The Chartism or Chartism, in its original name in English, was a movement part of the Social Reform that was developed in the United Kingdom during the first half of XIX century; approximately lasted a little over a decade, from the year 1838 until 1852.
Next to Ludism (contemporary labor movement to Chartism, whose focus of attack was the machines with which the workers worked), Chartism is considered as a movement typical of the first stage of the labor movement, although, unlike Luddism its essence it was eminently political.
The name it would take, Chartism or Chartism, came from the Carta del Pueblo or The People’s Charter, that it was a document that in 1838 was sent to the British Parliament and which included six basic and inalienable petitions that the aforementioned movement claimed: universal suffrage for men over 21 years of age who were in their right mind and did not have a criminal record, secret ballot, annual salary for those deputies who made it possible to the workers the exercise of politics, annual meeting of Parliament to avoid bribery, worker participation in Parliament, abolition of the property requirement to attend Parliament and the establishment of equal constituencies that guarantee equitable representation to the same number of voters.
The aforementioned petition was presented in the aforementioned and on several other occasions to Parliament, being rejected the same times it was presented. Although they did not achieve their initial objectives, the Chartists obtained several partial successes that were considered achievements as important as the petitions, among them the following stand out: reduction of the working day to 12 hours a day, then that value dropped to 10 and they were especially good when it came to raising awareness among workers in political terms.
Then, Chartism was neither a success nor a failure, we could say that it was an important experience for the working class that from this moment would begin to demand better conditions, aware of the prominent role they occupied within society.
Meanwhile, the movement had three important leaders, Lovett, O’Brien and Feargus O’Connor.
