Chartism: Working Class and Inclusive Cultural Community Essay

Economic Pressure was used in the speech regularly to show the large division between the rich and the poor. The speaker refers to ‘the rich unnaturally elevated’, ‘weight of taxation, misrule and oppression’. ‘Destitution in horrid form stalks through street, lane and thourghfare’ ‘emaciated frames’. The terminology reflects on the economic pressures that the poor endured, high tax and poor working conditions that often led to illness and death. He emphasised how the richer of the society, the aristocracy, were ‘in exclusive possession of power’. This speech would have stirred the emotions of the crowds as they heard how hard their lives were to those belonging to the upper classes. The speaker creates horrid, desperate images of the poorer classes ‘insufferable despair,’ toll of the death-bell’ to highlight how hard their lives were. (Briggs, 1959, P.50) a secondary source reflected how Chartism ‘seems to have been strongest in the two kinds of places… centres of decaying or contracting industry’ and ‘new or expanding single industry towns’. Briggs ‘s writing shows that Chartism was prominent in only certain areas such as those of industry. Whereas, ‘almost non-existent in completely agricultural villages’.

Luddism, for example, was one of the ideologies that opposed the industrial changes that liberalism brought. The jobs of the skilled textile workers were lost and replaced by machines operated by unskilled laborers. The Luddites protested and even broke into factories, destroying many machinery. Chartism was another example of the response to the unrecognized individual rights. Chartism was a working- class movement with the main focus on political and social reform in society (Fielding, 2009, 132). The Chartists wanted a political and social reform in society because they could be granted the rights to participate in these aspects of society. Utopian Socialists were humanitarians who advocated an end to the appalling conditions of the average worker in the industrial capitalist countries (Fielding, 2009, 134). They believed that education and the improved working conditions could peacefully remove the worst aspects of capitalism and lead to an ideal socialist society where everyone would live happily. “It is therefore the interest of all, that everyone, from birth, should be well educated, physically and mentally, that society may be improved in its character; that everyone should be beneficially employed, physically, and mentally, that the greatest amount of wealth may be created and knowledge attained….” (Fielding, 2009, 135). Another essential resistance to liberalism was showcased by the ideology of classical conservatism. The beliefs of

The Tolpuddle Martyrs are a significant case in showing the increased involvement of the public in speaking against the justice system. In 1834, members of the Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers were transported under an outdated law that prohibited the taking of oaths, when they protested for a better wage. Perhaps what brought the most sympathy for the case was the fact that their protest was peaceful, despite the history of violent protest among workers with riots and groups such as the Luddites. The authorities were equally unsympathetic to this case as they were to the other, more violent movements. Even after public interest attracted an 800,000 signature petition, protesters were oppressed at a demonstration in Oldham. The public was aware of the struggles of the poor worker, but the government still dismissed it; refusing to recognise the desperate circumstance of workers and citing greed as the motive of the Martyrs. Clearly the case had little impact on government opinions, with the treatment of the Chartists and the Rebecca Rioters later in the same decade being the same. But an important contribution of the Tolpuddle Martyrs case was the impact it had on public opinion, and the increased popularity of worker’s unions. This case might suggest that reform is unrelated to the attitudes of society at

“What Does Labor Want?” written by Samuel Gompers (1893) shares some key values with the anarchists who wrote “The Pittsburgh Manifesto” (1883), but also many differences. Gompers had the same “cynical view” about the government’s trustworthiness as the anarchists. Gompers believed that there was a major problem involving the upper class. He referred to the wealthy class as a “class of parasites” and he believed that all they did was consume and gain money from laborers who were not getting the rights that they deserved. Upper class citizens in 1883, according to Gompers, would take profits that clearly belonged to the workers for themselves. The upper class threw out all their morals just for money, for example, they took advantage of children who did hard

The Industrial Revolution consisted of scientific innovations, a vast increase in industrial production, and a rapid growth of urban populations which consequently shaped a new social structure in the European continent. Initially in the late eighteenth century, the new industrialization period produced dominant bourgeoisie employers and a united men, women, and children workers. The continued increase of factories coupled with a need for employees made the Proletariats within a short period of time a large, underprivileged, hungry, and desperate for money. Meanwhile, their bourgeoisie employers grew authoritative and wealthy as production and profit soared. Despite the common ties between proletariat workers upon the outbreak of the

There is evidence within the extract to support each explanation of how chartism gained support, however a reactions to economic conditions was stressed more by the speaker. This could of been due to people believing this to be the most important part of chartism and related to it more. Many people but not all, also believed that being part of the political movement would help to resolve the economic condition, while also being part of a community in a time were social exclusion was a major part of society.

The quotation illustrates the exploitation of the proletariats because their sole purpose is to work to increase capital. The capital that the proletariats are producing is benefiting the bourgeoisie who reap the benefits of their labour. The Beauty and the Beast (2017) asserts the theme of a feudal society that exercised class struggle between the bourgeoisie and proletariats. By projecting these roles onto a prince and the working class that are economically exploited because the value of their labour is being abused by a higher class.

"It [bourgeois] has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones. Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat."

Chartism was a more ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to economic circumstance and exhibited characteristics of political movement. The movement was riddled with inherent weaknesses – divided leadership, regional differences and underlying tactical naivety.

“… it is obviously necessary on many grounds that all the citizens alike should take their turn of governing and being governed. Equality consists in the same treatment of similar persons, and no government can stand which is not founded upon justice. For if the government be unjust everyone in the country unites with the governed in the desire to have a revolution …”

 Chartism was the name of a variety of protest movements in England during the 1830s and 40s, which aimed to bring about change  in social and economic conditions through political reform. Its name comes from the People’s Charter, a six-point petition presented to the House of Commons with the hope of having it made law. The six point included annual parliaments, universal manhood suffrage, abolition of the property qualification for members of the House of Commons, the secret ballot, equal electoral districts, and salaries for members of Parliament.

Society came out against the bourgeoisie, embarked on the path of developing a democratic society. And the people's aim was to take control of the government under their own hands, in this case under the hands of the proletariat. In fact, in a democratic society, the person is placed on the first place. And then the question arises: To what class does the person who stands in the

The need for a second, less class of citizenry to work is essential and they are referred to by Marx as the labour, Proletariats, or the working class. The working class exists to run the means of production, and they must sell their labour-power to the owning class in order to sustain themselves. Their skills are their only true ‘value’ in the alienated minds of the capitalists. The worker is limited with what they have to offer the capitalist and that is themselves and their individual skills as a commodity.

This quote explains how both classes see each other, the working class consider themselves as guerilla terrorists who attack the upper class, while the upper class sees the working class as cockroaches that can do nothing and can be eliminated any time. The upper class people despised the working class people as they considered them as servants to serve them at any time.

Rather than eradicate capitalism, socialism exists within it. Moreover, democratic socialism is characterised through the balance and compromise between free market capitalism and the Governmental state (Bernstein 1993: 142, Heywood 2012:128, Anderson 1985: 10). Marx considered socialism as a class movement, which is what subsequently played out in the political realm, once universal suffrage had been achieved. For previously powerless people it was the only peaceful way to be heard: “Electoral politics constitutes the mechanism through which anyone can as a citizen express claims to goods and services.” (Przeworski 1985:11).