Radicalism & Labor: 1829–1912
Workingmen’s Declaration of Causes & Aims (City of New York, c. 1829–30)
Stylistic mimicry
Opens with direct echoes of the U.S. Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self-evident …”).
Rhetorical purpose: claim the working class as rightful heirs of the Revolutionary tradition.
Core thesis
A “long train of abuses” aimed at labor requires constitutional, peaceful but firm organization of a separate political party of workingmen.
Enumerated grievances (facts submitted to the people)
Tax laws – regressively structured; wealthy scarcely feel the burden.
Jury, witness, militia duties – working people lose time & wages while elites buy substitutes.
Private incorporations – charters confer profit to capitalists; workers locked out.
Religious societies’ charters – opulent churches create spiritual pride & social caste.
Seminaries & public education endowments – public subsidy yet rich receive most benefit, perpetuating "imparity."
Municipal ordinances & liens – e.g., landlord lien law lets owners jump the queue ahead of wage-earners and small creditors.
Moral/ethical frame
Natural right to “equal means” of pursuing happiness.
Appeal to reason, conscience, and the Supreme Judge of the world; pledge mutual aid “to the end of our lives.”
Implicit connections
Early forerunner of later labor platforms (e.g., NLU 1867, Knights of Labor 1880s).
Pre-Marxian but already critiques class legislation and private corporate power.
National Labor Union – Declaration of Principles (1867)
Founders: William H. Sylvis (Iron Molders) & Richard F. Trevellick (Ship Carpenters).
Jeffersonian framing
Two pure governments: autocracy vs democracy; America must choose the latter.
Monetary & revenue critique
Laws “shield non-producing capital,” load taxes on "industrial wealth-producers," pushing them to “practical servitude.”
Programmatic planks
8-hour law for all federal (& state) work sites.
Currency reform: money must become “servant, not master, of labor” – foreshadows Greenback & Populist ideas.
Co-operation: true partnership between labor & capital once money system fixed.
Public land policy: sell only to actual occupants; prevent monopolies equivalent to money trusts.
Universal education: Congress duty-bound to secure schools so sovereign voters are informed.
Significance
First U.S. labor body to welcome Black delegates (Baltimore 1869).
Political rather than pure “trade” orientation; bridge from antebellum craft unionism → post-Civil-War mass movements.
Emma Goldman – “Anarchism: What It Really Stands For” (1911)
Poetic epigraph: John Henry Mackay’s salute to Anarchy as liberation from rule.
Two popular objections answered
“Beautiful but impractical.”
Synonymous with violence & destruction.
Re-definition
\text{ANARCHISM} = \text{Liberty} - \text{(all man-made law)}; all states rest on violence ⇒ wrong & needless.
Materialist yet holistic view
Economic roots of evil but must transform every phase of life: individual + collective.
Key dialectic: Individual Instinct vs Social Instinct
Historic blood-battle caused by religion & state teaching “Man is nothing, Power is everything.”
Proper environment would harmonize them like “heart and lungs.”
Triple citadel of oppression
Religion – mental fetters; “God is everything, man nothing.”
Property – material fetters; “Property is robbery” (Proudhon). Centralization & machine subservience maim creativity.
Government/State – behavioral fetters; “All government in essence is tyranny” (Emerson).
Method: Direct Action
Defiance of unjust law = virtue; integrity-proof.
Trade unionism, general strike, John Brown cited as successes.
Goal: cooperative production & free communism, yet honoring individual voluntary forms.
Vision
Anarchism as “great leaven of thought,” permeating science, art, literature. Will usher the Dawn of social harmony.
Mother Jones – Speech to Striking West Virginia Miners (Charleston, 1912)
Context
Martial law, Baldwin-Felts guards, tent colonies after evictions.
Diagnosing the “disease”
Triple failure of Governor, courts, attorney general to hear workers.
Statehouse built by labor taxes → reclaim it.
Fiery rhetoric & satire
Ministers promise “bed in heaven” while miners lack beds on earth.
Rich wives’ lap-dogs bought “with the blood of children.”
Miners called “dirty cowards” if they submit to guard intimidation.
Civil liberties theme
Vows to hold meetings despite martial law: “Right of free speech will be carried on if they hire all the militia to murder us.”
Broader labor-populist links
Recalls fights against Southern Pacific, Colorado mine wars, Mexican revolutionaries brought before Congress.
Political strategy
Ballot as bayonet on Nov 5; elect sheriffs who refuse troops.
Denounces capitalist “rotten to the core” machinery; envisions march “from milestone to milestone of human freedom … slavery will get its death-blow.”
Tone: combination of maternal care (“Mother is going to stay with you”) and revolutionary militancy.
Mark Twain – “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” (1901)
Opening tableau
"Stately matron Christendom" returns “besmirched” from imperial raids (Kiao-Chow, Manchuria, South Africa, Philippines).
Target: Imperial hypocrisy of the Christian West
Satiric label: “Blessings-of-Civilization Trust.”
Case studies in civilized barbarism
U.S. urban vice (NY-East Side) vs press self-congratulation.
Rev. William Ament & missionaries in China:
Collected 300 taels per murdered protestant, plus 13× property damages “for the propagation of the Gospel.”
Catholic missions: 500 taels + “head for head” (680 heads demanded!).
British in South Africa – elephant vs field-mice; bayonet “long spoon.”
Kaiser extorting Shantung, sparks Boxer revolt.
Russian massacres in Manchuria.
U.S. betrayal of Filipino independence; buys “ghosts” of Spanish sovereignty for 20{,}000{,}000.
Casualty arithmetic (MacArthur): U.S. loss 268 killed; Filipino loss 3{,}227 killed + 694 wounded ⇒ “Americans massacre theirs” quips Twain.
Satirical economic formula
Twice 2 = 14, 2 from 9 = 35 ⇒ jab at Joseph Chamberlain’s statistics.
“American Game” vs “European Game”
American (Cuba model): fight to free colony, then withdraw.
European (Philippines): fight to obtain colony, suppress natives.
Proposed marketing fix
Export brand of Civilization must keep gaudy moral cover intact; powers have been shipping actual brutality uncovered.
Suggests khaki uniforms & a new U.S. colonial flag (white stripes blackened, skull-and-crossbones replacing stars).
Closing irony
Calls to “resume business at the old stand,” but reader sees moral bankruptcy.
Literary devices
Repetition of “Person Sitting in Darkness” as global non-Western observer.
Use of dialogues, imaginary accounting ledger, mock-biblical cadence.
Cross-Lecture Connections & Broader Significance
Natural-rights rhetoric runs from 1829 Workingmen → 1867 NLU → Mother Jones, showing continuity of Revolutionary idiom in labor radicalism.
Eight-hour day thread links Ira Steward, NLU plank, Goldman’s general-strike optimism, and Mother Jones’ concrete organizing.
Critique of State & Capital shared by Goldman (philosophical), Jones (practical), Twain (imperial), NLU (economic-political).
Race & inclusion: NLU admits Black delegates (1869); Twain condemns racialized colonial slaughter; Goldman universalizes liberation; Mother Jones cites Mexican & Black struggles.
Religious hypocrisy: Workingmen critique rich churches; Goldman attacks religion as mental domination; Twain lampoons missionary indemnities.
Direct vs electoral action: Goldman champions illegal direct action; Jones blends ballot & defiance; NLU seeks Congressional remedies; Twain satirizes both party politics and missionary moralism.
Key Numeric / Statistical References (LaTeX-formatted)
Hours systems: 14\,\text{h} > 8\,\text{h}; early start 4{:}30 a.m. vs 7{:}00 a.m.
NLU casualty of poverty: implicit wage loss “unremunerated toil.”
Philippine War (Gen. MacArthur): \text{US killed}=268; \text{US wounded}=750; \text{Filipino killed}=3{,}227; \text{Filipino wounded}=694.
Missionary indemnities: Protestants 300 taels × 700 converts killed = 210{,}000 taels; Catholics 500 taels × 680 = 340{,}000 taels + 680 heads.
U.S.–Spain Treaty payment: 20{,}000{,}000 to purchase a “Shadow.”
Ethical & Philosophical Implications
Labor vs Capital: early recognition that law is not neutral; distribution of social goods is political.
State violence: from Goldman's theoretical critique to Twain’s imperial examples, state power portrayed as systemic coercion.
Democracy’s tension: NLU sees republic endangered by money monopoly; Twain sees democracy compromised abroad; Jones sees democracy denied at home.
Voice of the marginalized: all texts elevate “the workingman,” “the anarchist,” “the miner,” “the colonized.”
Propaganda & truth: Twain’s essay calls for exposing real facts wrapped in cynical marketing; Goldman challenges mental indolence; Steward warns against superficial “increase wages” debates.
Real-World Relevance Today
Ongoing fights for shorter working hours (gig economy parallels).
Debates over tax justice, corporate charters, student-debt-driven education inequality.
Renewed scrutiny of colonial legacies, missionary complicity, and military occupations.
Resurgence of interest in anarchist mutual aid and direct action networks.
Labor’s dual strategy dilemma: institutional politics vs disruptive strikes, mirrored in current union drives (Amazon, Starbucks).