Tag: Independent Labour Party

Documents & objects

Are you a socialist? The ILP’s six-point test for would-be members

‘Are you a socialist?’ enquired the Independent Labour Party in a recruitment leaflet published in March 1909. It went on to list six questions about the reader’s beliefs, to which, if the answer were to be ‘yes’, the appropriate course of action would be to join the ILP and help carry its principles into effect. The leaflet itself is of little significance. It includes an … Continue reading Are you a socialist? The ILP’s six-point test for would-be members

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Commentary, Labour history news, SSLH news

Video: The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914

The Labour Movement originated not in a single event or location but over time and as the result of events in many places. Among the most important of these was the West Riding of Yorkshire, where the Independent Labour Party was formed in the 1880s. In the second annual John L. Halstead Memorial Lecture, Professor Keith Laybourn spoke on ‘The Rising Sun of Socialism: The … Continue reading Video: The Rising Sun of Socialism and the Labour Movement in West Yorkshire 1884-1914

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Labour history news

The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

The booklet shown here was published by the Independent Labour Party in 1943 to mark its fiftieth anniversary. Appearing in wartime, it was necessarily restricted in scale, but still managed to pack a great deal, including nearly fifty illustrations, into its 60 A5 pages. The membership of the ILP had been in decline since its decision to disaffiliate from the Labour Party in 1932, and … Continue reading The Independent Labour Party at fifty: a souvenir

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Documents & objects

Who needs the ILP? How Labour’s 1918 constitution set it an existential challenge

In 1918, the Independent Labour Party faced the biggest question in its history to date: if the Labour Party, to which it had been affiliated from the start, was now an individual membership organisation with an avowedly socialist platform, what was the point of the ILP? The leaflet shown here was its first attempt to provide an answer to that far from trivial question. Formally … Continue reading Who needs the ILP? How Labour’s 1918 constitution set it an existential challenge

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Documents & objects

Radical ambition: Ramsay MacDonald and the 1895 general election

David Hanson reflects on the political trajectory of a firebrand would-be Labour MP whose early radical ambitions were set out during his first foray into electoral politics in 1895 James Ramsay MacDonald fought his first parliamentary election in 1895. The Independent Labour Party had been founded just two years earlier, and though not a founder member, MacDonald had joined early on after gaining political experience … Continue reading Radical ambition: Ramsay MacDonald and the 1895 general election

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SSLH news

Fifty years a labour historian: SSLH President Keith Laybourn on half a century at Huddersfield University

As a school leaver, Keith Laybourn was told, “Don’t be too ambitious”. This year, the SSLH President marks thirty years as a professor and fifty as an academic at the University of Huddersfield. We asked him about a lifetime in labour history Continue reading Fifty years a labour historian: SSLH President Keith Laybourn on half a century at Huddersfield University

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Documents & objects

The Labour Leader and the Clarion: rival socialist newspapers in the Edwardian era

Two men sit facing one another, rival socialist newspapers in hand as they debate the issues of the day. Clues in the picture have more to tell us about it, and about the political differences between the Labour Leader and the Clarion. But the reason it was taken remains a mystery. Continue reading The Labour Leader and the Clarion: rival socialist newspapers in the Edwardian era

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