Really Useful Knowledge and the Politics of Radical Education with reference to the working- class press 1848-1870 Keith Flett Submitted for Phd examination September 2002 LON D01\') Chapters Introduction 1848: Political Protest and the communication of radical ideas The Chartist Meetings of 1848: Discussing and Acting on radical ideas and strategies The impact of the experience of defeat in 1848 on radical ideas The Battle of Ideas 1848-1851: Location, Influences, Results The Breaking and Making of radical education and ideas in the late 1850s Beyond Chartism: Radical Education and Radical Politics in the later 1850s Really Useful Knowledge and the 1870 Education Act. The politics of radical education in the 1860s. Conclusion Abstract This work looks at independent working class radical education in England from the year of revolutions, 1848 to the passage of the 1870 Education Act. It takes as its starting point Richard Johnson's analysis of really useful knowledge. Differing, however, from Johnson, it argues that radical ideas and radical working-class education and schools, far from disappearing after 1848, in fact flourished. It takes as its main source the often overlooked pages of the late Chartist and radical working-class press and focuses on the detail of radical meetings and events and the ideas that informed them. After an introductory chapter which firmly situates the research in its theoretical, historical and particularly chronological context, the following three chapters consider the events of 1848 and how these influenced working-class ideas and education. The experience of radicals in the period after 1848 is then considered, when support for Chartism declined but Chartist ideas moved further to the left. Two chapters look at the later 1850s and the little discussed educational strategy for political change put forward by G.J.Holyoake and opposed by W.E Adams. Two final chapters consider the development of radical education in the post- Chartist period of the 1860s and, finally, suggest some conclusions from the work in respect of the politics of the 1870 Education Act and beyond. Glossary Glossary Really Useful Knowledge A term used by Richard Johnson to describe the body of political knowledge that working-class radicals developed in the Chartist era. Johnson first wrote about the subject in Radical Education Nos 7&8 and developed his ideas in a number of subsequent articles. The term was actually used by radicals in the 1830s and 1840s, but Johnson was able to show how it combined elements of political and economic democracy Late Chartist Broadly a supporter of Chartism from 1851 to the final demise of Chartism on a national scale in 1860. Most Late Chartists subscribed to the politics of the Charter and Something More, a left-wing version of Chartism that focused on nationalisation. Post Chartist A working-class activist in the 1860s who had been a Chartist but was now focused on a campaign to extend the suffrage. Post-Chartism was also a set of ideas which held on the principles of Chartism while campaigning on a narrower basis. The Charter and Something More The left-wing programme adopted by the Chartists in 1851. 'Something More' referred to economic as well as political democracy, primarily, nationalisation of the land and some parts of the economy [J.Saville] The National Charter Association The world's first working-class political party, formed in 1841 it finally collapsed in 1860. The Northern Star The national Chartist paper which ran from 1838 until 1852. Owned by Feargus O'Connor it was based first in Leeds but later moved to London. By far the best selling newspaper of the period, sales easily outstripped those of The Times. The Reasoner The journal of working-class secularist thought, edited by G.J.Holyoake it ran from 1846 until 1861, [Warwick] The People's Paper The paper of Late Chartism it was edited by Ernest Jones and ran from 1852-1858. Marx was a frequent contributor. [J Saville/Warwick] 4 The Beehive A trade union focused paper that started in 1861. It was run by ex-Chartists sympathetic to Bronterre O'Brien [Warwick] Dem-Soc From the French term suggesting someone who supported an early view of social democracy rather than socialism which was often connected with 'utopians' such as Fourier at this time. Similar in meaning to The Charter and Something More. Fraternal Democrats The far left Chartist grouping led by G.J.Harney, begun in 1846 it had given way to other organisations by the early 1850s. Did not have its own paper but its activities were widely reported in the Northern Star and the Red Republican. Worked closely with Marx and Engels and with refugees from continental liberation struggles The Red Republican Journal started by G.J Harney in 1850 after his final break with Feargus O'Connor and the Northern Star. The most advanced of the late Chartist publications, it carried the first English translation of the Communist Manifesto. It changed its name to the Friend of the People, after finding problems with distribution of the title Red Republican. The Mass Platform The term given by historians, although also used at the time, to the radical strategy of extra-Parliamentary outdoor meetings to agitate for the suffrage. Judged by some to have run its course with the defeats of 1848, it proved a successful tactic in the passage of the Second Reform Bill in 1867. The Democracy A term borrowed from the French it meant the popular will, or, in the British case, those who were actually excluded from the formal democratic process by lack of a vote. The Northern Tribune Newcastle journal published in the mid-1850s by Joseph Cowen, later owner of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle and Liberal MP for Newcastle. The Northern Tribune is probably the earliest and perhaps the purest expression of the body of ideas known as Late Chartism Radical As Raymond Williams noted in Keywords the description 'radical' can apply to the political right as well as the political left. Its precise meaning therefore depends on its usage in an historical and chronological context. In this work it is specifically used in conjunction with the term working class to mean the politically active section of that class. It does not imply support for socialist or communist ideas but a desire for change and reform of a general nature. More specific currents are defined by the group or set of ideas to which they were affiliated, for example, the Fraternal Democrats 5 The National Reformer One of the great radical papers of the third quarter of the nineteenth century, the paper was secularist in opinion and radical working-class in its politics. It was associated with Holyoake, W.E. Adams and Charles Bradlaugh. The Suffrage Broadly speaking anything, in working-class politics, used to refer to any extension to the 1832 Reform Act. It was often qualified by terms such as 'manhood', 'universal', or, in more limited meanings 'ratepayers' The Educational Strategy A plan, primarily put forward by G.J. Holyoake but also supported by the extreme wing of the Liberal Party such as J.S. Mill which proposed some form of educational test and qualification whereby workers could gain access to the suffrage. The Extreme Sections Those on the far left of working-class politics, often influenced by Marx and Engels, but sometimes also anarchists. They certainly numbered amongst their ranks Late Chartists such as Charles Murray and most were to come together in the Land and Labour League in the late 1860s. They were those opposed to any form of co-operation or agreement with the Liberal Party The Land and Labour League The Land and Labour League was formed in 1868 from amongst those working-class sections of the Reform League that wanted the fight for an extension to the suffrage to continue after the passage of the 1867 Reform Act. The League was a broad organisation stretching from secularists like Bradlaugh to land nationalisers and trade unionists. It contained many of those who offered solidarity to the Paris Commune in 1871. Marx hoped that the League would from the basis of a new working-class political party and it did begin to publish a monthly, then weekly, paper, The Republican. However by the early 1870s it had collapsed as a national organisation, although the precise reasons for the collapse still await an historian. Labourism A term used in particular to describe the limited and reformist perspective of British labour in the period after 1848. There is an implied criticism of attempts to win gains and improvements in the here and now rather than the pursuit of a longer term, hegemonic and hence revolutionary strategy. An alternative perspective put forward by E.P. Thompson was that having seen revolution fail in 1848 the working-class determined to 'warren' capitalism from end to end, suggesting that labourism may have been more dynamic and less conservative than is sometimes imagined. 6 Chapter 1 Introduction The approach of this study This study seeks to address two major questions posed by the development of mid-Victorian working-class radicalism. Firstly, it looks at what happened to Chartism after 1848. Secondly it examines what happened to the provision of radical independent working-class education in the period between 1848 and the 1870 Education Act. Crucially it seeks to tie together changes in these two areas. The research demonstrates in particular, that Chartism did continue after 1848 and that radical education, far from falling away, in fact developed and changed significantly in the 1850s and 1860s. Within these parameters the approach taken in the chapters that follow has specific theoretical and methodological parameters which, it is suggested, have been too little used by historians of education.