Thursday, 12th February

Hello everybody!

Today it's my turn to do the journal and I'm starting in the break time because as I have two exams tomorrow I won't have enough time to do it. First of all Paqui has showed us a post that she has written about inequality with the distribution of money in the world. Then, Paqui has explained us the Utopian Socialism and when we were talking about the failed project of extending the New Lanarks to the U.S.A, Paqui has showed us a video that shows in a very good way how this model communities worked (with hydraulic power) and what they were like (with a lot of space, clean...) The teacher has also invited us to visit a website that talks about New Lanarks: www.newlanark.org

Today I have learnt that the Count of Saint Simon said that inheritance had to be forbidden because he thought that this money had to come back to the State, because if not, there would be people who would like comfortable with the inheritance they received, instead of working to earn money. According to the Count of Saint Simon, these people are the same as useless and parasitical as the kings, nobles...
Now I'm going to write two examples about this point of view:

1.  Warren Buffet (one of the richest persons in the world) didn't leave his inheritance to his children, instead of this, he left his inheritance to charities. His children were agree with this decision because as they earn a lot of money by themselves they don't need more.    
2. Paris Hilton is rich because of her father's inheritance. She doesn't work and she lives comfortably without doing anything. Another parasitical person (according to the Count of Saint Simon)

There's a lot of difference, don't you think?

We have also learnt that Charles Fourier's project of phalanstères failed because (as always) in his factory, there were people committed to their jobs and there were people who weren't committeed and took advantage of the committe's workers. So, the project was a complete chaos.
There was like an equivalent in Spain during the Civil War: The Anarchist communes. The difference is that in Spain it worked.

Phalanstère

Finally Paqui has explained us the Scientific socialism (or Marxism) ,she has written a scheme which included, the thinkers (Marx and Engels), the books they wrote explaining their ideas (The Communist Manifesto and The Capital) Their main ideas... For example, they predicted that there would be a proletarian revolution if the worker's conditions continued to be so bad. They said that this revolution would have two stages:

1. Dictatorship of proletarian--> People would take the State to change property into collective property
2. Communist society--> The creation of a society without classes, states and private property

For homework we have to complete the scheme until the part of Anarchism
Here you are the words we have copied on the glossary:

• Industrialist: industrial, propietario de fábrica
• Free housing: alojamiento gratuito
• Committed: comprometido
• Goal: objetivo
• Parasitical: parásito (adjective)
• Useless: Inútil
• Phalanstère: falansterio 
• Trustworthy: merecedor de confianza
• To take advantage: aprovecharse
• Commune: Comuna
• Misinterpretation: mala interpretación
• To foresee: predecir
• Struggle=fight

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Lanark

              https://mariocancel.wordpress.com/tag/charles-fourier/

That's all for today! See you next day!!

Thursday,12th February 2015

Hello class!

Today in class of Social Sciences we have done many things.
First Paqui has showed us a post she wrote yesterday about the economic system. This has created a discussion in the class about different questions. For example inequality in the world, as you can see in the post next year 1% of the population with own more wealth than the other 99%. Do you think this is fair? There are also other questions to think about it, for example poverty, privileges... We have dedicated part of the class talking about this, but it has been very interesting and we have learnt a lot.
Afterwards, we have continued with the unit and we have talk about:

-The development of the banks: loans, direct investments, owners of companies shares and facilitation of payments.

-The development of public limited societies to share risk; As companies needed more money and it was difficult to find inventors who could provide with all the capital they needed, public limited appeared to divide the risk between all the stockholders. With that we have finished with the first industrial revolution.

Capitalism in the industrial revolution

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism#mediaviewer/File:Anti-capitalism_color.jpg

The words we have copied on the glossary are:
-GDP: producto interior bruto
-To be left behind: ser dejado atrás
-Decent: digno
-Eviction: desahucio
-To evict: deshauciar
-Mortgage: hipoteca
-One out of...: uno de cada...
-Burden: carga
-Professor: profesor de universidad
-To owe: deber
-To own: ser dueño de
-Public limited company: Sociedad anónima
-Partner: socio
-Share stock: acción o participar.

Monday, 9th of February of 2015

Hello everybody!

Today in the class of Social Sciences we have done many things.
At first, Paqui has asked us about the homework she gave us last Tuesday. We have corrected three exercises: 10,11 and 12 of the 31 page of our book. Then, Paqui has explained many things about the Labour Movement, the first workers associations, trade unions...

Working and living conditions of workers (dreadful conditions).
Workers' awareness of their bad working and living condtion, the first step to try to improve their situation. First organisation they created:
-Mutual benefit societies: Association of workers who paid a monthly fee and used this money to help the workers when they couldn't work, were ill, suffered an accident... For example: Mutual Benefit Society of Baltimore (USA). This was a temporaly solution for some workers, but not for all.

http://www.kilduffs.com/building_145_MutualBenefitSociety_.jpg

The second step was the union of all the workers to improve their work situation.
-Trade Unions: Associations of workers of the same profession created to improve the working conditions of their members. Declared illegal until the Combination Acts (1824).
Many people died, because they tried to get all this rights that we have actually and we don't appreciate them. They also made demostrations and strikes.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs (1832). They were condemned because they created a farmers' union. They were punished to Australia. Australia in this times, was a penal colony of the United States. All the criminals were deported here.

http://blog.radicalteatowel.com/wp-content/uploads/five-martyrs.jpg

Trade Unions were declared illegal bgy the goverments. In the UK they were declared legal in 1824. After this there was an attempt of uniting all the unions of the UK: Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (Union of Unions), promoted by Robert Owen, but it was also forbidden.
The first big union in Spain was UGT (1889).

Next step: Getting the right to vote, to participate in politics, have the possibility of electing their representatives and charging the laws (Chartist Movement). For example: Great Chartist meeting at Kennington Common (1848). They got more than 3 millions of signatures from workers of UK, to obtain the right of vote. Many workers didn't signature, because they were afraid of lose their work post.

Also, Paqui has explained why we celebrated the Workers' day on the 1st of May. (Factory burnt women protesting).

And finally, we have studied the 6 points of the people's charter:

1. Vote.
2. Ballot.
3. No property of valification.
4. Payment of members.
5. Equal constituencies.
6. Annual parliament.

For homework, we have to copy in our notebook the Utopian Socialism. 

And like every day, we have copied some new words in our glossary:

• Sentenced to death: Condenado a muerte.
• Death penalty: Pena de muerte.
• Awareness: Toma de conciencia.
• Expectation: Aspiración, esperanza de mejora.
• Workmate/ colleague: Compañero de trabajo.
• Demostration: Manifestación.
• To strike: Hacer huelga.
• Trade Union: Sindicato.
• Banish: Desterrar.
• Chartist movement: Cartismo.
• Chart: Carta (letter with petitions to the goverment).
• To run to the elections: Presentarse a las elecciones.

And, to finish the class, Paqui has given to us the exams we did last Thursday about Unit 3: The French Revolution. My mark isn't bad, but I think that it could be better. It was a very interesting class. See you tomorrow!

27th January 2015 (Tuesday)

Hello everybody!
Today we start the class of social sciences copying the contents of the unit four, that is: The Industrial Revolution and the Labour movement.

The first point is the stages and the definition of the industrial revolution. The second point is the first industrial revolution, inside this point we have other three parts: A) Demographic and agricultural revolution. B) Changes in production and the transport revolution. C) Development of industrial capitalism. The third point is the second industrial revolution and consequences. The fourth point is the labour movement, inside this point we also have three parts: A) First attempts of worker's organizations. B) Labour movement ideologies, that have also three parts: a) Utopian socialism. b) Scientific socialism or maxism. c) Anarchism. And the finally part of the fouth point is C) The international workingmen's association and the first and second international.

I think that this unit is very long or thats what seems.

After this we start the unit with the first point and Paqui copy a squeme in the blackboard that we have to complete with the book's information about the definition of the indutrial revolution and its stages.
We also talk about the agriculture of the time the most cultivated were the corn and the potato, the tomatoes were yellow and the name of the oranges became of the name of the royal family of Holland.

And for finally we copied two squemes in the second point about the definition, causes, changes and consequences of the demographic and the agricultural revolution. We complete the first in class but we haven't had time for the second. Here's the first:

Demographic revolution:
-Definition: Deep change in population growth started in the 18th century.
-Causes: Less wars and hygiene and medicine improve, people were better.
-Changes: Mortality decreased, while birth rates continued to be high and harp population increased and life expectancy also increased.
-Consequences: High demand for all type of products cause of the agricultural and industrial revolutions.
  
Source: http://cmapspublic.ihmc.us/rid=1K31112Q6-25F3G57-1K81/1K2M2JJHXIQN77RTI1KLIimage

Today's glossary words:
Labour movement: movimiento obrero.
To supply the demand: abastecer la demanda.
To overtake: superar, sobrepasar.
Outdated: desfasado.
Dizzy: mareado.
To feed: alimentar.
To be fed up: estar harto.
Farmer-peasant: campesino.
To lead: conducir o llevar.

See you on Thursday!