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The height of resistance of the 'working' man seems to have culminatedin Europe around 1848 (half way through the rise of Bradford to it's zenith) when revolutions broke out, some violent and 'workers' were appeased more. In UK (Bradford) this was the ascendancy of The Chartists, whoose revolutionary ideals petered out as a damp squib - connsumate with shooting yourself in the foot in the first place. Then there were further attemps by the working and middle (working but better paid?) classes to improve things. There were various initiatives: The 2nd Reform Act of 1867 gave many more (working) men the vote - no doubt so they could have a say in their condition, centres of learning for the working class (Mechanics Institutes)- so they could learn about their condition, art galleries - so they could escape into fantasy from their condition etc. The helping middle were actually wary of helping - they didn't like the violence of the ex-Chartists, they thought they needed moral training, religion (the helpers were often from a strong religious background themselves). A little patronising in a way. The big issues: food and housing problems, dangerous work practices, significant education, sewerage, water supply, rubbish removal they were slow to be addressed. Structure basically comes later and slowly. The problem is those who have money and are well off giving it to others and hence risking diminishing their condition or prospects. The tendancy is for only the very wealthy to be able to do that - hence the bond. The song sums it up.
I am not a communist or near one in any way, but those who the communists look to seem to have some insight. I stumbled across this quote in a letter from Karl Marx to Engels: "There is a schism among the unenfranchised - a schism which although inarticulate, is beyond the hope of immediate conciliation. The hewers of wood and drawers of water are widely speperated in sentiment and interest from the educated, intelligent and not infrequently refined fellow labourer, who is as certain of bettering his condition as the ignorant and the immoral are for ever flourishing in the mire, although men and gods decreed that they shpould rise" It seems to me that in America these two types are indistinduishable, there's no accents much and not much a concept of class.

Paul D. Foy:
On the 'hewers of wood', I want to an interesting talk the other day in which an interesting subdivision of work at Proctor Brothers, Leeds, UK mouse trap factory was mentioned. Only the men sawed the wood, whilst the women manipulated the wire producing the spring deploying the trap. No doubt they had the fingernails for this.

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