Is Tristan realistic in creating a movement to make change in the labor industry?

I believe that Flora Tristan is naïve and uninformed as she tries to make change for the laborers. She hardly takes into account the way the proletariat will react to her plan. The workers are uneducated and unaware that they could have a better future. When Flora Tristan, a stranger, approaches them with a passionate call to action it is understandable that they would be overwhelmed and not in support of her plan. For these reasons Tristan is not realistic in creating a movement to make change in the labor industry.

One of the first barriers that she faces is that the laborers are not intelligent enough to understand her proposal in Worker’s Union. She sets out on a tour of France to meet with different groups of workers so she can explain her plan and get them on board. The problem is that people do not understand what she is saying. For example, at one of her first meetings a man read her writing out loud and he “understood nothing” (125). He did not understand the concept of an association of working men which is something she saw as a simple concept.

Tristan does not care enough about individual workers to incentivize them to join her movement. This is a problem because the only way a labor movement can be started is if working class individuals are willing to ally themselves with Tristan. Unfortunately, she is too invested in the cause to take the time to understand the workers. She is so impatient with the laborers that she makes ignorant statements such as, “It is to the principle that I am dedicated, and not to indviduals.—Individuals are unintelligent, conceited, stupid, ignorant, and insolent” (128). She speaks so negatively about the workers and does not even try to understand them. The workers are uneducated and are not even able to comprehend the language of the plan she is putting forth. Thus, it is easy to understand why working class individuals would be hesitant to work together with someone who makes such patronizing statements. She is simply not patient enough to make the best of this situation.

Another reason that this movement could not be successful is that proletariat were not even aware that there is the possibility of having better working conditions. Many of the workers that Flora speaks with are living tough lives but they are not aware that there is anything better out there for them. The workers had never considered forming a union and what positive results that would bring for them. Until the workers truly understand the benefits, Tristan will find her movement challenging. She travels on a boat and interviews the workers and she “found on the boat not a single prospect for conversion” (130). I can understand that it would have been challenging for these workers to quickly support Tristan’s plan because the idea was so new to them. People need to be passionate about making change and it takes time for that to develop.

For all of these reasons it is not likely that Tristan will be able to start a movement to make change for the working class.

Works Cited

Tristan, Flora. Utopian Feminist: Her Travel Diaries and Personal Crusade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.

I pledge that I have neither received nor given unauthorized assistance during the completion of this work.

Jessica Nadel