Chartist Movement

Chartist Movement

Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world. Its leaders have often been described as either "physical force" or "moral force" leaders, depending upon their attitudes to violent protest.

Chartists were largely unsuccessful at convincing British Parliament to reform the voting system of the mid-19th century; however, this movement caught the interest of the working class. The working class interest in politics from that point on aided later suffrage movements.

Chartism followed earlier Radical movements, such as the Friends of the People Society and the Birmingham Political Union which demanded a widening of the franchise, and came after the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which gave the vote to a section of the male middle classes, but not to the working class which was then, because of social and industrial conditions, emerging from artisan and labouring classes. Many Radicals made  speeches asserting the betrayal of the working class and the sacrificing of their interests by the misconduct of the government, in conjunction with this model.

Chartism included a wide range of organisations. Hence it can be seen as not so much a movement as an era in popular politics in Britain.  In 1837, six Members of Parliament and six working men, including William Lovett, (from the London Working Men's Association, set up in 1836) formed a committee, which then published the People's Charter in 1838. This stipulated the six main aims of the chartist movement as:

1-A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime.

2-The secret ballot. - To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote.

3-No property qualification for members of Parliament - thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor.

4-Payment of members, thus enabling an honest tradesman, working man, or other person, to serve a constituency, when taken from his business to attend to the interests of the Country.

5-Equal Constituencies, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors, instead of allowing small constituencies to swamp the votes of large ones.

6-Annual parliaments, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation, since though a constituency might be bought once in seven years (even with the ballot), no purse could buy a constituency (under a system of universal suffrage) in each ensuing twelve-month; and since members, when elected for a year only, would not be able to defy and betray their constituents as now.

Chartist movement organised a convention of 50 to facilitate the presentation of the petition. Meetings were held around the country and in June, 1839 a large petition was presented to the House of Commons. Parliament, by a large majority, voted not even to hear the petitioners. When the petition was refused, many advocated the widespread use of force as the only means of attaining their aims. Several outbreaks of violence ensued, leading to several arrests and trials. One of the leaders of the movement, John Frost, on trial for treason, .Another leader Henry Vincent, was arrested in the summer of 1839 for making inflammatory speeches.

 In early May, 1842, a further petition of chartist , of over three million signatures, was submitted, which was yet again rejected by Parliament. The depression of 1841–1842 led to a wave of strikes in which Chartist activists were in the forefront, and demands for the charter were included alongside economic demands. Workers went on strike in 14 English and 8 Scottish counties, principally in the Midlands , Lancashire,  Cheshire, Yorkshire, and the Strathclyde region of Scotland. Though the government deployed soldiers to swiftly suppress violence, it was the practical problems in sustaining an indefinite stoppage that ultimately defeated the strikers. Several Chartist leaders, including Feargus O'Connor, George Julian Harney, and Thomas Cooper were arrested, along with nearly 1,500 others. Around 250 were sentenced to prison for major offences,

Despite this second set of arrests, Chartist activity continued. The Chartists also stood on forty occasions in general elections, starting with a by-election in Ayrshire in 1838. Beginning in 1843, O'Connor suggested that the land contained the solution to workers' problems. This idea evolved into the Chartist Co-Operative Land Company, later called the National Land Company. The Chartists were especially harsh on the Church of England for unequal distribution of the state funds it received resulting in some bishops and higher dignitaries having grossly larger incomes than other clergy. On 10 April 1848, a new Chartist Convention organised a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament. The petition O'Connor presented to Parliament was claimed to have only 1,957,496 signatures – far short of the 5,706,000 he had stated and many of which were discovered to be forgeries.  Chartism survived the episode. The apparent failure of Chartism as a political movement in the mid-19th century proved to be temporary. Five of the six points in the Charter were adopted by 1918.