OWEN Robert (Owen Robert)

(1771-1858)
Born May 14, 1771 in Newtown (Montgomeryshire, Wales) in the family craftsman. He studied at the local school at the age of ten years, joined the trade in textiles in Stamford (Northamptonshire County). After four years of work in Stamford received a place in Manchester, where his activities were so successful that by 1790 he was appointed manager of a cotton factory, which employed five hundred workers. In 1794 became co-owner and manager of 'Chorlton Twist Company' in Manchester, and in 1799, along with companions bought from David Dale spinning mill in New Lenarke, near Glasgow.
Owen improved working and living conditions of workers, has created a new car, opened the store for the workers, where goods are sold at reduced prices, school and kindergarten for their children. In 1813 he published a pamphlet, A new look at society, or experiments on the formation of human character (New View of Society; or Essays on the Principle of the Formation of the Human Character), which reflected some of his ideas. In 1814, the partners bought out the shares, Owen founded a new company, where the rights of shareholders included, among others, the Quaker, William Allen and philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Essence tirelessly propagated the doctrine Owen was as follows: a person's character is formed circumstances and social environment, so people are not responsible for their actions. They should be trained and to mitigate their manners, as soon as possible to begin to instil in them the rules of proper conduct. Owen's economic views were derived from the principle according to which the work - powerful natural benefit.

The economic crisis that began after 1815, encouraged Owen to propose a plan of settlement of the unemployed in the 'villages of community and cooperation'. However, anti-religious views of many supporters of Owen pushed his teachings. Only to 1825 he managed to create a pilot community, and then the other communes in the UK. The year before, Owen went to America and founded the Wabash (pc. Indiana) labor communes, calling her 'New Harmony'. Future society Owen represented in the form of free federation of small socialist self-governing communities based on common ownership of property and labor. Soon after the colony had difficulties, and in 1828 it broke.

The balance of life in England, Owen spent. In 1829 he left the management of the factory in New Lenarke and started promoting their doctrine, after the failure of the American experience, Owen created the 'internal colony', the largest of which was existed from 1839 to 1845 'Harmony Hall'. His activism has helped to consolidate the cooperative movement in Britain and contributed to the introduction of more humane labor laws. Major Owen's views were reflected in the work a new view of society ... (A New View of Society .., 1813), Book of the new moral world (Book of the New Moral World, 1836-1844), as well as in his autobiography (1857). Owen died in Newtown November 17, 1858.