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8/10/2019 Engels: The condition of the working class in England in 1844 and the housing question (1872) revisited; Their rel
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ENGELS: THE CONDITION OF THE WORKING CLASS IN ENGLAND IN 1844 AND
THE HOUSING QUESTION 1872) REVISITED ; THEIR R ELEVA NCE FOR URBAN
ANTHROPOLOGY
Bernard Magubane
TH GH TTO
Is i t well that while we range with Science, glorying in the t ime,
City chi ldren soak and blacken soul and sense in ci ty sl ime?
There among the g loom y a l leys Progress ha lt s on pa l sied fee t ,
Cr ime and hunger cas t our maidens by the tho usand on th e s t ree t ;
There the master scrimps his haggard seamstress of her dai ly bread;
There a single sordid at t ic holds the l iving and the dead;
There the smouldering f ire of fever creeps across the rot ted f loor,
And the crowded cou ch on inces t , in the war rens of the poor .
Tennyson
The fundamenta l causes of th i s apparent paradox are in-
deed very diff icul t to decide. Basical ly, the poverty an d
suffering which reached a cri t ical level after 1815 were
the consequence of the es tabl i shment of a capi tal i s t order
in fa rming: tha t long t ransformat ion which was a l ready
decis ively es tabl i shed by th e m id-e ighteenth century . We
have had enough exper ience , s ince , of the economics of
capi ta l i sm to k now tha t i t i s no paradox, wi th in i t s t e rms
and i t s order , to have r i s ing produc t ion coexis tent wi th
wide-spread un emplo ymen t and subs tant ia l pauper isa t ion .
For in subject ing an economy to the discipl ines of wage-
labour and the m arket , i t exposes men to new kinds of
hazard, as i ts crises of credi t an d of prices work throug h.
Raymond Williams
The onditions Of The Working lass In
England wri t ten in 1844 and The Housing
Question
(HQ) w ri t ten in 18 72 -7 3 as a series
of art icles, are generally argue d to be clas-
s ics . Th is ar tic le re-examines the two works
Bernard Magubane i s Professor of Anthropology a t the Uni -
vers i ty of C onnect icut , Stor r s , C t .
*Al l quotes f rom Engels ' book, hereaf te r CWC, are t aken
f rom Marx and Engels ' ,
On Great ritain
(Moscow: Progress
Publishers, 1962).
0304 -4092 /85/$0 3.30 9 1985 Elseviers Sience Publ i shers B .V.
not on ly to demonst ra te thei r h is to r ica l im-
p o r t an ce fo r u rb an an th ro p o lo g y , b u t a l so to
re-es tab l ish thei r h is to r ic impor tance fo r cu r-
r en t u rb an s tu d ies an d th e u n d er s t an d in g o f
the poor and work in g c lass in cap i ta l i s t
so c ie ty in th e m o d em w o r ld .
Freder ick Engels was the f i rs t and fo r a
long t ime the on ly person to p rov ide a d ia lec-
t ical and historical material ist analysis of the
evo lu t ion o f the bourgeo is c i ty and i t s endem-
ic cr is is . Engels ' m eth odo log y and the ory re-
mains a sh in ing example o f the super io r i ty o f
the dialectical material ist analysis. In the mid
1840s, he a l ready u nde rs to od the ro le eco-
n o m ic f ac tor s p l ay in th e d ev e lo p m en t o f
so c ie ty . H e ex am in ed th e cap i t a l i s t m o d e o f
p ro d u c t io n , sh o w in g h o w i t sp aw n ed th e
indust r ia l u rban fo rces wi th i t s con t rad ic t io ns .
H e sh o w ed h o w th e b o u rg eo i s a f f lu en ce was
th e d i a l ec t i ca l o p p o s i t e o f t h e p o v er ty o f t h e
masses o f the peop le who langu ished in the
urban s lums.
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4 4
SOCI LIST CL SSIC
M arx and L en in he ld bo th the C W C and the
HQ in the highes t es teem. In these books
Engels not only surveyed the or igin and
h i s to ry o f t he Indus t ri a l R evo lu t ion , bu t even
more he asked the crucia l ques t ion in sc ien-
t i f ic d iscourse : Ho w did th is s ta te of af fai rs
a r ise? and H ow wi ll i t end ? B y s tudy ing
the cha rac t e r o f E ng l i sh soc ie ty p r io r t o the
Indust r ia l Revolut ion, Engels was able to
show how the s i tua t ion tha t he w as desc r ibing
and ana lyz ing w as the inev i t ab le ou tcom e o f
a m o d e o f p r o d u c t i o n w h o s e d y n a m i c d e -
p r ived the im m edia t e p roduce r s o f t he i r
m eans o f l i ve l ihood and r educed them to a
s i tua t ion w here the i r on ly op t ion w as e i the r
death thro ugh s tarvat ion o r the sa le of the i r
labor to the capi ta l i s t . The
monopolizat ion
of a l l means of subsis tence by the capi ta l i s t
c lass was the source of the in jus t ice and
dis tress o f the work ing c lass in the a t rociou s
s lums in Engl ish c i t ies dur ing the Indust r ia l
R evo lu t ion .
In 1883, in an in t ro du ct io n to a new edi -
t i on o f t he Communist Manifesto of 1848,
Engels wrote th at even before 1845 he had
been approach ing the m a te ri a l is t concep t io n
o f h i s to r y . M y b o o k o n The Condit ions Of
The Working Class In England
show s how far
I had t ravel led a long the road by mysel f . In
1867 Marx declared that the ful lness of
Engels ' s ins ight in to the nature o f the capi ta l -
i s t m e t h o d o f p r o d u c t i o n h a s b e e n s h o w n b y
the f ac to ry r epor t s , t he r epor t s on m ines , e t c. ,
t ha t have appea red s ince the pub l i ca t ion o f
his boo k [ 1 ] . L enin expressed the view that :
T h e b o o k ( T h e C o n d i t io n s O f T h e W o r k in g
Class In England) was a ter r ib le indic tment of
capital ism and the middle classes . . . I t made a
pro fo und im press ion upo n the m inds o f a ll w ho
read i t . Everywhere Engels ' s s tudy came to be
regarded as the bes t avai lable contemporary
accoun t o f t he cond i t ion o f t he p ro le t a r i a t .
A nd indeed ne i the r be fo re nor a f te r 1845 had
the depressed cond i t ions o f t he w orke r s been
so sha rp ly and accura t ely de l inea ted [2 ] .
F ran tz M ehr ing sa id tha t T he m os t ad-
m i rab le and a t t he sam e t im e the m os t no te -
w or thy h i s to r i ca l f ea tu re o f t he book i s t he
t h o r o u g h n e s s w i t h w h i c h t h e t w e n t y - f o u r
yea r o ld au th or [E nge ls ] unde r s tood the
sp i ri t o f t he cap it a li s t m o de o f p roduc t i on
and succeeded in exp la in ing i t f rom n o t on ly
the r i se , but a lso the decl ine of the bour-
geoisie , no t only th e m isery of the prole tar ia t
but a lso i t s sa lvat ion. The a im of the book
was to show how large-scale indust ry created
the m odem w ork ing c l a s s , a s a dehum anized ,
physical ly shat tered race , degraded in te l lec-
tual ly and moral ly to th e po int o f bes tia l-
i ty . . . [3] .
Are these fu l l some pra ises of Engels ' works
dese rved? W ha t can u rban an th ropo log i s t s
l ea rn f rom i t ? F or H obsbaw m the C W C
deserves a number of accolades f i rs t as a
sociological investigation. First ly, i t was, as
Engels h ims el f jus t ly c la imed, the f i rst bo ok
in B r i t a in o r any o the r coun t ry w hich dea l t
wi th the workin g c lass as a whole and no t
merely wi th par t icular sec t ions and indust r ies .
S econd ly , and m ore im por t an t , i t w as no t
merely a survey of working-class condi t ions ,
bu t a genera l analysis of the evolut io n of
indust r ia l capi ta l i sm, of the socia l impact of
indust r ia l iza t ion and i t s pol i t ica l and socia l
consequences - i nc lud ing the r igh ts o f t he
l abor m ovem e nt . In f ac t it was the f i rs t
large-scale a t tempt to apply the Marxis t
m e t h o d t o th e c o n c r e te s t u d y o f s o c i e t y [ 4 ] .
With the ci t ies everywhere facing crises, the
s tudy of Engels ' works i s more than a fasc i -
nat ing divers ion. The poss ibi l i t ies and l imi ta-
t ions o f u rban a n th rop o logy and soc io logy are
revealed in Engels ' work. Yet , wi th a few
notable except ions , urbanologis ts have re-
m a ined ind i f f e ren t t o the ques t ions E nge l s
ra ised. What Engels achieved a lmost a hun-
dred and f i f ty years ago was to suggest a way
to unders tand the urban cr ises and s lum for-
mat ion in capi ta l i s t socie ty based upon a
c lose s tudy o f em pi r ica l m a te r i a l i n fo rm ed by
the newly emerging mater ia l i s t perspect ive .
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In that sense the CWC provides the guidelines
for a future Marxist interpretation of the
process of urbanizat ion.
C O U N T R Y A N D C I T Y IN H I ST O R Y
Cou ntr y and City, Raymo nd Williams
[5] tells us, are powerfu l words, and anthro-
pologists and sociologists often contrast them
in terms of their meaning and implication for
human existence. Among those social scien-
tists who have attempted to define urban
society and contrasted it with rural commun-
ity are T~Sennies, Weber, Durkheim, Cooley,
Redfield, etc. The Cou ntr y and City are
often seen as ideal types or poles and societies
are ranged along the two poles according to
their complexity and development. TiSennies
distinguished Gemeinschaft from Gesellschaft
type societies, Weber called his two poles
Wesenwille and Kfirwille Durkheim distin-
guished mechanical from organic solidarity;
Cooley distinguished between societies with
primary and those with sec ondary relations
and Redfield between folk and urban society.
Currently, for some, North America and
Europe represent the Cit y and Africa, Asia
and Latin America the Count ry. These
formal distinctions are however ahistorical ab-
stractions and do not tell us how change itself
came about from one pole of existence to the
other. In point of fact, these dichotomies
tend to shift our attention away from real
historical processes and have become an
element of a very powerful myth of urban
sociology and anthropology in which the
transition from a rural to an industrial society
is seen (depending on one's ideological pre-
disposition) either as a movement from back-
wardness to modernity or as a kind of fall,
the true cause and origin of social and moral
decay.
For Engels, scientific analysis of industrial
capitalism had to begin with what Therborn
calls the historico-material and concrete ex-
perience, i.e., the study of social reality as
45
motion and process [6]. There took place in
England a series of interlocking and mutually
enhancing changes and developments in the
seventeenth century that culminated in the
Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth
century. The consequences of the technol-
ogies and innovations of the middle of the
eighteenth century were of an unprecedented
magnitude, for they ushered in a revolution
that transfor med the entire structure of civil
society.
Bourgeois social scientists never tire of accusing Marx and
Engels of arriving at these conclusions a priori and of
ignoring empirical facts. The CWC shows th at this charge
is untenable. Long before the appearance of empirical
sociology and anth ropolo gy Engels engaged in concrete
social research and based his theoretical
o n l u s i o n s o n
the analysis and summing-up of facts which bourgeois
sociologists usually ignored [7 ].
In his historical survey of pre-industrial
Britain, Engels focused on the unique eco-
nomic transformations that occurred from the
fifteenth century and its social consequences
not only for rural England but for the entire
part of the world that was brought within the
orbit of British influence. He found that an
increasingly capitalist form of agriculture had
in effect become the pacesetter for the capi-
talist development of England and the world.
Since England was the classical ground of
the Industrial Revolution and where the
gigantic thrust of concentration and polariza-
tion took place, Engels used it as a case to
study in all its fullness the development of
its principal result, the proletariat. The indus-
trial revolution was thus more than a revolu-
tion in machinery, its most important result
was the creation of the revolutionary prole-
tariat. It was this emergence, this produc-
tion, this creation of a new human being and
of the new class of social beings that was the
explicit object of the CWC [8].
Although it was not Engels' aim to write
the history of the Industrial Revolution, he
believed it necessary to establish some con-
ception of the pre-historic state of English
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rural society and o f the general conditions be-
fore the great transformation. The kind of life
he describes is a familiar one to sociologists
and anthropologists; it was of small-scale
farming and domestic industry. The basic
form of property was land, and competition
of the peasant producers among themselves
did not exist because of rural dispersion of
their homes and the economy that supported
them. The peasant lives were comfortable,
peaceful and uneventful; they were pious and
honest men; and their material condition was
better by far than that of their successors.
Their hours of work were not excessive; they
had time for traditional recreation, and their
health and that of their children were good.
Socially their world was laid out for them:
it was prescriptive and patriarchal [9]. This
is how Engels described it:
They regarded the ir squire , the grea tes t landholder of the
reg ion , as the ir na tura l super ior ; they asked for advice
f rom him, la id the ir small d isputes before h im for se t t le -
ment , and gave h im a l l honor , as th is pa tr ia rcha l r e la t ion
involved . They were respec tab l e people , good husbands
and fa ther s , led mora l l ives because they had no tempta-
t ion to be immora l , the re be ing no grogger ies or low
houses in the ir v ic in i ty and because the hos t , a t whose
Inn they now and then quenched the ir th ir s t , was a lso a
respec tab le man, usua l ly a la rge tenant f a rmer who took
pr ide in good order , good beer and ear ly hours (p . 37) .
The development of the capitalist urban-
industrial order disrupted this mode of exis-
tence: in many ways the destruction was
comparable in terms of its impact to the inva-
sion of the colonial world by capitalism. The
enclosure movement dislodged thousands of
families from the country and they had no
alternative but to flock to the towns. For
Engels the most important result of these
developments was the separation of the direct
producers from the land and their settlement
in urban centers as proletarians where they
were ranged against the capitalist owners of
the factories where they worked.
The rap id ex tens ion of manufac tur ing demanded hands ,
wages rose , and t roops of workmen migra ted f rom the
agr icu l tura l d is t r ic ts to the towns . Popula t ion mult ip l ied
enormous ly , near ly a l l the increase took p lace in the
pro le ta r ia t . Thus a rose the grea t manufac tur ing an d com-
merc ia l c i t ies of the Br i t ish Empire , in which a t leas t
three- four ths of the popula t ion be long to the working-
class, while the lower middle-class consists only of small
shop-keepers , and very few handic ra f tsmen (pp . 49-50) .
Engels did not bemoan the passing away
of traditiona l society. He characterized the
mode of human existence in pre-industrial
Britain as follows:
They [ the rura l dwelle rs ] were comfor tab le in the ir
s i len t vege ta t ion , and but for the Indus tr ia l Revolu t ion
they would never have emerged f rom th is ex is tence ,
which , cos i ly romant ic as i t was , was never theless no t
wo r th y o f h u ma n b e in g s . I n t r u th , th e y we r e n o t h u ma n
be ings ; they were m ere ly to i l ing m achines in the serv ice
of the few ar is tocra ts who guided h is tory down to tha t
t ime . The Indus tr ia l Revolu t ion has s imply ca r r ied th is
out to i ts log ica l end by making the workers machines
pure and s imple, tak ing f rom them the las t t r ace of inde-
pendent ac t iv i ty , and so forc ing them to th ink and
d e ma n d a p o s i tio n wo r th y o f me n ( p p . 3 7 - 3 8 ) .
Having characterized the social structure o f
pre-industrial England, Engels then p roceeded
to logically summarize the early history o f the
Industrial Revolution. The aim of this resum6
was to show the impact of the new industrial
technology. The first group of technological
innovations set in moti on a series of elaborate
differentiations. For example, the invention
of the spinning and the power-loom not only
altered the relations between weaving and
spinning, and weavers and spinners; it affected
the division of labor in the family as well, and
therefore had consequences in the structure
of the household, and its internal balance of
force. Other developments that followed were
the assembly of large numbers of power
driven machines in the factories. These
machines required large numbers of workers
to man them. As a result shifts took place,
population increased, conditions of employ-
ment altered and the nature of wealth chang-
ed as well [ 10].
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Even though Engels focused on the growth
of the cotton industry - the prime mover of
industrial development - he did not neglect
parallel developments in other branches of
textile manufacture; in metal work, minerals
and mining, in agriculture, and in transport -
roads, canals, and railways - nor did he fail to
mention developments in commerce and the
expansion of overseas and colonial markets.
All these developments were connected in the
sense that they formed part of a large com-
plex and continually changing coherent whole
now called industria l soc iety [ 11 ].
The history of the Industrial Revolution
was thus cumulative and was produced by
a process of conquest of the country by the
urban-based bourgeoisie. Williams [ 12] says
that before and during the Industrial Revolu-
tion rural England was characterized by an in-
creasing penetration by capitalist social rela-
tions and dominance of the market, because
these had been powerfully evolving within its
own structure for a long time. By the late eight-
eenth century there existed in England an
organized capitalist society, in which what
happened to the market, anywhere, whether
in industrial or agricultural production,
worked its way through to the town and
count ry alike, as parts o f a single crisis.
Engels' investigation of the evolution of
capitalism in England brought into silent
relief the role of technology in the industrial
revolution and its implication for a basic
indus try - cotton. With the increased mecha-
nization of the spinning process, the work
of spinning was further rationalized by the
machines driven by mechanical rather than
human power. Water power, a source of
mechanical energy, brought men together in
large numbers in cities like Manchester.
These immense cotton spinning factories or mills of the
late eig hteenth century were something new in the world.
After 1815 weaving was increasingly brought into fac-
tories as well and within a short time cott on became the
first industry in which production was wholly mechanized.
47
The next step was to adopt the men women and children
who worked at the machines to the unvarying require-
ments o f those instruments and this too was achieved
although the ado pters ran into some resistance on the part
of adoptees [ 13].
The historical experience of industrializa-
tion according to Engels was not to be sep-
arated from that of urbanization. The two in
the case of England happened together and
reinforced one another; the reciprocating
effects of each upon the other being further
intensified by the demographic escalation. To
form some idea of how the capitalist city
shaped human life, it is important to study
the dialectic of the commo dity relationship
and the mode of urban existence it yields:
The industrial disciplines the conditions of work of
employm ent continual insecurity and continual com-
petition are not to be segregated in their effects as
formative experience from the conditions of living in the
new industrial towns from the housing sanitary provi-
sions - or lack of them - institutions of relief or welfare
or lack of them - from all the new densities and stresses
of existence in these unparalleled circumstances. The
working men and women who came out at the end of
their process were the first to go through what we now
understand as a world historical experience. As a group
they bear the marks of survivors. They bear those marks
to this very day [1 4].
The internal dynamic of economic trans-
formation in England became linked as well
to the colonialization movement. Within the
developing territorial division of labor, the
towns and cities of England had unlimited
elbow room to grow as workshops of the
world . Elaborating on the historical impac t
of the Industrial Revolution for England
Engels wrote:
Sixty eighty years ago England was a coun try llke every
other with small towns few and simple industries and a
thin but proportionally large agricultural population
Today it is a country like no other with a capital o f
two and a half million inhabitants; with vast manufactur-
ing cities; with an industry that supplies the world and
produces almost everything by means of the most com-
plex machinery; with an industrious intelligent dense
population of which two-thirds axe employed in trade
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METHODS OF INVESTIG TION
Participant Observation
T o g e t an in t im a te acq u a in tan ce w i th
Manchester, Engels used various strategies
w h ich h av e s in ce b eco m e th e co m m o n s to ck
o f an th ro p olo g i s t s . In a d ed ica t io n to T h e
Work ing Class Of Great Br i ta in which he
wro te in Eng l ish and p ref ixed to the o r ig inal
G erm an ed i t io n o f 1 8 4 5, E n ge l s w ro te th a t
dur ing h is s tay in Eng land he purposefu l ly
fo r so o k th e co m p an y an d d in n e r p a r ti e s , t h e
p o r tw in e an d ch am p ag n e o f t h e m id dle -c l as ses,
and devo ted my le isu re hours a lmost exclu -
s ively to the in tercourse wi th p la in work ing
m en ; I am b o t h g l ad an d p ro u d o f h av ing
done so . He wan ted , he says, to see yo u in
y o u r o w n h o m es , t o o b se rv e y o u in y o u r
every-day li fe, to cha t wi th y ou on you r con-
d i t ion and g r ievances, to wi tness you r st rug-
g les agains t the socia l and po l i t ica l power o f
yo ur opp ressor . Tha t i s, Engels ' s tud y was
based on the s tudy o f l iv ing peop le and thei r
l iv ing cond i t ions . And because he had acted
co n sc io u s ly u p o n th a t d es i re , h e w as in d u ced
to sp en d m an y a h ap p y h o u r in o b ta in ing a
k n o w led g e o f th e rea li ti e s o f l i f e (p p . 3 3 6 -
337).
Engels a lso gained the in t imacy o f Man-
chester by tak ing to the s t ree ts ; a t a l l hours o f
the day and n igh t , on weeke nds and ho l idays .
H e to o k to th e n e t w o rk o f p a th w ay s a lon g
w h ich th e c i ty m o v es an d th a t co n s t i t u te s
the p r incipal me ans fo r observ ing and under-
s tand ing i t . Engels d id no t ven tu re in to the
nooks and by-ways o f Manchester a lone. He
w as acco m p an ied o n h i s ex p ed i t io n s in to th e
inner recesses o f the c i ty by Mary Burns
cure
i n fo rm an t s ) an d i t w as sh e w h o in d u c t -
ed Engels in to certain working class circles
an d in to th e d o m es t i c l i ves o f t h e Man ch es t e r
p ro le tar ia t . Thus Engels learned how to read
a c i ty in th e co m p an y o r t h ro u g h th e m ed ia -
t ion o f an i l l i te ra te I r i sh fac to ry woman . He
learned to read the l i fe o f the c i tY wi th h is
49
eyes , ears , nose and fee t . He learned to read
i t wi th h is senses , the ch ie f in le ts o f mind in
th e p resen t ag e [1 8 ] .
Library Research
In add i t ion to h is personal impress ions
Engels d rew on l i terary au thor i t ies ( the works
of Peter Gaskel l , Jon Wade, George Richard ,
Richardson Por ter , Edward Baines , Andrew
Ure, the b ro thers Arch ibald and Wil l iam Pu l-
teney Al ison , Thomas Car ly le , and o thers
were consu l ted ) , and he a lso used o ff ic ia l
records , par l iamentary commiss ions , fac to ry
inspecto rs ' repor ts , and o ff ic ia l s ta t i s t ics .
Engels a lso read many newspapers includ ing
the Char t i s t
North Star,
w h ich p u b l i sh ed
workers ' le t ters and ar tic les . I am bur ied up
to m y n eck in E n g li sh n ew sp ap er s an d b o o k s ,
he wro te to Marx on November 19 , 1844 ,
f ro m w h ich I am co m p i l in g m y b o o k o n th e
co n d i t io n o f t h e E n g li sh p ro le t a r i a t . T h e
CWC thus aboun ds in fac ts , co l lec ted f rom
a var ie ty o f sources us ing a var ie ty o f research
st ra teg ies which have become the s tock in
t rade fo r modern scho lars .
Engels ' analy t ica l p rocedure in wri t ing the
CWC is that w hich Sweezy [19] has terme d
th e m e th o d o f su ccess iv e ap p ro x im a t io n .
Th is consis ts in moving f rom the abst rac t to
the more concre te in a s tep by s tep fash ion .
E n g el s ' m e t h o d , w as n o t h o w ev er , s im p ly
one o f abst rac t ion ; the log ical s tages in th is
su ccess iv e ap p ro x im a t io n co r resp o n d to th e
h is to r ica l s tages in the development o f cap i -
tal ism - the CWC is based o n a vast array of
facts gathered by a var ie ty o f methods .
THE GRE T TOWNS
In h i s s tu d y o f t h e d ev e lo p m e n t o f cap i-
ta l i sm, Engels beg ins wi th the Great Towns
and especia l ly Lon don , the cap i ta l o f Br i tain .
In a mem orab le message Engels recor ded his
f i r s t im p ress io n s o f L o n d o n f ro m A u tu m n o f
1 8 44 . H e sp eak s o f t h e en o rm i ty o f t h is
m e t ro p o l i s
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50
where a man may wander for hours together without
reaching the beginning or the end, without meeting the
slightest hint which could lead to the inference that
there is open country within reach, is a strange thing.
This colossal centrali zation, this heaping together of two
and a half millions of human beings, at one point, has
multiplied the power of this two and a half millions a
hundred fold; has raised London to the commercial
capital of the world, created the giant docks and assem-
bled the thousand vessels that continually cover the
Thames ... all this is so vast, so impressive, that a man
cannot collect himself, but is lost in the marvel of Eng-
land s greatness before he sets forth upon the English
soil (p. 56).
It was not long before Engels understood
the price the Londoners had to pay for living
in such a dense metropolis. In one of the great
passages on the meaning of size, density, and
heterogeneity which for Wirth summed up
what he called urbanism as a way of life,
Engels drew important theoretical conclu-
sions. The passage is so significant that it
deserves quoting at some length.
After roaming the streets of the capital a day or two,
making headway with difficulty through the human tur-
moil and the endless lines of vehicles, after visiting the
slums of the met ropol is, one realises for the first time th at
these Londoners have been forced to sacrifice the best
qualities of their human nature, to bring to pass all the
marvels of civilisation which crowd their city; that a
hundred powers which slumbered within them have re-
mained inactive, have been suppressed so that a few might
be developed more fully and multiply through union with
those of others. The very turmoil of the streets has some-
thing repulsive, something against which human nature
rebels. The hundred of thousands of all classes and ranks
crowding past each other, are they not all human beings
with the same qualities and powers, and with the same
interest in being happy? and have they not, in the end, to
seek happiness in the same way, by the same means? And
still they crowd by one another as though they had
nothing in common, nothing to do with one another, and
their only agreement is the tacit one, that each keep to
his own side of the pavement, so as not to delay the
opposing streams of the crowd, while it occurs to no
man to honour another with so much as a glance. The
brutal indifference, the unfeeling isolation of each in his
private interest becomes the more repellent and offensive,
the more these individuals are crowded together, within
a limited space. And, however mu h one may be aware
that this isolation of th e individual, this narrow self-seek-
ing is the fundamental principle of our society every-
where, it is nowhere so shamelessly bare-faced, so self-
conscious as just here in the crowding of the great city.
The dissolution of mankind into nomads, of which each
one has a separate principle and a separate purpose, the
world of atoms, is here carried out to its utmo st extreme.
Hence, it comes, too, that the social war, the war of each
against all, is here op enly declared ... [P] eople regard each
other only as useful objects; each exploits the o ther, and
the end of it all is, that the stronger treads the weaker
under fo ot, and that the powerful few, the capitalists,
seize everything for themselves, while to the weak many,
the po or, scarcely a bare existence remains.
What is true of London, is true of Manchester, Birming-
ham, Leeds, is true of all great towns. Everywhere barbar-
ous indifference, hard egotism on one hand, and nameless
misery on the other, everywhere social warfare, every
man s house in a state of siege, everywhere reciprocal
plundering under the protection of the law, and all so
shameless, so openly avowed that one shrinks before the
concernings of our social state as they manifest them-
selves here undisguised, and can only wonder that the
whole crazy fabric still hangs together (pp. 57-5 8) [20].
This passage reveals Engels' great insight
into the impact of the capitalist industrial city
on the life of its occupants. His analytic de-
scriptive thrust locates urban alienation in the
historical evolution of the capitalist mode of
production - a society that is dominated by
the production of commodities and thus
stifles the fulfillment of human potentialities
for those from whom capitalists extract sur-
plus value. In such a society, respect for the
individual and human dignity cannot be
implemented, it only remains in the realm of
ideas and philosophic pronouncements about
hu ma n dignity and the sanctity of life.
This passage, I believe, was also the first
expression of what has since become a dom-
inant experience of the city. Blake saw a
commo n condition of weakness and woe.
Wordsworth saw strangeness, a loss of connec-
tion, not at first social but in perceptual
ways, a failure of identity in the crowd of
others which worked back to a loss of iden-
tity in the self, and then, in these ways, a loss
of society itself, its overcrowding and replace-
men t by a procession of images: the dance
of colours, lights and forms ... face after face
and there are no other laws [21].
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George S imm el , in h is essay The Metro -
p o li s an d Men ta l L i f e , u n d er to o k to an a ly ze
an d ex p la in th e ch a rac te r i s ti c m e n ta l a t t i t u d e
o f m o d em c i ty d w e l le r s t o w ard s o n e an o th e r .
F o r S i m m e l t h e a t t i t u d e o f t h e m e t r o p o l i t a n
to w ard o th e r s t en d s to b e o n e o f r e se rve an d
formal i ty . The inner aspect o f th is reserve i s
no t on ly ind i f ference bu t a s l igh t avers ion o r
a t leas t mutual s t rangeness and repu ls iveness
[2 2 ] .
The ondon
Slums
What k ind o f l iv ing quar ters does cap i ta l
p rov ide fo r those i t exp lo i t s? Hav ing d iscussed
th e m ass an o n y m i ty o f L o n d o n , E n g e l s p ro -
ceed s to m ak e a m o re d e ta i led ex am in a t io n
of the c ond i t io ns in which the socia l war creat -
ed by cap i ta l i sm has p laced the p roper ty less
c lass . The p ic tu re Engels pain ts i s one o f in-
d i f ference and u t te r d isregard o f the welfare
of the p ro le tar ia t by the bourgeo is ie . He
regarded the p l igh t o f the p ro le tar ia t as a law-
g o v ern ed r e su lt o f t h e d o m in a t io n o f p r iva t e
proper ty and cap i ta l .
Since capi ta l , the d irec t o r ind irec t contro l o f the means
of subs is tence and produc t ion , is the weapon with which
the social warfare is carr ied on, it is clear that all the dis-
advantages of such a s ta te mus t f a l l upon th e poor . For
h im n o man has the s l igh tes t concern . Cas t in to the whir l -
pool , he mus t s t ruggle through as wel l as he can . I f he is
so happ y as to f ind work , i . e ., f f the bourgeois ie does h im
the favor to enr ich i tse lf by means of h im, wages await
h im wh ich scarce ly suf f ice to keep bod y and soul to -
ge ther ; i f he can ge t no work he ma y s tea l, i f he is no t
afraid of the police, or s tarve, in which case the police will
take ca re tha t he does so in a qu ie t an inof fensive manne r
(p. 58).
Engels th en descr ibes the Eng l ish s lums in a
genera l way , such as those o f the most b i t ter
p o v er ty th a t a r e to b e fo u n d n ea rb y to th e
sp len d id m an s io n s o f t h e w ea l th y an d w i th -
in th e m o s t r e sp ec tab le d i s tr i c ts o f t o w n .
A b o u t th e co n d i t io n o f h u m an ex i s t ence in
these s lums he c i tes f rom h is substan t ia l co l -
l ec t io n o f r ep o r ts , d o cu m en t s and n ew sp ap er
cl ipp ings which p rov ided shock ir rg s ta t i s t ics
51
ab o u t r en t an d d en s it i e s i n c lu d in g q u o tes
f ro m co ro n er s ' i n q u es t s o n p e r so n s w h o h ad
d ied o f s tarvat ion and in c i rcumstan ces o f
u t t e r d es t i t u t io n . H e a lso h as so m eth in g to
say abou t the homeless . He had v is i ted a
n u m b er o f i n fam o u s ch eap lo d gin g h o u ses,
and wri tes a hear t rend ing paragraph abou t
wha t he saw. Then th ere were the l i te ra l ly
u n h o u s e d a n d u n a c c o m m o d a t e d , t h o s e w h o
slep t in passages and arcades o r who found
sh e l t e r i n p a rk s o r o n th e em b an k m en t [2 3 ] .
Urban s lums were no t s imply an aberra t ion ,
they were the physical express ion o f the c lass
s t ructu re o f the c i t ies in the era o f indust r ia l
cap i ta l i sm:
Every grea t c i ty has one or more s lums , where the work-
ing-c lass is c rowded toge ther . True , pover ty of ten dwells
in h idden a l leys c lose to the pa laces of the r ich ; bu t , in
general , a separa te te r r i to ry has been ass igned to i t , where ,
removed f rom the s igh t of the happie r c lasses , i t may
struggle along as it can. These slums are pretty equally
ar ranged in a l l the grea t towns of England , the wors t
houses in the wors t quar te r s of the towns ; usua l ly one or
two-stor ies cottages in long rows, perhaps with cellars
used as dwellings, almost always ir regular ly built. These
houses of th ree or four rooms and k i tche n form, through-
out E ngland some par ts of Londo n excepted , the genera l
dwellings of the working-class. The streets are generally
unpaved , rough, d ir ty , f i l led with vege table and an im al
re fuse , with out sewers or gu t te r s , bu t suppl ied with foul ,
s tagnant pools ins tead . Moreover , vent i la t ion is impede d
b y th e b a d , c o n f u s e d me th o d o f b u i ld in g o f th e wh o le
quar te r , and man y h um an be ings here l ive c rowded in to
small space , the a tmosph ere tha t p reva ils in these work-
ing-men s quar te r s ma y readi ly be imagined . F ur ther ,
the s t r ee ts se rve as dry ing grounds in f ine wea ther ; l ines
are s t r e tched across f rom house to house , and hung with
wet c lo th ing (p . 59) [2 4] .
anchester
All the above is p re l iminary to a d iscuss ion
in deta i l o f Manchester , the c lassic g rou nd
on which Eng l ish indust ry has wrough t i t s
m as te rp iece . Wh a t so r t o f m as te rp iece w as
Manchester? In the descr ip t ion and analyses
of the workers ' l iving cond i t ions Engels makes
h i s sem in a l co n t r ib u t io n to th e so c io lo g y o f
th e u rb an co n d i t io n - t h e im p ac t o f cap it a li s t
indust r ia l iza t ion and u rba n izat ion which in
ma ny respects r ings t rue toda y as i t d id whe n
i t was wri t ten .
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52
Every th ing which here a roused hor ror and ind igna t ion is
of r ecent o r ig in , be longs to the indus tr ia l epoch . The
couple of hundred of houses , which be long to o ld Man-
ches te r , have long s ince been abandoned by the ir o r ig-
ina l inhabi tan ts ; the indus tr ia l epoch a lone has c rammed
in to them the swarms of workers which they now she l te r ;
the indus tr ia l epoch a lone has bu i l t up every spot be tween
the ir o ld houses to win a new covering for the masses
whom i t has conju red h i ther f rom the agr icu l ture d is t r ic ts
and f rom I re land; the indus tr ia l epoch a lone enabled the
owners of these ca t t lesheds to r en t them for h igh pr ices
to human be ings , to p lunder the pover ty of the workers ,
to undermine the hea l th of thousands , in order tha t they
alone
the owners , may grow r ich . In the indus tr ia l epoch
a lone i t has become poss ib le tha t the worker sca rce ly
f reed f rom feuda l se rv i tude could be used as mere mate -
r ia l , a mere cha t t le ; tha t he mus t le t h imse lf be c rowded
in to a dwell ing too bad for every o ther , which he for h is
hard-earned wages buys the r igh t to le t go u t te r ly to ru in
(p. 87).
Capitalism pit chf ork ed the new proletar-
iat, often composed of immigrants from pre-
industrial backgrounds, into a social hell in
which they were ground down, despised,
underpaid (if they had a job) or starved, left
to rot in the slums [25]. The description of
this offers insight into the class structure of
the city that has endured and still character-
izes modem urban areas. Manchester con-
tained then about four hundred thousand
inhabitants. The town itself was peculiarly
built so that a person may live in it for years,
and go in and out daily without coming into
contact with working-people's quarters or
even with worker s, tha t is, so long as he
confines himself to his business or to pleasure
walks:
This a r ises ch ie f ly f rom the fac t , tha t by unconsc ious
tac i t agreement , a s wel l a s with ou tspoken consc ious
de te rmina t ion , the work ing-people s quar te r s a re sharp ly
separa ted f rom the sec t ions of the c i ty r ese rved for the
middie-class; or , if this does not succeed, they are con-
cea led with the c loak of ch ar i ty (p . 78) .
The description of the spatial structure of
Manchester by Engels anticipated by some
eighty years what has come to be known as
the concentric zone theory of the city, as
formulated by Park and Burgess.
Manches te r conta ins , a s i ts hear t , a r a ther ex tended com-
merc ia l d is t r ic t , pe rhaps ha lf a mile long and about as
broad , and cons is t ing a lmos t wholly of o f f ices and ware-
houses . Near ly the whole d is t r ic t is abandoned by dwell-
e r s, and is lone ly and deser ted a t n igh t ; on ly watchm en
and pol icemen t r averse i ts na r row lanes with the ir da rk
lan te rns . This d is t r ic t is cu t th rough by ce r ta in main
thoroughfares upon which the vas t t r a f f ic concentra tes ,
and in which th e ground leve l is lined with br i l l ian t shops .
In these s t r eets the upper f loors a re occupied , he re and
there , is a good dea l o f l i f e upon them unt i l la te a t n igh t .
With the except ion of th is comm erc ia l d is t r ic t , a l l Man-
ches te r p roper , a l l Sa lford and Hulme, a g rea t pa r t o f
P e n d le to n a n d Ch o r l to n , two - th k d s o f Ar d wic k , a n d
s ing le s t r e tches of Chee tham Hil l and Broughton a re a l l
unm ixed work ing-people s quar te r s , s t r e tch ing l ike a
g ird le , averag ing a mile and a ha lf in bread th , a round
the commerc ia l d is t r ic t . Outs ide , beyon d th is gkdle , the
upper and middle bourgeois ie l ive in r egula r ly la id ou t
s t r ee ts in the v ic in i ty of the work ing quar te r s , e specia l ly
in Chor l ton and lower ly ing por t ions of Chee tham Hil l ;
the upper bourgeoisie in r emoter v i l las with gardens in
Chor l ton and Ardwick , o r on the breezy he ights o f Chee t-
ham Hil l , Broughton , and Pendle ton , in f r ee , wholesome
country a ir , in f ine , comfor tab le homes , passed once
every ha lf o r quar te r hou r by omnib us go ing in to to c i ty .
And the f ines t pa r t o f the a r rangement is th is , tha t the
members of th is money a r is tocracy can take the shor tes t
road th rough the m iddle of a l l the labour ing d ist r ic ts to
the ir p laces of bus iness , witho ut ever seeing tha t they a re
in the mids t o f the gr imy misery tha t lu rks to the r igh t
and the le f t. For the thoroughfares lead ing f rom the ex-
change in a l l d irec t ions ou t o f the c i ty a re l ined , on bo th
s ides , with an a lmos t unbr oken se ries of shops , and a re so
kept in the hands of the middle and lower bourgeois ie ,
which, out of self- interest, cares for a decent and cleanly
exte rna l appearance and can ca re for i t. True , these shops
boar some re la t ion to the d is t r ic t which l ie beh ind them,
and a re more e legant in the commerc ia l and res ident ia l
quar te r s tha n w hen t hey h ide gr imy working-m en s dwel-
l ings ; bu t they suf f ice to concea l f rom the eyes of the
wea l thy men and women of s t rong s tomaches and weak
nerves the misery and gr ime which form the complement
of the ir wea l th (p . 79) .
Engels then proceeds to a concrete demon-
stration and conducts the reader along a
number of the main streets, showing how the
changes in the character of the buildings that
front the streets indicates what is to be found
behind them. He is in fact charting one series
of connected and stratified variables within
the social topography of the cit y [26].
Engels concludes this spatial analysis of Man-
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chester wi th the observ at ion (p . 110) that :
[ A ] n y o n e w h o k n o w s M a n c h e s t e r c a n i n f e r t h e a d j o in i n g
d i s t r ic t f r o m t h e a p p e a r a n c e o f t h e th o r o u g h f a r e b u t
one i s se ldom in a pos i t ion to ca tch f rom the s t ree t a
g l impse o f the rea l l abour ing d i s t r i c t s . I know very wel l
tha t th i s hypocr i t i ca l p lan is mor e o r l e ss com mo n to a l l
g rea t c i t i e s; I know too tha t the re ta i l dea le r s a re fo rc ed
b y t h e n a t u r e o f t h e ir b u s i n e s s t o t a k e p o s s e s s i o n o f t h e
g r e a t h i g h w a y s ; I k n o w t h a t t h e r e a r e m o r e g o o d b u il d -
i n gs t h a n b a d o n e s u p o n s u c h s t re e t s e v e r y w h e r e a n d t h a t
the va lue o f l and i s g rea te r near the m th an in rem ote d i s -
t r i c t s ; bu t a t the same t ime I have never seen so sys tem-
a t ic a shu t t ing ou t o f the work ing-c lass f rom th e thor -
o u g h f a r e s s o t e n d e r a c o n c e a l m e n t o f e v e r y t h in g w h i c h
m i g h t a f f r o n t t h e e y e s a n d t h e n e r v e s o f t h e b ou r g e o i si e
as in Manches te r .
Such are the physical ar rangem ents o f Man-
chester. The genera l laws that def ine the
h i s to ry o f u rb an d ev e lo p m en t an d th e i r l i nk s
to th e d y n am ics o f capi t a li s t w ea l th accu m u -
la t ion and d is t r ibu t ion are bas ic to the sc ience
of the c i ty . Dav id Harvey [27] po in ts ou t
that th is approach fo l lowed by Engels in 1844
was and s t il l is far more consis te n t wi th the
hard economic and socia l rea l i t ies than i s the
cu l tu ra l i s t ap p ro ach ad o p te d b y u rb an o lo g i s ts
w h o w r i t e o n th e g h e t to an d u rb an p o v er ty .
In fac t wi th cer ta in obv ious modif ic a t ions ,
Engels ' descr ip t ion cou ld eas i ly be made to
f i t t h e co n te m p o ra ry A m er ican c i ty [2 8 ] .
In Man ch es t e r , l i k e in m o d em b o u rg eo i s
c i t ies , the s lum, pover ty and o ther u rban d is-
o rd e rs w ere a p e rm an e n t f ea tu re o f t h i s c ity ,
em bed ded in i t s class re la t ions . The separa t ion
o f th e r i ch an d th e p o o r h ad b een b u i l t i n to
the very spat ia l s t ructu re o f the c i ty , by insur-
ing that d i f feren t ia l access to scarce resources
p e rp e tu a ted th e in eq u a l i t i e s t h a t fo rm ed
cap i ta l i sm. The imperat ives o f cap i ta l i s t log ic
l an d sp ecu la t io n , i n co m e co n cen t ra t io n ,
p o l it i ca l p o w e r - co m b in e to ex c lu d e th e
poo r and cer ta in sect ions o f the work ing class
f ro m th e b en e f i t s o f cap it a l is t eco n o m ic
growth. Worse st i l l , the working-class distr ict
i s a lways l iab le fo r demol i t ion because o f
bu i l t - in obso lescence o f i t s housing . The
con tracto rs , usual ly carpen ters anal bu i lders ,
53
or manufactu rers , spend l i t t le o r no th ing in
repai rs pa r t ly to avo id d imin ish ing thei r ren t
receip ts , and par t ly in v iew of the approach-
in g su r ren d er o f t h e im p ro v em en t to th e l an d
o w n ers ; w h i le in co n seq u en ce o f co m m erc ia l
cr ises and loss o f work that fo l lows them,
w h o le s t r ee t s o f t en s t an d em p ty , t h e co t t ag es
fa l l ing rap id ly in to ru in and un inhab i tab le-
ness (p . 92).
S ince Engels wro te the CWC, the c i ty has
en o rm o u s ly ex p an d ed as an o rg an iza t io n o f
p ro d u c t io n an d a co n cen t r a t ed cen te r o f
power and weal th , i t has a lso deter io ra ted as
a p l ace in w h ich to co n d u c t o th e r h u m a n an d
civilized activit ies. As the wea lthier popula -
t ion have f led the cen ter , th ey have leap-
frogged over the vast working-class and left
them there massed , as i t were , abou t that
a l ternat ively dense and ho l low core , in an
im m en se u n b ro k en b e l t i n w h ich th ey w o rk
and l ive [29] . Othe r spat ia l aspects o f u rban
grow th deal t wi th by Engels conce rn the
p h y sica l sep a ra t io n b e tw een th e p l ace o f w o rk
and the p lace o f res idence.
THE SOCI L L IFE OF THE WORKING CL SS
Wh at k in d o f ex is t en ce d oes th e w o rk in g
class lead? Th at i s, wh at are the con d i t ions o f
l i fe and ex is tence l ike fo r the work ing c lass
in genera l and fo r workers in par t icu lar?
Engels g ives a shock ing p ic tu re o f the p l igh t
o f the Eng l ish workers . L i fe in the u rban
s lum s fo r t h e lo w p a id an d u n em p lo y ed w as
character ized by demoral iza t ion and a l iena-
t io n , b y th e m o s t p ro fo u n d soc ial and p er -
sonal d is t ress . I t app rox i ma ted the Hobbesian
war o f each agains t a l l.
Engels beg ins by t rac ing the resu l ts o f com-
pet i t ion o f s ing le workers wi th one ano ther .
C o m p e t i t i o n i s t h e co m p le t e s t ex p ress io n o f
the bat t le o f a l l which ru les modem civ i l
society . Th is batt le, a batt le for l ife, for exis-
tence , fo r every th ing , in case o f need a bat t le
fo r l i fe and death , i s fough t no t between the
d i f feren t c lasses o f socie ty on ly , bu t a lso be-
twee n the ind iv idual me mb ers o f these c lasses .
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54
Each is in the way of the other, and each
seeks to crowd ou t all who are in his way, and
to put himself in their place (p. 110).
The mode of conflict Engels is describing
is spawned in the interstices of the jungle
capitalist; its values and relations are reflected
in human behavior.
In the s t rugg le fo r ex i s tence ; the p ro le ta r ia t i s he lp less ;
l e f t to h imse l f , he cann ot l ive a sing le day . The bou r -
g e o i si e h a s g a i n e d a m o n o p o l y o f a l l m e a n s o f e x i s t e n c e . . . ;
w h a t t h e p r o l e t a r i a t n e e d s h e c a n o b t a i n o n l y f r o m t h i s
bourgeo is ie , wh ich can decree h i s l i f e o r dea th . I f o f fe r s
h i m t h e m e a n s o f l i v in g , b u t o n l y f o r an " e q u i v a l e n t " f o r
h i s work . I t even le t s h im have the appearance o f ac ting
f rom a f ree cho ice , o f making a con t rac t wi th f ree , un-
c o n s t r a i n e d c o n s e n t , a s a r e s p o n s ib l e a ge n t w h o h a s
a t ta ine d h i s major i ty (p . 110) .
Engels spends many pages setting down in
detail what can only be called conditions of
social hell under which the workers and the
poor lived. In the great towns disease of every
kind flourished. Lung disease and various
grades of fever were common. He also gives a
summary of diseases connected both directly
and in a secondary way with diet deficiency,
such as scrofula, rickets and a variety of ali-
mentary troubles [30].
Engels was the first to discuss what urban
anthropologists call the Culture of Poverty -
a group of circumstances and kinds of be-
havior patterns which when acting in concert
create a viscious circle for the poor, the unem-
ployed and the unemployable. First there was
unemployment which produced helplessness
and drunkeness; which as symptoms of this
state, are an effort on the part of the poor
to gain temporary release from their life, and
a furt her auxiliary cause in its worsening. The
cause of poverty, contrary to liberal assump-
tions, is created by capitalism and should not
be explained by the weakness and shiftless-
ness of individuals. Capitalism as a mode of
production creates a class structure of the
employed and the unemployable. The latter
class is put in a situation where it cannot help
but acquire and develop certain attitudes.
Then these acquired attitudes are taken to be
their nature and to determine their roles in
society. So dirty, tem pora ry and seasonal jobs
are assigned to this class and when their serv-
ices are no longer needed, they are then
blamed for being shiftless and not deserving.
What is called culture of poverty, is thus a
life-style that is more the result of poverty
than its cause.
For instance, on top of everything else the
working class areas suffered from a complete
absence of almost all facilities for sociability
and recreat ion. As Engels puts it;
The fa i l ing o f the w orkers in genera l may be t raced to an
u n b r i d l e d t h i r s t f o r p l e a s u re , t o w a n t o f p r o v i d e n c e , a n d
of f l ex ib i l i ty in f i t t ing in to the soc ia l o rder , to the genera l
i n a b i l i t y t o s a c r i f i c e t h e p l e a s u r e o f t h e m o m e n t t o a
rem ote advan tage . But i s tha t to be won dere d a t? When a
c lass can purchase fe w and on ly the mos t sensua l p leas -
ures by weary ing to i l , mus t i t no t g ive i t se l f over b l ind ly
and madly to those p leasures? A c lass abou t whose educa-
t ion no one t roub les h imse l f , which i s a p layba l l to a
thou sand chances , knows no secur i ty in l i f e - wha t in -
cen t ives has such a c lass to p rov iden ce , to " respec tab i l -
i t y , " t o s a c ri f ic e t h e p l e a su r e o f t h e m o m e n t f o r a re -
m o t e r e n j o y m e n t , m o s t u n c e r t a i n p r e c i s el y b y r e a s o n o f
t h e p e r p e t u a l l y v a r y i n g , s h i f ti n g c o n d i t i o n s u n d e r w h i c h
the p ro le ta r ia t l ives? A c lass which bears a l l the d i sad-
van tages o f the soc ial o rder w i thou t en joy ing i t s ad-
van tages , one to which the soc ia l sys tem appears in pure ly
hos t i l e aspec t s - who can d ema nd tha t such a c lass
respec t th i s soc ia l o rder? Ver i ly tha t i s a sk ing much But
t h e w o r k i n g m a n c a n n o t e s c a p e t h e p r e s e n t a r r a n g e m e n t
of soc ie ty so long as i t ex i s t s , and when the ind iv idua l
worker res i s t s i t , the g rea tes t in ju ry fa l ls upo n h imse l f
(p. 162).
In the English cities there was thus a strik-
ing contrast be tween the extraordinary af-
fluence of the middle classes and the poverty
of the unemployed and unemployable; in the
dispossessed and vagrants, the old, the sick
and the disabled, who, because they were
unable to work in the towns crea ted by the
capitalist, were seen merely as negative and
unwanted burdens. In analyzing the position
of the Irish, Engels made a point basic to the
understanding of the poor in cities under
capitalism - the need o f the capitalist for a
reserve army of labor. The rapid expansion
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of English industry could not have taken
place if England had not possessed in the
numerous and impoverished population of
Ireland a reserve at command ... There are in
London 20,000; in Manchester 40,000; in
Liverpool 34,000 poor Irish people . (p. 124)
The surplus population serves definite func-
tions under capitalism: it can be drawn upon
during the periodic cycles of prosperity and
let go during the inevitable downturn. The
slums are the physical expression that the
reserve army is a permanently essential part
of capitalism. The reserve army was composed
partly of proletarians, partly of potential
proletarians - countr ymen, Irish immigrants,
people from the economically dynamic areas
and less dynamic occupa tions [31 ].
The important institutional casuality of
urban capitalist development was to be none
other than tile working-class family. The
demand capitalism made on the various mem-
bers of the working-class family made family
life almost impossible for the workers. As
Engels (p. 162) put it
In a comfor t less , f i l thy house , ha rd ly good enough for
mere n igh t ly she l te r, i l l - furn ished , o f ten ne i t her r a in- tigh t
nor w arm, a fou l a tm osphere f i l l ing rooms overc rowded
with h um an be ings , no dom es t ic com for t is poss ible . The
husband works the whole day th rough , perhaps the wife
a lso and the e lder ch i ldren , a l l in d if fe ren t p laces ; they
meet n igh t and morning only , a l l under perpe tua l tempta-
t ion to dr ink ; wha t f amily l i f e is poss ib le under such
condit ions? Yet the work ing-man cannot escape the
family , mus t l ive in the family , and the consequence is
a perpe tua l success ion of f amily t roubles , domes t ic quar -
re ls , mos t demora l is ing for paren ts and ch i ldren a l ike .
Neglec t o f a l l domes t ic du t ies , neg lec t o f the ch i ldren ,
especially, is only too vigorously fostered by the existing
ins t i tu t ions of soc ie ty . And ch i ldren growing up in th is
savage way, amidst these demoralis ing inf luences, are ex-
pec ted to tu rn ou t goody-goody and mora l in the end
Ver i ly the requirem ents a re na ive , which the se lf -sa t is f ied
bourgeois makes upon the w ork ing-man
On top of all these problems, the working-
man, who was lucky enough to have a job was
no bette r off - the work he did was not of a
self-fulfilling kind. It was work imposed on
the working class as a necessity. Engels states
55
that the machine-tending work of a spinning
operative was guaranteed, if nothing else, to
break the spirit. It prevented the worker from
occupying his mind with anything else.
The superv is ion of machinery , the jo in ing of b roken
threads , is no ac t iv i ty which c la ims the opera t ive ' s th ink-
ing , ye t i t i s o f a sor t which prevents h im f rom occupying
his mind w ith o t her th ings . .. th is work a f fords the muscles
no oppor tun i ty for phys ica l ac t iv i ty . Thus i t is , p roper ly
speaking , no t work , bu t ted ium, the mos t deadening ,
wear ing process conce ivable . The opera t ive is condemne d
to le t h is phys ica l and menta l powers decay in th is u t te r
monotony , i t i s h is miss ion to be bored every day and a l l
day long f rom h is e igh th year . Moreover, he mus t n o t take
a moment ' s r es t ; the engine moves increas ing ly , the
whee ls , the s t r aps , the sp ind les hum and ra t t le in h is ea r s
with out a pause , and i f he t r ies to sna tch one ins tan t ,
the re is the over looker a t h is back with the bo ok o f fines .
This condemnation to be burned a l ive in the mil l , to g ive
cons tan t a t ten t ion to the t i r e less machine is f e l t a s the
keenes t to r ture by th e opera t ives , and i ts ac t ion upon
mind and body is in the long run s tun t ing in the h ighes t
degree (p. 211) .
Since Engels wrote CWC, factory work has
become worse. It has been reduced to a series
of operations that are even more deadening to
the senses. The machine tending in the textile
mills, copy typist work, key-punch operators
and computer programmers, bank clerks -
the watchers and tenders of new electronic
technology - all con front a working life
whose quality is to say the least unappetizing
[32]. Bookchin makes the point that the aim
of capital is to reduce human labor into an
aggregate of muscular and mental energy and
to make it lose its identit y as an expression of
human powers [33].
Though the development of capitalist
science and technology provides the material
prerequisites for the emancipation of labor,
by reducing necessary labor time and im-
mensely increasing productivity, the actual
consequences are not liberating but enslaving.
The individual worke r is no longer identifiably
productive; established skills are eroded and
displaced; the worker is subordinated to the
machine; wages are depressed; both the in-
tensity and the length of the working day are
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56
increased. Marx summed up the consequences
of fact ory work as follows:
Factory work exhausts the nervous system to the utter-
most; at the same time, it does away with the many-sided
play o f the muscles, and confiscates every atom of free-
dom, both in bodily and in intellectual activity. Even the
lightening of the labour becomes an instrument of tor-
ture, since the machine does not free the worker from the
work, but rather deprives the work itself of all conten t.
. Every kind of capitalist production, in so far as it is not
only a labour process but also capital s process of valori-
zation, has this in common, but it is not the worker who
employs the conditions of his work, but rather the
reverse, the conditions o f work employ the worker. How-
ever, it is only with the coming of machinery that this
inversion first acquires a technical and palpable reality.
Owing to its conversion into an automaton, the instrumen t
of labour confronts the worker during the labour process
in the shape of capital, dead labour, which dominates and
soaks up living labour-power. The separation of the intel-
lectual faculties of the production process from manual
labour, and the transformation of those faculties into
powers exercised by capital over labour, is, as we have
already shown, finally completed by large-scale industry
erected on the foundatio n of machinery. The special skill
of each individual machine-operator, who has now been
deprived of all significance, vanishes as an infinitesimal
quantity in the face of the science, the gigantic natural
forces, and the mass of social labour embodied in the sys-
tem of machinery, which, together with those three
forces, constitutes the power of the master [34].
What does this tell us? That the process
tha t has p roduced vast material wealth is
simultaneously reproduced as absolute aliena-
tion, that it has produced this wealth on the
backs of workers who had been reduced to
what C. Wright Mills called cheerful robots .
In the language of the factory, workers are
hand s and operatives ; and individuality
in work is reduced to a numerical expression.
The fragmentation of the work process is to
ensure that capital through its hired managers
had the greatest possible degree of control
over the living labor it emp loys [35] .
In the bourgeois city the very bases of
human association have been distorted and
reduced into harsh comm odity relations;
everyone becomes an ene my of everyone else.
In this country, social war is under full headway, every
one stands for himself, and fights for himself against all
comers, and whether or not he shall injure all the others
who are his declared foes, depends upon a cynical calcula-
tion as to what is more advantageous for himself. It no
longer occurs to any one to come to a peaceful under-
standing with his fell ow-man; all differences are settl ed by
threats, violence, or in a court of law. In short, everyone
sees in his neighbor an enemy to be got out of the way,
or, at best, a tool to be used for his own advantage. And
this war grows from year to year, as the criminal table
shows, more violent, passionate, irreconcilable. The ene-
mies are dividing gradually into two great camps - the
bourgeoisie on the one hand, the workers on the other.
This war of each against all, of the bourgeoisie against the
proletariat, need cause us no surprise, for it is only the
logical sequel of the principle involved in free competi-
tion (pp. 165-166).
Engels also discussed such currently perti-
nent problems of capitalism as depression and
trade cycles, the question of the reserve
army of labor, the theoretical problems of
surplus labor, and the actual existence of sur-
plus laborers, largely in the form of an im-
mense pool of casual laborers in the cities and
beneath them of an almost as large group of
unemployed and unemployable members of
the proletariat [ 36].
THE CL SS STRUGGLE
Engels understood the progressive role of
cities in history as centers of economic-cul-
tural development and incubators of the
modern revolutionary working class. In the
industrial towns, the working men and
women were faced with many difficult prob-
lems. Millions of hitherto independent pro-
ducers had been pitc hfor ked from the
natural econo my and rendered destitute.
Those who fo und work consumed today what
they made yesterday. The men and women
who by their toil created the greatness of Eng-
land were living on the margins of poverty;
receiving less and less of the surplus value
they produced. The working class soon real-
ized that their situation was not temporary:
they came to understand that they were an
integral and permanent part of the property-
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less urban population. It dawned on them
that their children would be born to toil,
would have no other prospect than remaining
toilers all their lives. To defend themselves
the workers formed themselves into trade
unions. The industrial urban milieu forced
them to learn the meaning of their situation
and by concentrating them in the urban
space, made them learn the power of collec-
tive action.
The grea t c i t ies a re the b ir thp laces of labour movements ;
in them the workers f i r s t began to r e f lec t upon the ir
own condi t ion , and to s t ruggle aga ins t i t ; in them the
oppos i t ion be tween pro le ta r ia t and bourgeois ie f i r s t made
i tse lf manifes t ; f rom them proceeded the Trade Unions ,
Char t ism, and Soc ia l ism. The grea t c i t ies have t r ans -
formed the d isease of the soc ial body, w hich appears in
chronic form in the country , in to an acute one , and so
made manifes t i ts r eal na ture and the means of cur ing i t .
Without the grea t c i t ies and the ir forc ing inf luence upon
popula t ion in te l l igence , the working-c lass would be fa r
less advanced than it is . Moreover , they have destroyed
the las t r emnant of pa tr ia rcha l r e la t ion be tween working-
men and employers , a r esu l t to which manufac ture on a
la rge sca le has contr ibu ted by mult ip ly ing the employees
depend ent upon a sing le employer p . 153) .
A great part of the CWC is devoted to the
working-class movement, its forms and meth-
ods of struggle. It is thus no accident that
some of the most profound and enduring in-
sights about working consciousness derived
from the CWC. For Engels the working class
movement was a necessary expression of the
antagonistic contra dictions of the main classes
of capitalist society.
Working-class consciousness and struggle
under capitalism has gone through many
phases. The earliest and crudest form of
struggle was that of crime and was induced by
want, distress or necessity. The working-man
lived in poverty and want, and saw that others
were bette r of f than he. It was not clear to
his mind why he, who did more fo r society
than the rich idler, should be the one to suffer
under these conditions. Want conquered his
inherited respect for the sacredness of proper-
ty, and he stole ... crime increased with the
extension of manufactur e, ... the yearly num-
57
ber of arrests bore a constant relation to the
number of bales of cotton annually consum-
ed (p. 248).
Soon the workers realized that crime did
not help their cause. That is to say, the struc-
ture of crime reproduces the structure of the
existing social injustice as much as it pro-
tested against them.
The c r imina l could pro t es t aga ins t the ex is t ing order of
soc ie ty only s imply , as one ind iv idua l ; the who le might of
soc ie ty was broug ht to bear upon each c rimina l , and
crushed h im with i ts immense super ior i ty . Bes ides , the f t
was the mos t pr imit ive form of pro tes t , and for th is
reason , i f for no o ther , i t never became the univer sa l
express ion of the publ ic op in ion of the working-men,
however much they might approve of i t in s i lence . As a
c lass , they f i r s t manifes ted oppos i t ion to the bourgeois ie
wh e n th e y r e s is t e d th e in t r o d u c t io n o f ma c h in e r y a t th e
very beginning of the indus tr ia l pe r iod p . 249) .
The political significance of crime for
Engels showed a lack of political conscious-
ness on the part of the urban proletariat. The
next stage in the development of political
awareness among the newly proletarianized
workers was the revolt against the machinery
in the cause of which factories were demol-
ished. This form of opposition was too nar-
rowly focused and, like crime, self-defeating:
When the monetary end was attained, the
whole might of social power fell upon the un-
protected evil doers and punished them to its
heart's content, while the machinery was
introduced none the less (p. 259).
The third stage reached by the working
class was the political form of struggle. The
reform bill of 1824 opened the way for this
phase in working-class political development.
The reform bill gave the working class a right
previously restricted to the aristocracy and
the bourgeoisie, the right of free association.
The hitherto secret organizations of the
workers could now be organized openly. In
all branches of industry Trade Unions were
formed with the outspoken intention of
protecting the single working-men against the
tyranny and neglect of the bourgeoisie. The
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58
objects were: to fix wages and to deal, en
masse as a power, with the employers; to
regulate the rate of wages according to the
profit of its latter, to raise it when opportun-
ity offered, and to keep it uniform in each
trade through out the cou ntr y (p. 250).
Although the proletarianization of the
peasants had been a universal negation, with
the growth of the labor movement the work-
ers began to discover their power and their
humanity as well. In the trade union move-
ment the working-men discovered a new state
of consciousness and the beginnings of a new
kind of solidarity. The great urban centers,
the house of modern industry, by concentrat-
ing furthe r both the increase of middle-class
wealth and power on the one hand and work-
ing-class poverty and helplessness on the other
was the main source of working-class move-
ment and class consciousness. That is, urban
development was a gigantic process of class
segregation, which put the new laboring poor
into great morasses of misery outside the
centers of government and business and the
newly specialized residential area of the bour-
geoisie. The almost universal European divi-
sion into a goo d west end and a po or
east end of large cities could not help but
produce this solidarity [ 37 ].
The labor mo vement of the first half of the
nineteenth century was not either in composi-
tion or in its ideology and program a strictly
proletar ian movement, i.e., one of indus-
trial and factory workers or even one con-
fined to wage earners. It was rath er a common
front of all forces and tendencies representing
the (mainly urban) laboring-poor [38]. Its
importance lay not in its effectiveness, but in
the lessons of solidarity and class conscious-
ness which it taught.
Engels examined in detail the life experi-
ences and struggles in specific production
processes and production relations to reveal
the forms of existence in these branches: the
spinners and weavers, workers in knitting and
embroidery, tailors and dressmakers, glass-
blowers, metal workers, miners, and farm
laborers. He shows the workers' tribulations
and struggles against impossible odds. The
misery had impelled the workers to grapple
with their condition. Engels found that the
workers in industry were more conscious of
their class interest than others. Under capi-
talism, the proletarians' human dignity is
expressed only in struggle against the existing
conditions. Hence the importance of trade
unions and economic strikes as instruments
for advancing the interests of the workers,
and as a means of uniting the workers and
generating militancy.
These strikes,
at first
skirmishes, sometimes resulted in
weighty struggles; they decide noth ing, it is true, bu t
true they are the strongest proof that the decisive battle
between bourgeoisie and proletariat is approaching. They
are the military school of the working-men in which they
prepare themselves for the great struggle which cannot be
avoided; they are the pronounci amentos of single branches
of industry that these too have joined the labour move-
ment ... and as a school of war, the unions are unexcelled
(p. 260).
Engels illustrated the political conscious-
ness of the miners by describing the coal
miners' efforts to form a trade union and to
organize a strike which they launched in
March 1844. The miners had collected a strike
fund large enough to assure each miners'
family of strike pay of half a crown a week
for several months. The miners nineteen-week
experience was a great triumph; workers uni ty
struck fear in the hearts of the bourgeoisie.
The great five mon ths battl e of the coal miners against
mine owners, a battle fought on the part of the
oppressed
with an endurance, courage, intelligence, and coolness
demands the highest admiration. What a degree of true
human venture, of enthusiasm and strength of character,
such a battle implies on the part of men who ... were
described as late as 1840, as being thoroughly brutal
and
wanting in moral sense (p. 204).
What gives these Unions and the strikes arising f rom them
their real importance is this, that they are the first at
tempt of the workers to abolish competition . They imply
the recognition of the fact that the supremacy of the
bourgeoisie, is based wholly upon the competit ion of the
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w o r k e r s among themselves; i.e., upon their want of
cohesion. And precisely because the Unions direct them-
selves against the vital nerve of the present social order,
however one-sidedly, in however narrow a way, are they
so dangerous to this social order. The working-men can-
not attack the bourgeoisie, and with it the whole existing
o r e r of society, at any sorer point than this. If the com-
petition of the workers among themselves is destroyed, if
all determine not to be further exploited by the bour-
geoisie, the rule of property is at an end pp. 218 -219 ).
The industrial capitalist city by its very
nature creates a new consciousness among
workers and a will to resist the injustices of
capitalism. It functions as an organizing con-
tainer; the source of Blake's mind-forg'd
monacles. That is, it is a focus of all connec-
tions - social, political and economic. The
workers saw plenty of wealth around them,
and the law protecting its gross inequities.
They wanted enough to live on, and by fair
means or foul we will have it [39] .
For Engels the working-class movement
was an imperative and an expression of the
antagonism of capital. He saw the Chartist
movement as having the potential of becom-
ing a proletarian and a socialist movement.
Why? Because Chartism is the compact form
of the opposition to the bourgeoisie (p. 263).
Prior to that opposition always remained
isolated. It was single working men or sections
who fought a single bourgeois. If the fight
became general, this was scarcely by inten tion
of the working men or when it did happen
intentionally, Chartism was at the bottom of
it. But in Chartism it is the whole working-
class which arises against the bourgeoisie, and
attacks, first of all the political power, the
legislative rampart with which the bourgeoisie
has surrounded itself.
But in England of the 1840s, socialism was
still unc onnect ed to the working-class move-
ment and those who advocated socialism did
not advocate an implacable class struggle.
English Socialism arose with Owen, a manu-
facturer, and proceeds therefore with great
consideration toward the bourgeoisie and
great injustices toward the proletariat in its
methods, although it culminates in demanding
59
the abolition of the class antagonism between
bourgeoisie and proletariat. The socialists are
thoroughly tame and peacable, accept our
existing order, bad as it is, so far as to reject
all other methods but that of winning public
opinion (pp. 272- 273 ).
How was Chartism to overcome its limita-
tions? It had to be purified of its bourgeois
elements and merge with the working class.
This process had already begun and many
Chartist leaders had embraced socialism.
Capitalist development was producing prole-
tarian socialism, whose historical necessity
was determined by the antagonistic character
of capitalism and the advance of philosophical
and sociological thought. Through the study
of the objective conditions Engels was able to
demonstrate how the progress of capitalist
production induced the proletarians to unite
in a single powerful army which was increas-
ingly conscious of the fact that its interests
were incompatible with those of the capitalist.
The war of the poor against the rich now
carried on in detail and indir ectly will become
direct and universal. It is too late for peaceful
solution. The classes are divided more and
more sharply, the spirit of resistance pene-
trates the workers, the bitterness intensifies,
the guerilla skirmishes become concentrated
in more important battles, and soon a slight
impulse will suffice to set t he avalanche in
mo ti on (p. 335).
THE MIDDLE CL SSES
In analyzing the poverty of the working
class, Engels knew that he was dealing with a
society where poverty and affluence are in-
separably joined; where the production of
wealth takes place on condition of the social
or absolute impoverishment of the producers.
The poverty of the working class had thus
always to be compared with the affluence of
the middle classes. As Bentham put it:
In the highest stage of social prosperity, the great mass of
the citizens will most probably possess few other