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Untitled Article
withstanding this , the relation of master and man has been repugnant to the well-being of society ; the creator has hitherto been the servant of the creature ; labour has been the slave of capital , and groaned under a system of wages-slavery , contrary to every principle of freedom . _ To elevate labour from , its present depressed condition , the following measures are proposed , with a view to the more rapid abrogation of wages-slavery , and the development of the cooperative principle . 1 . All cooperative associations for industrial purposes to have a right to registration and enrolment without payment of fees , and to have an unrestricted number of affiliated branches . 2 . The law of partnership to be so altered as to remove existing difficulties in the way of association . 3 .. The cooperative principle is essential for the well being of the people ; the centralization of wealth ought to be counteracted by a distributive tendency ; its accumulation in Xhe hands of isolated clubs is an evil second only to that of its monopoly by individuals ; therefore , all future cooperative attempts should , until the complete readjustment of the labour question , be modelled on a national basis , and connected in a national union , of which the different trades and societies should be localities or branches ; and the profits , beyond a certain amount , of each local society , should be paid into a general fund for the purpose of forming additional associations of working men , and and thus accelerating the development of associated and independent labour . 4 . A credit-fund to be opened by the state , for the purpose of advancing money , on certain conditions , to bodies of working-men desirous of associating together for industrial purposes . V . —Poor Law . As it is the duty of every man to work , so every man has the right to the means of work ; and those unable to work , through infirmity or age , have a right to support at the hands of the state . Therefore—1 . All ablebodied persons , who cannot support themselves , to be supplied with remunerative work ; and , where possible , to be located on the land . 2 . "Where the state cannot find work for the unemployed , it is bound to support them until labour is provided . 3 . The unemployed to be supported by the state , not by the parish—and the cost to be defrayed out of the * national revenue . 4 . The aged and infirm to be supported in their own homes , in the houses of their relatives , or in special buildings , erected by Government , at the option of the recipient . "VI . —Taxation . Taxation on . industry represses the production of Wealth—on luxuries , encourages governments in fostering excess—on necessary commodities , acts injuriously on the people ' s health and comfort . All taxation ought , therefore , to be levied on land and accumulated property . VII . —The National Deht . This debt , having been contracted by a class government for claas purposes , cannot be considerecLjaa legally contracted by the people . __ ' It is , moreover , absurd that future generations should be mortgaged to eternity for the follies or misfortunes of their ancestors , and the debt be thus repaid several times over . The national debt ought , therefore , to be liquidated by the money now annually paid as interest being forthwith applied as repayment of the capital , until such repayment is completed . VIII . —CUHUENCY . The Convention considers that a change inourcurrcncy laws is absolutely necessary to the welfare of the producers of this country , and recommends tliat tlie Executive , by addresses and tracts , direct the att ention of the country to this subject . IX . —Tub Aumy .
Standing armies are contrary to the principles of I ) emocraey , and dangerous to the liberties of the people . At the same time the Convention acknowledges the expediency of a standing force being maintained , until suitable changes in our colonies and at home shall have rendered its continuance no longer requisite . Until such change the following enactments nro necessary for the comfort of the soldier and the safety of the citizen : — 1 . No enlistment to be binding , unless renewed before u magistrate by the party enlisting after the expiration of a period of ono week . 2 . The soldier to have a right to a free discharge at tho end of four years .
3 . The isolation of troops in barracks estranges thorn from tho citizen , renders them unfit for the duties of domestic life , demoralizes them , and in uanecesaary for discipline , an proved by such discipline not being impaired when troops are quartered on ( ho inhabitants , which is frequently the case , both in peace und war . 4 . Troops , quartered on the inhabitants , to be paid for us lodgern , and none he compelled toTeceivo them . 6 . Promotion to tako pluco from tho ranks , by
military gradation , and none to be promoted before , at least , one year's service in the ranks . 6 . Promotion by purchase to be abolished . 7 . The use of tne lash to be abolished . 8 . Courts-martial to consist , in all cases , of officers and iva tes i n like proportion . . X . —The Navy . To be regulated by analogous laws . XI . —The Militia .
As it is the right of every individual to bear arms , so it is his duty to know how to use them ; as every citizen ought to receive a benefit at the hands of the state , so he ought to be prepared to defend it ; and , as liberty is not safe where an unarmed and undisciplined people stand in presence of an armed and disciplined caste , it is , therefore , requisite , that every male of sound mind and body over fifteen years of age should be afforded the opportunity of military training .
XII . —The Press . That absolute freedom of x thought and expression being one of the primaryand most sacred of the rights of man , all restric tions—fiscal or otherwiseon printing and publishing are unjust and iniquitous , this Convention , therefore , declares its decided hostility to the infamous taxes on knowledge , and recommends the total abolition of The duty on Paper ; The duty on Advertisements ; The Penny Stamp Tax on Newspapers ; And the Import duty on Foreign Books and Publications .
Addresses , each embodying one of the above reforms , to be circulated , together with an exposition of the Charter , and its necessity for enabling such reform to be obtained . The Convention is further of opinion that the best way to enlist sympathy with the Chartist movement is to show its bearings on the grievance of every suffering class , that those classes may be taught to see in Chartism the leverage of their hopes ; that the best way to impress and weaken class government is to show those who yet support it that the Chartists would do them more good than that class-government can or will afford ; and to pour one continuous stream of "agitation on class-government from every portion of the toiling community ; to attack every one of its monopolies '; to assail every one of its strongholds , and to break them down in detail .
The Convention is also of opinion that a political change is inefficacious , unless accompanied by a social change ; that a Chartist movement , unless accompanied with social knowledge , would result in utter failure ; that we ought to enlist , not merely the politician , but the man of business ; that ire cannot claim or receive the support of the labourer , mechanic , farmer , or . trader , unless we show thein that we are practical reformers ; that power would be safely vested in Chartist hands ; that we know their grievances , and how to redress them ; that the Charter would confer on them a positive , immediate , and permanent benefit , and at once increase alike their comforts arid resources .
The Chartist body should , therefore , stand forward as the protector of the oppressed—each suffering class should see in it the redresser of its several wrongs—it ought to be the connecting link , that draws together , on one common ground , the now isolated bodies of the working classes , —and sellinterest being the tie best able to bind them to each other . It is , therefore , time that the self-interest of every one of the oppressed classes be appealed to . J ^ ach one of these classes demands a measure of social reform proportioned to its wants ; though various , these requirements are not conflicting -one right can never contradict another—truth can never antagonize with truth .
To stand forth as the Unitkh . of all these isolated , but in fact "homogeneous interests , to weld the millions into one compact mass — to evoke the dormant mind of the country , and thus to launch the gathered power in the * right direction , is the duty and endeavour of this Delegation of the people . Tho Convention , deeply impressed with tlu ' s truth , while keeping Chartism distinct as an organized political body , not joining any other section , nor mixing it with any other organization , " recommends that public attention be directed to tin ; following principles ; that the subjoined remedial ineasure . s be submitted to tho olassCH severally interested ; that their support of Chartist organization bo solicited on tins ground of these reforms , and that those he made the subject of continuous and universal agitation !
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L V . T T R It S T () C II A It T I S T a VIII . This Convention—Its Attitudk towards KXIflTINO 1 ' AKTIKN . Chartists neither want panegyric nor critid . Mn . Of panegyric they have had more than enough . Criticism they an : apt to mistake for censur e , and are , therefore , irritated where it was intended only that they should bo informed . That , however , which may ncrvo tUoiu , und . which , nerhupw , they will bcur ,
is a plain and impartial estimate of their new position . Men who undertake to recast a movement and recreate a political party ought to see thoroughly where they are : in no other way can they calculate the powers opposed to them , and proportion their energies to their task . The Executive is certainly a new political composition . The last election included some new names ; but the local Chartist sections have suffered no
infusions . Diminished , dismembered , and prostrate , the localities may be described as the sediments of antagonism , or the crude remains of Chartism . Shattered in personal conflicts , the sections have been broken up . Partizans of Hobson , admirers of Hill , disc pies of Mr . O'Brien , friends of Mr . llarney and Ernest Jones , anxious allottees and enthusiastic " old guards , " have been mutually repelled by each other , and those who remain are the survivors of the crash
of factions—the party of all the admirations and all the prejudices . These , it was easy to see at the opening , were the coteries represented in the Convention . Gifted with restlessness , which would amount to activity if directed by a calculable purpose , the germens of Chartism have preserved signs of life while other bodies have accepted ^ stagnation . Beyond the Chartist manifestation , so far as the working classes are concerned , all is political death . The Chartists are the Zoophytes of industrial politics—the link between inertia and vitality . Organization commences with them . It may be owing to their miser }* , it may be owing to their penetration ; but their being the sole disturbing force is not to be disputed , and the Convention of such men was a curious and interesting spectacle to contemplate .
They presented themselves to found a new era in Chartism , and , notwithstanding some grave drawbacks , they must be considered as having accomplished their task in a manner full of promise . Yet , perhaps , in that respect in which the public have most right to calculate that progress would be made by the present Convention , a rather limited account has to be rendered . The programme which it accepted "was Conceived in the opening passages in the spirit of old Chartism , which remembers nothing but its quondam hatreds , and clings in new times to its ancient exclusiveness . Democracy ( notwithstanding that it plumes itself contrariwise ) has a strong vein of the Bourbon spirit in it , which , in ten years of vicissitude and self-extinction , has forgotten nothing and learned nothing , in some leading directions .
Those who read the report of the proceedings of the Convention published last week will have noticed this clause , in which we italicise some disastrous words : — " That , since by each and all of the franchise measures now before the people ( excepting that embodied in the Charter ) , the middle-class would ( fain far more votes than the working classes would obtain , which would place the latter in a more powerless position than at present . The Charter must be agitated for in its entirety—that the omission of any one of its points would impair the utility ot the remainder , and thai ., therefore , popular support must be withheld from all franchise measures falling short of its provisions . "
With three exceptions the delegates agreed to this declaration . All others made drear protests against the middle classes . Mr . llolyoake endeavoured to recal the assembly to a sense of what was due to the public and to themselves . lie urged that it was possible but improbable that the middle class would , by " existing franchise measures , " obtain " more votes than the working classes . " But in no sense was it true that the people would thereby be more " powerless . " The more they included within the pule of
the franchise the more difficult it would be to keep others out . It had been urged that we should not help the middle class to win their franchise . Why ? In what way was a man criminal because he happened to bo richer than he ( Mr . llolyoake ) ? The middle-class man had as much right to his vote as the working-classman had . to his , and he ( Mr . llolyoake ) would help ( in any way he was able ) the middle-class man to get his vote because he had n right to it—whether he could thus win his own vote or not . Mr . JUizer had said that if £ 1 had
to be divided between two of them , was he to consent for bin opponent , to get his 10 s . and he not his ? No , he said , we will have both our l () s . toyether , or his opponent should not have his . On tho- contrary , he ( Mr . llolyoake ) would in such a case help another , an opponent , to f * "is IOh . ; although he migiit not help him ( Mr . llolyoake ) in return ; although ho might even use it to prevent him ( Mr . llolyoake ) from winning bin own share . It was right to do what was right to another , regardless of any return , grateful or ungrateful ,
which might be made . With tho talk about conciliating tho middle classes ho did not sympathize . Tin ; middle classes < litl not want conciliating . Lot tho working clauses behave justly to themselves and conciliation Wwuld come of" itself . They had only to ( Jo as others ought to do to them : it wiiH no less a rule of sound policy than of good feeling . If the working class would not help anybody else they justified everybody el * e in refusing to help them ; but he who would help another e « tabliuUcU u cluiia to Uoln in return . Tho ruiml-
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April 12 , 1851 . ] ftfje 3 , eafrir * 351
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1851, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1878/page/19/
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