The Wobblies

During the Industrial Revolution, factories used machines, investment, and specialized labor to produce goods on a scale that had previously been difficult to achieve. Adam Smith's economic ideas help explain how specialization, trade, competition, and self-interest can coordinate production. However, economic growth did not automatically guarantee good working conditions or equal bargaining power. Workers and employers could disagree over wages, working hours, safety, and who should benefit from increased production.

In 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published The Communist Manifesto. They argued that modern industrial society was divided into classes with conflicting economic interests. More than half a century later, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), founded in 1905, sought to unite workers across industries to challenge employers' power and improve workers' lives. The IWW shared some ideas with Marxist labor movements, although it had its own traditions and goals.

How did Karl Marx explain the conflict between factory owners and workers, and how does his argument help us understand the Wobblies?