The state thus has a central role in the eyes of the socialists. Through the growing working class which supported socialism, the political stream received a bigger suffrage of how the state should be governed. In the next paragraphs I will speak more about the human rights and socialists, especially about the acts and laws the socialists brought into the political system in the nineteenth century and how they achieved these improvements for the development of human rights.
The start of the socialist thinking connected with human rights is when the Congress of Vienna takes place in 1815. In the beginning of the nineteenth century many countries were to insist on the rights of self-determination and other political reforms after the Napoleonic era. The outcome of the Congress of Vienna was that the major powers of Europe wanted to prevent the domination of any single power. Connecting these two sentences together meant that the country had a single state which had the power over their own country. The reason why it was becoming more socialistic was on the one hand because of the Industrial Revolution, as explained in the first paragraphs, but also on the other hand of the failure of liberalism during the Enlightenment. Socialistic ideas came increasingly forward yearning for more equal rights.
Another important event for the development of human rights was the Civil War in the United States between the Northern and the Southern part between 1861 and 1865. Northern part was politically progressive and more industrial, whereas the Southern part was politically conservative and heavily depended on agriculture and slavery. Although the Northern part was a major economic power committed to liberal political principles and the spirit of private enterprise, the Northern part fought for the abolishment of slavery as they saw it as an attack against humanity. The Northern part won the Civil War and the abolishment of slavery became a fact after this (1865), although racism remained a topic. From this we can conclude that is was not only the socialists who fought for human rights, but that there was more a liberal impact in the development of human rights.
Two socialistic movements came up in England (Chartist Movement) and France (Paris Commune) in the nineteenth century. The Chartist Movement – a social movement for parliamentary reform named after the People’s Charter of 1837 – played a large role in the campaign for voting and socialists. The Chartist Movement was a working-class movement radicalized by its political experience. Although not all the demands of the Chartists were initially met, they did inspire others to renew their quest for universal suffrage. Other socialists’ ideas came up, including: anti-slavery, denouncing the plight of child factory workers, public education, safe work environment and the reduction of daily working hours. The most of these aims became written acts, like the Factory Act (1833) which stated that children less than 9 years old were not allowed to be employed in textile mills and the Ten Hours Act (1847) which said that there should be limited daily work hours of women, children and men. These socialistic ideas became laws and this can be seen as a big achievement.
Between March and May 1871, French socialists and anarchists set up the Paris Commune. The Communards demanded rights for the working class, the development of workers’ cooperatives, reduction of working hours, free public education for all children, universal suffrage and housing rights. Despite these efforts, the French Assembly sent the National Guard to crush the Paris Commune, which resulted in a heavy bloodbath. The reason why socialism did not get the chance to develop human rights was mainly the liberalist thinking which was still in France. The socialists lost this battle, but there were hopes for social welfare and human rights and after all France was the first country in the world to adopt universal manhood suffrage. Socialists therefore did leave a mark behind in France. However, social democratic parties in general, generally indebted to Marxist doctrine, sprang up in most of the countries of continental Europe.
Karl Marx was one of the socialist thinkers and the participants of the First International. He denounced the conservative restoration of “property, family, religion and order”. A central state, without religion, was for him the best. The use of religion always benefited the preservation of the ruling elite, while the ruling should be based on the working class. The whole community should benefit from each other, as it was seen as “all citizens would give the benefits of their labor to the community on an equal basis and take from a collective storehouse whatever they needed”. This would give more equality and universal suffrage should therefore be granted to all individuals. Marx called for a common human rights agenda and this would be the first step towards a universal human rights agenda.
The First International enabled to harmonize global human rights activism. In the several conferences different important human rights issues were raised and international campaigns against abuse of human rights brought together journalists and intellectuals from all over the world and socialist movements pressured governments to stop abusing human rights. Karl Marx and the First International have been very important for the ideology. Group solidarity and universal human rights were equalized and probably the biggest achievements of the socialists were the near-end slavery, the enfranchisement of property and the granting of universal suffrage.
1889 was the year of the establishment of the Second International. It had no mandatory power but was recognized by its member parties as their highest moral authority. Marxism was the dominant ideology, though other trends and influences were also present. The discussions in the Second International mainly were over strategies and disputes over colonial matters and war, e.g. denouncing militarism, advocating disarmament, replacing standing armies with popular militias, voting against military credits and setting up international court of arbitration for the peaceful settlement of interstate disputes. Following up the latter points, this all resulted in the proposal of the Swiss J. Henri Dunant. He proposed to establish a permanent system of humanitarian assistance in wartime, regardless of their nationalities. It catalyzed organizations such as International Committee of the Red Cross and many other. It opened the doors for a more international, globalized world on politics. Nationalistic feelings started becoming part of the society and the destination of the Second International was the beginning of the World War I as Europe plunged into a long and bloody war. The extent of the nationalism in that time had overthrown the socialistic thoughts and took over. It took Europe a few decades to change the attitudes again to a more socialistic and liberal view on politics.
Industrialization created a growing number of unmarried, educated women, who joined the workforce for the first time. They though kept struggling with sex slavery, prostitution and women’s economic dependency. As they competed with men at every level of professional activity, they demanded equal pay for equal work. Already in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, women asked for rights to own property, custody of their children in case of divorce, equal education and keep their own savings. It took a long time before the women were taken seriously, but more and more feminists groups came up at the end of the nineteenth century, e.g. National Women’s Suffrage Association. In 1889 the Women’s Franchise League was established to advocate voting rights and to equal with men in matters of divorce, child custody and inheritance. In 1893, New Zealand was the first country to give women the right to vote. Many countries followed and other rights got implemented into the systems. However, feminism started as a liberal stream, resulting in a movement which began to attract women from all social backgrounds, ideological differences dissolved and a unity of purpose emerged. This had made feminism so strong, but it was definitely not only socialism which caused that women started getting universal human rights. Tradition remained important in different parts of the world and the balance between women and men was far from equalized at the beginning of the nineteenth century, but it was a step towards more equality.
Children’s contribution to the economy was almost required due to the industrialization, this did not take away that the children most of the times were suffering from unhealthy and hazardous working environments, exhaustion and malnourishment. Working days of eighteen hours were normal in those days. But with the upcoming socialism inspired by Robert Owen, which prevented the social rights of children, the Factory Act in 1933 prohibited children under the age of nine to work and paid inspectors to enforce child-protection laws. They scored another victory with an 1847 act that limited the work of both children and adults to ten hours a day. The working class was dissatisfied and wanted more, conferences were held and organizations were established, e.g. International Association for Labor Legislation, which fought for abolishing child labor and providing education and freedom for children. This worked out and in the beginning of the nineteenth century the standards were set and child labor was abolished in the most West-European factories. Socialism has booked an important achievement in the area of universal human rights. However, nowadays child labor still exists in other parts of the worlds and the protectors are still struggling with it.
Rapid changes in the family structure resulting from industrialization contributed also to the redefinition of gender roles, a process which challenged the patriarchal sexual identification. “Effeminate” men were increasingly regarded as a threat to this patriarchy. Many homosexuals found consolation in socialism, which claimed to represent the cause of the persecuted. It was legally permitted and in most European countries that had fallen within the sphere of Napoleon’s power. Countries which had been outside this power followed harsh punishments, e.g. death penalty. Homosexuality thus was a sensitive topic and still is, but the rights of love for the same gender have increased and are respected in most of the westernized world.
More than homosexuals, Jews and other national minorities were more politically discriminated. According to Karl Marx, religion had to be abolished. The upcoming socialism upgraded these thoughts even more. Although some countries, like France and the Netherlands granted, Jews civil and political rights, in other countries the emancipation was going on but also more complicated through the civil reforms. Emancipation was a sensitive topic and despite this spirit that reigned over Europe, the racism and anti-Semitism prevailing in various political, clerical and popular was spreading throughout Europe. Jews fled to different parts of the world, with Palestine as main destination, under the lead of the Zionist Movement. The Zionists were a liberal-nationalistic movement which drew support primarily from the bourgeoisie, who regarded nationhood as an important form of political emancipation from multinational empires. This was the development which ended up in the acquisition of nationalism over socialism and finally in the beginning of the World War I.
The beginning of the World War I was when the socialist parties changed their positions and declared support for their respective governments, the nationalist forces. Nationalism has crushed the liberal internationalist aspirations of the Enlightenment, as it now had destroyed the socialist human rights vision. This betrayal was decried by socialists as Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin and meant the unraveling of a powerful human rights movement, which though would have caused a revolution for the near future. In this near future socialists like Stalin and Mao took over the lead in respectively the Soviet Union and China. These people are known to be abusive towards universal human rights, but covering their deeds by propaganda happened and therefore many people were not aware about what was actually going on.
Though, socialism had modified the early human rights discourse. The socialist position also represented the first historical assertion that all humans, regardless of wealth, gender, race, or age, were entitled to both political and social rights. All the achievements included different acts, congresses, movements, socialist thinking, but especially the introduction of the universal human rights agenda. Socialism brought a fresh breath into the political system. Although they did a lot of good things, there are some controversies and implications. The first point I would like to address is the controversial thinking about Jews. Socialists called for the equal rights, if so than people should also have had the right to freedom of religion. Socialists did not do this as they were in some countries anti-Semitistic, for example Russia. Secondly it were not only the socialists who implemented universal human rights. As mentioned, liberalism had its share in the development of human rights. Capitalism, a form of economy introduced by liberalists, opened the doors for the industrialization after a period of monarchies. Out of this actually came the working class, so the one is the cause of the other. Secondly the 1848 revolutions had a quite liberal character in many European countries. However, the socialists have had the biggest share in the development of the universal human rights agenda in the Industrial Age.
