CHARTISM

"Fellow-countrymen, when we contend for an equality of political rights, it is not in order to lop off an unjust tax or useless pension, or to get a transfer of wealth, power, or influence, for a party; but to be able to probe our social evils to their source, and to apply effective remedies to prevent, instead of unjust laws to punish…

And if the teachers of temperance and preachers of morality would unite like us, and direct their attention to the source of the evil, instead of nibbling at the effects, and seldom speaking of the cause; then, indeed instead of splendid palaces of intemperance daily erected, as if in mockery of their exertions – built on the ruins of happy home, despairing minds, and sickened hearts – we should soon have a sober, honest, and reflecting people."

(Address to the Working Men’s Association, from The Early Chartists, edited by Dorothy Thompson.)

The language is old but the intention is clear: society must be transformed. Central to this transformation is education, but of a quite specific sort: a critical understanding of the real factors, the causes, of industrial oppression, knowledge to be used to undermine the ruling establishment.