“The Waterloo of Democracy against Despotism”: Chartist Internationalism and Poetic Repetition in the Labourer , 1847–48

Abstract

This essay argues that Ernest Jones and Feargus O’Connor’s Chartist periodical the Labourer utilizes strategies of poetic repetition in order to reinvent the battle of Waterloo as a symbol of worldwide armed resistance to class oppression. The Labourer’s prose and verse contributions make repeated references to the violence of Waterloo, merging this poetic technique of repetition with the miscellaneous format of the periodical. In so doing, the Labourer counters representations in the mainstream press that depicted Waterloo as a triumph of the hereditary order, showing instead how standing armies might work in the service of an internationalist vision of united laborers.