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ECONOMICS & LABOR
Race, Caste & Social Revolution
America Needs Labor Agreements Not A Gig Economy
“The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of the last century, with the invention of the steam-engine and of machinery for working cotton.”
Workers
Frederick Engels wrote those words. They open his most important book, Conditions of the Working Class In England. Do check the book out if you want to understand the issue of class in a capitalist society like America.
There are few books more powerful, important, and world changing regarding the world’s economy and labor that Engels’ text. It is as important as The Communist Manifesto (Engels co-wrote that with Karl Marx) to most but to me, it is more important.
Engels was not from England but he wrote about the center of the Industrial Revolution in England, ground zero so to speak. The city is Manchester, England and Engels is able to lay out the life and perspective of the worker.
Engels was not a poor kid. This is what made it important. He understood both sides of the debate and life. His father’s business was in the U.K. in the middle of the tension of worker and corporation. Engels came to work in his father’s business several times. He came…
