In
the 1880s working-class political representatives stood in parliamentary
elections as Liberal-Labour candidates. After
the 1885 General Election there were eleven
of these Liberal-Labour MPs. Some socialists like Keir
Hardie, the Liberal-Labour MP for West Ham, began to argue that
the working class needed their own independent political party. This
feeling was strong in Manchester and
in 1892 Robert Blatchford, the editor
of the socialist newspaper, the Clarion
joined with Tom Garrs, and Richard
Pankhurst to form the Manchester Independent Labour Party.
The activities of the Manchester group inspired Liberal-Labour MPs
to consider establishing a new national working class party. Under
the leadership of Keir Hardie, the Independent
Labour Party was formed in 1893. It was decided that the main objective
of the party would be "to secure the collective ownership of
the means of production, distribution and exchange". Leading
figures in this new organisation included Hardie, Robert
Smillie, George Bernard Shaw, Tom
Mann, George Barnes, John
Glasier, H. H. Champion, Ben
Tillett, Philip Snowden, Edward
Carpenter and Ramsay Macdonald.
In 1895 the Independent Labour Party had 35,000 members. However,
in the 1895 General Election the ILP put
up 28 candidates but won only 44,325 votes. All the candidates were
defeated but the ILP began to have success in local elections. Over
600 won seats on borough councils and in 1898 the ILP joined with
the the Social Democratic Federation to
make West Ham the first local authority to have a Labour majority.
The example of West Ham convinced Keir Hardie
that to obtain national electoral success, it would be necessary to
join with other left-wing groups. On 27th February 1900, representatives
of all the socialist groups in Britain (the Independent Labour Party,
the Social Democratic Federation and the
Fabian Society, joined trade union leaders
to form the Labour Representation Committee.
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Last
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(1)
Philip Snowden, An Autobiography
(1934)
By the end of 1892 it was felt that the
various Labour Unions should be merged into a National Party. So steps
were taken to call a Conference, which met at Bradford in January
1893. To this Conference delegates from the local unions, the Fabian
Society (which at the time was doing considerable propaganda work
among the Radical Clubs), and the Social Democratic Federation, were
invited. There were 115 delegates present at this conference, and
among them was Mr. George Bernard Shaw, representing the Fabian Society.
He played a conspicuous part in the Conference. Mr. Keir Hardie, fresh
from his success at West Ham, was elected Chairman of the Conference.
(2)
In January 1893, Katharine
Glasier described the formation
of the Independent Labour Party in her diary.
On January 13th, 1893, the Independent Labour
Party sprang into being, and, as a child of the spirit of Liberty,
claims every song that she has sung - in whatever land - as a glorious
heritage. Life, lover, liberty, and labour make liquid music. The
Labour Party is in league with life, and works for liberty that man
may live. The Socialist creed of the 'One body' is a declaration that
liberty grows with love, and that therefore life is love's child.
(3)
Henry Snell, Men Movements and Myself
(1936)
The Independent Labour Party was avowedly
and uncompromisingly Socialist, and those of us who were its advocates
attacked capitalism in every speech that we made. The Sunday meetings
of the I.L.P. held in a thousand halls, suggested religious revival
meetings rather than political demonstrations. The fervour of the
great audiences that assembled in centres like Glasgow, Bradford,
Leeds, Huddersfield, Birmingham, and Bristol, was quite without precedent
in British political history. Men who had grown old in years had their
youthful enthusiasms renewed under the glow and warmth of a new spiritual
fellowship. They were born again; they joyfully walked many miles
to listen to a favourite speaker; they sang Labour hymns; and they
gave to the new social faith an intensity of devotion which lifted
it far above the older political organizations of the day.
(4)
In April 1900, Bruce Glasier wrote in
his diary about being elected chairman of the Independent Labour Party.
Margaret McMillan and many others say it will
do good, by showing that movement is not merely a Hardie one, and
that who have never taken to Hardie will join.
(5)
William
Anderson, statement issued on behalf of the Independent
Labour Party (1914)
We are told that International
Socialism is dead, that all our hopes and ideals are wrecked by the
fire and pestilence and European war. It is not true.
Out of the darkness and
the depth we hail our working-class comrades of every land. Across
the roar of guns, we send sympathy and greeting to the German Socialists.
They have laboured unceasingly to promote good relations with Britain,
as we with Germany. They are no enemies of ours, but faithful friends.
In forcing this appalling
crime upon the nations, it is the rulers, the diplomats, the militarists
who have sealed their doom. In tears and blood and bitterness, the
greater Democracy will be born. With steadfast faith we greet the
future; our cause is holy and imperishable, and the labour of our
hands has not been in vain.
Long live Freedom and
Equality! Long live International Socialism!
(6)
Morgan Philips Price, My Three Revolutions
(1969)
The Labour Party in those
days suffered considerably from the anarchy of conflicting ideas,
and it was not easy for me to fit in anywhere. From 1923 onwards I
used to attend meetings and conferences organized by the Fabians and
the I.L.P. The Fabians were serious people, rather with Civil Service
minds, extremely rational and full of common sense. But they were
too quiet to get the public ear. Their influence was with the 'high-ups'
and a few of the people who mattered.
The I.L.P. had the mass
appeal and the means to get their ideas across. But what a chaos,
if the solid trade union people were not there to give it some stability!
There were a large number of young women with short hair and young
men with long. There were also the old pioneers who had been active
in the movement before these young people were born. They thought
that what Keir Hardie had said in the year one and the resolution
passed by a conference in the 1890s was gospel and that it was sacrilege
to alter it for something more practical in the 1920s. Socialism with
these people was of the Utopian kind, a mixture of Robert Owen, William
Morris and of the mid-Victorian social reformers. But they believed
in democracy and thought that by propaganda a Parliamentary majority
could be obtained for revolutionary changes.
There was also a very
strong pacifist element in the I.L.P. With a commendable courage,
many of them had been conscientious objectors and even at the height
of the recent War had exposed the more seamy side of the Western Allies'
propaganda and actions. Some of them had suffered long terms of imprisonment
for their ideas and I felt deep sympathy with them, especially since
they were also fighting for civil liberty. Some of them would not
even take 'work of national importance' in place of going into the
army.
I did not agree with those
of them who took the Tolstoyan view of complete non-resistance to
evil. Yet these pacifist ideas had considerable influence in the I.L.P.
in those days and largely brought it about that that party would object
to the maintenance of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
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