This bachelor's thesis examines the development of Slovene labour movements—including Slovene workers' organisations as well as organisations that included Slovene-speaking workers—from the 1860s until the outbreak of the First World War. Particular emphasis is placed on labour movements in Styria, Ljubljana, Jesenice, and Trieste.The thesis begins by outlining the economic development of the territory of present-day Slovenia during the period of industrialisation. It then discusses workers' educational organisations, whose primary objectives were to improve workers' living and working conditions and to promote education. Over time, however, these organisations also assumed political functions by supporting strikes and organising public meetings. In addition, workers established sickness funds and cooperative consumer associations. During the 1870s, the first occupational workers' organisations (trade unions) were also founded.In the 1880s, the labour movement became increasingly politicised and divided into radical and moderate factions. Within this context, the Austrian Social Democratic Party was established at the end of 1888, with Slovene workers forming an integral part of its membership. In 1896, Slovene workers founded their own political party, the Yugoslav Social Democratic Party (JSDS), which also included Croatian and Serbian workers. Alongside the JSDS, Social Democratic trade union organisations operated and gradually united into occupational federations with professional secretariats. Their principal political rivals were the Christian Socials and the Liberals, both of whom established their own workers' organisations in an effort to weaken the influence of the JSDS.During this period, labour protests became larger, better organised, and frequently more confrontational, often requiring intervention by the gendarmerie and the military. As a rule, Slovene-speaking workers embraced an internationalist outlook, advocating cooperation among different nations in contrast to the nationalist orientation of the bourgeois political parties. Nevertheless, this internationalism did not imply opposition to the Slovene nation. On the contrary, the JSDS maintained its own national programme, reflecting its commitment to Slovene national interests alongside its broader socialist principles.The thesis also examines several prominent labour activists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the legal status of workers in the nineteenth century, and the origins and celebration of International Workers' Day (1 May).
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