Responses to the Industrial Revolution January 5, 2006

Workers Demand Change Working conditions deteriorated Workers’ suffering grew and became increasingly dissatisfied Workers in Britain began a series of protests Luddite protests-Workers, upset by wage reductions and the use of unapprenticed workmen, began to break into factories at night to destroy the new machines

Manchester Riots In 1819, workers gathered in Manchester The orderly crowed numbered about 80,000 Workers demanded economic and political reforms Nervous soldiers fired on the crowd killing 11 and injuring 400 Parliament investigates Middle-class liberals believed that government should not interfere; Conservatives sometimes criticized working conditions Laissez-faire economics (Wealth of Nations)

Forces of Change Labor Unions organize and empower workers Novelists like Charles Dickens expose the hardships of the working poor and child labor in his novel Oliver Twist Utopian Socialist want to reorganize industry to reform society Scientific Socialism by Karl Marx introduced in the Communist Manifesto wanted public ownership of productive assets