"earliest known photo of a mass gathering of people in London - the Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, 10 April 1848"

Hat tip Ali G

"This is a daguerreotype (an early form of photograph) of the Chartist meeting held at Kennington Common on 10th April 1848. It was the last time the Chartists attempted to present a petition to Parliament. Fearing an attempted revolution, the Government prepared immensely for the meeting and filled London with 85,000 special constables, as well as putting 8,000 soldiers on alert. 

Although there were probably upwards of 20,000 (perhaps as many as 50,000) people present, the meeting was a peaceful one. As the crowd dispersed Feargus O’Connor and the Chartist Executive delivered the petition to Parliament in a series of coaches. O’Connor claimed the petition had 5,700,000 signatures, but when the clerks in the House of Commons examined it, they found it to feature less than two million names. 

These included a number of falsely-signed names, such as those of Queen Victoria, Sir Robert Peel and The Duke of Wellington, which only served to discredit the petition further. Despite the huge amount of legitimate signatures, Parliament did not take the petition seriously and it was rejected".

Taken from: Daguerreotype of the Chartist meeting at Kennington Common
Date: 10th April 1848
Copyright: The Royal Collection © 2009, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Democracy: Near and Far

An old friend from University is on his way home from Nigeria, where he was an international observer on the recent general elections in that country. Some 500 people are estimated to have been killed during this election.  Including 10 young students who were manning polling stations.  Ironically, I understand that the elections this year have generally been "free and fair" and the "best poll in Nigeria for decades".

Before we get too smug in this country, I think about our own long history of internal political violence which lasted until relatively recent times. The last armed rebellion in this country (mainland) was by Chartists in Newport, Wales in 1839. Picture is of Jacobite clansmen at the Battle of Culloden 1745. 

Newport (Ymerodraeth State of Mind)

This brilliant YouTube video should strikes a cord with anyone brought up from a small town.  Hat tip to Col. Roi. Of course, Newport was also the site of the Chartist Rebellion in 1839 which I think is the only serious attempt at violent revolutionary rebellion in modern mainland British History. 

You can see the original spine-tingling version of the song by Alicia Keys here.

UPDATE: sorry but EMI are just being greedy stupid t**ts but check out here

William Cuffay - "Britain's Black Revolutionary"

While driving to a meeting with HR today I listened on Radio 4 to former T&G General Secretary (now Lord) Bill Morris describe the extraordinary life of Chartist Movement leader William Cuffay. Bill explained that as the first GS of a major trade union he is often described as the “First black leader of the Labour movement”.

Yet over 160 years ago William Cuffay (another Bill) who was the son of slaves (and also physically disabled) was a leading trade union and national political activist.

But Cuffay is now as Bill explained almost “entirely forgotten” yet at the time of the Great Chartist petition of 1848 he was one of their foremost organisers and orators. After the (relative) failure of the “moral force” Chartists in 1848 Cuffay became disillusioned with such protest and became involved in a “physical force” plot to overthrow the government. He was betrayed, arrested and transported to Tasmania. He was later pardoned but chose to remain in the colony and died there still fighting for social justice aged 82.

The early 19th century chartist campaign was described in the programme as the British civil rights movement. There was immense opposition and repression towards the Chartists at the time by the rich and the powerful. Nowadays nearly all their demands for Parliamentary reform are now fully accepted as being the democratic norm.

This is a great story and you can listen to it here again for the next 7 days on BBC IPlayer. Picture is of William in jail before he was transported which was probably used to make prints and raise funds for his wife to later join him in Tasmania.

This picture (left) of the mass meeting of Chartists on Kennington Common in 1848 which I think is the first ever photo of a political protest meeting?