivalry; created largest U.S. labor federation; shifted movement toward more conservative, bureaucratic unionism

Public sector expansion

WHAT: major growth in government employment and unionization

WHEN: 1950s-1970s

SIGNIFICANCE: shifted labor movement center toward teachers, clerical workers, and city employees; became main source of union growth

NY's Taylor Law

WHAT: New York law granting public-sector bargaining rights but banning strikes

WHEN: 1967

SIGNIFICANCE: expanded formal bargaining but limited worker power; shaped public-sector labor relations for teachers and city workers

Ocean Hill-Brownsville Strike

WHAT: conflict between NYC teachers' union and Black community activists over school control

WHEN: 1968

SIGNIFICANCE: exposed racial tensions in unions; fractured civil rights-labor alliances; highlighted limits of labor solidarity