The Legacy of Industrial Exploitation
What connection is there between contemporary society and the exploitation of working people that took place many years ago?
As with colonial slavery for Afro-Caribbeans, so too the mass exploitation of white working people in Britain in the Industrial Revolution has left a legacy transmitted down the generations. This has resulted in a common experience across ethnicities of social alienation, powerlessness and disillusionment. There is much evidence down the years of those suffering from both kinds of exploitation, and those fighting on their behalf for their rights, finding “common cause”.
"For the industrial work force, their labour was virtual slavery. The working day was long (twelve to thirteen hours in the mills, usually longer in the workshops) while life was short (forty years was not unusual)." Robin Gamble.
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The slave trade was at its height at a time when industrial and commercial growth were causing huge demographic changes in Britain which were forcing the working population into expanding cities. There they suffered appalling living and working conditions in overcrowded slum areas and dangerous factories. Workers may have been considered free but had no political or economic power.
There is no direct comparison of that experience with that of Africans who were torn from their homelands, shipped across an ocean as cargo and pressed into slavery as de-humanised commodities in a distant and alien land. Also, the contexts and the heritages of the descendants are very different, so any comparison needs to be made with care. However, it is evident that the working class of Britain were also exploited and oppressed through displacement, cruelty, restricted lifespan and being treated as a commodity, most recently seen in the effects of de-industrialisation.[1] Together, these two workforces provided much of the human engine that made the Industrial Revolution possible.
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“… abolitionist leaders grew to see black chattel slavery and white wage slavery as parts of the same whole. As Richard Oastler put it, the antislavery and labour causes were ‘one and the same’.” Betty Fladeland.
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A number of those campaigning for the abolition of slavery were also advocates for reform at home. In the early 1800's there were one million child workers in Britain, 15 per cent of the labour force. Given only food and dormitory accommodation but paid no wages, these children were, effectively, slaves. As with the campaigns to end the slave trade and then slavery itself, the fight for reform was long and hard against opposition from vested interest. The Ten Hour Act (reducing children's hours to ten a day) took 45 years. The Peterloo Massacre of 1819 was an infamous example of panicked authorities using force against a peaceful protest for the right to vote.
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An additional pressure on the working poor came when slavery was ended in 1833 and the Government paid £20 million compensation to the slave owners. This was funded by consumption taxes, so the lower your income the higher the proportion it takes to buy any given commodity to pay the tax on it. [3]
2011: A WINDOW INTO A SHARED LEGACY
In the summer of 2011, following the shooting by police of Mark Duggan, rioting and looting occurred on the streets of Tottenham. Over the next dew days this spread to other parts of the UK, including Manchester, Salford, Birmingham, Liverpool and Nottingham. Condemned by an outraged Establishment as "pure criminality", other observers saw something deeper being revealed: an explosion of frustration evidencing a deeper malaise. This was not a 'black' problem. As well what could be clearly seen on the TV reports, arrest records showed 46% white and 42% black.[4] It was also not a 'gang' problem: most convicted rioters were not gang members. What was clear, and shared in common across all areas where rioting occurred, was that the majority of those who took part were from the UK's most deprived areas.[5] [photo Nico Hogg] |
“Talking about white privilege does not mean that all white people live lives of privilege. They don’t. That’s where race and class are bound up together. They are not the same thing and they should not be confused as the same thing, but you can’t talk about race without talking about issues of class and you can’t talk about the future of working class white people without talking about the fight against racism.” Marvin Rees
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Further Reading: Derek Purnell on the working classes.
[1] For more see this study of a white working class community in Manchester.
[2] Read more here.
[3] See this clip from 'Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners.'
[4] Ministry of Justice (2011).
[5] Riots, Communities and Victims Panel (2011).
[2] Read more here.
[3] See this clip from 'Britain's Forgotten Slave Owners.'
[4] Ministry of Justice (2011).
[5] Riots, Communities and Victims Panel (2011).