Editing Sweatshop (section)

====19th and early 20th centuries====

Some of the earliest sweatshop critics were found in the 19th-century [[abolitionism|abolitionist]] movement that had originally coalesced in opposition to chattel [[slavery]], and many abolitionists saw similarities between slavery and sweatshop work. As slavery was successively outlawed in industrial countries between 1794 (in France) and 1865 (in the United States), some abolitionists sought to broaden the anti-slavery consensus to include other forms of harsh labor, including sweatshops. As it happened, the first significant law to address sweatshops (the [[Factory Act 1833]]) was passed in the United Kingdom several years after the slave trade (1807) and ownership of slaves (1833) was made illegal.

Ultimately, the abolitionist movement split apart. Some advocates focused on working conditions and found common causes with trade unions [[Marxism|Marxists]] and socialist political groups, or [[Progressivism|progressive movement]] and the [[muckraker]]s. Others focused on the continued slave trade and [[involuntary servitude]] in the colonial world. For those groups that remained focused on slavery, sweatshops became one of the primary objects of controversy. Workplaces across multiple sectors of the economy were categorized as sweatshops. However, there were fundamental philosophical disagreements about what constituted slavery. Unable to agree on the status of sweatshops, the abolitionists working with the [[League of Nations]] and the United Nations ultimately backed away from efforts to define slavery and focused instead on a common precursor of slavery – [[human trafficking]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Miers|first=Suzanne|year=2003|title=Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem|publisher=Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, California}}</ref>

Those focused on working conditions included [[Friedrich Engels]], whose book ''[[The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844]]'' would inspire the Marxist movement named for his collaborator, [[Karl Marx]]. In the United Kingdom, the first effective [[Factory Acts|Factory Act]] was introduced in 1833 to help improve the condition of workers by limiting work hours and the use of child labor; but this applied only to textile factories. Later Acts extended protection to factories in other industries, but not until 1867 was there any similar protection for employees in small workshops, and not until 1891 was it possible to effectively enforce the legislation where the workplace was a dwelling (as was often the case for sweatshops). The formation of the [[International Labour Organization]] in 1919 under the League of Nations and then the United Nations sought to address the plight of workers the world over. Concern over working conditions as described by muckraker journalists during the [[Progressive Era]] in the United States saw the passage of new workers' rights laws and ultimately resulted in the [[Fair Labor Standards Act]] of 1938, passed during the [[New Deal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.finduslaw.com/fair_labor_standards_act_flsa_29_u_s_code_chapter_8|title=Fair Labor Standards Act – FLSA – 29 U.S. Code Chapter 8|work=finduslaw.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516054443/http://finduslaw.com/fair_labor_standards_act_flsa_29_u_s_code_chapter_8|archive-date=May 16, 2008}}</ref>