Chartist movement: leaders, reasons, main tasks, methods of struggle, results. The beginning of the Chartist movement. Why did the Chartist movement fail?

One of the most significant historical events of the mid-19th century in Britain was the so-called Chartist movement. It was a kind of first consolidation of efforts of workers in the country to defend their rights. The scope of this political action of the proletarians was not known to the analogues in the history of Britain. Let's find out the reasons for the emergence of Chartism, trace its progress, and also establish why the Chartist movement failed.

Prehistory

Until the second quarter of the XIX century, the main revolutionary force in Britain remained the bourgeoisie. In the end, having achieved 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 reform, since it was partly in their interests, but it turned out that it did not fully justify the hopes of the proletarians.

Gradually, the proletariat became the main revolutionary and reformist force in Britain.

Causes of Motion

As can be understood from the above, the reasons for the Chartist movement were in the dissatisfaction of the workers with their political situation in the country, in limiting their right to elect representatives to parliament. Oil in the fire poured the economic crises of 1825 and 1836, especially the last, which was a kind of trigger for the beginning of the movement. The consequence of these crises was a decline in the standard of living and mass unemployment among the proletariat. Especially the plight was in the western county of England Lancashire. All this could not but cause the displeasure of workers who wanted to have more instruments of influence through the parliament on the country's economy.

In addition, in 1834 the parliament adopted the so-called law on the poor, which tightened 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 of a complex nature, combining political and economic factors.

The beginning of Chartists' movement

The beginning of the Chartist movement, as already mentioned above, most historians refer to in 1836, although the exact date can not be determined. In connection with the beginning of the next economic crisis, mass rallies and protest actions of workers, sometimes numbering hundreds of thousands of people, began. The emergence of the Chartist movement was originally rather spontaneous and was based on the protest moods of the representatives, and was not an organized unified force clearly setting a single goal. As it was said above, initially the activists of the movement proposed the abolition of the law on the poor, therefore after each rally a huge number of petitions were submitted to the parliament to annul this legislative act.

Meanwhile, disparate groups of protesters began to unite and consolidate. For example, in 1836 in London, the London Workers' Association emerged, which united a number of smaller organizations of the proletariat. It was this unification that in the future became the main political force of the Chartist movement in Great Britain. It was the first to develop its own program of requirements for parliament, consisting of six points.

Flow Chartists

It must be said that practically from the very beginning of the protests, two main wings have emerged in the movement: right and left. The right wing advocated an alliance with the bourgeoisie and held mainly political methods of struggle. The left wing was more radically tuned. It was strongly opposed to a possible alliance with the bourgeoisie, and also held the view that the set goals could be achieved only by violent means.

As you can see, the methods of fighting the Chartist movement were quite different, depending on its specific course. This in the future and served as one of the reasons for the defeat.

Leaders of the right wing

The Chartist movement was marked by the presence of a number of bright leaders. The right wing was led by William Lovett and Thomas Attwood.

William Lovett was born in 1800 in the vicinity of London. In his youth he moved to the capital. At first he was a simple carpenter, then he became president of the Joiners Society. He was strongly influenced by the ideas of Robert Owen, a utopian socialist in the first half of the 19th century. Since 1831, Lovett began to participate in various protest movement movements. In 1836, he was one of the founders of the London Workers' Association, which became the main backbone of the Chartist movement. As representative of the so-called labor aristocracy, William Lovett advocated an alliance with the bourgeoisie and for a political solution to the issue of guaranteeing workers' rights.

Thomas Attwood was born in 1783. A well-known banker and economist. From a young age, he actively participated in the political life of the city of Birmingham. In 1830 stood at the origins of the party Birmingham political union, which was supposed to represent the interests of the population of this city. Atthud was one of the most active supporters of the political reform of 1932. After it, 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 withdrew from it.

Leaders of the left wing

Among the leaders of the left wing of Chartists, Fergus O'Connor, James O'Brien, and Stephen the priest enjoyed special authority.

Fergus O'Connor was born in 1796 in Ireland. Educated lawyer, 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 "North Star". As soon as the Chartist movement began, he became the leader of his left wing. Fergus O'Connor was an adherent of revolutionary methods of struggle.

James O'Brien was also born in Ireland, he was born in 1805. Became a famous journalist, using the literary pseudonym Bronter. He acted as 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 defended 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 fighting for workers' rights.

Submission of petition

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 fixed in six points:

• The granting of suffrage to all men over 21 years of age;
• The cancellation of the property qualification for the right to be elected to parliament;
• The secrecy of voting;
• Identical constituencies;
• Financial compensation to parliamentarians for the performance of legislative functions;
• Year term of election.

As we see, the petition did not specify all the main tasks of the Chartist movement, but only those that concerned elections to the House of Commons.

In July 1839, the petition was transferred to the parliament with more than 1.2 million signatures.

Further course of motion

In the parliament, the charter was rejected by an overwhelming majority of votes.

Three days later a rally was held in Birmingham in support of the petition, which ended in a clash with the police. The result of the clashes was a lot of victims from 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 of England, for example, in Newport. The movement was dispersed at the end of 1839, many of its leaders received prison terms, and Chartism itself was quiet for a while.

But this was only a temporary phenomenon, since the very causes of Chartism were not eliminated, and the results of the Chartist movement at this stage were not satisfied with the proletariat.

In the summer of 1840, the Central Chartist Organization was founded in Manchester. It won a moderate wing of the movement. It was decided to achieve its goals using exclusively peaceful methods. But soon, the radical wing again began to regain its former positions, because the constitutional methods did not give the desired result.

The following Charters

In 1842, a new charter was submitted to the parliament. In fact, the requirements in it did not change, but were presented in a much sharper form. This time the collected signatures were more than two and a half times larger - 3.3 million. Again, the results of the Chartist movement could not please its participants, since this new petition was rejected by a significant majority of the parliament deputies. After that, like last time, a wave of violence swept, but on a smaller scale. Arrests followed, but because of the violation of the procedure, almost all the detainees were released.

After a considerable break, in 1848, a new wave of the Chartist movement arose, provoked by another industrial crisis. The third time a petition was submitted to the parliament, this time it has 5 million signatures. True, this fact causes great doubts, because among the signatories there were well-known personalities who simply could not sign this petition, for example, Queen Victoria and the Apostle Paul. After this was opened, the charter was not even accepted by the parliament for consideration.

Causes of Motion Defeat

Subsequently, Chartism never again resumed. 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, Chartist leaders differently saw methods of struggle: some called for political methods only, while others believed that the goal of the Chartist movement could be achieved only by revolutionary means.

A significant role in the decay of the movement was played by the fact that after 1848 the British economy began to stabilize, and the standard of living of the population increased, which in turn lowered the bar of social tension in society.

Effects

At the same time, it can not be said that the results of the Chartist movement were absolutely negative. There were also significant progressive moments, which can be regarded as concessions to the parliament of Chartism.

So, in 1842 the income tax was introduced. Now the citizens were taxed according to their income, and therefore, to the opportunities.

In 1846, grain duties were abolished, making bread much more expensive. Their removal allowed to reduce the price of bakery products, and, accordingly, to reduce the costs of the poor.

The main achievement of the movement is the legislative reduction in 1847 of the working day for women and children up to ten hours a day.

After that, the labor movement for a long time stopped, but again revived in the late 60s of the XIX century in the form of trade unions (trade union movement).