The
success of the Left Book Club during the summer of 1936 encouraged
socialists to believe there was a market for a left-wing weekly. Victor
Gollancz, the founder of the Left Book Club, was approached by
a group of Labour MPs that included Stafford
Cripps, Aneurin Bevan, George
Strauss and Ellen Wilkinson and
it was agreed to start publishing a journal they decided to call Tribune.
Cripps
and Strauss provided most of the £20,000 capital needed to start
the newspaper. The editorial board included Gollancz, Cripps, Bevan,
Strauss, Wilkinson, Harold Laski and Noel
Brailsford. William Mellor was recruited as editor and left-wing
journalists such as George Orwell, Konni
Zilliacus,
Barbara Castle and Michael
Foot contributed articles to the journal.
The
declared mission of the people who produced the Tribune was
to recreate the Labour Party as a truly
socialist organization. This soon brought them into conflict with
Clement Attlee and other leaders of the
party.
