(a workers' movement contemporary to Chartism, whose focus of attack was the machines with which the workers worked), Chartism is considered as a movement of the first stage of the workers' movement, although, unlike Luddism, its essence was eminently political.

After the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which failed to extend the vote beyond those owning property, the political leaders of the working class made speeches claiming that there had been a great act of betrayal. This sense that the working