The formation of the working-class had a profound impact on the industrialized world. The mass mobilization of workers in trade unions and labor movement parties that took place in the end of the 19th century is unique. Structural explanations to the formation of the working class have dominated the class formation research; Marxist structuralism advocated technical development in the industry as the driving force of class formation, EP Thompson introduced shared lived experiences as an explanation and postmodernist researchers have suggested the adoption of bourgeoisie language among the workers. However the actor is surprisingly absent in the class formation literature. Inspired by management theories that emphasizes the need of a devoted leadership in order to mobilize and construct an organizational identity this paper argue firstly, that class formation is an identity formation process, secondly that the elite in the labor movement played a crucial role in the identity formation process that took place in the late 19th century and became the driving force in the mobilization of the workers, and thirdly, based on a study of the labor movement leaders in Europe the paper suggests that the labor movement leadership was an educated elite recruited from the middle class, rather than the working-class.
