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Those that work in the mills should own them. Noam Chomsky, interview Chris Hedges June 2014, Youtube 55.08
Reuters: Noting that 81 people had just died in a factory fire in China where they had been locked in to keep them at work. Noam Chomsky, lecture Washington 1 December 1993, ‘Clinton’s Vision’
If you are working fifty hours a week in a factory, you don’t have time to read ten newspapers a day and go back to declassified government archives. But such people may have far-reaching insights into the way the world works. Noam Chomsky
By 1950 England has 4,000 factories. Factories build our world. Mankind: The Story of All of Us X: Revolutions, History 2012
Four out of five factories are in the North. Mankind: The Story of All of Us XI: The New Frontliers
If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do is join a union. Franklin D Roosevelt
Now, you stop work altogether. This is much nicer and anyone can do it. In fact, the lower-class bastards can no more stop going on strike now than a laboratory rat with an electrode on its brain can stop jumping on a switch to give itself an orgasm. Philip Larkin, letter to friend Kingsley Amis
Dumbing the individuals down to that point that he will be a good worker in the factory. Jim Marrs, televised interview
In American Landscape [Charles Sheeler] from 1930 a huge factory dominates the scene. Andrew Graham-Dixon, Art of America 2/3, BBC 2011
Lancaster 1768 ... They are trying to build a machine to stretch and spin cotton perfectly. The British V: Superpower, Sky Atlantic 2012
The Luddites are now doomed: they cannot resist the power of the state or the advance of the machine. ibid.
Lancashire’s cotton mills will employ 120,000 people. ibid.
140,674. Matchgirls like Sarah were expected to work fourteen-hour shifts virtually all of it on their feet. ibid.
1918: Over one-million British women now work in factories making bombs and bullets. The British VII: War and Peace
‘Our faces took on a strange yellow hue ... We were called canaries’. ibid. diary of women munitions worker
Munitions Factory: 134 killed in the blast; 250 are injured. Of the dead only 32 can be positively identified. ibid.
His factory on the Tyne became Britain’s largest manufacturer of guns and warships. With the profits of war, Armstrong built his very own stately home ... In 1887 he became Baron Armstrong. Jeremy Paxman, The Victorians: Having It All, BBC 2009
There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there – good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory ... Now look. You built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea – God bless! Keep a hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along. Elizabeth Warren
They opened a giant factory in Dagenham in 1931 – offering jobs to 30,000 workers. Dagenham was the biggest factory in Europe. Ford’s Dagenham Dream, BBC 2009
The new time and motion world of the moving assembly line. The worker was a small cog in a giant machine. ibid.
Henry Ford’s regimented time and motion system for making cars alienated much of his workforce. ibid.
By the late ’50s around one in every three cars sold in Britain was made in Dagenham. ibid.
In 1968 Dagenham’s women workers decided they’d had enough and walked out. ibid.
Those who stayed on the assembly line too long could be driven crazy by the repetitive tasks they had to perform. ibid.
One day in four had been lost to strikes and stoppages. ibid.
Ford of Britain can produce 3,100 cars a day. Made in Dagenham 2010 starring Bob Hoskins & Miranda Richardson & Sally Hawkins & Geraldine James & Rosamund Pike & Andrea Riseborough & Jaime Winstone & Daniel Mays & Richard Schiff & Phil Cornwell et al, director Nigel Cole, Ford advert
Now occupy more than seven square miles. ibid.
‘Those for industrial action hands up.’ ibid. Albert
‘Machinists threatening strike action – they couldn’t believe it.’ ibid.
‘That is not unskilled work.’ ibid. Rita convenor
‘Everybody out.’ ibid.
‘26,000 strikes in the United Kingdom.’ ibid. Barbara Castle
‘Because they can. They’re allowed to pay women a lower wage than men. All over the country women are getting less because they’re women.’ ibid. Albert
‘It’s a glimpse innit of what it could be.’ ibid. woman
‘This strike is about one thing and one thing only – fairness.’ ibid.
‘In six months’ time your union won’t exist. Industry cannot afford to pay women the same rates as men ... It will collapse under the weight of the extra wages.’ ibid. Ford boss
Ford Women Fight On ... Tide Turns Against Dagenham Women. ibid. newspaper headline
‘Rights is not privileges.’ ibid. Rita
‘It was a matter of principle. You had to stand up and do what was right otherwise you wouldn’t be able to look yourself in the mirror ... When did we in this country decide to stop fighting? ... We are the working classes, the men and the women ... Equal pay for women is right.’ ibid. Rita at conference
‘What’s worth fighting for?’ ibid. Rita to Barbara Castle
‘The government is in full support of the creation of an Equal Pay Act.’ ibid. Barbara Castle
‘Nobody expected us to come out on strike.’ ibid. striker
Save fuel: Coal Coke Gas Electricity Fuel Oil Paraffin for the factories. World War II advertisement
Cotton – much more difficult to spin than wool. Has a short staple length ... The Spinning Jenny worked on the same principle as the Spinning Wheel ... The Jenny took cotton out of the home and into the workshops, sounding the death-knell for spinning as a cottage industry. Mark Williams, Industrial Revelations s1e2: Pants for Everyone, Discovery 2002
They smashed the new machines and rioted and people died. So if you wanted to make a profit from this new technology you had to protect your investment. ibid.
Cromford was to become Britain’s spin-city. ibid.
Cotton could now be spun in mills on Arkwright’s frames using cheap unskilled labour and the latest water-powered technology. ibid.
It had made Arkwright an extremely wealthy man and turned spinners into factory employees ... The people who worked in this mill couldn’t stop and start, come and go as they pleased as they used to when they worked from home: they were now factory employees. And they worked when Arkwright told them. Just imagine the noise. Arkwright was the prototype mill owner. These are his workers’ houses. He invented most of the oppressive working practices we now associate with the bad old days, making women and children work from six in the morning until seven at night for a pittance. And once a year he made his workers sing his song: ‘Let us all here join as one, and give him thanks for favours done. Let’s thank him for all favours still that he hath done beside the mill. Modestly drink liquor about and see whose health you can find out. This will I choose above the rest – Sir Richard Arkwright is the best.’ Was he really! It better have been a good tune. ibid.