Trade unions were as unsuccessful as possible due to failure to confront the capitalist system causing all their problems

At the end of the Civil War the United States went through a period of incredible economic growth. This period is often referred to as the Industrial Era where capitalist industries went through extreme expansion by great increases in production of many commodities such as steel, petroleum, coal, and wheat and corn due to advancements in agricultural machinery. There were many groups with dissimilar views on how this new industrial America. There were multiple trade unions which fought for the rights of workers and asked for government aid for the people in poverty in America. In spite of these groups there were many capitalist corporations that supported the horrid theory of Social Darwinism that implied the government shouldn’t be involved in the capitalist system and should not give aid to those who were in need. The only groups that actually posed any threat to overthrowing the wretched system were radicals like Eugene Debs who realized the truth that capitalism was in fact exploitive and would do anything in order to get achieve capital and profits. The efforts of trade union movement to reform the horrible and corrupt capitalist system were futile because in their efforts to reform the system they allowed capitalism’s continued existence and under the logic of there is no good capitalism they completely failed because in their attempt to reform the system it only ended up furthering the system through not confronting Social Darwinism directly, not realizing the futileness of the American Dream under a capitalist system, and attempting to go through the government to create a slightly less unkind system of capitalism which ultimately failed and only furthered the system for it is impossible to solve within the system.

Social Darwinism is one of the most controversial ways to look at the world. Social Darwinism is a tool of capitalism to justify their exploitation of humans and resources which will lead to ecological destruction and genocide and was responsible for American slavery. By the efforts of the trade unions to make a faintly less offensive form of capitalism they only furthered the system because capitalism will always feed off of slight “improvements” to the system and use them for its own advantage to further please the people at the top of the system in their drive for profits and accumulation. The multiple trade unions failed to stop the horrible philosophy of Social Darwinism because it is too deeply rooted in capitalists justification for horrible acts like American slavery, a system directly caused by a drive for profits because slave labor was economically beneficial. The attempts of slave union groups to work with capitalism only led to the furthering of the Social Darwinism favoring the protection of the rich and wealthy and only increasing the rapid accumulation a select few profit from.

Capitalism also profited from the ludicrous idea of the “American Dream.” This dream simply stated that with hard work and self determination in America anyone can reach the top. This theory foolhardy and was and is a tool of capitalism to keep its workers in check and avoid any possible way to destroy the system. The trade unions tried to bring more rights to workers by making simple renovations to capitalism and were not successful in addressing capitalism directly which actually ended up making capitalism more powerful. The American Dream helped capitalism by spreading the lie that with hard work anyone could do whatever they wanted. This is very conveniently worded for capitalists. If a worker asks why his life has not gotten any better in his 12 hour work day the capitalist profiteers may tell him make it a 14 hour work week and you may get somewhere. The fact of the matter is capitalism favors only a select few and requires everyone else to be at the bottom of the system in poverty working hard for these select few. The stupidity of the American Dream is tremendous for it is unattainable in the capitalist system.

Trade unions failed to realize that going through the federal government was futile. One of the horrible traits of corporations in a capitalist economic system is that they also take control of the political system. It only makes sense then that trade unions would fail to accomplish anything by going through the government for it would be too deeply rooted in capitalist corporations. An example of how the corporations held control of the American government is the many protective tariffs the United States government implemented that protected these corporations and the fact they left large corporations untaxed. This shows how Social Darwinism is only used for capitalists when it comes to helping the poor. They look the other way when the government helps them, but quickly say it violates the theory of Social Darwinism when the government does anything helping the poor. Trade unions failed to realize the stranglehold capitalism had on them and the government and that it was pointless to make minor reforms.

To conclude, the trade union movement was not successful in during the post-Civil War era because it did not confront the capitalist system that began to grow rapidly. The only possible way to destroy the corrupt capitalist system was a full on rejection a few individuals such as Eugene Debs supported. A horrible evil that is a tremendous part of the capitalist system was Social Darwinism which was not confronted by a failure to destroy the capitalist system. Trade unions also didn’t realize that the American Dream was a tool of the capitalist system in order to make their laborers work harder in their drive for profits. Trade unions made another mistake by thinking that they could use the government to help solve their problems, which was a failure because the corporations had far too much influence on the government, which actually contradicted their whole Social Darwinist argument because they were greatly involved with the American government. The only way capitalism can be destroyed is by all out rejection of the system because reforming the system can only result in complete failure by furthering the system.