freedom of the press, of public meeting, of trade union organization, of political organization and of election, were either severely limited or in abeyance
[...] In eighteenth-century Britain riotous actions assumed two different forms: that of more or less spontaneous popular direct action; and that of the deliberate use of the crowd as an instrument of pressure, by persons ‘above’ or apart from the crowd. The first form has not received the attentio…
Luddism [...] was a form of direct action which arose in specific conditions, which was often highly organized and under the protection of the local community, and as to which we should be chary of generalization.
with an eye for Brechtian values – the fatalism, the irony in the face of Establishment homilies, the tenacity of self-preservation.
Moreover, abject ‘adjustment’ to suffering and want at times may indicate a sense of reality as impaired as that of the chiliast.
