Wales Would Have to Invent Them
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Celebrating Democracy Our Voice, Our Vote, Our Freedom 170th anniversary of the Chartist Uprising in Newport. Thursday 15 October 2009 at The Newport Centre exciting opportunities ahead. We stand ready to take on bad Introduction from Paul O’Shea employers, fight exploitation and press for social justice with a clear sense of purpose. Chair of Bevan Foundation and Regional Let us put it this way, if unions did not exist today, someone Secretary , Unison Cymru / Wales would have to invent them. Employers need to talk to employees, Freedom of association is rightly prominent in every charter government needs views from the workplace and above all, and declaration of human rights. It is no coincidence that employees need a collective voice. That remains as true today, as authoritarians and dictators of left and right usually crack down it was in Newport, in November 1839. on trade unions as a priority. Look to the vicious attacks on the union movement by the Mugabe regime, the human rights abuses of Colombian trade unionists or indeed, the shooting and Electoral Reform Society incarceration of Chartists engaged in peaceful protest as a grim reminder of this eternal truth. The Electoral Reform Society is proud to support this event commemorating 170 years since the Newport Rising. The ERS A free and democratic society needs to be pluralist. There must campaigns on the need to change the voting system to a form of be checks and balances on those who wield power. There must proportional representation, and is also an active supporter Votes be a voice for everyone, not just the rich, the privileged and at 16 and involved in producing materials for the citizenship the powerful. A man called Wilfred Rogers who was the first curriculum. President of the Labour Representation Committee in 1894 put it this way ‘There must be an independent life within the state to The Chartists’ appeal to democracy and of fair play for all are prevent Government becoming Tyranny and the trade unions will exactly the reasons why we campaign for what we do. They be chief among those who call that independent life into being.’ have showed that democracy had to be fought for and won by ordinary people. What electoral reform does is to make sure Perhaps the most overworked cliché about democracy is that it is that all our votes count equally, that politicians are properly the least worst system of government we have. The same point answerable to us, and that politics is rule by the people. could sometimes be made about employer-union relationships. Industrial relations can break down from time to time. Disputes We are currently campaigning for a referendum to change the can become difficult and protracted. Unions - and their members voting system and would be grateful for your support in our - may not always get it right. But a world where people at work www.voteforachange.co.uk campaign. did not have the right to call on a union, or where industrial action was banned, would be more unequal, more unfair, less We want to make your voice heard by free and less democratic. making your vote count. To adapt the cliche you can argue that collective bargaining is the least worst system of industrial relations we have. But while these are all strong, principled arguments for trade unionism, Thomspons Solicitors they are little use unless we apply them practically and convince Thompsons is the largest trades union firm of solicitors in the others to join our ranks or treat us as partners. UK with offices in Cardiff and Swansea. The firm has played a Devolution and reforms to deepen democracy mean that leading role for over 80 years fighting for the rights of working Westminster no longer monopolises the political universe. Slowly people and the right to belong to and participate in trades but surely a new political culture is emerging in the UK, offering unions. new opportunities for unions to get the voice of working people As well as our work and campaigns in Wales and the UK we heard. This new political culture looks and feels very different to actively campaign in support of trades unions in other parts of that of the green and red benches. It provides a different quality the world such as South Africa, Columbia, Venezuela and Eastern of representation, often more open and accessible; perhaps less Europe. .We are pleased to sponsor the Bevan Foundation’s burdened by tradition, pomp and ceremony. “Celebrating Democracy “ event aimed at recognising the Unions draw great strength from our democratic and voluntary sacrifice made by so many over the centuries for the democratic roots and while we recognise the challenges and difficulties rights we now benefit from and promoting the importance of we face, I am convinced that unions have a secure future with active participation in our democratic institutions. chartistbooklet2.indd 1 4/10/09 21:53:40 A national petition for the People’s Charter garnered one and a quarter million signatures. Public anger rose when the House of Commons refused in June 1839 to debate the six points of the Charter. In August, the imprisonment of Henry Vincent in Monmouth gaol for making a seditious speech at Newport was seen as proof that they were living under a tyranny. By September, the membership of south Wales lodges reached over 20,000. Representatives met in secrecy and planned resistance. These forces gathered on the 3 & 4 November and some The battle at the Westgate Hotel 5000 men reached the town of Newport and its outskirts. The debacle at the Westgate Hotel was the product of poor and Soon after 9 o’clock on Monday morning 4th November, a disunited Chartist leadership and civil authorities determined large Chartist contingent armed with picks, pikes and guns to face down unrest, with military firepower if necessary. The marched in regular order down Stow hill to the Westgate Newport draper, John Frost, favoured a non-violent show of Hotel. Not able to see the thirty soldiers of the 45th Regiment strength, but although the titular leader, he was not really hidden inside the building, the crowd charged the front door, in charge. The mood of the marchers swung behind those defended by special constables under the command of the prepared to use force. As one marcher said “it was by such Mayor, Thomas Phillips. Guns were fired. Intruders pushed means that the people obtained their rights in America and into the hallway. France“ At the order of Lieutenant Gray, his troops flung back the Chartism’s survival shutters and filing past the window, fired their muskets in quick succession. This surprise tactic forced mass retreat. A 1839 was not the end of Chartist protest. The movement small band of determined fighters returned fire, but soon continued at Newport until 1848 and it survived as a political ran for cover. Soldiers turned their guns on those inside. force into the 1860s at Merthyr. Protests and petitions for the The fighting lasted about twenty minutes, but the military release of the ‘Welsh martyrs’ continued for over a decade remained in position for at least an hour, fearing a second and it was fourteen years before the government deemed it attack from men gathered on the Malpas Road. safe to grant pardons. In this period, Chartism remained a powerful voice of working class grievances. Further national With more than 20 dead and 50 wounded, large numbers petitions in support of the People’s Charter gained mass were taken in for questioning and over fifty charged with support throughout Britain in 1842 and 1848. Treason. At the Special Assizes in Monmouth, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones were sentenced to The spirit of Chartism imbued the 1866-67 Reform Bill a public hanging and quartering. Widespread protest and campaign and influenced the nascent women’s suffrage fear of martyrdom caused the government to commute these movement that emerged in the 1860s. The new socialist sentences to life transportation, served in Tasmania. organisations established in the 1880s and 1890s claimed Chartist roots and the extension of the franchise to all adults A Cry for Social Justice - Cyfiawnder! was a fundamental objective of Keir Hardie and the early Labour Party. The conflict at Newport was a climax to discontents that had been smouldering throughout south Wales since the Merthyr Les James Rising in 1831. Chartist speakers at mass meetings linked (University of Wales, Newport) the political demands of the Charter with their audience’s experiences of economic exploitation and deprivation. They argued that working people needed a Parliament that represented their interests and not the landed propertied classes. Special Thanks to Newport City Museum and Library for the use of the chartist images used in throughout this brochure. chartistbooklet2.indd 2 4/10/09 21:53:42 The People’s Charter 1838 made MILESTONES in the Reform of Parliament six demands for political reform: 1837 At the start of Queen Victoria’s reign: Members of Parliament and all voters were men of property votes for all men over 21 • Only 1 in every 8 men could vote secret voting • No women were voters • wages for MPs Voting was not secret • equal electoral constituencies Bribery was common in elections • abolition of the property qualification for MPs • annual elections 1856 Property qualification for MPs abolished 1867 1 in 3 men granted right to vote On three occasions – 1839, 1842 and 1848 – mass petitions 1872 Secret ballot introduced were organised to support the ‘Six Points’. Parliament rejected each petition without debate. 1883 Corrupt Practices Act limited election expenses 1884 Vote extended to 2 in 3 men Five of the Chartists’ demands were enacted by 1918.