Keith Flett, "Trends in Chartism after 1848".
Paper presented at the New Socialist Approaches to History seminar, Institute of Historical Research, October 9th 2006
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This paper looks at trends in Chartism after 1848, during its decline. John Charlton finds no echo of Seattle in the post-Chartist 1860s. However the evidence presented below suggests that a new configuration of forces, based on anti-capitalism, as opposed to explicitly socialist politics, did come together in that decade. Ultimately it did not succeed in forming a new political force. The reasons why are as interesting, both to academics and activists, as an understanding of how the New Unionism of the 1880s led to the birth of the ILP.
The paper is based on material in Keith Flett, Chartism after 1848 (Merlin Press, 2006)