Marxists Internet Archive: History Archive: British History: The Chartists

Kennington Common 1848

 

 

The Chartists

The Chartist movement was a spontaneous movement of workers in England – the first appearance of the English working class on the scene of history as a force in its own right. The Charter put forward demands for extension of democracy. While the movement was crushed by police infiltrators and brutal repression, its main aims were eventually achieved.


Autobiography of Thomas Hardy, 1832.

Grand National Holiday, and Congress of the Productive Classes, 1832.

The Newport Rising 1839

Vindication of the “Guardian’s” Doctrines Respecting the Rights of Capital and Labour, 1834.

Minute Book of the London Workingmen's Association, 18th October 1836.

The Barnsley Manifesto June 1838.

The People's Charter 5 October 1839.

Objects of Democratic Association 1839.

The ‘Plug Plot’ of 1842, Thomas Cooper.

Duncombe's speech introducing the Charter 2 May 1842.

The General Strike of 1842 by Mick Jenkins.

Marx and Engels on the Chartists