Thursday May 5th of 2022.

By: Nicolas M, Siena V, Alejandro H and Danna T.

The Growth of Labor Unions

1. What did socialists in the 1800s advocate?
- The main critics they had were the excesses of poverty and the inequality that the
industrial revolution had brought, they advocated for reforms that could change the
society such as the egalitarian distribution of wealth and they wanted to transform the
society into one where any private property was abolished, they basically wanted to
change the society by making it more fair and in favor of the public instead of private.
According to socialism the society should control a nation’s wealth not just the private
individuals, basically saying that the wealth should be distributed equally to everyone.

2. How were the goals and actions of the Knights of Labor similar to those of the
American Federation of Laborers (AFL)?
- Both the Knights of Labor and the AFL fought for workers’ rights such as higher
wages, shorter work days and many other things that would benefit the workers
interests. The Knights of labor representation was more inclusive than the AFL; they
represented skilled and unskilled workers, while the AFL represented only skilled
workers. The Knights’ ideas and actions were more radical than the AFL’s.

3. How were the goals and membership different?

- The AFL’s main goal was to center the attention away from social problems and into
the “bread and butter” concerns of the benefits, times, workplace conditions and
salaries, which could all be controlled by collective bargaining and not by a single
power or private sector. While the Knights of Labor aimed for “extensive social
improvement” by substituting capitalism for socialism.