Owenism

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Owenism was an influential social movement going back to the social reformer Robert Owen , which in the early industrial capitalism of the 1830s in Great Britain aimed at the propagation and practice of a cooperative socialism through the establishment of production cooperatives and commodity exchanges and also had an influence on the independent socialism that developed Union movement took.

Act

Owenism inspired the creation of workers' production cooperatives in Great Britain and the United States of America, modeled on the Scottish textile mill in New Lanark . The “Just Labor Exchanges”, which were created in London and Birmingham in 1832/33, also owed their existence to Owenism. Its purpose was to allow the producers to receive the full labor yield through the direct exchange of goods between the producers and with vouchers for the value expressed in labor time.

The most influential Owenist organization was the Association of All Classes of All Nations, founded in 1835 . It counted up to 70,000 members and was essentially an organization for the dissemination of Owenist ideas. Numerous newspapers and magazines published by cooperatives and unions, including New Moral World, served this purpose . From 1839 to 1841 the Owenists distributed an average of two and a half million leaflets a year. Owenism was particularly popular among artisans and skilled workers.

Teaching

Owenism believed in the power of a rational education and in the self-organization of the workers. He rejected the class struggle and did not question property; he wanted to bypass the market economy. His goal was to "villages of cooperation" ( villages of co-operation to create) with 300 to 2,000 people a just and fraternal society in which instead of competition, unemployment and poverty mutual assistance should prevail in the agricultural and industrial production. These villages were intended as an exemplary microcosm for a new social order ( New Moral World ).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Thilo Ramm (ed.): The early socialism. Source texts (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 223). Kröner, Stuttgart 1956, DNB 364506377 , p. 183. - Edward P. Thompson: The emergence of the English working class . Second volume. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, p. 895.
  2. ↑ Francois Bedarida: Socialism in England until 1848 . In: Francois Bedarida, Jean Bruhat, Jacques Droz: The utopian socialism until 1848 . Ullstein, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1974, p. 48.
  3. ↑ Francois Bedarida: Socialism in England until 1848 . In: Francois Bedarida, Jean Bruhat, Jacques Droz: The utopian socialism until 1848 . Ullstein, Frankfurt / Berlin / Vienna 1974, p. 48.