‘Perish the privileged orders’

A socialist history of the Chartist movement

Mark O’Brien, New Clarion Press, paperback, 132 pages, £8.95

In the early part of the 19th century, life for the toiling masses, sucked into the new cities from the rural areas, was gruesome and very short indeed. For example, in Manchester a tradesman lived to an average age of 20 while a labourer could expect to die at the age of 17.

It was under the backbreaking working conditions and disease-ridden living conditions of the time that the radical movements that gave rise to Chartism, the world’s first mass working class movement, were forged.That movement gave shape to working class demands for justice, and the demands for universal suffrage, secret ballots, annual parliaments, no property qualification for members of parliament and equal representation .

O’Brien gives an excellent account of the movement, examining its roots in the revolt of working class people against their conditions.

The movement did not uniformly agree on tactics and was made up of many different strands. Nevertheless, at its height hundreds of thousands rallied to its cause.

O’Brien emphasises that the Chartists remain relevant. “Today the many campaigns of working people against the logic of the market in public services, for fair treatment at work, against job losses, against racism in workplaces and communities, and for trade union rights can converge into a movement that may, once again, reach the heights that the Chartists achieved”.