collapse of the Vienna Stock Market in May . The Depression was world-wide and lasted till , and is referred to as the Long Depression. It affected Europe and the US very much. American railroads became bankrupt.
German shares fell by percent. Agriculture was most affected, as there was a fall in prices. Many countries responded by imposing protective tariffs to prevent competition. Panic of The Gilded age was also an era of intense mass mobilisation of working classes.
Socialist and labour movements emerged in many countries as a mass phenomenon. When industrial capitalism was at its peak in the US, nearly , workers went on strike each year. In , for example, , strikes involving some , workers took place across the nation. Trade Unions, aiming at protecting workers’ wages, hours of labour, and working conditions, were on the rise.
Capitalists who could not reconcile to the rise of trade unions launched a counter offensive. The socialists suffered persecution.The strike at the Carnegie Steel Company’s Homestead Steel Works in culminated in a gun battle between unionised workers and men hired by the company to break the strike. The state supported the company management and as a result the steelworkers ultimately lost the strike. The Pullman Strike of , a national railroad strike, involving the American Railway Union, was smashed by armed police and Pinkerton private detectives were hired by the employers to shoot down strikers.
Pullman Strike In Germany, the Socialist Democratic Party (SDP) emerged as a popular party. However, Bismarck introduced anti-socialist legislations to check the growth of socialism. Despite this support for the party grew. With the repeal of the anti-socialist laws after , socialist trade unions were able to function openly.
SDP’s share of Reichstag seats increased from percent in to percent in . In Britain, in the 1880s, the famous Match Girls Strike by the women and teenage girls working in Bryant and May Match Factory ended in the victory of strikers. There was also a dock strike ( ) in the port of London. Cardinal Manning intervened and mediated