What If?
What if the soldiers hadn’t fired
From the shutters of the Westgate Hotel,
But downed their weapons and deserted instead,
To join the ranks of the democrats?
What if George Shell hadn’t endured an agonising death
Through three long hours,
But was welcomed into the Hotel instead,
To fraternise with the special constables.
What if Newport had been taken,
The iron works and collieries too,
The canals and tram roads and turnpikes,
In common ownership.
What if the mail hadn’t got through from Newport,
So that Chartists rose from all over England,
In common cause for the Charter,
And the Sacred Month of strikes.
What if soldiers in all their barracks and billets,
Refused to move against their comrades,
Disobeyed their officers and orders,
But made common cause instead.
What if the Charter had become law in 1839?
Whatever next?
Just as the world copied the first industrial revolution,
And copied the habits of British capitalism,
So it would have copied the first industrial revolution,
And the manners of British socialism,
The world would have followed the example of British socialism.
That is how important the Newport Rising was:
Ever Remember the 4th of November
And those anonymous burial plots.