Knights of Labor

The working people were in revolt against the terrible labor conditions.

The eight-hour movement of the Knights of Labor was at its height, and throughout the country echoed the din of sanguine strife between strikers and police.

The struggle culminated in the great strike against the Harvester Company of Chicago, the massacre of the strikers, and the judicial murder of the labor leaders which followed upon the historic Haymarket bomb explosion.

The anarchists stood the martyr test of blood baptism.

The American Federation of Labor, the AFL, has now come into being.

So this is the forerunner to one of the most important labor confederations in american history it has 275 000 members the knights of labor has 175 000 members and four different fraternal brotherhoods representing different trades so you know the rails and the ship workers the dock workers and so on have about 140 000 between them So despite the best efforts of the bosses to basically defang and disorganize and atomize the working class, in spite of all of that, they have been growing in strength and they have been growing in organization.

Most of these organizations are not recognized by the bosses, of course, which means their activity is considered illegal.

The bosses won't negotiate with them.

the purpose of the national labor union was not merely to secure labor's standard demands touching hours wages and conditions of work or to maintain the gains already won it leaned toward political action and radical opinions above all it sought to eliminate the conflict between capital and labor by making workingmen the owners of shops through the formation of cooperative industries For six years the National Labor Union continued to hold conferences and carry on its propaganda, but most of the cooperative enterprises failed, political dissensions arose, and by 1872 the experiment had come to an end.

THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR While the National Labor Union was experimenting, there grew up in the industrial world a more radical organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor.

It was founded in Philadelphia in 1869, first as a secret society with rituals, signs, and passwords, so that no spy of the boss can find his way into the lodge room to betray his fellows, as the knights put it.

in form the new organization was simple it sought to bring all laborers skilled and unskilled men and women white and colored into a mighty body of local and national unions without distinction of trade or craft by eighteen eighty five ten years after the national organization was established it boasted a membership of over seven hundred thousand in philosophy the knights of labor were socialistic for they advocated public ownership of the railways and other utilities and the formation of cooperative societies to own and manage stores and factories as the knights were radical in spirit and their strikes numerous and prolonged were often accompanied by violence the organization alarmed employers and the general public raising up against itself a vigorous opposition weaknesses within as well as foes from without started the knights on the path to dissolution they waged more strikes than they could carry on successfully their co-operative experiments failed as those of other labor groups before them had failed and the rank and file could not be kept in line the majority of the members wanted immediate gains in wages or the reduction of hours when their hopes were not realized they drifted away from the order the troubles were increased by the appearance of the american federation of labor a still mightier organization composed mainly of skilled workers who held strategic positions in industry When they failed to secure the effective support of the Federation in their efforts to organize the unskilled, the employers closed in upon them.

Then the Knights declined rapidly in power.

By 1890 they were a negligible factor, and in a short time they passed into the limbo of dead experiments.

The principle was extended in 1898 and again in 1913, and under the authority of the federal government, many contentions in the railway were settled by arbitration.

The success of such legislation induced some students of industrial questions to urge that unions and employers should be compelled to submit all disputes to official tribunals of arbitration.

The time was ripe, it seemed, for a national consolidation of all labor's forces, and in 1866, the year after the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox, the National Labor Union was formed at Baltimore under the leadership of an experienced organizer, W. H. Silvis of the Ironmoulders.

the purpose of the national labor union was not merely to secure labor's standard demands touching hours wages and conditions of work or to maintain the gains already won it leaned toward political action and radical opinions above all it sought to eliminate the conflict between capital and labor by making workingmen the owners of shops through the formation of cooperative industries for six years the national labor union continued to hold conferences and carry on its propaganda but most of the cooperative enterprises failed political dissensions arose and by eighteen seventy two the experiment had come to an end the knights of labor While the National Labor Union was experimenting, there grew up in the industrial world a more radical organization known as the Noble Order of the Knights of Labor.

It was founded in Philadelphia in 1869, first as a secret society with rituals, signs, and passwords, so that no spy of the boss can find his way into the lodge room to betray his fellows, as the knights put it.

In form, the new organization was simple.

It sought to bring all laborers, skilled and unskilled, men and women, white and colored, into a mighty body of local and national unions, without distinction of trade or craft.

By 1885, ten years after the national organization was established, it boasted a membership of over 700,000.

In philosophy, the Knights of Labor were socialistic, for the advocated public ownership of the railways and other utilities, and the formation of cooperative societies to own and manage stores and factories.

as the knights were radical in spirit and their strikes numerous and prolonged were often accompanied by violence the organization alarmed employers and the general public raising up against itself a vigorous opposition weaknesses within as well as foes from without started the knights on the path to dissolution they waged more strikes than they could carry on successfully their co-operative experiments failed as those of other labor groups before them had failed and the rank and file could not be kept in line the majority of the members wanted immediate gains in wages or the reduction of hours when their hopes were not realized they drifted away from the order the troubles were increased by the appearance of the american federation of labor a still mightier organization composed mainly of skilled workers who held strategic positions in industry When they failed to secure the effective support of the Federation in their efforts to organize the unskilled, the employers closed in upon them.

success to the Knights of Labor podcast.

All these big successes with, first, like, with Medina, and then through Working Families Party time, till now, especially with, like, the book.

Like, we know it's a real thing.

We want to break bread with you.

you know, Knights of Labor, you know, us Farmers Alliance, we want to ally with you.

Believe it or not, post-Civil War, there were Southern white farmers that tried to reach out to Black share coppers to say like, hey, look, we actually think we should be in coalition together.

And that worked sometimes, it failed other times.