ABSTRACT
To Melbourne, according to the Queen, it recalled the tumults of the Reform Bill struggle. The movement has been described as a 'general strike, the first not only in Britain but in any capitalist country'. It would be wrong to conclude that a geuine revolutionary situation existed, for in the last analysis the state's monopoly of power was not in imminent danger of being overthrown. It will be useful to apply this analysis to the General Strike of 1842. It would be tempting to deduce from these cases a nucleated Chartist conspiracy to work up a general strike in favour of the People's Charter. Nevertheless, at the regional level, in places like Manchester, London and Glasgow, there was a marked coalescence of Chartism and the trade societies, and this exerted a profound influence upon the character of the General Strike.
