London's East End of the 1900s

I'm currently reading The People of the Abyss by Jack London. I came across this book after having previously stumbled upon George Orwell's book Down and Out in Paris and London, and then having found out from a friend that Orwell was inspired to write the book by having read this book by Jack London growing up.

Surprising how persistent and identical the problems of poverty have been, perhaps unchanged since the start of industrial capitalism. The book has the tone of a documentary, but a sad and heartbreaking one at that. London effectively relates the tales of the "vast and malodorous sea" which he encounters upon submersing himself in the East End of London. I'd like to quote the following from the book, regarding the "efficiency," or lack thereof of workers, and the effect this inefficiency has on people falling into "The Abyss":

"It must be understood that efficiency is not determined by the workers themselves, but is determined by the demand for labor. If three men seek one position, the most efficient man will get it. The other two, no matter how capable they may be, will none the less be inefficients. If Germany, Japan, and the United States should capture the entire world market for iron, coal and textiles, at once the English workers would be thrown idle by hundreds of thousands. Some would emigrate, but the rest would rush their labor into the remaining industries. A general shaking up of the workers from top to bottom would result; and when equilibrium had been restored, the number of the inefficients at the bottom of the Abyss would have been increased by hundreds of thousands. On the other hand, conditions remaining constant and all the workers doubling their efficiency, there would still be as many inefficients, though each inefficient were twice as capable as he had been and more capable than many of the efficients had previously been.

When there are more men to work than there is work for men to do, just as many men as are in excess of work will be inefficients, and as inefficients they are doomed to lingering and painful destruction. It shall be the aim of future chapters to show, by their work and manner of living, not only how the inefficients are weeded out and destroyed, but to show how inefficients are being constantly and wantonly created by the forces of industrial society as it exists to-day." (London 200-201).

It's still the same sham being pulled on us today. No one realizes it because they don't bother to look beneath the surface, to turn off the television set and the biased flow of brainwash they feed us through the media. Question government statistics.


London, Jack. The People of the Abyss. New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1993.