workers. A mass meeting at Smithfield in July adopted an Address drawn up by Hunt from "The People of Great Bri- Ireland." People of COUNTRYMEN!" it seat unprincipled for dominated cen- us in mutual ig- norance and alienation from each who Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986, Page 25
WHAT A RELIEF! NOW THAT'SEL LEADERSHIP! 1A311 other. You have been taught to consider us your Persecutors, and we have been taught to look upon you
Othe Slaves of Spiritual Despotism and the enemies of Civil and Religious Liberty. It is time that the veil should fall from before
eyes. Oppression, that great teacher of nations, which by making them smart under their own woes, expands their hearts in sympathy tor the woes of their FellowSufferers, has at length induced us
Tour attention to your
Both peoples were the victims of two different forms of "Universal Popular Oppression" which had the
effect, "popular insult and degradation, oligarchic despotism, a privileged minority of both nations, raised over the heads, fed by the earnings, uphelded and defended by the blood and treasure of the great majorities of both...
It appealed to the Irish to join in the struggle for universal suffrage, annual parliaments and vote by ballot, not as an alternative to but as the only way to achieve Catholic Emancipation and true religious liberty. The fact that the Act of Union is not even vaguely alluded to reflects the back
this question had taken in Ireland, where political life was now
Aby the Catholic bourgeoisie and church hiararchy
sought an end to the legal
them with unrelenting fury... The sword of the oppressor is falling on humanity when the lash and the oppressed about the talk to system of tyranny... It is not a time in an Irishman under his present is the best and only proof of virtue ed. To resist or to kill an oppressor laws by which Ireland is oppresscy itself compared with the bloody midnight assassination! It is a mersunset! Talk about the horrors of from his hovel a few minutes after absent for being transportation been sent on board the hulks for many a honest fellow has already rection Act is in full operation and scheme of Castlereagh. The Insurfeeling the effects of the tavourite is Ireland! "Ireland! Bleeding
from the pen of an English worker. port for the Irish people ever to come compromising declarations of supbe one of the most stirring and unwrote in The Republican what must due to continued rural terrorism, he placed the country under martial law subject to an Insurrection Act which sion. In 1822, when Ireland was again the people to rebel against oppresspiracies, Carlile upheld the right of insurrectionary conAlthough he was opposed to secret
political activity was at a low ebb. sion such as anti-trade union laws, ment and some relaxation of represprevious defeats, economic improveworking class at a time when, due to theoretical development of the British the to contribution
Peterloo massacre 1819
to societies and important materialism, which militant and Paineite on radicals with his The first great working class ad- and his relatively comfor- especially ideas, political and discussing and propaganda groups of working class attempted revolution A planning for to aT- London some 1820 of
Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986. Page 26 tionalised religions. He thus made an the and relentless attacks on all institu- developed through Deism to Atheism philosophical Republicanism Arthur ideas elaborate spired many vocate of a free press, Carlile also in- working unrepentant attitude. was to spend six years in gaol for his against seditious publications tims of the "Gagging Acts" of 1819 a tin-plate worker, was one of the vic- table cell in Dorchester gaol. Carlile, Carlile from edited and largely written by Richard around the journal The Republican philosophical promoting radicals remained, Small almost a decade. radicalism as a mass movement for disappeared ordinated attempt collapsed. With it the vicinity of Glasgow but the ill-co- arms in Huddershield, Barnsley and devour the London base. Men assembled under did break out but not in Thistlewood's swarms of execution, an month after his arrest, and before his prelude to a general uprising. assassinate the entire cabinet as a informer, an of tisans were arrested, on the evidence Thistlewood and beginning the At
was enhanced the credibility of the revolutionaries side the law were immobilised whilst Henry Hunt who would not step outand speech. Again it meant those like laws banning freedom of association government again enacted a series of
agitation truculent creasingly Alarmed by the growing and in-
militant. Thistlewood, were amongst the most
revolutionary Radical don Irish who were close to the Ultra were brandished and fired. The Lonand at some demonstrations weapons class meetings called for vengence
country Throughout the many injured. and dead eleven Constables and troops, resulting in was attacked by Yeomanry, Special march and rally to hear Henry Hunt Massacre" at Manchester, when a there occured the infamous "Peterloo month, August 16, The following
veteran of the 98. of the local leaders was Denis Shaw, a Radical Irish group was formed. One don, particularly in Lambeth where a as distributed amongst Irish in Lonwere sent to Dublin and Cork as well Thousands of copies of the Address
your starving poor?" tries? Will it give employment to fruits of the industry of both Coun
formers who greedily Tythe-Proctors, Excisemen and In-
Will it diminish the the Standing Army? Sinecures. "..will it lessen your Taxation? Debt. it lessen Will
Amass of Irish people: lead to the political liberty of the that Catholic emancipation would not Catholics. Hunt's address made clear civic rights of on the restrictions
oppressor places himself outside the pale of humanity... The success of the Irish insurgents would give me more joy than does the success of the Greeks.. we feel the lash of the same oppressor."
In the late 1810s the political situation in both countries rapidly changed. After a series of bank collapses in 1825 and 1826, widespread unemployment and wage-cutting wiped out many of the improvements won by the rawly legalised trades unions in Britain. Economic distress and unrest revived popular demands for political reform, and again events in Ireland gave encouragement.
Here in 1828 Daniel O'Connell, leader of the Catholic Association, won the County Clare election, although as a Catholic he was disqualified from taking his seat. The following year mounting agitation in Ireland forced the Tory government to pass the Catholic Emancipation Act, allowing Catholics to hold civil and military offices. Obviously this only benefitted the Catholic bourgeoisie, especially as the Tories also increased the property qualification for Irish voters.
The passing of the Act not only sharpened conflicts within the Tory cabinet, contributing to the fall of Wellington's ministry and the return of a government more amenable to parliamentary reform, but it also showed to British reformers the effectiveness of a mass movement. Political Unions were founded to
Reform riots of 1832: only the middle classes were given the vote. build a nationwide movement on the model of the Catholic Association in order to pressurise the government into enacting a reform of parliament.
The fragile alliance between middle and working class reformers, already strained by the growing violence of the campaign in some areas, completely broke down on the passing of the Reform Act in 1832 Only the middle class achieved the vote under its provisions, and the Whig government which was returned increasingly revealed itself as the representative of the bourgeoisie.
In particular the resurgent Trades Unions were attacked and effective Factory reform blocked by the new administration. Consequently working class radicals could more clearly identify their enemy as not simply a political regime based on the landed aristocracy but as a social and economic class of owners of capital.
This developing class consciousness was also dawning in a new attitude to Ireland which also stressed the need for social and economic change. In 1832, at the height of the Tithe War, when the military were used against the Irish peasantry resisting their agricultural produce being appropriated to maintain the English church, a Friends of Ireland Society was established in London
*to demand full justice for Ireland and to support Daniel O'Connell MP in the arduous strug]e in which he is engaged for the liberation of his enslaved and Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986. Page 27
unhappy country."
The following year a Coercion Bill
placing Ireland under military law
was widely condemned. A meeting of
Huddersfield Political Union resolv-
ed that "Algerine acts and Russian
ukases are lenient and humane when
placed in comparison with the
revolting bill now in contemplation
for Polandizing our herole, noble and
generous Irish brethern. It was
stressed that tho militarisation of
Ireland would strengthen the stan-
ding army and that the suspension of
civil liberties was a potential threat to
the rights of British citizens also.
By 1835 when it had become ap-
parent that O'Connell was doing a
deal with the Whigs, in order to win
concessions for the Irish bourgeoisie
at the expense of the interests of the
workers and peasants of both coun
tries, and by suspending his support
for the repeal of the Act of Union, the
emphasis of working class statements
on Ireland changed.
The Poor Man's Guardian, organ
of the London-based National Union of the Working Classes, announced in 1835:
"...under the existing laws of England. property is neither honestly acquired nor honestly distributed, that these laws give almost all property to those who produce none of it... the laws are made by the idlers to the exclusion of the producers... Why does not
O'Connell teach the Irish these great truths? Why does he not instead of the hollow declamations about Orangeism and the Catholic religion tell the people honestly that sacerdotal religion is kept up by the higher and middle classes for the sole purpose of blinding the industrious classes and disposing them to submit without a murmer to the frauds and despotism of the rich?.. The Irish want a full share of the fat hogs they take so much thousands of which are shipped off pains to feed every year to Bristol, Liverpool and London to be eaten by the basest and bloodiest of mankind... They require that the fee simple of the land shall revert to the rightful owner viz. THE NATION... Let O'Connell attend to these matters. Let him secure to every Irish labourer a vote in the national representation so that he may protect his labour against the drones and destroyers who carry off his produce and who show him the gallows if he resist...'
Thus the oppression of Ireland and the national question were linked to exploitation and the class struggle in both countries, already forshadowing the conflict between O'Connellism and Chartism. It was a compatriot of O'Connell, James "Bronterre" O'Brien, who was the leading exponent of this class analysis in the Poor Man's Guardian and it was to be another fellow countryman, Feargus O'Connor, who emerged as the main leader of the Chartists.
Ireland, forty thousand Irishmen in London were ready to avenge their bretheren."
Alarmed by such statements, an impending demonstration to present the Petition to Parliament and the increasingly militant tone of Michell in Ireland - who was now publishing hints on street warlare in his United Irishman - the government passed a Security Bill. This created the new crime of "treason felony" which carried the penalty of long terms of transportation for speeches inciting sedition.
On April 10, the day the petition was to be presented to parliament, tens of thousands of troops and special constables were mobilised in London. A massive demonstration of workers gathered on Kennington Common some bearing the banners "Ireland for the Irish" - ready to escort the petition to Westminster.
Since the march had been proclaimed illegal and the government had made plain they would go to any lengths to prevent what they saw as the beginning of an insurrection, the Chartist leaders, and in particular O'Connor. called it off. In doing so they avoided a bloody confrontation which the unarmed workers would have got the worst of, but as in 1839 they had failed to have any alternative strategy ready for when the petition was inevitably rejected and again they had raised hopes which were not fulfilled.
Feargus O'Connor
During the following weeks, angry neetings took place throughout Bn ain and Ireland. In April the Chartis leaders Kydd and Leach spoke at meetings in Ireland with Mitchell and •'Higgins and Confederate delegates visited Manchester and other towns. Some local Chartist Associations resolved to form a National Guard, like the popular militia ARLIAM CHARTER Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986, Page 30
in France, in order to counter the threat of state violence. Others saw it as an armed body to back up the demand for the Charter, or to suppor the anticipated uprising in Ireland. Especially in areas where the Irish element was influential, members of the National Guard actually began arming and drilling. With news from Ireland of the arrest of John Mitchell these preparations became even more urgent.
O'Connor pledged a week's profits from the Northern Star to support Mitchell's wife while he was awaiting trial. He considered Mitchell to be not simply a nationalist:
he is the first man amongst Ireland's modern patriots - sham and real — who has boldly unveiled the hideous vices of Ireland's anti-social system and manfully contended for the rights of the labourers and the sons of the soil -their social as well as their political rights."
On May 27 Mitcheel was sentenced to 14 years transportation and immediately transferred to the prison ship. Angry demonstrations were called throughout Britain to demand his release.
In Manchester, Bradford, Bingley and London clashes occurred, with police and troops as the authorities tried to ban marches or arrest Natonal Guard leaders. On Junel2 a series of mass rallies were planned, and again banned by the government fearing that they were preliminary to an uprising; but outside the town centres, such as on the beach near
Liverpool and on the Yorkshire
Moors, they went ahead and speakers
called for armed struggle for the
Charter and to free Mitchell.
A paper published in Manchester
y the Chartists James Leach anc
George Archdeacon, an Irishman
called The English Patriot and Irish
Repealer, warned the government.
"Touch Ireland if you dare ... i is not "Driving the Charter through Parlioment.*
Ireland alone you have to deal with."
Ireland, Mitchell's
United Irishman was replaced by the Irish Felon edited by John Martin
with Fintan Lalor as one of the main
contributors. Lalor reaffirmed his belief that Repeal was meaningless "reconquest" of the soil of Ireland by without social revolution the peasantry. He called for a rent strike after the harvest the coming Autumn and for resistance to tempts at eviction by the landlords. If the military were called in then they would resort to guerilla warfare.
Since the sentencing of Mitchell, other leaders of the Confederates were convinced of the need for an uprsing in the Autumn. Alarmed, the government arrested Martin other leaders and raided and closed down the Irish Felon. On July 22 the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended permitting imprisonment trial. For those leaders who remained at liberty, particularly 'Brien, Lalor's slogan adopted an urgent relevance. "Let us fight in September if we may — but sooner if we must.
Leaving Dublin, O'Brien and the Confederates who had evaded arrest made for Tipperary, where they attempted to rouse the workers and peasants of the countryside to sieze Kilkenny as the base for a revolutionary government. The bands of men they got together were badly armed, untrained and politically unprepared, and after a shoot-out with police at Ballingarry O'Brien abandoned the campaign. Lalor, on his way to link up with him,
outlawed port and was arrested. ing, agitation Thousands of Special and the and cheered at- and without Smith on July 29, Dire poverty in Ireland Socialist Viewpoint, No 8, November 1986. Page 31
Crowds greet the Chartist petition on its way to Parliament in 1842. had no better success in winning sup- In that week, from the suspension of Habeas Corpus to O'Brien's uprs- Ireland grew Britain. _In Constables were sworn in in Liverpool and pikes gunpowder siezed from Con- federates. In Birmingham, Chartists even for Mitchell in a mass the uprising on the military them federate. dock he stated:
meeting in the Bull Ring; and at Stockport a meeting of Chartists and Confederates called for support for
As news arrived of O'Brien's attempt, a poster appeared in London with the heading 'Is Ireland Up?" anticipating a joint insurrection, but
Tif one was planned, the premature and short-lived events in Ireland led to its postponement.
August 15 was the date decided for
Aby the revolutionary wing of the Chartists with the support of the Confederates in Britain. But by now the movement was infiltrated by spies and provocateurs, and 15 of the Manchester leadership, half of them Irish, were arrested before the day.
At nearby Aston and Saddleworth
August 14, National Guards began to march on Manchester, encouraged by a provocateur (who later shot a policeman) but retreated when
were called out. The police raided houses in London seizing arms and ammunition and arresting a number of workers, one of
Dowling, an Irish ConHe probably spoke for many of his countrymen when in the
"I do not wish to stand here as an English factionist but as an Irish Nationalist. My object was not to disturb English society but to free my own country.