How did Britain's working class fight to overthrow early capitalism?
In the early 19th century, the industrial revolution was rapidly creating a big new social class in Britain: the working class. Workers produced huge amounts of new wealth for the ruling capitalists, but had appalling conditions and no say in politics. Sound familiar?
The Chartist movement was the world’s first working-class party. Its ‘People’s Charter’ demanded a massive extension of democratic rights for workers – to improve their material conditions.
But increasingly, experience taught Chartist workers that petitioning alone was not enough either. Ultimately, revolutionary struggle was the only way for workers to gain power – or even win more rights within the capitalist system.
How did the Chartists develop their ideas and methods of struggle? What was the outcome of the movement? And what can we learn from it today?
This episode of Socialism looks at Britain’s revolutionary working class: Chartism.
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