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Early British Non-Violence and the Chartist Movement

The English tradition, from Godwin to Lovett and the ‘moral force’ Chartists:. Early British Non-Violence and the Chartist Movement. Early Parliamentary Reform Movements. Arguments for reform popularised by American Revolution 1776. ‘No Taxation Without Representation’

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Early British Non-Violence and the Chartist Movement

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  1. The English tradition, from Godwin to Lovett and the ‘moral force’ Chartists: Early British Non-Violence and the Chartist Movement

  2. Early Parliamentary Reform Movements • Arguments for reform popularised by American Revolution 1776. • ‘No Taxation Without Representation’ • Extreme/fringe radicals start advocating universal male suffrage. • John Cartwright, Take Your Choice, 1776 • Reaction to the French Revolution 1789. • Fears from elites of the politicisation of ‘knife and fork’ riots. • Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, 1791.

  3. William Godwin (1756-1836) • Exponent of utilitarianism; believed in ‘evolutionary anarchy.’ • Enquiry Concerning Political Justice (1793) • Asks the rich to voluntarily transfer some of their property/wealth to those in need, but opposes violent revolution or expropriation. • Things as They Are or The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794)

  4. Into the Nineteenth Century • Luddism • 1815 Corn Law • 1816 Spa Fields riots • 1817 ‘March of the Blanketeers’ • Petitioning and the 1819 Peterloo Massacre • 1820 The Six Acts

  5. The Peterloo Massacre, as depicted by Robert Carlile, circa 1819

  6. 1832 Reform Act • £10 Householder Franchise • Tory Richard Oastler: a bourgeois revolution. • More representation granted to many cities and larger towns throughout Britain, and the some of the smallest, most corrupt boroughs removed altogether. • No platform for the still-fragmented working classes

  7. The People’s Charter, 1837

  8. The People’s Charter, 1837 • A VOTE for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound mind, and not undergoing punishment for crime. • THE BALLOT. To protect the elector in the exercise of his vote. • NO PROPERTY QUALIFICATION for Members of Parliament - thus enabling the constituencies to return the man of their choice, be he rich or poor. • 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. • EQUAL CONSTITUENCIES, securing the same amount of representation for the same number of electors. • ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS, thus presenting the most effectual check to bribery and intimidation.

  9. William Lovett • 1836 London Working Men’s Association • 1839 Secretary of Chartists • Chartism, 1840 http://gerald-massey.org.uk/lovett/b_chartism.htm • 1841 National Association for Promoting the Political and Social Improvement of the People

  10. ‘Moral Force’ • Coined by contemporary historian R. G. Gammage. • Focused on education and political arguments rather than the ‘power’ of 19th C-style nonviolent protest. • 1839 Convention • Too radical? Too naïve? • Other key supporters: James Watson, Francis Place

  11. ‘Physical Force’ • Feargus O’Connor • The Northern Star

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