Opening Steps
On 28 September 1864, St. Martin’s Hall in the very heart of London was packed to overflowing with some two thousand workmen.1 They had come to attend a meeting called by English trade union leaders and a small group of workers from the Continent. The preparatory Address of English to French Workmen stated:
As several authors in this collection observe, global conditions of the present have moved back into alignment with those of 1864, as a result of two quite recent historical developments. First came the collapse of first-epoch socialism, which brought the world back to its pre-1917 setting of unfettered capitalism.
Babak Amini is a sociology student at York University, Toronto. He immigrated to Canada from Iran at the age of 19, finished his Engineering degree at the University of British Columbia, and worked for a number of companies such as General Electric and TRIUMF before moving to Toronto. Having been brought up in a politically engaged family, he has always maintained his engagement with social and labor movements. <b.amini86@gmail.com>