What are the characteristics of the early workers' movement and the signs of the awakening of the world proletariat?

I think the symbol is the June uprising.

French June Uprising

1848 In the February Revolution, the people of Paris overthrew the "July Dynasty", but the bourgeoisie stole the fruits of the revolution and established the Second Republic of France. The interim government set up a "state-owned factory" to absorb unemployed workers and drive them to do paving and digging. Pay them very little and tell the workers that this is socialism. It also increased taxes on farmers on the pretext of supporting workers in "state-owned factories" and provoked the relationship between farmers and workers. At the same time, the interim government organized rangers among the rogue proletarians to deal with the Paris workers. After planning these plots, the interim government brazenly ordered the dissolution of the "national factory".

On June 22nd, angry "national factory" workers demonstrated, and the uprising broke out in June. From the 23rd, the fierce street fighting lasted for four days. Finally, government troops and forest rangers, six times as many as the uprising workers, suppressed the uprising.

Marx and Engels on the June Uprising

A decisive struggle is coming. It can only break out in France; Because when Britain did not take part in the revolutionary battle and Germany was still in a state of division, France was the only country that could give strong impetus to its neighbors because of its independence, civilization and centralization. Therefore, when the bloody struggle in Paris began on June 23, 1848, one telegram and letter after another made Europe more and more aware of the fact that this struggle was between the working people and other classes of Paris residents who received military assistance; The fighting lasted for several days, and its intensity was unprecedented in the history of modern civil war ... It was a great decisive battle. If the uprising is successful, the whole European continent will set off a new revolutionary wave. If the uprising fails, counter-revolutionary rule will be restored at least temporarily.

(Engels: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Germany (1 851-1852), Selected Works of Marx and Engels, p. 550. )

The workers have no choice: if they don't want to starve to death, they will fight. They responded with the massive uprising on June 22nd-the first great war between two opposing classes in modern society. This is a battle to maintain or destroy the bourgeois system. ……

As we all know, the workers who had no leader, no action plan, no funds and almost no weapons were so brave and clever that they restricted the joint forces of the army, rangers, the Paris National Guard and other provinces in the National Guard for five consecutive days. As we all know, the bourgeoisie took unprecedented cruel revenge for the death terror it suffered, killing more than 3,000 prisoners.

(Marx: Class Struggle in France from 1848 to 1850), Selected Works of Marx and Engels, p. 4 1 5. )

Characteristics of the early workers' movement:

From a macro point of view, 19 can only be regarded as the rise and early development stage of the workers' movement from the 1930s to the early 1970s. This stage coincides with the time of the first industrial revolution. This is by no means a coincidence, but the first industrial revolution, which determined the main characteristics of the early workers' movement.

During the first industrial revolution, machine production just replaced manual labor, and the transition from handicraft workshop to factory system was rapidly going on. However, after all, there will be no "one size fits all" phenomenon in the process of economic evolution, and it is inevitable and very common that the old and the new alternate and traditional traces can be seen everywhere. This includes the exploitation methods and usual means of the bourgeoisie. At that time, they basically followed the practice of exploiting absolute surplus value, that is, increasing labor intensity, extending working hours, reducing wages, hiring child workers, using foremen to supervise workers and so on. Economically speaking, this is an artificial way to forcibly shorten the necessary labor time and extend the remaining labor time. The so-called necessary labor time is the time needed to recover the investment and maintain the cost. The rest is surplus labor time, and the wealth created belongs to surplus value, that is, the part exploited by the bourgeoisie. In this case, the living conditions of workers are very miserable. The income is extremely low, the food is not enough, and the living conditions are unbearable. The workers have accumulated very strong dissatisfaction and resentment in their chests.

This economic situation also determines the political situation to a great extent. On the one hand, the bourgeoisie at that time did not have the concept of scientific management of enterprises, and still guided production and controlled workers by mandatory orders. Reflected in politics, they prefer to keep the monarchy, and only accept the * * * peace system in exceptional circumstances, and for a short time. In other words, the consciousness of democratic management is not very strong, but it is more accustomed to repressive traditional policies. In addition, the industrial bourgeoisie, which rose in the industrial revolution, could not gain a dominant position for a while. Except for Britain, which completed the industrial revolution at the earliest, the financial bourgeoisie and the land aristocracy were in power in all countries. These people have no intention of opposing democratic reforms in the superstructure. All these decided that the human rights situation at that time was very unsatisfactory. Since even the industrial bourgeoisie is still in a suppressed position, the situation of workers can be imagined. Without any political rights, their social status is extremely low, which naturally deepens the anger of workers. They must resolutely fight for political rights. Obviously, it was the actual degree of economic development during the first industrial revolution that determined the social and political situation at that time, which also determined the situation of the working class and the mood of workers.

The characteristics of the first stage of the workers' movement were formed under such a background. First of all. The workers' movement at this time was basically a political struggle. This is because workers have no political rights. They naturally think that their miserable situation is largely due to their failure to enjoy their rights as citizens. Without the right to vote, it is impossible for their own representatives to enter the National Assembly, and there is no one to speak for workers in the legislature. Therefore, the political nature of the struggle is generally obvious. 183l and 1834, silk workers in Lyon, France, had two uprisings. The first one was to fight for survival, which was of an economic nature. The second time, he put forward the political slogan of "peace or death". The goal of the British constitutional movement is to strive for universal suffrage, which naturally belongs to political struggle. 1848 The workers' uprising in Paris in June wrote the words "democratic society and country" on its own banner, which was intended to fundamentally change the nature of the country and was a political struggle. After that, in addition to the British trade union movement, the establishment of the First International and the establishment of the German Social Democratic Labor Party were undoubtedly major political events. After the Paris Commune Revolution, the workers immediately seized power directly, which was undoubtedly a political struggle. This is one point.

Secondly, most of the workers' movements at this time were violent. This reflects the strong anger in the workers' chests. Both Lyon uprisings were armed struggles, and the Charter Movement was generally a petition activity, but in the second climax of 1842, armed conflicts also occurred. As for 1848, the June Uprising of Paris Workers and the Paris Commune Revolution were even more violent. In addition, there are sporadic riots and uprisings, such as the workers' uprising in Silesia in 1844.

Finally, the early workers' movements were mostly spontaneous, and organized, planned and prepared struggles were extremely rare. At that time, the working class was just born, and the degree of organization and consciousness was not high. Later, some workers' groups appeared and some trade unions were established, but most of them were not mature enough. British trade unions are mature, but they are keen on economic struggles and never participate in political or violent struggles. So spontaneous struggle is still the most common. Of all the struggles that took place at this time, the Paris Commune Revolution was the highest level. However, it is still a spontaneous struggle in the dominant aspect. As we all know, Marx once warned the workers in Paris that it would only be desperate and foolish to launch an armed uprising when the enemy was knocking at the door. However, under the siege of the Prussian army and the "national defense government" with workers as the primary enemy, the workers in Paris could no longer stand it, and they still held an uprising, namely the March 18 Revolution. Obviously, this unbearable action should belong to spontaneous struggle.

The above three points can be said to be the phenomenon of the workers' movement in the first stage. It is necessary to point out that this spontaneous political struggle and violent struggle eventually failed without exception. History tells us that only by further raising the degree of organization and consciousness to a new level can the workers' movement succeed. However, it is impossible to do it entirely by subjective efforts. From a macro point of view, only after industrial capitalism has developed to a considerable extent can the consciousness of the working class be improved. Being determines consciousness, which is the law.