One of the most significant historical events of the mid-19th century in Great Britain was the so-called Chartist movement. It was a kind of first consolidation of the efforts of workers in the country to defend their rights. The scope of this political action of the proletarians had not known before that analogues in the history of Britain. Let's find out the causes of the emergence of Chartism, follow its course, and also establish why the Chartist movement failed.
Backstory
Until the second quarter of the 19th century, the bourgeoisie remained the main revolutionary force in Great Britain. In the end, having achieved the parliamentary reform in 1832, which led to a significant expansion of its representation in the House of Commons, the bourgeoisie actually became one of the ruling classes. The workers also welcomed the implementation of the reform, since it was partly in their interests, but, as it turned out, far from fully justified the hopes of the proletarians.
Gradually the proletariat becamethe main revolutionary and reformist force in Great Britain.
Movement reasons
As can be understood from the above, the causes of the Chartist movement lay in the dissatisfaction of the workers with their political position in the country, in limiting their right to elect representatives to parliament. Oil was added to the fire by the economic crises of 1825 and 1836, especially the last one, which was a kind of trigger to start the movement. The consequence of these crises was a drop in living standards and mass unemployment among the proletariat. The situation was especially distressing in the western county of England, Lancashire. All this could not but cause displeasure of the workers, who wanted to have more tools of influence through the parliament on the country's economy.
In addition, in 1834, the so-called Poor Law was passed by Parliament, which toughened the position of workers. Formally, the beginning of the Chartist movement was associated with protests against this law. However, later more fundamental goals came to the fore.
Thus, the causes of the Chartist movement were complex, combining political and economic factors.
Start of the Chart movement
The beginning of the Chartist movement, as mentioned above, most historians refer to 1836, although the exact date cannot be determined. In connection with the beginning of another economic crisis, mass rallies and protests of workers began, sometimes numbering hundreds of thousands of people. The emergence of the Chartist movement was initially rather spontaneous andwas based on the protest moods of representatives, and was not an organized single force, clearly setting a single goal. As mentioned above, initially the activists of the movement put forward demands for the abolition of the law on the poor, therefore, after each rally, a huge number of petitions were submitted to Parliament to annul this legislative act.
Meanwhile, scattered groups of protesters began to unite with each other and grow larger. For example, in 1836, the London Workingmen's Association arose in London, which united a number of smaller organizations of the proletariat. It was this association that in the future became the main political force of the Chartist movement in Great Britain. It was also the first to develop its own program of requirements for parliament, consisting of six points.
Chartist currents
It must be said that almost from the very beginning of the protests, two main wings emerged in the movement: the right and the left. The right wing advocated an alliance with the bourgeoisie and adhered mainly to political methods of struggle. The left wing was more radical. It was sharply negative about a possible alliance with the bourgeoisie, and was also of the opinion that the goals set could only be achieved by force.
As you can see, the methods of struggle of the Chartist movement were quite different, depending on its specific current. This was in the future and was one of the reasons for the defeat.
Right wing leaders
The Chartist movement was marked by a number of bright leaders. Right wingled by William Lovett and Thomas Attwood.
William Lovett was born in 1800 near London. At a young age he moved to the capital. At first he was a simple joiner, then he became president of the Joiners' Society. He was strongly influenced by the ideas of Robert Owen, a utopian socialist of the first half of the 19th century. As early as 1831, Lovett began to participate in various labor protest movements. In 1836 he was one of the founders of the London Workingmen's Association, which became the main backbone of the Chartist movement. As a representative of the so-called labor aristocracy, William Lovett advocated an alliance with the bourgeoisie and a political solution to the issue of guaranteeing workers' rights.
Thomas Attwood was born in 1783. Renowned banker and economist. From a young age he was actively involved in the political life of the city of Birmingham. In 1830, he stood at the origins of the Birmingham Political Union party, which was supposed to represent the interests of the population of this city. Attwood was one of the most active supporters of the political reform of 1932. After her, he was elected to parliament in the House of Commons, where he was considered one of the most radical deputies. He sympathized with the moderate wing of the Chartists and even took an active part in the movement, but then moved away from it.
Left wing leaders
Fergus O'Connor, James O'Brien, and Reverend Stephens enjoyed special authority among the leaders of the left wing of the Chartists.
Fergus O'Connor was born in 1796year in Ireland. He was educated as a lawyer and actively practiced. O'Connor was one of the active participants in the national liberation movement in Ireland, which unfolded in the 20s of the XIX century. But then he was forced to move to England, where he began publishing the newspaper Severnaya Zvezda. As soon as the Chartist movement began, he became the leader of its left wing. Fergus O'Connor was an adherent of revolutionary methods of struggle.
James O'Brien was also a native of Ireland, he was born in 1805. Became a well-known journalist, using the pseudonym Bronter. He acted as an editor in a number of publications that supported the Chartists. James O'Brien in his articles tried to give the movement an ideological justification. Initially, he advocated revolutionary methods of struggle, but later became a supporter of peaceful reforms.
Thus, the leaders of the Chartist movement did not have a common position on the methods of struggle for workers' rights.
Petition submission
In 1838, a general petition of protesters was developed, which was called the People's charter (Peoples charter). Hence the name of the movement that supported this charter - Chartism. The main provisions of the petition were enshrined in six points:
- enfranchisement of all men over 21;
- abolition of the property qualification for the right to be elected to parliament;
- secret voting;
- same constituencies;
- material remuneration to parliamentarians for performing legislative functions;
- one-year election term.
As you can see, not all the main tasks of the Chartist movement were identified in the petition, but only those related to elections to the House of Commons.
In July 1839, a petition was submitted to Parliament with over 1.2 million signatures.
Further course of movement
The charter was overwhelmingly rejected in Parliament.
Three days later, a rally in support of the petition was organized in Birmingham, which ended in a clash with the police. The clashes resulted in many casu alties on both sides, as well as a large-scale fire in the city. The Chartist movement began to take on a violent character.
Armed clashes began in other cities in England, such as Newport. The movement was dispersed at the end of 1839, many of its leaders received prison terms, and Chartism itself calmed down for a while.
But this was only a temporary phenomenon, since the root causes of Chartism themselves were not eliminated, and the results of the Chartist movement at this stage did not suit the proletariat.
Already in the summer of 1840, the Central Organization of the Chartists was founded in Manchester. It was won by the moderate wing of the movement. It was decided to achieve their goals using exclusively peaceful methods. But soon, the radical wing again began to return to its former positions, as the constitutional methods did not give the desired result.
Following charters
In 1842, a new charter was submitted to Parliament. In fact,the requirements in it did not change, but were presented in a much sharper form. This time, the signatures collected were more than two and a half times more - 3.3 million. And again, the results of the Chartist movement could not please its participants, since this new petition was also rejected by a significant majority of MPs. After that, like last time, a wave of violence swept, but on a smaller scale. Arrests followed again, but due to a violation of procedure, almost all the detainees were released.
After a significant break, in 1848, a new wave of the Chartist movement arose, provoked by another industrial crisis. For the third time, a petition was submitted to Parliament, this time with 5 million signatures. True, this fact raises great doubts, because among the signatories were quite famous personalities who simply could not sign this petition, for example, Queen Victoria and the Apostle Paul. After it opened, the charter was not even accepted by Parliament for consideration.
Reasons for defeating the movement
Subsequently, Chartism was never renewed. This was his defeat. But why did the Chartist movement fail? First of all, this was due to the fact that its representatives did not clearly understand their ultimate goal. In addition, the leaders of the Chartists saw the methods of struggle differently: some called for the use of only political methods, while others believed that the goal of the Chartist movement could only be achievedin a revolutionary way.
A significant role in the attenuation of the movement was also played by the fact that after 1848 the British economy began to stabilize, and the standard of living of the population to grow, which in turn lowered the bar of social tension in society.
Consequences
At the same time, one cannot say that the results of the Chartist movement were absolutely negative. There were also significant progressive moments that can be seen as Parliament's concessions to Chartism.
So, in 1842, income tax was introduced. Now citizens were taxed according to their income, and hence their abilities.
In 1846, grain duties were abolished, which made bread much more expensive. Their removal made it possible to reduce the price of bakery products, and, accordingly, reduce the expenses of the poor.
The main achievement of the movement is considered to be the legislative reduction in 1847 of the working day for women and children to ten hours a day.
After that, the labor movement froze for a long time, but revived again in the late 60s of the XIX century in the form of trade unions (trade union movement).
