What do you know about 'Luddism'? Explain the facts.

1. The movement known as Luddism (1811-17), led by the charismatic General Ned Ludd, exemplified another type of protest. Luddism was not merely a backward -looking assault on machines. Its participants demanded a minimum wage, control over the labour of women and children, work for those who had lost their jobs because of the coming of machinery, and the right to form trade unions so that they could legally present these demands.

2. During the early years of industrialisation, the working population possessed neither the vote nor legal methods to express their anger at the drastic manner in which their lives had been overturned. In August 1819, 80,000 people gathered peacefully at St. Peter's Fields in Manchester to claim democratic rights - of political organisation, of public meetings, and of the freedom of the press.

3. They were suppressed brutally in what became known as the Peterloo Massacre and the rights they demanded were denied by the Six Acts, passed by Parliament the same year. These extended the restrictions on political activity introduced in the two Combination Acts of 1795. But there were some gains.
After Peterloo, the need to make the House of Commons more representative was recognised by liberal political groups, and the Combination Acts were repeated in 1824-25.