A largely working-class radical movement which achieved substantial but intermittent support in Britain between the late 1830s and the early 1850s. Its objective was democratic rights for all men, and it took its name from The People's Charter, first published in 1838. Its six points were: universal male suffrage; the abolition of property qualifications for MPs; parliamentary constituencies of equal size; a secret ballot; payment for MPs; and annual general elections by ballot. Chartist petitions were presented to parliament in 1839 and 1842 and on both occasions were rejected by huge majorities. Despite its immediate failure, Chartism had long-term influence on the direction of working-class political and economic organizations later in the 19th-c.
Chartism is also an alternative term for technical analysis
Chartism was a movement for social and political reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century.
Origin
Chartism followed earlier Radical movements, such as 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 the majority of the male middle classes, but not to the "working class" which was then emerging from artisan and labouring classes. Many Radicals made speeches on the "betrayal" of the working class and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government, in conjunction with this model. Moore, however, cites that the enfranchisement is better understood with a five tier model consisting of Upper, Upper and Lower Middle and Upper and Lower Working classes. Using this model, The Upper and Upper Middle classes had gained the vote after the Reform Act 1832, and it was the lower middle and upper working classes that joined the Chartist movement. The Lower working class, Moore states, were not educated sufficiently to see any interest in, and thus involve themselves with, the movement.
Chartism included a wide range of organizations.
In 1838, 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, containing the following objectives:
Universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21 Equal-sized electoral districts Voting by secret ballot An end to the need for a property qualification for Parliament (so that constituencies could return the man of their choice, rich or poor) Pay for members of Parliament Annual election of ParliamentThe first wave
When these demands were first published in May 1838 they received a lukewarm response by Feargus O'Connor's Northern Star and other Radicals being seen as too moderate. Dorothy Thompson quotes John Bates as saying:
There were [radical] associations all over the county, but there was a great lack of cohesion. clearly defining the urgent demands of the working class, we felt we had a real bond of union; and so transformed our Radical Association into local Chartist centres....
The movement organized a convention of 50 to facilitate the presentation of the petition.
When the petition was refused, many advocated 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, claimed in his defence that he had toured Wales urging people not to break the law, although he was himself guilty of using language that some might interpret as being a call to arms. Frost's attitudes and stance, often seen as ambivalent, led another Chartist to describe Frost as putting 'a sword in my hand and a rope around my neck'. Nevertheless, Frost had placed himself in the vanguard of the Chartist movement by 1839.
Instead of the carefully plotted military rising that some had suspected, Frost led a column of marchers to the Westgate Hotel, Newport where he initiated a confrontation. others, that Chartist leaders were expecting the Chartists to seize the town, preventing the mail reaching London and triggering a national uprising: it is generally acknowledged that Frost and other Chartist leaders did not agree on the course of action adopted.
The result was a disaster in political and military terms.
Testimonies exist from contemporaries, such as the Yorkshire Chartist Ben Wilson, that Newport was to have been the signal for a national uprising.
In early May 1842, a further petition, of over three million signatures, was submitted which was again rejected by parliament. The Northern Star commented on the rejection:
Three and half millions have quietly, orderly, soberly, peaceably but firmly asked of their rulers to do justice; Three and a half millions of the slave-class have holden out the olive branch of peace to the enfranchised and privileged classes and sought for a firm and compact union, on the principle of EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW; The same class is to be a slave class still.
The depression of 1841–1842 led to a wave of strikes in which Chartist activists were to the fore and demands for the charter were included alongside economic demands. In 1842, workers went on strike in the Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and parts of Scotland in favour of Chartist principles. Several Chartist leaders, including Feargus O'Connor, George Julian Harney, and Thomas Cooper were arrested, along with nearly 1,500 others.
Despite this second set of arrests, Chartist activity continued. This idea evolved into the Chartist Co-Operative Land Company, later called the National Land Company. Cottages built by the Chartist Land Company are still standing and inhabited today, in Oxfordshire and on the outskirts of London.
The Chartists also stood in general elections, from the election of 1841 to the election of 1859, and O'Connor was elected in the general election of 1847.
The 1848 petition
On 10 April 1848, Feargus O'Connor organised a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament.
In a separate incident, rioters in Manchester attempted to storm the hated workhouse.
The original plan of the Chartists, if the petition was ignored, was to create a separate national assembly and press the Queen to dissolve parliament until the charter was introduced into law.
The petition O'Connor presented to Parliament was claimed to have only 1,957,496 signatures – far short of the 5,706,000 O'Connor had stated and many of which were discovered to be forgeries (some of the false signatories included Queen Victoria).
Legacy
Although the Chartist movement itself petered out, its aims were taken on by others. Middle class parliamentary Radicals continued to press for universal franchise, and were joined by some supporters of the Anti-Corn Law League, with John Bright and the Reform League agitating in the country for change. Eventually the Liberal William Ewart Gladstone introduced a modest bill for parliamentary reform which was defeated by both Tories and reform Liberals, forcing the government to resign. As a minority government they had to accept radical amendments, and Benjamin Disraeli's Reform Act of 1867 almost doubled the electorate, giving the vote even to working men. Only the last of the Chartist aims – annual Parliaments – now remains unfulfilled.
Chartism was also an important influence in the British colonies. In 1854 Chartist demands were put forward by the miners at the Eureka Stockade on the gold fields at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
By early 2006 most of the enclosure of Kennington Common, then being used as housing, had been demolished. See St Agnes Place
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