to the bourgeoisie. In the Unions and
turnouts opposition always remained isolated: it was single working-men
or sections who fought a single bourgeois. If the fight became general,
this was scarcely by the intention of the working-men; or, when it did
happen intentionally, Chartism was at the bottom of it. But in Chartism
it is the whole working class which arises against the bourgeoisie, and
attacks, first of all, the political power, the legislative rampart with
which the bourgeoisie has surrounded itself. Chartism has proceeded from
the Democratic party which arose between 1780 and 1790 with and in the
proletariat, gained strength during the French Revolution, and came forth
after the peace as the Radical party. It had its headquarters then in
Birmingham and Manchester, and later in London; extorted the Reform Bill
from the Oligarchs of the old Parliament by a union with the Liberal
bourgeoisie, and has steadily consolidated itself, since then, as a more
and more pronounced working-men's party in opposition to the bourgeoisie
In 1835 a committee of the General Working-men's Association of London,
with William Lovett at its head, drew up the People's Charter, whose six
points are as follows: (1) Universal suffrage for every man who is of
age, sane and unconvicted of crime; (2) Annual Parliaments; (3) Payment
of members of Parliament, to enable poor men to stand for election; (4)
Voting by ballot to prevent bribery and intimidation by the bourgeoisie;
(5) Equal electoral districts to secure equal representation; and (6)
Abolition of the even now merely nominal property qualification of 300
pounds in land for candidates in order to make every voter eligible.
These six points, which are all limited to the reconstitution of the
House of Commons, harmless as they seem, are sufficient to overthrow the
whole English Constitution, Queen and Lords included. The so-called
monarchical and aristocratic elements of the Constitution can maintain
themselves only because the bourgeoisie has an interest in the
continuance of their sham existence; and more than a sham existence
neither possesses to-day. But as soon as real public opinion in its
totality backs the House of Commons, as soon as the House of Commons
incorporates the will, not of the bourgeoisie alone, but of the whole
nation, it will absorb the whole power so completely that the last halo
must fall from the head of the monarch and the aristocracy. The English
worki