WEBVTT

00:00:04.375 --> 00:00:09.375
[soft music]
[clock ticking]

00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:25.792
[upbeat music]
[clock ticking]

00:01:03.999 --> 00:01:04.999
For three centuries,

00:01:04.999 --> 00:01:06.959
from generation to generation,

00:01:06.959 --> 00:01:08.542
hundreds of millions
of factory workers

00:01:08.542 --> 00:01:14.792
have kept the machines of our
industrial world in motion.

00:01:14.999 --> 00:01:15.667
Who are they?

00:01:15.667 --> 00:01:17.999
Where do they come from?

00:01:17.999 --> 00:01:18.999
What do they want?

00:01:18.999 --> 00:01:21.584
What do they have in common?

00:01:21.584 --> 00:01:23.626
What are their differences?

00:01:23.626 --> 00:01:26.417
History has changed them and
they have changed history,

00:01:26.417 --> 00:01:29.999
altered our way of thinking
and living together.

00:01:29.999 --> 00:01:33.417
Without them, there would
be neither space travel,

00:01:33.417 --> 00:01:35.417
nor universal suffrage.

00:01:35.417 --> 00:01:41.000
But what is their place in
the world they have created?

00:01:48.250 --> 00:01:50.792
The first traces of
social inequality,

00:01:50.792 --> 00:01:53.999
which appeared in Europe
just 7,000 years ago,

00:01:53.999 --> 00:01:57.834
are unimpressive,
skeletons of chiefs

00:01:57.834 --> 00:01:59.584
buried with weapons and jewels,

00:01:59.584 --> 00:02:01.626
which symbolized their
new power and riches

00:02:01.626 --> 00:02:06.999
gained through the work of
those under their command.

00:02:07.417 --> 00:02:11.999
Slavery, ancient and
modern, medieval serfdom.

00:02:13.999 --> 00:02:15.667
But as of the 18th century,

00:02:15.667 --> 00:02:20.709
a new form of exploitation
spread across Europe.

00:02:21.999 --> 00:02:22.999
It happened in the factories

00:02:22.999 --> 00:02:27.375
where theoretically free
men and women worked.

00:02:27.375 --> 00:02:29.834
Those known as workers.

00:02:33.375 --> 00:02:37.459
Ghislaine Tormos, a
car industry worker.

00:02:37.459 --> 00:02:40.042
You have boxes full of
thousands of screws.

00:02:40.042 --> 00:02:42.999
If you need to take three
screws, you just take three.

00:02:42.999 --> 00:02:44.417
You don\'t have the time to look.

00:02:44.417 --> 00:02:47.042
Your fingers feel
the three screws.

00:02:47.042 --> 00:02:49.999
I don\'t know how many times
I\'ve reached for the box,

00:02:49.999 --> 00:02:52.999
thinking \"I will
probably grab five.\"

00:02:52.999 --> 00:02:55.999
No, there are
always three screws.

00:02:55.999 --> 00:02:57.375
If I need to take four of them,

00:02:57.375 --> 00:02:59.709
my hand will take four screws.

00:02:59.709 --> 00:03:01.999
It won\'t take five.

00:03:01.999 --> 00:03:03.792
It\'s instinctive.

00:03:03.999 --> 00:03:07.751
If you sense a little
extra one, \"No!\"

00:03:08.501 --> 00:03:12.250
It\'s quite impressive
how conditioned we are.

00:03:12.250 --> 00:03:14.999
We are totally conditioned.

00:03:14.999 --> 00:03:17.501
I\'m sure that even
with our eyes closed,

00:03:17.501 --> 00:03:21.083
we\'re able to avoid the
passing cars, et cetera.

00:03:21.083 --> 00:03:23.250
The body is totally attuned,

00:03:23.250 --> 00:03:25.999
the smells, the
noises, the sound.

00:03:25.999 --> 00:03:28.959
Then there are the alarms,
alarms which go off as soon

00:03:28.959 --> 00:03:34.999
as soon as someone makes a
mistake, they ring, they ring.

00:03:35.209 --> 00:03:36.626
They ring for the
beginning of a shift,

00:03:36.626 --> 00:03:38.167
they ring for the
end of a shift,

00:03:38.167 --> 00:03:41.375
they ring because you\'ve
made a mistake, they ring.

00:03:41.375 --> 00:03:46.918
All day long you have these
stupid alarms ringing out.

00:03:46.918 --> 00:03:48.042
[upbeat humming]

00:03:48.042 --> 00:03:53.042
That one\'s for break time,
and the other one is,

00:03:56.334 --> 00:03:59.083
[upbeat humming]

00:03:59.083 --> 00:04:01.584
that\'s when someone
makes a mistake.

00:04:01.584 --> 00:04:04.626
That one is to warn,
who, you don\'t know,

00:04:04.626 --> 00:04:05.542
but there are large panels

00:04:05.542 --> 00:04:07.000
which point straight
to the place.

00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:09.999
So at least the boss,
even from a long way off,

00:04:09.999 --> 00:04:12.999
knows who made it go off.

00:04:12.999 --> 00:04:18.501
[soft music]
[clock ticking]

00:04:21.250 --> 00:04:22.999
This is the
individual experience

00:04:22.999 --> 00:04:28.250
of each worker, but there
is also another reality,

00:04:28.709 --> 00:04:29.876
engraved in our
collective memory

00:04:29.876 --> 00:04:35.709
since the beginning of cinema,
leaving the factory gates.

00:04:37.959 --> 00:04:43.584
This was filmed in 1900, in
England near to Manchester.

00:04:47.999 --> 00:04:52.918
Hundreds of workers
leaving a textile factory.

00:04:53.042 --> 00:04:57.751
A mass, a class, the working
class as it was known,

00:04:57.751 --> 00:04:59.999
a simple fact,
visible to everyone,

00:04:59.999 --> 00:05:03.542
as told by a worker at the
Italian steel mill in Terni,

00:05:03.542 --> 00:05:08.250
recorded by the historian
Alessandro Portelli.

00:05:11.250 --> 00:05:15.918
[speaking in foreign language]

00:05:30.751 --> 00:05:32.083
It was a river of bicycles.

00:05:32.083 --> 00:05:36.709
[speaking in foreign language]

00:06:13.999 --> 00:06:16.918
It was the end of the 1960s.

00:06:17.334 --> 00:06:23.584
And he says it was a horrible
sight, which was frightening.

00:06:23.999 --> 00:06:25.834
At the same time,
he only uses words

00:06:25.834 --> 00:06:27.209
which give a sense of wonder.

00:06:27.209 --> 00:06:30.459
[speaking in foreign language]

00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:33.000
And I\'ve come across this
duality in all accounts

00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:38.334
about workers where horror
and beauty become mixed.

00:06:39.999 --> 00:06:44.459
This human river is both
marvelous and terrifying.

00:06:44.459 --> 00:06:48.125
[speaking in foreign language]

00:06:48.125 --> 00:06:53.999
And this is the synthesis of
the sublime for romantics.

00:06:55.501 --> 00:06:58.709
For the great Italian
poet Giacomo Leopardi,

00:06:58.709 --> 00:07:02.834
the sublime is an eruption of
Vesuvious which is terrifying,

00:07:02.834 --> 00:07:05.999
and at the same time,
extremely beautiful.

00:07:05.999 --> 00:07:09.042
The difference with what
I call the worker sublime

00:07:09.042 --> 00:07:13.626
is that an eruption of
Vesuvius or a star filled sky,

00:07:13.626 --> 00:07:14.751
which [indistinct] refers to,

00:07:14.751 --> 00:07:17.999
are either natural phenomena
or of divine creation.

00:07:17.999 --> 00:07:23.918
The factory is a profoundly
human vision of the sublime.

00:07:30.334 --> 00:07:34.542
The Tyne Valley in the
northeast of England.

00:07:34.542 --> 00:07:37.999
The remains of one of the
very first steel mills

00:07:37.999 --> 00:07:40.042
dating back to 1730.

00:07:45.125 --> 00:07:46.167
These more recent ruins,

00:07:46.167 --> 00:07:48.751
as can be seen all
over Europe today,

00:07:48.751 --> 00:07:53.999
are those of the steel mill
at Seraing, in Belgium.

00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:57.000
The 18th century ruins
and the recent ones

00:07:57.000 --> 00:07:58.751
mark the beginning and the end

00:07:58.751 --> 00:08:00.542
of an unprecedented revolution,

00:08:00.542 --> 00:08:04.999
of which the factory workers
were both engine and fuel,

00:08:04.999 --> 00:08:06.999
heroes and victims.

00:08:07.959 --> 00:08:10.876
[upbeat music]

00:08:18.709 --> 00:08:22.999
Christmas day, 1977
in Yorkshire, England.

00:08:24.501 --> 00:08:28.999
The Sex Pistols gave their
last ever UK concert.

00:08:28.999 --> 00:08:30.667
It was a benefit
gig for the children

00:08:30.667 --> 00:08:33.667
of striking firefighters
at Ivanhoe\'s,

00:08:33.667 --> 00:08:38.334
the former Huddersfield
Grand Picture Theater.

00:08:40.999 --> 00:08:44.834
Industrial England was in
the midst of a social crisis.

00:08:44.834 --> 00:08:46.417
In Huddersfield as elsewhere,

00:08:46.417 --> 00:08:49.792
factories were closing
one after another,

00:08:49.792 --> 00:08:51.999
particularly textile mills,

00:08:51.999 --> 00:08:54.999
some dating back more
than two centuries.

00:08:54.999 --> 00:08:57.792
Because it was the spectacular
growth in textile production

00:08:57.792 --> 00:09:03.626
at the beginning of the 18th
century, where it all began.

00:09:05.250 --> 00:09:07.250
It was made possible
by the exploitation

00:09:07.250 --> 00:09:09.167
of hundreds of thousands
of black slaves

00:09:09.167 --> 00:09:12.042
in cotton fields of
the American continent,

00:09:12.042 --> 00:09:16.167
who provided the raw
material at minimal cost.

00:09:16.167 --> 00:09:18.375
Even before any
technical progress,

00:09:18.375 --> 00:09:19.999
this growth in
the textile market

00:09:19.999 --> 00:09:23.999
totally disrupted
the production chain.

00:09:31.292 --> 00:09:34.667
Until then, weavers, who
owned their own looms,

00:09:34.667 --> 00:09:37.042
worked at home as a family.

00:09:37.042 --> 00:09:39.042
They were a kind
of subcontractor,

00:09:39.042 --> 00:09:43.000
buying cotton or flax from a
trader in town, weaving it,

00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:48.501
and selling the finished
product back to the trader.

00:09:54.584 --> 00:09:56.334
But in a quest for
greater profits,

00:09:56.334 --> 00:10:02.417
traders decided to take
control of the whole chain.

00:10:02.709 --> 00:10:03.834
They invested in several looms,

00:10:03.834 --> 00:10:08.792
which they installed in a
single place, a factory.

00:10:08.792 --> 00:10:10.999
This faster and more
rational production

00:10:10.999 --> 00:10:14.959
allowed them to
produce more cheaply.

00:10:16.999 --> 00:10:21.959
The independent weavers
were unable to compete.

00:10:28.459 --> 00:10:29.417
In order to survive,

00:10:29.417 --> 00:10:31.709
they needed to go and work
in the traders\' factories

00:10:31.709 --> 00:10:35.250
where they sold their labor
in return for a salary.

00:10:35.250 --> 00:10:39.167
This was known as
the factory system.

00:10:40.751 --> 00:10:44.209
Factories became machines for
producing the working class,

00:10:44.209 --> 00:10:46.417
their raw material being
the hundreds of thousands

00:10:46.417 --> 00:10:50.667
of tradespeople and peasants,
who in order to survive

00:10:50.667 --> 00:10:53.999
were obliged to work in the
hundreds of textile mills

00:10:53.999 --> 00:10:55.375
which sprung up across England

00:10:55.375 --> 00:10:59.459
in the second half
of the 18th century.

00:11:00.999 --> 00:11:03.584
What we know as the
industrial revolution

00:11:03.584 --> 00:11:07.042
began with an
economic revolution.

00:11:18.999 --> 00:11:19.876
The new economy,

00:11:19.876 --> 00:11:22.501
based on commerce and the
quest for maximum profit,

00:11:22.501 --> 00:11:25.959
also caused upheaval
in the countryside.

00:11:25.959 --> 00:11:31.209
The fields around Huddersfield
still bear reminders.

00:11:33.792 --> 00:11:37.999
Alan Brooke, is a former
miner turned historian.

00:11:37.999 --> 00:11:42.501
Formerly much of this
Moland was common land.

00:11:42.501 --> 00:11:44.584
Everyone had access to it,

00:11:44.584 --> 00:11:47.292
but in the late
1700s, early 1800s,

00:11:47.292 --> 00:11:51.792
it was enclosed and
the rich manufacturers

00:11:51.999 --> 00:11:56.125
and mill owners and
land owners and farmers,

00:11:56.542 --> 00:11:59.250
they enclosed it for themselves
and they marked it off

00:11:59.250 --> 00:12:02.876
by miles and miles
of dry stone walling.

00:12:02.876 --> 00:12:05.417
And before that people had
depended on the common land

00:12:05.417 --> 00:12:09.334
to support themselves were no
longer economically feasible.

00:12:09.334 --> 00:12:12.751
So they were actually
compelled to go into the towns

00:12:12.751 --> 00:12:15.999
and to work in the
growing textile industry.

00:12:15.999 --> 00:12:17.999
The labor force for
the first factories

00:12:17.999 --> 00:12:20.542
was really obtained
by compulsion.

00:12:20.542 --> 00:12:24.209
It wasn\'t people actually
being physically driven

00:12:24.209 --> 00:12:25.000
by force off the land,

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:27.584
but the changed economic
circumstances meant

00:12:27.584 --> 00:12:32.584
that the previous way of life
was no longer supportable.

00:12:32.584 --> 00:12:36.000
And so in order to survive,
they had go into the towns

00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:38.542
and they had to work
in the new factor.

00:12:38.542 --> 00:12:41.999
And so the compulsion,
it wasn\'t open,

00:12:41.999 --> 00:12:46.292
but it was nevertheless,
the enclosures was one means

00:12:46.292 --> 00:12:48.709
of coercing the peasantry

00:12:48.709 --> 00:12:51.042
to move into the new
industrial towns.

00:12:51.042 --> 00:12:53.209
They became the
dictatorship of the clock

00:12:53.209 --> 00:12:55.209
instead of the
dictatorship of nature.

00:12:55.209 --> 00:13:01.209
But i think nature is a kind
of dust master than the clock.

00:13:05.250 --> 00:13:08.083
- [Narrator] In England, this
confiscation of common land

00:13:08.083 --> 00:13:12.167
was tactfully referred
to as enclosure.

00:13:14.083 --> 00:13:15.375
In the Scottish highlands,

00:13:15.375 --> 00:13:19.292
it was more bluntly
called clearance.

00:13:27.125 --> 00:13:29.083
Clearance meant armed
men in the service

00:13:29.083 --> 00:13:33.918
of a local lord evicting
peasants from their homes,

00:13:33.918 --> 00:13:36.083
sometimes in the
course of one night,

00:13:36.083 --> 00:13:39.999
and destroying their houses
to avoid them returning.

00:13:39.999 --> 00:13:41.751
The peasants were
replaced by sheep,

00:13:41.751 --> 00:13:46.751
the wool trade giving
particularly good returns.

00:13:48.751 --> 00:13:54.083
The village of Arichonan
underwent clearance in 1848.

00:13:56.999 --> 00:13:59.999
Arthur McIcvor is a historian.

00:14:00.334 --> 00:14:05.999
Using their fortunes derived
from plantations in Jamaica,

00:14:06.459 --> 00:14:10.792
from trading in rum,
spice, cotton and slaves.

00:14:12.999 --> 00:14:17.999
the Malcolm of
[indistinct] estate owners,

00:14:17.999 --> 00:14:19.083
the estate owners here
decided to rationalize

00:14:19.083 --> 00:14:24.292
their farming methods and
undermine the types of farming

00:14:29.250 --> 00:14:32.334
that traditionally had
been done and effectively,

00:14:32.334 --> 00:14:37.083
they were looking towards
clearing out the tenant farmers

00:14:37.083 --> 00:14:40.999
to consolidate their farms
into much larger units

00:14:40.999 --> 00:14:43.584
and then to bring in sheep.

00:14:43.584 --> 00:14:46.999
And the idea behind all
this I think was to create

00:14:46.999 --> 00:14:49.999
a kind of farming system
which was much more profitable

00:14:49.999 --> 00:14:52.667
and much more commercial.

00:14:56.167 --> 00:14:57.375
This forced removal,

00:14:57.375 --> 00:14:59.999
forced expulsion of
Scottish tenant farmers

00:14:59.999 --> 00:15:02.125
and the clearances
through the 18th century

00:15:02.125 --> 00:15:06.209
and the 19th century had
enormous implications.

00:15:06.209 --> 00:15:10.918
Tens of thousands of Scottish
tenant farmers went abroad

00:15:10.918 --> 00:15:15.542
and or migrated across
the industrial cities.

00:15:15.918 --> 00:15:18.999
So without the kinds of
changes that were taking place

00:15:18.999 --> 00:15:24.334
on the land, without the
labor for factories, mines,

00:15:24.709 --> 00:15:26.999
and industrial
units in the cities,

00:15:26.999 --> 00:15:30.125
industrialization
just went impossible.

00:15:30.125 --> 00:15:33.125
In highlands and islands
with the clearances,

00:15:33.125 --> 00:15:37.667
it\'s the destruction of a
traditional way of life,

00:15:37.667 --> 00:15:41.459
a Gaelic way of life, the
erasure of that way of life.

00:15:41.459 --> 00:15:44.167
Similarly, if we take
the pattern forward,

00:15:44.167 --> 00:15:48.334
you\'ve got the destruction and
erasure of a working class,

00:15:48.334 --> 00:15:51.709
a vibrant working class
community, and way of life

00:15:51.709 --> 00:15:55.999
in and with the
industrialization in
the later 20th century.

00:15:55.999 --> 00:16:00.125
So yeah, there are in a sense
repeated patterns over time.

00:16:00.125 --> 00:16:03.667
Over two centuries, we can
see a similar disregard

00:16:03.667 --> 00:16:06.792
for human values, for
the community values,

00:16:06.792 --> 00:16:12.417
the dominance of a kind of
faceless competitive system.

00:16:13.125 --> 00:16:15.999
[soft music]

00:16:31.083 --> 00:16:32.250
Clients of this supermarket

00:16:32.250 --> 00:16:34.834
in the northeast of
England are unaware

00:16:34.834 --> 00:16:36.876
that they are trundling
over the remains

00:16:36.876 --> 00:16:38.542
of one of the oldest factories

00:16:38.542 --> 00:16:41.250
of the English factory system.

00:16:41.250 --> 00:16:43.999
They were uncovered during
the building of the store

00:16:43.999 --> 00:16:47.209
and quickly filled in,
leaving just this chimney

00:16:47.209 --> 00:16:51.999
from a later period to
be carefully restored.

00:16:53.459 --> 00:16:56.876
Founded in 1690, the
business which produced nails

00:16:56.876 --> 00:17:00.501
for the navy and chains and
irons for the slave trade

00:17:00.501 --> 00:17:02.792
employed 300 workers.

00:17:03.209 --> 00:17:04.999
Craft techniques were used,

00:17:04.999 --> 00:17:09.542
but assembled in a single
place, surrounded by a wall.

00:17:09.542 --> 00:17:12.999
The master of Crowley forge
provided raw materials,

00:17:12.999 --> 00:17:15.083
tools and accommodation
for workers,

00:17:15.083 --> 00:17:20.459
allowing him to control
all aspects of their lives.

00:17:20.918 --> 00:17:24.626
The machines were powered by
the water of the river Derwent,

00:17:24.626 --> 00:17:26.459
like the water mills of old.

00:17:26.459 --> 00:17:28.999
But the flow was regulated
by a complex network

00:17:28.999 --> 00:17:34.999
of canals and ponds
which allowed continuity
of production.

00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:42.999
Amongst the vestiges,

00:17:42.999 --> 00:17:45.751
the signature of Crowley
himself was discovered.

00:17:45.751 --> 00:17:50.250
After having tamed nature, he
went about taming his workers.

00:17:50.250 --> 00:17:52.334
He was a pioneer in the subject,

00:17:52.334 --> 00:17:53.876
and the first to
put into practice

00:17:53.876 --> 00:17:58.334
the famous formula of
the comedian Coluche.

00:18:03.209 --> 00:18:06.876
Crowley believed that a
workforce which was not tired

00:18:06.876 --> 00:18:11.667
or deprived of sleep would
provide the best efforts

00:18:11.667 --> 00:18:12.334
in their work.

00:18:12.334 --> 00:18:16.834
And the bell was wrong at
nine o\'clock in the evening

00:18:16.834 --> 00:18:21.292
as a curfew, more or less
insisting that the workforce

00:18:21.292 --> 00:18:24.751
should be in bed and
asleep at that time.

00:18:24.751 --> 00:18:28.918
And the bell was rung
periodically throughout the day

00:18:28.918 --> 00:18:32.209
at the break times, the
break for meal times

00:18:32.209 --> 00:18:33.918
and so on and so forth.

00:18:33.918 --> 00:18:35.792
There, I was kept on the ball.

00:18:35.792 --> 00:18:37.959
The bell rang and
they started work.

00:18:37.959 --> 00:18:40.501
The bell rang and they
went to their beds.

00:18:40.501 --> 00:18:44.501
And the bell rang
and they had a break.

00:18:44.501 --> 00:18:49.250
So that was the way in
which the factory system

00:18:51.042 --> 00:18:54.792
first started
because at the time,

00:18:54.999 --> 00:18:59.209
the cottage industry
workers with the skills

00:18:59.999 --> 00:19:00.959
set their own pace,

00:19:00.959 --> 00:19:04.167
did their own thing in
their own time and so on.

00:19:04.167 --> 00:19:08.334
And they were not
subject to the discipline

00:19:08.334 --> 00:19:11.167
of working to a time scale.

00:19:11.792 --> 00:19:13.792
Crowley was also the
author of the oldest

00:19:13.792 --> 00:19:17.999
known factory regulations,
more than 100 clauses

00:19:17.999 --> 00:19:20.417
designed to bend the
new working class

00:19:20.417 --> 00:19:22.626
to the law of the factory.

00:19:22.626 --> 00:19:28.709
Clause 103 devotes eight pages
just to the subject of time.

00:19:29.250 --> 00:19:31.999
\"Where, as it has
been found by sundry

00:19:31.999 --> 00:19:35.667
I have employed by the
day have made no conscious

00:19:35.667 --> 00:19:39.292
in doing a day\'s work
for a day\'s wages.

00:19:39.292 --> 00:19:42.709
It is hereby declared
that the intent

00:19:42.709 --> 00:19:47.375
and meaning of 80 hours
must be a neat service

00:19:47.709 --> 00:19:52.834
after all deductions for
being in taverns, ale houses,

00:19:53.209 --> 00:19:58.042
coffee houses, breakfast,
dinner, playing, sleeping,

00:19:58.042 --> 00:20:01.584
smoking, singing,
reading of news history,

00:20:01.584 --> 00:20:05.667
quarreling, contention,
disputes of anything else

00:20:05.667 --> 00:20:11.876
foreign to my business that
not altogether belong to me.\"

00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:15.375
In other words, he\'s saying
you\'re working for me.

00:20:15.375 --> 00:20:18.417
You concentrate on the effort

00:20:18.792 --> 00:20:20.834
that you\'re putting
into my business.

00:20:20.834 --> 00:20:26.999
And there is no scope for any
of my workers to have drinks,

00:20:28.083 --> 00:20:31.459
to have coffee, to have
disputes with themselves

00:20:31.459 --> 00:20:33.167
and so on and so forth.

00:20:33.167 --> 00:20:38.667
And any of the
workers transgressing
any of those edicts

00:20:38.667 --> 00:20:41.999
in his rules would
face the court

00:20:42.459 --> 00:20:46.918
and be accused of not
complying with his rules.

00:20:47.042 --> 00:20:49.792
That should apply
today, should it not?

00:20:49.792 --> 00:20:52.667
In many business activities.

00:20:54.209 --> 00:20:57.209
[steam blowing]

00:20:59.959 --> 00:21:03.999
Fritz Lang\'s film Metropolis.

00:21:05.459 --> 00:21:07.083
The control of time
was at the heart

00:21:07.083 --> 00:21:09.209
of the new trader economy.

00:21:09.209 --> 00:21:10.999
Mathematically measured time,

00:21:10.999 --> 00:21:14.459
synchronizing both
people and exchanges.

00:21:14.459 --> 00:21:18.959
Time, money for some,
shackles for others.

00:21:22.999 --> 00:21:25.000
Until the middle of
the 19th century,

00:21:25.000 --> 00:21:27.542
certain English
factories forbade workers

00:21:27.542 --> 00:21:28.999
to have their own watches

00:21:28.999 --> 00:21:33.292
under threat of
confiscation or dismissal.

00:21:34.375 --> 00:21:36.792
The control of time
belonged to the bosses,

00:21:36.792 --> 00:21:40.999
who were not above altering
the factory clock on occasions,

00:21:40.999 --> 00:21:45.083
pushing the hands
forwards in the morning

00:21:45.667 --> 00:21:46.542
and back in evening,

00:21:46.542 --> 00:21:51.834
to steal a few minutes from
the unfortunate workers.

00:21:52.334 --> 00:21:56.083
A day\'s work could
last up to 16 hours,

00:21:56.083 --> 00:21:58.751
not including the often
two hour return walk

00:21:58.751 --> 00:22:00.584
between place of work and house.

00:22:00.584 --> 00:22:03.542
This left workers six hours
in which to recuperate

00:22:03.542 --> 00:22:09.042
and rebuild the strength
they would sell the next day.

00:22:09.542 --> 00:22:12.209
But the bosses said that
if they had more time,

00:22:12.209 --> 00:22:16.918
workers would spend it
plotting or drinking.

00:22:17.083 --> 00:22:19.999
The same argument was
used to keep salaries

00:22:19.999 --> 00:22:22.042
to a strict minimum.

00:22:22.999 --> 00:22:23.959
If workers earned more

00:22:23.959 --> 00:22:25.999
than was strictly
necessary for survival,

00:22:25.999 --> 00:22:30.999
they would only work
three days instead of six.

00:22:31.501 --> 00:22:32.501
And the bosses\' capital,

00:22:32.501 --> 00:22:34.999
invested in the
tools of the factory,

00:22:34.999 --> 00:22:37.417
would also stop working.

00:22:46.125 --> 00:22:48.417
Hence the argument
often used by bosses

00:22:48.417 --> 00:22:49.918
before English tribunals,

00:22:49.918 --> 00:22:52.999
workers who refused to
work six days out of seven

00:22:52.999 --> 00:22:55.542
were depriving them
of their profits,

00:22:55.542 --> 00:22:57.999
were stealing from them.

00:23:00.999 --> 00:23:04.209
Jacques Rancière, a philosopher.

00:23:04.792 --> 00:23:06.501
What is central when
defining the worker

00:23:06.501 --> 00:23:10.209
as a being, and indeed
workers\' suffering,

00:23:10.209 --> 00:23:12.375
is the lack of time.

00:23:13.209 --> 00:23:14.125
When we think of workers,

00:23:14.125 --> 00:23:16.584
we either think of the
strenuousness of work,

00:23:16.584 --> 00:23:21.250
the hours of work in terms
of suffering and difficulty,

00:23:21.250 --> 00:23:22.083
or on the contrary,

00:23:22.083 --> 00:23:26.876
we think of this work as a
source of pride, et cetera.

00:23:26.876 --> 00:23:29.834
However, while reading
these accounts of workers

00:23:29.834 --> 00:23:32.834
from the 1830s and
40s, what struck me

00:23:32.834 --> 00:23:37.584
as being the major problem
was that they had no time,

00:23:37.584 --> 00:23:39.459
they were constrained.

00:23:39.459 --> 00:23:40.292
At the end of the day,

00:23:40.292 --> 00:23:43.667
there were not allowed
the means to live.

00:23:43.667 --> 00:23:45.459
And I came across
something interesting

00:23:45.459 --> 00:23:48.125
when I re-read The
Republic by Plato

00:23:48.125 --> 00:23:50.167
by means of adding a
different perspective

00:23:50.167 --> 00:23:54.542
to my research into
the workers\' archive.

00:23:56.999 --> 00:23:58.501
What struck me was Plato\'s words

00:23:58.501 --> 00:24:01.584
at the very beginning
of The Republic.

00:24:01.584 --> 00:24:04.626
He says that in order
for work to be done well,

00:24:04.626 --> 00:24:07.334
a worker needs to be
there all the time.

00:24:07.334 --> 00:24:08.751
They have no time to be anywhere

00:24:08.751 --> 00:24:12.083
other than their workshop
or place of work.

00:24:12.083 --> 00:24:13.542
This is clearly an absurdity,

00:24:13.542 --> 00:24:17.042
particularly in the sort of
relatively primitive economy

00:24:17.042 --> 00:24:18.709
about which he was talking.

00:24:18.709 --> 00:24:19.584
This means that in reality,

00:24:19.584 --> 00:24:23.626
the absence of time has the
aspect of a symbolic constraint.

00:24:23.626 --> 00:24:25.751
Basically, this is something
which one might say

00:24:25.751 --> 00:24:28.999
has been continually reproduced
across the centuries.

00:24:28.999 --> 00:24:30.459
By which I mean that
there are people,

00:24:30.459 --> 00:24:33.751
be they workers, be they
women, who have had their place

00:24:33.751 --> 00:24:35.918
and their timetable
assigned to them,

00:24:35.918 --> 00:24:37.999
without the possibility
of doing anything else.

00:24:37.999 --> 00:24:41.667
This comes down to a sort
of fundamental separation

00:24:41.667 --> 00:24:44.792
between those who used to
be referred to as active,

00:24:44.792 --> 00:24:47.626
those whose time was
at their own disposal,

00:24:47.626 --> 00:24:48.999
who could determine
their own goals,

00:24:48.999 --> 00:24:52.626
and even have
leisure activities,

00:24:53.501 --> 00:24:55.999
and those who were
referred to as passive,

00:24:55.999 --> 00:24:59.167
who were obliged to regard
time as a constraint,

00:24:59.167 --> 00:25:00.334
an everyday necessity,

00:25:00.334 --> 00:25:02.959
with no chance of a
long term outlook,

00:25:02.959 --> 00:25:06.042
with no way of escaping
the circle of constraint

00:25:06.042 --> 00:25:08.083
and material needs.

00:25:17.959 --> 00:25:19.125
Today, in Brittany.

00:25:19.125 --> 00:25:25.250
Joseph Ponthus, an interim
worker in the food industry.

00:25:25.667 --> 00:25:26.918
We have a boss,
who\'s not a bad guy,

00:25:26.918 --> 00:25:29.542
who works with us, who gives
a helping hand, et cetera.

00:25:29.542 --> 00:25:33.876
It\'s a workshop where
you always, always,
finish on the dot.

00:25:33.876 --> 00:25:35.834
There are some workshops
which spill over.

00:25:35.834 --> 00:25:37.584
This one always
finishes right on time.

00:25:37.584 --> 00:25:41.209
It was a Monday, so everyone
was rested after the weekend.

00:25:41.209 --> 00:25:42.751
Everything was
going pretty well.

00:25:42.751 --> 00:25:46.209
There were five
cows left to cut.

00:25:46.792 --> 00:25:48.209
Five cows takes five minutes.

00:25:48.209 --> 00:25:51.999
The guys put their
heads together and say,

00:25:51.999 --> 00:25:53.334
\"Come on, what\'s five minutes?

00:25:53.334 --> 00:25:55.167
Let\'s get it done.\"

00:25:55.167 --> 00:25:56.375
They do the five cows.

00:25:56.375 --> 00:25:57.501
It was the first time in my life

00:25:57.501 --> 00:25:58.999
I\'d seen this team
work over time.

00:25:58.999 --> 00:26:01.751
The boss comes over saying,
\"Thank you, thank you.\"

00:26:01.751 --> 00:26:05.125
You\'d think his life depended
on it, these five extra cows.

00:26:05.125 --> 00:26:08.501
The next day, the very next day!

00:26:08.999 --> 00:26:13.667
We finish 10 minutes
early, 10 minutes early.

00:26:13.999 --> 00:26:17.709
We say to ourselves,
\"That\'s it, he\'ll let us go.

00:26:17.709 --> 00:26:20.209
He\'s not going to cause a fuss.\"

00:26:20.209 --> 00:26:23.417
The same boss says, \"That
was today\'s batch of cows.

00:26:23.417 --> 00:26:28.417
We\'ll kill another 10 to
get ahead for tomorrow.\"

00:26:30.834 --> 00:26:34.125
I think when I
got home, I cried.

00:26:38.999 --> 00:26:41.876
I cried out of humiliation.

00:26:42.999 --> 00:26:44.459
Yes, humiliation.

00:26:44.459 --> 00:26:45.417
That\'s just how it felt.

00:26:45.417 --> 00:26:48.999
The bosses\' incompetence,
he\'s a good worker,

00:26:48.999 --> 00:26:51.959
but I don\'t think he\'s
ever studied management

00:26:51.959 --> 00:26:57.125
or human resources,
in not understanding
how scornful it was

00:26:57.125 --> 00:27:00.584
to not allow the
guys 10 minutes.

00:27:07.834 --> 00:27:11.709
That little bit of
time is so precious.

00:27:11.709 --> 00:27:12.999
They don\'t realize.

00:27:12.999 --> 00:27:17.584
I had never realized
how precious time was.

00:27:19.292 --> 00:27:20.709
Something you hear all
the time at the factory

00:27:20.709 --> 00:27:25.000
when somebody asks
for something, is \"No,
I don\'t have time.

00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:25.999
I don\'t have time.\"

00:27:25.999 --> 00:27:29.292
You always have something to
do, always, always, always.

00:27:29.292 --> 00:27:30.999
And for the sake
of 10 free minutes,

00:27:30.999 --> 00:27:36.999
a little additional humiliation
and 10 more minutes work.

00:27:37.292 --> 00:27:39.918
[soft music]

00:27:43.999 --> 00:27:49.999
♪ Once our valleys were
ringing with sound ♪

00:27:51.292 --> 00:27:54.292
♪ Oh, oh, children singing

00:27:54.292 --> 00:28:00.083
♪ Now she plead to
be [indistinct] ♪

00:28:00.834 --> 00:28:05.000
♪ They\'re empty and broken

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.999
[soft music]

00:28:08.999 --> 00:28:09.667
New Lanark,

00:28:09.667 --> 00:28:13.999
a cotton mill from the
early 19th century.

00:28:15.626 --> 00:28:18.751
It\'s out in the wilds on the
banks of the river Clyde,

00:28:18.751 --> 00:28:23.417
a few kilometers from the
old village of Lanark.

00:28:23.417 --> 00:28:25.999
You\'re immediately struck
by the size of the site,

00:28:25.999 --> 00:28:29.709
even though this was nothing
exceptional for the period.

00:28:29.709 --> 00:28:32.999
It comprised the
factory workshops as
well as the dwellings

00:28:32.999 --> 00:28:36.667
where thousands of workers and
their families were housed,

00:28:36.667 --> 00:28:37.876
people who worked and lived here

00:28:37.876 --> 00:28:40.999
up until the middle
of the 20th century.

00:28:40.999 --> 00:28:43.876
[soft music]

00:28:50.417 --> 00:28:52.417
It\'s a genuine workers\' city

00:28:52.417 --> 00:28:54.999
with its own church
and cemetery,

00:28:54.999 --> 00:28:56.083
where you can still
find the names

00:28:56.083 --> 00:28:59.709
of a few Scottish Highland
peasants who wound up here

00:28:59.709 --> 00:29:03.709
after being driven
from their villages.

00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:08.999
♪ Stood where hands
build and prayer ♪

00:29:08.999 --> 00:29:13.999
♪ Where factors laid
cotton just bare ♪

00:29:13.999 --> 00:29:18.918
♪ Flames, fire,
clear mountain air ♪

00:29:18.918 --> 00:29:23.999
♪ And many are dead
in the morning ♪

00:29:26.999 --> 00:29:29.626
Like all the large textile
mills of the period,

00:29:29.626 --> 00:29:32.999
New Lanark stood on the
banks of a river, the Clyde,

00:29:32.999 --> 00:29:36.999
upon which it depended to
keep the machines turning.

00:29:36.999 --> 00:29:38.999
At the beginning of
the 19th century,

00:29:38.999 --> 00:29:41.292
energy sources were
still traditional.

00:29:41.292 --> 00:29:45.999
Early innovations
were mechanical, like
the spinning jenny,

00:29:45.999 --> 00:29:47.501
an automatic spinning frame,

00:29:47.501 --> 00:29:53.292
which became widely used at
the end of the 18th century.

00:29:55.459 --> 00:29:58.667
The spinning jenny replaced
the earlier spinning wheel,

00:29:58.667 --> 00:30:03.584
thereby taking the jobs
from dozens of spinners.

00:30:03.959 --> 00:30:07.334
But it also created a fresh
demand for maintenance workers.

00:30:07.334 --> 00:30:10.626
Re-tying broken threads
required people small enough

00:30:10.626 --> 00:30:13.459
to slide under the machines.

00:30:13.459 --> 00:30:15.250
New Lanark employed
500 children,

00:30:15.250 --> 00:30:18.999
including those rented out
to the factory by orphanages,

00:30:18.999 --> 00:30:22.999
which was common
practice at the time.

00:30:25.459 --> 00:30:28.250
The very nature of
the work changed.

00:30:28.250 --> 00:30:31.876
Craftsmanship, a source of
pride for the craftsperson

00:30:31.876 --> 00:30:35.000
who could produce an object
from start to finish,

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:36.792
lost its value.

00:30:44.417 --> 00:30:46.459
In the new mechanized factories,

00:30:46.459 --> 00:30:49.999
jobs were divided
between several workers,

00:30:49.999 --> 00:30:52.626
each completing only
a fragment of the task

00:30:52.626 --> 00:30:56.584
which mechanization
rendered even simpler.

00:30:56.584 --> 00:30:58.834
This opened it up to
women and children,

00:30:58.834 --> 00:31:02.292
the unskilled
workers of the time.

00:31:08.083 --> 00:31:10.834
In any case, wages were
so low that families

00:31:10.834 --> 00:31:15.999
could only survive if
everyone went to the factory.

00:31:19.209 --> 00:31:22.209
Children worked from
the age of five.

00:31:22.209 --> 00:31:24.792
Far lower paid, they
carried out tasks

00:31:24.792 --> 00:31:27.417
totally intertwined
with those of adults,

00:31:27.417 --> 00:31:31.918
and also had to work
up to 16 hours a day.

00:31:47.083 --> 00:31:48.792
Still, at the end
of the 19th century,

00:31:48.792 --> 00:31:52.792
the American Lewis Hine took
these photographs of children

00:31:52.792 --> 00:31:55.584
in the large textile mills.

00:32:24.417 --> 00:32:29.667
The New Lanark mill was
also a tourist attraction.

00:32:29.999 --> 00:32:32.999
People came to admire
its extraordinary clock,

00:32:32.999 --> 00:32:35.167
which was said to be
linked to the machines

00:32:35.167 --> 00:32:37.584
so as to gauge output.

00:32:39.667 --> 00:32:41.209
But the reputation of New Lanark

00:32:41.209 --> 00:32:45.375
was above all linked to
its owner, Robert Owen,

00:32:45.375 --> 00:32:49.125
a philanthropic and
innovative boss.

00:32:49.999 --> 00:32:52.417
Owen was passionate
about Phrenology,

00:32:52.417 --> 00:32:55.083
a new science which
assigned human faculties

00:32:55.083 --> 00:32:59.792
to different areas and
bumps of the skull.

00:32:59.792 --> 00:33:01.667
From this materialistic vision,

00:33:01.667 --> 00:33:04.751
Owen concluded that
humans were perfectible.

00:33:04.751 --> 00:33:07.999
Rapidly applying this
discovery to the factory,

00:33:07.999 --> 00:33:09.999
he invented the silent monitor,

00:33:09.999 --> 00:33:13.375
a little block of wood which
hung over each workplace

00:33:13.375 --> 00:33:15.999
and whose colored faces
allowed the superintendent

00:33:15.999 --> 00:33:20.417
to indicate the
performance of the worker.

00:33:21.542 --> 00:33:23.334
White, excellent.

00:33:24.792 --> 00:33:26.999
Blue, indifferent.

00:33:26.999 --> 00:33:28.459
Yellow, good.

00:33:29.375 --> 00:33:30.667
Black, bad.

00:33:31.834 --> 00:33:36.000
Visible to everyone, Owen
claimed that the silent monitor

00:33:36.000 --> 00:33:41.000
created a competitive
spirit within the factory.

00:33:42.834 --> 00:33:44.542
But Owen\'s pride
and glory was free

00:33:44.542 --> 00:33:50.501
and obligatory schooling for
all the children of the mill.

00:33:51.709 --> 00:33:55.292
Known as the Institute for
the Formation of Character,

00:33:55.292 --> 00:33:58.000
this was a unique
initiative for the time,

00:33:58.000 --> 00:33:59.999
which used the most
up to date methods

00:33:59.999 --> 00:34:02.918
of teaching through images.

00:34:06.542 --> 00:34:09.918
Important visitors were
invited to a dance performance

00:34:09.918 --> 00:34:12.125
given by the children.

00:34:16.709 --> 00:34:18.459
It was a vision
of this New World

00:34:18.459 --> 00:34:20.792
which the benevolent
patron dreamt of,

00:34:20.792 --> 00:34:24.584
but which sometimes left
an uncomfortable feeling.

00:34:24.584 --> 00:34:27.459
One friend of Owen\'s remarked
that the perfect regularity

00:34:27.459 --> 00:34:31.167
of the children\'s movements
made him think of puppets,

00:34:31.167 --> 00:34:37.334
who would be manipulated by
the great wheel of the factory.

00:34:37.834 --> 00:34:40.999
He considered that Owen
exerted absolute control,

00:34:40.999 --> 00:34:45.709
like that of the master
of a slave plantation.

00:34:51.876 --> 00:34:53.501
But this paternalistic tyranny

00:34:53.501 --> 00:34:55.459
was better than the
straightforward tyranny

00:34:55.459 --> 00:34:59.918
which English workers suffered
throughout the 18th century.

00:34:59.918 --> 00:35:03.250
Workers\' associations and
strikes were forbidden by law

00:35:03.250 --> 00:35:07.042
because they were contrary
to commercial freedom.

00:35:07.042 --> 00:35:09.751
Only the oldest professions
were organized enough

00:35:09.751 --> 00:35:12.999
to face the risks, like
the London coal heavers,

00:35:12.999 --> 00:35:16.501
who brought the word strike
into the English language

00:35:16.501 --> 00:35:19.667
with the Great Strike of 1768,

00:35:19.999 --> 00:35:23.417
during which they forced
boats to strike sails

00:35:23.417 --> 00:35:26.250
to block them in the docks.

00:35:32.667 --> 00:35:35.125
In the absence of strikes,
other forms of protest

00:35:35.125 --> 00:35:39.083
inherent to peasant
traditions were available.

00:35:39.083 --> 00:35:42.959
Old-fashioned uprisings, which
were spontaneous and violent,

00:35:42.959 --> 00:35:47.209
were provoked by famine or
increases in the price of wheat.

00:35:47.209 --> 00:35:48.751
These were often led by women.

00:35:48.751 --> 00:35:53.999
Speculators were targeted
and fair prices demanded.

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:58.167
There was total
social insecurity.

00:35:58.167 --> 00:36:00.250
With no contract, no protection,

00:36:00.250 --> 00:36:02.626
at the mercy of
market fluctuations,

00:36:02.626 --> 00:36:05.542
workers were always
in fear of the worst,

00:36:05.542 --> 00:36:07.584
falling into absolute poverty,

00:36:07.584 --> 00:36:11.999
which the Poor Laws
treated as an offense.

00:36:12.709 --> 00:36:13.918
Without work or resources,

00:36:13.918 --> 00:36:15.999
workers were condemned
to the workhouse

00:36:15.999 --> 00:36:21.292
where adults and children
carried out forced labor.

00:36:24.709 --> 00:36:26.792
Between laws forbidding unions

00:36:26.792 --> 00:36:28.959
and laws criminalizing poverty,

00:36:28.959 --> 00:36:30.751
workers who didn\'t
have the right to vote

00:36:30.751 --> 00:36:36.542
found themselves trapped in
the shackles of legislation.

00:36:39.542 --> 00:36:41.459
This is Enoch, the great hammer.

00:36:41.459 --> 00:36:44.334
He was produced as
a replica in 2012

00:36:44.334 --> 00:36:47.209
to celebrate 200 years
of the Ludi prizes.

00:36:47.209 --> 00:36:49.042
He is a replica,
not the real thing.

00:36:49.042 --> 00:36:52.999
I\'m sure if called into to
service, to smash a machine,

00:36:52.999 --> 00:36:56.167
they could still do that today.

00:37:08.999 --> 00:37:10.250
And this is the real Enoch,

00:37:10.250 --> 00:37:13.042
the great hammer which the
inhabitants of Yorkshire,

00:37:13.042 --> 00:37:15.999
in the north of England,
used in 1812 to destroy

00:37:15.999 --> 00:37:20.375
the new machines which
threatened their survival.

00:37:20.375 --> 00:37:22.959
Today the hammer
stands in a glass case

00:37:22.959 --> 00:37:24.167
in Huddersfield museum,

00:37:24.167 --> 00:37:27.999
surrounded by the coshes used
by law enforcement officers,

00:37:27.999 --> 00:37:29.250
and the sword of
one of the soldiers

00:37:29.250 --> 00:37:32.834
which the government sent in
by their thousands to quell

00:37:32.834 --> 00:37:35.999
the great uprisings
which England had seen

00:37:35.999 --> 00:37:38.167
since the 17th century.

00:37:38.167 --> 00:37:40.834
The insurgents were
wool craftspeople,

00:37:40.834 --> 00:37:43.751
carders and particularly
cloth shearers,

00:37:43.751 --> 00:37:45.999
whose job was to shear woolcloth

00:37:45.999 --> 00:37:47.876
to make it smoother
using heavy shears,

00:37:47.876 --> 00:37:50.501
which demanded a lot
of strength and skill.

00:37:50.501 --> 00:37:56.083
Operating a mechanical shearer
needed neither of these.

00:37:59.999 --> 00:38:01.417
In 1812, these new machines

00:38:01.417 --> 00:38:05.501
began to spread across
Yorkshire, and shearers reacted

00:38:05.501 --> 00:38:09.999
by attacking the
companies which used them.

00:38:09.999 --> 00:38:11.501
In the space of a few months,

00:38:11.501 --> 00:38:16.918
several hundred mechanical
shearers were destroyed.

00:38:21.375 --> 00:38:26.375
Manufacturers offered rewards,
the army occupied the region,

00:38:26.375 --> 00:38:27.417
and Parliament passed a law

00:38:27.417 --> 00:38:31.709
punishing machine destroyers
with the death penalty.

00:38:31.709 --> 00:38:34.999
Arrests, judgements, executions.

00:38:36.959 --> 00:38:40.292
But the movement was
not just corporatist.

00:38:40.292 --> 00:38:43.501
The mythical General Ludd,
hailed by the insurgents,

00:38:43.501 --> 00:38:49.709
was a righter of all wrongs in
the tradition of Robin Hood.

00:38:49.999 --> 00:38:52.292
\"No General but Ludd
means the poor any good,\"

00:38:52.292 --> 00:38:57.459
proclaimed this entrance
pass to one secret meeting.

00:38:57.459 --> 00:39:00.876
♪ Come, cropper
lads, are hiring ♪

00:39:00.876 --> 00:39:04.999
♪ Who love to drink
strong ale that\'s brown, ♪

00:39:04.999 --> 00:39:08.751
♪ And strike each
haughty tyrant down ♪

00:39:08.751 --> 00:39:11.999
♪ With \'atchet, pike and gun

00:39:11.999 --> 00:39:18.083
♪ The cropper lads for me,
the gallant lads for me ♪

00:39:18.792 --> 00:39:22.999
♪ Who with lusty stroke
the shearframes broke ♪

00:39:22.999 --> 00:39:25.167
♪ The cropper lads for me

00:39:25.167 --> 00:39:27.209
The only images of
the insurgent Luddites

00:39:27.209 --> 00:39:30.876
which we have are those
from government propaganda,

00:39:30.876 --> 00:39:32.751
depicting them as
cowardly pillagers

00:39:32.751 --> 00:39:36.417
disguising themselves as
women before attacking.

00:39:36.417 --> 00:39:37.918
But in popular folklore,

00:39:37.918 --> 00:39:40.584
they were heroes whose
exploits were sung about.

00:39:40.584 --> 00:39:43.709
♪ And night by night
when all is stilL ♪

00:39:43.709 --> 00:39:48.000
♪ And the moon is hid
behind the hill, ♪

00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:52.209
♪ We forward march
to do our will ♪

00:39:52.209 --> 00:39:55.292
♪ With Hatchet, pike and gun

00:39:55.292 --> 00:39:59.375
♪ Great Enoch he
shall lead the van ♪

00:39:59.375 --> 00:40:03.375
♪ Stop him who dares,
stop him who can ♪

00:40:03.375 --> 00:40:09.626
♪ Press forward every gallant
man with hatchet, pike and gun ♪

00:40:11.292 --> 00:40:13.999
Come all your croppers
of stout and bold.

00:40:13.999 --> 00:40:16.167
Let your faith grow
stronger still.

00:40:16.167 --> 00:40:18.250
These cropping lads
in the county of York

00:40:18.250 --> 00:40:21.000
broke the shearers
at [indistinct] Mill.

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:23.083
They broke the shearers
and their windows too

00:40:23.083 --> 00:40:25.083
and sit fire to the Tasmin Mill.

00:40:25.083 --> 00:40:27.083
They found themselves
all in a line

00:40:27.083 --> 00:40:29.999
like soldiers at the drill.

00:40:32.125 --> 00:40:33.999
For the most
spectacular attacks,

00:40:33.999 --> 00:40:35.999
several hundred Luddites
gathered at night

00:40:35.999 --> 00:40:39.999
in the countryside
around Huddersfield.

00:40:41.792 --> 00:40:44.959
There was military discipline.

00:40:44.959 --> 00:40:46.584
All those present swore an oath,

00:40:46.584 --> 00:40:49.542
an action which engaged them
all the more since a new law

00:40:49.542 --> 00:40:55.250
punished illegal oaths with
deportation to the colonies.

00:40:57.501 --> 00:40:59.709
I, on my voluntary
will and accord,

00:40:59.709 --> 00:41:02.959
do declare and solemnly
swear that I will never yield

00:41:02.959 --> 00:41:05.501
to any person or
persons in any place

00:41:05.501 --> 00:41:07.999
or place under the
canopy of heaven.

00:41:07.999 --> 00:41:09.250
The name or names of any persons

00:41:09.250 --> 00:41:13.709
who compose the
secret committee, the
secret proceedings,

00:41:13.709 --> 00:41:16.167
meeting place aboard or
anything else that may lead

00:41:16.167 --> 00:41:17.959
to a discovery of the same,
either by word, deed or sign,

00:41:17.959 --> 00:41:22.167
under the penalty of being
sent out to the world

00:41:22.834 --> 00:41:25.083
by the first brother
who shall meet me.

00:41:25.083 --> 00:41:28.792
I furthermore do swear that
I will use my best endeavors

00:41:28.792 --> 00:41:32.167
to punish by death any
traitor or traitors.

00:41:32.167 --> 00:41:33.876
Should any rise up amongst us,

00:41:33.876 --> 00:41:36.292
wherever I can find him or them,

00:41:36.292 --> 00:41:38.209
although he should fly
to the verge of nature.

00:41:38.209 --> 00:41:40.667
I will pursue him with
unceasing vengeance.

00:41:40.667 --> 00:41:46.209
So help me god and assist
me to keep my oath inviable.

00:41:48.375 --> 00:41:50.584
So it was very serious stuff.

00:41:50.584 --> 00:41:52.709
Because at that time,
they actually believed

00:41:52.709 --> 00:41:54.542
that it would be
retribution to them.

00:41:54.542 --> 00:41:57.375
If not from the
luddites, then from God.

00:41:57.375 --> 00:41:58.834
The problem with the Luddites,

00:41:58.834 --> 00:42:00.834
as with many working
class movements,

00:42:00.834 --> 00:42:05.501
is especially at that time
with it being clandestine

00:42:05.501 --> 00:42:10.125
and underground and not
being able or willing

00:42:10.417 --> 00:42:13.042
to keep any written
records of the meetings.

00:42:13.042 --> 00:42:16.834
For example, we don\'t
have any firsthand account

00:42:16.834 --> 00:42:20.083
of what they actually thought
about what they were doing

00:42:20.083 --> 00:42:23.709
and what the actual
motivations were.

00:42:23.709 --> 00:42:25.918
It\'s quite right to see
them as been that transition

00:42:25.918 --> 00:42:28.999
between old forms of struggle
and new forms of struggle.

00:42:28.999 --> 00:42:30.999
They\'re sort of
looking both ways.

00:42:30.999 --> 00:42:32.250
They\'re looking back to the past

00:42:32.250 --> 00:42:33.999
and the domestic
system of production,

00:42:33.999 --> 00:42:35.999
which they wanted to maintain,

00:42:35.999 --> 00:42:38.375
but also the forms of struggles
that were being forced

00:42:38.375 --> 00:42:42.000
into such as petitioning
parliament and organizing.

00:42:42.000 --> 00:42:45.125
They looked forward to
the new industrial system,

00:42:45.125 --> 00:42:47.209
which they were trying
to fight against.

00:42:47.209 --> 00:42:50.459
So that\'s why I think
Luddites are very important.

00:42:50.459 --> 00:42:51.542
They represent that transition

00:42:51.542 --> 00:42:55.876
between all forms of working
class and even pay struggle.

00:42:55.876 --> 00:42:59.209
The new industrial
working class.

00:43:01.375 --> 00:43:02.167
The Luddites their fight

00:43:02.167 --> 00:43:05.709
against mechanization, after
which their story was hushed up

00:43:05.709 --> 00:43:08.626
by a workers\' movement
bent on respectability

00:43:08.626 --> 00:43:10.999
and technical progress.

00:43:11.626 --> 00:43:13.999
Only a few local
monuments remain,

00:43:13.999 --> 00:43:16.709
such as this obelisk
around which they assembled

00:43:16.709 --> 00:43:19.042
before one of their attacks.

00:43:19.042 --> 00:43:19.999
That was in 1812,

00:43:19.999 --> 00:43:25.626
when the obelisk was in the
heart of the countryside.

00:43:30.125 --> 00:43:32.542
Huddersfield, in 1847.

00:43:32.959 --> 00:43:35.667
30 years after the uprising,
the industrial revolution

00:43:35.667 --> 00:43:41.834
took on a new face with this
smoke from factory chimneys,

00:43:42.083 --> 00:43:44.751
the train passing
in the distance.

00:43:45.042 --> 00:43:48.167
Steam power replaced the
earlier hydraulic power,

00:43:48.167 --> 00:43:50.209
fixing the image of
the industrial world

00:43:50.209 --> 00:43:52.999
for the century to come.

00:43:57.999 --> 00:44:00.209
A symbol of modernity
and progress,

00:44:00.209 --> 00:44:04.876
steam power was a gold
mine for cartoonists.

00:44:14.792 --> 00:44:18.709
For the workers, it
was less amusing.

00:44:23.083 --> 00:44:25.334
The introduction of steam
power forced workers

00:44:25.334 --> 00:44:26.334
to complete with machines

00:44:26.334 --> 00:44:30.584
whose strength and
speed had multiplied.

00:44:33.792 --> 00:44:36.417
As the rhythm became
faster and faster,

00:44:36.417 --> 00:44:38.667
accidents multiplied.

00:44:49.334 --> 00:44:50.999
That was the price of progress,

00:44:50.999 --> 00:44:55.792
as was said back then,
and is still said today.

00:45:06.584 --> 00:45:09.042
There was a lady
once said to me,

00:45:09.042 --> 00:45:13.584
\"But automation is clearly
a benefit for workers.

00:45:13.584 --> 00:45:15.918
You should be happy.\"

00:45:16.334 --> 00:45:19.417
I said to her, \"But the
faster a robot goes,

00:45:19.417 --> 00:45:21.999
the faster I have to go.\"

00:45:21.999 --> 00:45:24.501
It hasn\'t actually
given workers anything.

00:45:24.501 --> 00:45:28.667
The worker is forced to adapt
to the rhythm of the robot.

00:45:28.667 --> 00:45:30.000
And they go faster and faster.

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.501
And we only have the physical
capacities we were given.

00:45:34.501 --> 00:45:37.375
I was on the C2 production line.

00:45:37.375 --> 00:45:41.999
I was working on the little
C2 cars, doing the doors.

00:45:41.999 --> 00:45:44.709
I was handling more
than six tons a day,

00:45:44.709 --> 00:45:45.792
shifting the different materials

00:45:45.792 --> 00:45:48.834
which went to make up a door.

00:45:49.042 --> 00:45:52.959
It wasn\'t just the six
tons, it was the danger.

00:45:52.959 --> 00:45:54.709
It was galvanized steel.

00:45:54.709 --> 00:45:56.167
It was like razorblades.

00:45:56.167 --> 00:45:59.417
You had to constantly
take care of your face.

00:45:59.417 --> 00:46:01.709
Even though you had
hand and eye protection,

00:46:01.709 --> 00:46:07.542
there was always this notion
of danger which was present.

00:46:10.375 --> 00:46:12.834
Faced with these new
murderous machines,

00:46:12.834 --> 00:46:15.667
Luddite instincts
came back to workers.

00:46:15.667 --> 00:46:20.417
Like during this weaver
uprising in Silesia in 1844,

00:46:20.417 --> 00:46:22.667
reconstructed in \"The Weavers,\"

00:46:22.667 --> 00:46:25.709
a German film from the 1920s.

00:46:31.999 --> 00:46:34.999
We have no direct testimony
from German Luddites,

00:46:34.999 --> 00:46:38.542
but a novel of the
time spoke for them.

00:46:38.542 --> 00:46:40.999
Stéphane Berger is a historian.

00:46:40.999 --> 00:46:43.417
If we want to do it
like the English,

00:46:43.417 --> 00:46:45.999
we have to destroy
the steam engines

00:46:45.999 --> 00:46:48.626
and raise the houses of torture,

00:46:48.626 --> 00:46:51.626
that is the factories,
to the ground.

00:46:51.626 --> 00:46:54.417
My two boys are
lying in bed at home.

00:46:54.417 --> 00:46:57.709
Until a year ago, they
were perfectly healthy.

00:46:57.709 --> 00:46:59.792
Now one of them
is missing a hand.

00:46:59.792 --> 00:47:03.959
The other, a foot, the rolling
machine has crushed them.

00:47:03.959 --> 00:47:06.334
For the rest of their lives,
they will be cripples.

00:47:06.334 --> 00:47:09.999
sitting on the floor day and
night to earn a few pennies

00:47:09.999 --> 00:47:13.042
by laboriously weaving dormats.

00:47:13.042 --> 00:47:15.542
[indistinct], was
the factory owner

00:47:15.542 --> 00:47:18.751
has not given them a
penny in compensation.

00:47:18.751 --> 00:47:20.459
\"It was their fault,\" he said,

00:47:20.459 --> 00:47:22.459
\"and neither he nor
the world at lodge

00:47:22.459 --> 00:47:24.167
has any need for cripples.

00:47:24.167 --> 00:47:27.834
They would be better
of dead,\" end of quote.

00:47:27.834 --> 00:47:31.834
So it shows the kind
of on the one hand,

00:47:31.834 --> 00:47:35.834
the perception of a
morality of owners,

00:47:35.834 --> 00:47:38.501
who are only thinking
about their profit

00:47:38.501 --> 00:47:42.250
and have no feelings
for the workers

00:47:43.417 --> 00:47:46.876
who are at the receiving
end of the machinery,

00:47:46.876 --> 00:47:48.999
who are suffering
from the machines,

00:47:48.999 --> 00:47:54.626
who are experiencing accidents
and are marked for life

00:47:55.999 --> 00:48:00.292
by the experience of
working with the machines

00:48:00.292 --> 00:48:04.999
and the consequences that
some of them draw from this

00:48:04.999 --> 00:48:08.542
is to destroy the things
that oppress them,

00:48:08.542 --> 00:48:09.459
and that is the machines.

00:48:09.459 --> 00:48:12.999
And the reference here
also is to the English

00:48:12.999 --> 00:48:14.209
because in England, of course,

00:48:14.209 --> 00:48:16.459
we see the earliest
forms of Luddism

00:48:16.459 --> 00:48:20.709
and also the most widespread
and the most extreme,

00:48:20.709 --> 00:48:21.959
because I guess it is in England

00:48:21.959 --> 00:48:25.999
where this new factory
regime is first established.

00:48:25.999 --> 00:48:31.999
So it is 20, 30 years after the
English Luddism that we have

00:48:32.250 --> 00:48:35.751
these forms of machine
breaking in the German lands.

00:48:35.751 --> 00:48:37.792
And of course the people know

00:48:37.792 --> 00:48:40.125
that this has already
happened in Britain.

00:48:40.125 --> 00:48:43.999
So in that sense, the
British industrial revolution

00:48:43.999 --> 00:48:47.042
and industrialization, and also
the working class experience

00:48:47.042 --> 00:48:49.999
in that industrialization
become models

00:48:49.999 --> 00:48:52.167
for the continental workers.

00:48:52.167 --> 00:48:55.083
[upbeat music]

00:48:58.959 --> 00:49:00.834
At the very moment when
England was inventing

00:49:00.834 --> 00:49:04.000
a new industrial world,
the French Revolution,

00:49:04.000 --> 00:49:06.999
as seen here by the
filmmaker Abel Gance

00:49:06.999 --> 00:49:07.999
in the film \"Napoleon,\"

00:49:07.999 --> 00:49:11.459
was inventing a new political
language, decreeing,

00:49:11.459 --> 00:49:16.375
at least in principle,
the rights of Man
and of the Citizen.

00:49:16.375 --> 00:49:18.000
In England, this
language was taken up

00:49:18.000 --> 00:49:21.000
by a small group of radicals,
artisans and writers,

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:23.999
including the great
poet William Blake,

00:49:23.999 --> 00:49:26.834
a fierce critic of
the Factory System

00:49:26.834 --> 00:49:27.751
and of the large factories

00:49:27.751 --> 00:49:31.542
which he referred to
as the mills of Satan.

00:49:31.542 --> 00:49:33.375
\"They think they have
done me no injury

00:49:33.375 --> 00:49:36.250
and are gone to praise God
and his Priest and King

00:49:36.250 --> 00:49:40.999
Who make up a heaven of our
misery,\" says one of his poems.

00:49:40.999 --> 00:49:42.999
But repression and
the war with France

00:49:42.999 --> 00:49:44.999
which broke out in 1794

00:49:44.999 --> 00:49:49.999
forced these English
revolutionaries into hiding.

00:49:50.876 --> 00:49:52.667
Government propaganda lashed out

00:49:52.667 --> 00:49:54.999
against these
bloody sans-culottes

00:49:54.999 --> 00:49:59.999
and the satanic partisans
of universal suffrage.

00:50:04.375 --> 00:50:06.999
It took particular
aim at Thomas Paine,

00:50:06.999 --> 00:50:09.999
author of the pamphlet
\"Rights of Man,\"

00:50:09.999 --> 00:50:13.334
200,000 copies of which
were printed in 1794

00:50:13.334 --> 00:50:16.999
and which circulated widely
amongst miners and workers

00:50:16.999 --> 00:50:19.125
to the great disappointment
of the authorities

00:50:19.125 --> 00:50:25.209
whose partisans would have
liked to have seen Paine hanged.

00:50:27.334 --> 00:50:28.999
After the end of
the war with France

00:50:28.999 --> 00:50:31.167
and the failure of
the Luddite uprising,

00:50:31.167 --> 00:50:34.250
radical ideas came
back out into the open

00:50:34.250 --> 00:50:35.667
and spread amongst workers

00:50:35.667 --> 00:50:41.959
thanks to several
illegal newspapers
with evocative titles,

00:50:42.083 --> 00:50:45.918
\"The Gorgon,\" \"The Black
Dwarf,\" \"The Medusa.\"

00:50:47.083 --> 00:50:51.250
These newspapers were
systematically banned,

00:50:51.250 --> 00:50:53.999
the journalists imprisoned,

00:50:53.999 --> 00:50:58.083
the vendors condemned
to public flogging.

00:50:58.667 --> 00:51:01.834
\"Workers shouldn\'t think,\"
declared one English Lord,

00:51:01.834 --> 00:51:07.375
\"No more than Lords should
work at looms and machines.\"

00:51:09.999 --> 00:51:12.375
Radical ideas emerged.

00:51:13.334 --> 00:51:16.209
\"The world is divided
into two great classes,

00:51:16.209 --> 00:51:18.918
those who produce,
the productive class,

00:51:18.918 --> 00:51:21.751
and those who profit,
the parasites,\"

00:51:21.751 --> 00:51:25.209
was to be read in
\"The Gorgon\" in 1818.

00:51:25.209 --> 00:51:31.125
♪ On the sixteenth day
of August in 1819 ♪

00:51:31.459 --> 00:51:36.292
♪ Many thousand people
on every road was seen ♪

00:51:36.626 --> 00:51:40.250
♪ From Stockport, Autumn, Ashton
and from other places too ♪

00:51:40.250 --> 00:51:46.501
♪ It was the largest meeting
that reformers ever knew ♪

00:51:46.959 --> 00:51:48.501
♪ With Henry Hent
we\'ll go, my boys ♪

00:51:48.501 --> 00:51:50.667
♪ With Henry Hent we\'ll go

00:51:50.667 --> 00:51:56.834
♪ We\'ll mound the cap of liberty
in spite of [indistinct] ♪

00:51:59.501 --> 00:52:02.918
In August 1819, 60,000
workers and artisans

00:52:02.918 --> 00:52:05.999
assembled in Manchester
to listen to the famous

00:52:05.999 --> 00:52:08.751
radical speaker Henry Hunt.

00:52:08.751 --> 00:52:10.834
And demanded political
democratization

00:52:10.834 --> 00:52:13.959
and the right to vote for all.

00:52:14.083 --> 00:52:18.751
The army charged the
crowd, leaving 15 dead.

00:52:19.417 --> 00:52:21.999
The government thereby
demonstrated that it was ready

00:52:21.999 --> 00:52:24.999
to crush any peaceful
demonstration with
the same force

00:52:24.999 --> 00:52:29.250
it had used during
the Luddite uprising.

00:52:30.292 --> 00:52:34.501
The St Peter\'s Field massacre,
known derisively as Peterloo,

00:52:34.501 --> 00:52:36.834
as a reference to the
battle of Waterloo

00:52:36.834 --> 00:52:38.999
which had been won
four years earlier,

00:52:38.999 --> 00:52:40.667
became the official
birth certificate

00:52:40.667 --> 00:52:44.083
of the English
workers\' movement.

00:52:47.876 --> 00:52:52.000
This old political banner
is a tribute to the victims,

00:52:52.000 --> 00:52:53.999
exhibited in
Huddersfield museum,

00:52:53.999 --> 00:52:57.792
a few paces away from
the Luddite hammer.

00:52:57.792 --> 00:52:59.167
It dates back to 1820,

00:52:59.167 --> 00:53:01.292
and was it all the
workers\' demonstrations

00:53:01.292 --> 00:53:03.459
of the 19th century.

00:53:05.959 --> 00:53:07.999
It demands universal suffrage,

00:53:07.999 --> 00:53:11.375
freedom for England,
Scotland and Ireland.

00:53:11.375 --> 00:53:17.042
The abolition of slavery,
\"Am I not a Man and Brother?\"

00:53:18.292 --> 00:53:19.334
Written in biblical language,

00:53:19.334 --> 00:53:22.334
this demand was to be the
legacy of the first generation

00:53:22.334 --> 00:53:26.959
of English workers to the
following generations.

00:53:26.959 --> 00:53:29.709
The desire to be
recognized as equals,

00:53:29.709 --> 00:53:33.459
whole human beings,
men amongst men.

00:53:45.999 --> 00:53:47.959
The first thing you notice,

00:53:47.959 --> 00:53:49.959
as with all factories,

00:53:49.959 --> 00:53:52.999
is the smell, the
terrible smell.

00:53:52.999 --> 00:53:56.792
And what\'s horrible is that
after two or three days,

00:53:56.792 --> 00:53:58.876
you get used to it.

00:53:59.209 --> 00:54:00.459
You can\'t even smell it.

00:54:00.459 --> 00:54:03.042
The first days
here, I came by bus.

00:54:03.042 --> 00:54:04.501
The bus stop is just over there.

00:54:04.501 --> 00:54:06.334
And when I went home
after my day\'s work,

00:54:06.334 --> 00:54:08.375
I had a seat on the
bus all to myself.

00:54:08.375 --> 00:54:12.167
Not many people
wanted to come near.

00:54:12.501 --> 00:54:15.792
People can also go by boat
to the other side of the bay.

00:54:15.792 --> 00:54:18.751
Those who work there,
you can smell them,

00:54:18.751 --> 00:54:21.626
but we can\'t smell
ourselves any more.

00:54:21.626 --> 00:54:25.876
After two days, you no longer
smell the shrimps or the fish.

00:54:25.876 --> 00:54:28.876
I worked in the slaughterhouse,
I don\'t smell it anymore.

00:54:28.876 --> 00:54:29.626
I don\'t smell the meat.

00:54:29.626 --> 00:54:30.999
It seems I smell of
death when I go home.

00:54:30.999 --> 00:54:35.999
The first surprising thing
is yeah, is the smell.

00:54:36.459 --> 00:54:37.709
And then something
really surprising

00:54:37.709 --> 00:54:43.167
is the connection with time,
which advances inflexibly.

00:54:45.167 --> 00:54:48.083
In fact it\'s
absolutely terrifying.

00:54:48.083 --> 00:54:50.959
On the one hand, you have the
time you spend on the line,

00:54:50.959 --> 00:54:55.709
which advances in a way which
is terrifying and implacable.

00:54:55.709 --> 00:54:56.542
And on the other hand,

00:54:56.542 --> 00:55:00.167
you have the time of the working
day which doesn\'t advance.

00:55:00.167 --> 00:55:06.292
Meaning that the days seem
infinitely long, all the same.

00:55:06.626 --> 00:55:08.292
You can\'t see the end.

00:55:08.792 --> 00:55:11.999
As soon as you leave, you
have a few hours to rest,

00:55:11.999 --> 00:55:14.334
to quickly go and sleep.

00:55:14.334 --> 00:55:15.918
And the next day, it\'s the same.

00:55:15.918 --> 00:55:19.999
Always the same metal monster
that you see in front of you.

00:55:19.999 --> 00:55:22.083
I\'m sure if you came
back here in 20 years,

00:55:22.083 --> 00:55:24.417
it would be the same.

00:55:26.999 --> 00:55:28.792
Nothing would have changed.

00:55:28.792 --> 00:55:30.999
Production would always
have to be assured.

00:55:30.999 --> 00:55:34.501
Production would
have to continue.

00:55:34.999 --> 00:55:36.709
And inside, there
are men and women

00:55:36.709 --> 00:55:40.292
who are completely
interchangeable.

00:55:42.918 --> 00:55:43.959
No one cares about
their history,

00:55:43.959 --> 00:55:45.042
no one cares about their past,

00:55:45.042 --> 00:55:47.334
no one cares what
they\'ve lived through.

00:55:47.334 --> 00:55:48.876
No one cares about their pain,

00:55:48.876 --> 00:55:50.999
in the back, the arms, the legs.

00:55:50.999 --> 00:55:54.167
But production has to continue.

00:55:55.417 --> 00:56:00.999
[soft music]
[clock ticking]