How were the goals of the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor similar?
The American Federation of Labor supplanted the Knights of Labor, and it developed a quite different philosophy. Rather than trying to abolish the wage-labor system, it sought to use strikes to gain higher wages, lower working hours, and better working conditions for its members. Unlike the Knights of Labor, the AFL organized only skilled workers into unions defined by particular trades. The AFL also emphasized relatively high dues in order to create a treasury large enough to sustain the members during a prolonged strike. Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers (1850�1924), a London-born cigarmaker, the AFL became not only a powerful force serving the interests of its members but also a conservative defender of capitalism against the appeal of Socialism and Communism. In 1883 Gompers testified before a Congressional committee about his organization. . . . There is nothing in the labor movement that employers who have had unorganized workers dread so much as organization; but organization alone will not do much unless the organization provides itself with a good fund, so that the operatives may be in a good position, in the event of a struggle with their employers, to hold out. . . . Show
Modern industry evolves these organizations out of the existing conditions where there are two classes in society, one incessantly striving to obtain the labor of the other class for as little as possible, and to obtain the largest amount or number of hours of labor; and the members of the other class, being as individuals utterly helpless in a contest with their employers, naturally resort to combinations to improve their condition, and, in fact, they are forced by the conditions which surround them to organize for self-protection. Hence trades unions. Trade unions are not barbarous, nor are they the outgrowth of barbarism. On the contrary they are only possible where civilization exists. Trade unions cannot exist in China; they cannot exist in Russia; and in all those semi-barbarous countries they can hardly exist, if they can exist at all. But they have been formed successfully in this country, in Germany, in England, and they are gradually gaining strength in France. . . . Wherever trades unions have organized and are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected. A people may be educated, but to me it appears that the greatest amount of intelligence exists in that country or that state where the people are best able to defend their rights, and their liberties as against those who are desirous of undermining them. Trades unions are organizations that instill into men a higher motive-power and give them a higher goal to look to. . . . The trades unions are by no means an outgrowth of socialistic or communistic ideas or principles, but the socialistic and communistic notions are evolved from the trades unions' movements. As to the question of the principles of communism or socialism prevailing in trades unions, there are a number of men who connect themselves as workingmen with the trades unions who may have socialistic convictions, yet who never gave them currency. . . . On the other hand, there are men—not so numerous now as they have been in the past—who are endeavoring to conquer the trades-union movement and subordinate it to those doctrines, and in a measure, in a few such organizations that condition of things exists, but by no means does it exist in the largest, most powerful, and best organized trades unions. There the view of which I spoke just now, the desire to improve the condition of the workingmen by and through the efforts of the trades union, is fully lived up to. . . . I believe that the existence of the trades-union movement, more especially where the unionists are better organized, has evoked a spirit and a demand for reform, but has held in check the more radical elements in society. [From U.S. Senate, Testimony of Samuel Gompers, August 1883, Report of the Committee of the Senate upon the Relations between Labor and Capital (Washington, D.C., 1885), 1:365-70.] Labor Unions in the U.S., 1862-1974: Knights of Labor, AFL, CIO, and AFL-CIO (Module 39) Unique, important documentation on the growth and transformation of four major labor organizations takes history, business and other research topics in exciting new directions. In the 19th century, the Knights of Labor was the first
national labor force to recruit women and African Americans as a matter of policy, to organize throughout the country, and to attempt to unify industrial and agrarian workers. This module presents the papers of executives Terence V. Powderly and John W. Hayes, which span the life of this powerful organization. How were the Knights of Labor and American Federation of Labor similar and different?The AFL focused on winning economic benefits for its members through collective bargaining. As a federation, it represented several national craft unions that each retained autonomous operations. The Knights, by contrast, represented both craft and unskilled workers in a single national union.
What were the goals of the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor?The Knights of Labor sought to create a united front of producers versus the nonproducers. The organization even allowed women and African Americans to join its ranks. Together, the producers sought an eight-hour workday, an end to child labor, better wages, and improved working conditions in general.
Which of these was a goal shared by the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor?What Goal Was Shared By Both The Knights Of Labor And The American Federation Of Labor? To organize workers To Demand Better Conditions From Employers. In The Late 1800's ,What Factor Contributed To The Growth Of The American Steel Industry?
How was the American Federation of Labor different from the Knights of Labor quizlet?How did the AFL differ from the Knights of Labor? The AFL was socialist while the Knights were capitalists. The AFL was a federation of national organizations, each of which retained a large degree of its autonomy, while the Knights organization was more centralized.
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