Early Chartism and Trade Unionism in South-East Lancashire

Abstract

The early pioneering studies of both Chartism and trade unionism presented a picture of two very separate almost hermetic movements. 1 More recently it has been shown that there was substantial trade union participation in Chartism in London and Scotland. 2 Yet the assumption that the connections between the two movements were minimal and unimportant remains widespread. 3 This proposition in fact forms a central part of what has been called a ‘compartmentalist’ or ‘reductionist’ approach to early working-class history. 4 This emphasises the essential separation of various strands of working-class activity, and extent of sectionalism, in order to question the extent of working-class consciousness and working-class support for Chartism. 5 This viewpoint dovetails with a conception of the social composition of Chartism, similarly rooted in the pioneering studies, as essentially a movement of the most depressed outworkers, with the skilled workers in their unions being absent and aloof. 6 In Lancashire Chartism is thus portrayed as quintessentially a movement of the handloom weavers, with the factory workers at best lukewarm and the other trades largely ignored. 7 In consequence, in the momentous Plug Strikes, the 1842 general strike, the evident confluence of Chartists, trade unionists and factory workers has been seen as a novel development, and a momentary aberration. 8 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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