 November the 4th is the 181st anniversary of the Newport Rising. This is one of the most important events in the history of the working class of Britain. Far from being only a few unorganised troublemakers, the Newport Rising reflected the willingness of the mass of the working class in Britain to participate in an insurrection to overthrow the old order. The life of the working class in Victorian Britain was miserable. The factory was a dictatorship where workers and their families would be forced to work punishingly long hours for very little pay with fines being leveled for every tiny infraction. Working and living conditions were so bad that a popular prayer went from the loom, the factory in the mine, good Lord deliverers. The workers had no political representation. Those who owned no property didn't have the right to vote, a system that was maintained to protect the interests of the capitalist class. The ruling class feared that rather than limiting themselves to polite debates in Parliament, the workers would use any political power they gained to seize the property of the rich and put a stop to the exploitation of capitalism altogether. As the Duke of Wellington said of the workers demanding the vote, plunder is the object, plunder is likewise the means. In other words, the capitalists were terrified of the revolutionary power of the working class. This explains why they would do anything to keep them away from political power. Chartism was a mass political movement of millions of workers in Britain. Fed up with their terrible conditions of life and work, workers demanded the right to vote and to put their own representatives in Parliament who would act in their interests and not in the interests of the ruling class. As Bronteria Bryan, a leading Chartist explained, it was not the actions and the decisions of a few cruel individuals in Parliament that was needed to be remedied, but the question of which class they represented. Individuals, he explained, are but the chosen tools or instruments of these classes. The Chartist movement was set up to demand the fulfilment of the following six points. A vote for all men over the age of 21, secret ballots, no property qualifications for MPs enabling a worker to become an MP, payment of MPs, equal constituencies, and annual Parliaments. While these may sound like very reasonable demands even from the perspectives of the capitalist, in the context of the time angles explained, they would be sufficient to overthrow the whole English Constitution, Queen and Lords included. In 1839, the first petition was launched. More than 1,280,000 signatures demanding the Parliament accept the Charter were presented to Parliament. This was an amazing feat given that the population of Britain was less than 16 million at that time. However, many workers knew that the ruling class would never give in to their demands, no matter how many signatures they got. The real question was what should be done after the Charter was rejected. The Charter was not just a polite request for the vote, it was a catalyst which channeled the anger and hatred of the working class. Before the Charter was presented to Parliament, mass meetings were held in the industrial areas. Nighttime meetings became more frequent, illuminated by burning torches and addressed by speakers who captured the angry mood. As one Charter said, if that petition should fail, I could not attempt to say what would be the consequences. Rifles would be loaded, that would be the next step, no doubt, and I would defy the power of any government or any armed Bourbon police to put them down. This is exactly what happened. In July of 1839, the first petition was rejected in the House of Commons by 235 votes to 46. Immediately afterwards, Charter's rallies ended in clashes with the Army in Newcastle and a riot in Birmingham. The Charter's convention had planned to hold a general strike or national holiday as they called it in August. However, at the last minute, the wavering leadership put forward a proposal to postpone the strike. The confusion was worsened by a crackdown and arrests of leading Charterists. In the end, the general strike went ahead, but only in a localised, disorganised fashion taking the wind out of the sails of the movement. Nevertheless, in many areas, notably in Wales, the mood was becoming increasingly desperate. Let there be no blinking in the question, stated Hani. These are not the times to be nice about mere words. The fact is that there is but one mode of obtaining the Charter and that is by insurrection. Even before the position was presented, workers across the country had taken seriously the need to prepare for armed insurrection. Weapons were openly traded in street markets in most industrial towns. Military drilling took place across the country. John Frost, a Welsh Charterist, joined by a small group of Charterist leaders decided to take matters into their own hands. They made plans for a general insurrection in Yorkshire, Lancashire, Birmingham, Sheffield and South Wales, the heart of Charterism. This was not supposed to be a local uprising but a national insurrection. According to the plan, the country was divided into districts, then into groups of ten, a hundred and a thousand men with their own captains. Pike making and drilling became extensive while the authorities did not have the forces on the ground to prevent such activities. Pikes and possibly other weapons were secretly made and stuck piled in local caves in the Breckham Beacons. Towards the end of October, after a huge growth in Charterist numbers, the Charterist leaders in Wales decided on an armed attack on 3rd November, hoping to capture Newport. Henry Vincent, a leading Charterist, was being held in prison there and they hoped to free him. This was part of a much wider plan with uprisings planned in different areas of the country, particularly in Lancashire and West Yorkshire. The forces that they were assembling were viewed as part of a massive workers army that would spearhead a national Charterist uprising. On the day, the Charterist forces were formed into three armed columns made of around 20,000 to 30,000 colliers and iron workers. However, they did not reach Newport until the following morning, 4th of November. The authorities had been informed of what was happening and had reinforced the town with police, special constables and troops from the 45th Infantry Regiment. The authorities had rounded up local Charterist and held them at the Westgate Hotel in the centre of the town. The insurgents were informed about the prisoners held at Westgate. Rather than wait for reinforcements, they were sent to the hotel anxious to free their comrades. In the end, the early Charterist insurgents crowded around the hotel at around 9 o'clock in the morning, facing about 40 government troops who were waiting within. Then the troops opened fire. There were officially 20 dead with some 50 seriously wounded and many more injured. Thousands of insurrectionists were still stationed in surrounding hillsides and villages. However, the orders to advance never came. Skirmishes lasted for several days afterwards as more troops were sent to secure the town. There were rumours circulating that Yorkshire and Lancashire were to rise by the end of the month with growing fears among the ruling class from English Newport. In January 1840, it was reported that the Charterists in the county of Leicestershire were preparing a rising together with others in the north. However, the Charterists in the north of the country due to a lack of serious preparation failed to respond. Revolt's later broke out in Sheffield, Dewsbury and Bradford, but these were short-lived and were easily suppressed. Frost and the other insurrectionists were captured and sentenced to death, but due to the extremely high tensions and explosive situation in the country, their sentences were eventually commuted to transportation for life. However, although the Newport Rising ended up isolated and defeated, perhaps due to poor communication and decision and delays, the Newport Rising must be seen as the first generalised insurrection of the new industrial proletariat. It certainly was not over. The movement went on to found the first working-class party in history and to present two more petitions to Parliament. In 1848, a petition holding 5.7 million signatures, more than a third of the population was presented to Parliament. The Charterists were blocked from achieving their aim, and with the lack of any experience to go on, they had to blindly grope their way forward, making many mistakes. However, the experience of Charterism is vitally important and it remains the country of the British labour movement, and that of the whole working-class. In the words of Leon Trotsky, without Charterism there would have been no Paris Commune, without that, no October.