Opposition to LiberalismBy: Sydney Ganson

October 20, 2010

Luddites

Ned Ludd

Skilled textile laborers were being replaced by machines that were operated by cheap, unskilled workers

Ned Ludd led the group of Reddressers to destroy machines that would threaten their labor.

The Government responded by declaring this as a capital offence that resulted in death. Finally after law and force the government had control of the luddists.

Chartists

William Lovett, Francis Place, Henry Hetherington

Chartism was a working-class movment in Britian that focused on political and social reform.

Six essential goals: all men over 21 have a right to vote, equal sized electoral districts, voting by secret ballots, an end to the need for property qualification for parliament, pay members of the parliament, annual elections. In 1832 the right to vote had been extended to some of the middle class males but not the working class. The right to vote promised many improvements for the working class and a variety of organizations.

The chartists then created a petition to put these 6 goals into effect but they were turned down 3 times by the House of Commons. After this the chartists moved their thoughts towards socialist’s ideologies.

Utopian Socialists

Sir Thomas More, Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Claude Saint-Simon, Horace Greeley

Utopians wanted to end the awful conditions they were working in during the industrial revolution

They believed that education and improved working conditions could peacefully eradicate the worst aspects of capitalism and lead to an ideal socialist society where everyone would live happily, the natural laws of society would be used to guide progress.

Individuals could realize their potential if they were free to pursue their own inclinations.

Marxism

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels