British Chartism and Utopian Socialists

Chartism Movement (1838-1848)

Between 1838 and 1848, the British labor movement engaged in political action through Chartism. This movement in England sought to pressure Parliament by collecting signatures in support of certain letters which claimed specific rights. In one of these, in 1838, a democratic program based on universal male suffrage was defined. Chartism organized strikes, but the movement failed because of repression, internal divisions, and the defeat of the revolution of 1848 in Europe.

Workers met in republican and leftist organizations in favor of universal male suffrage. After that revolution, socialist doctrines began to create class parties, exclusively for workers.

Utopian Socialism

Utopian socialism is a term that designates a heterogeneous set of social reform doctrines, prior to the rise of Marxism and anarchism, which emerged in the early nineteenth century in response to the serious problems that the triumph of industrialism and liberalism entailed in Europe.

Key Utopian Socialists

• Charles Fourier

  Charles Fourier developed during the 1820s his proposal to create agro-industrial establishments (phalanstères) for about 1600 people, housed in a building specially designed for this purpose. They would work the surrounding land and share profits from sales. Community utilities would be ensured, and all would work, including children, but the work would not be painful but attractive.

• Robert Owen

  Robert Owen began as a reformer of industrial work. In his factory, he implemented measures beneficial to the worker, such as the removal of arduous tasks and maintenance of salary during periods of reduced sales.

  Later, he proposed "cooperative farms" (villages of cooperation), which essentially focused on agriculture and had the function of generating a new moral and educational space.

• Étienne Cabet

  Étienne Cabet was influenced by Robert Owen during his exile in England. Returned to France, he preached a pacifist, democratic communism, prone to establishing common property settlements.

• Saint-Simon

  Saint-Simon did not develop an idea of a future perfect world, but proceeded to radically criticize the society that resulted from the French Revolution. In this context, he felt that governments should aim to improve the moral and material conditions of the working class, and end poverty and war, but exercising less government (understood as despotism) and more administration. Not opposed to private property, he suggested abolishing inheritance. The State should undertake great public works for the benefit of society: railways, dams, bridges, communication channels, credit unions, etc.