The Chartist movement: Successful or not?

username202682

It's open to debate, really.
The Chartists were, in my opinion, unsuccessful in the sense that they did not achieve their 'Six Points of the People's Charter' whilst active; but in the long run, created the foundation for the Trade Unions and five of the six points of the Charter have been achieved.
However, there is still the argument that at the time, the movement was seen as 'Utopian'. What do you think?

Reply 1

Oswy

15

Stricof

It's open to debate, really.
The Chartists were, in my opinion, unsuccessful in the sense that they did not achieve their 'Six Points of the People's Charter' whilst active; but in the long run, created the foundation for the Trade Unions and five of the six points of the Charter have been achieved.
However, there is still the argument that at the time, the movement was seen as 'Utopian'. What do you think?

Study of the Chartist movement at least shows how shallow the argument is that Britain has a 'tradition of democracy' going back centuries. We might say that Britain has a long tradition of a battle for democracy and which, by necessity, included those who strongly resisted it.

The Chartists failed in their conscious and immediate aims it's true but, as you suggest, they helped generate further political organisation and help generate a deepening of the feeling among the working class that the absence of the vote for them was a serious injustice needing rectification. They also created a historic example for future activists to draw on showing the scale of protest which could be accomplished - some Chartist demonstrations were huge I seem to remember from my reading.

Reply 2

username202682

OP

17

Oswy

They also created a historic example for future activists to draw on showing the scale of protest which could be accomplished - some Chartist demonstrations were huge I seem to remember from my reading.

Yeah there was the London one... In 17 hours, 13 clerks had apparently counted 1.9 million signatures.
But the problem was, some of these signatures included Napoleon Bonaparte and Queen Victoria (several times
But then, literacy was quite low...which makes me wonder how people managed to forge their signatures... :p:

Because, the middle class felt alienated, if you know what i mean, from the Chartist movement

The Chartist movement: Successful or not?

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