The Independent Labour Party, 1914-1939

The Independent Labour Party, 1914-1939
Author: Keith Laybourn
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 246
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781315231778

"Historians of political history are fascinated by the rise and fall of political parties and, for twentieth-century Britain, most obviously the rise of the Labour Party and the decline of the Liberal Party. What is often overlooked in this political development is the work of the Independent Labour Party (ILP) which was a formative influence in the growth of the political Labour movement and its leaders in the late nineteenth century and the early to mid-twentieth century. The ILP supplied the Labour Party with some of its leading political figures, such as Ramsay MacDonald, and moved the Labour Party along the road of parliamentary socialism. However, divided over the First World War and challenged by the Labour Party becoming socialist in 1918, it had to face the fact that it was no longer the major parliamentary socialist party in Britain"--

The Foundations of the British Labour Party

The Foundations of the British Labour Party
Author: Matthew Worley
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780754667315

Senior and up-and-coming scholars present the myriad elements that influenced the early development and political identity of the Labour Party, from the party's connections with powerful unions to the impact of socialism, religion, and other political and social movements on the new party.

Under Siege

Under Siege
Author: Ian Bullock
Publisher: Athabasca University Press
Total Pages: 430
Release: 2017-11-30
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1771991550

During the period between the two world wars, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) was the main voice of radical democratic socialism in Great Britain. Founded in 1893, the ILP had, since 1906, operated under the aegis of the Labour Party. As that party edged nearer to power following World War I, forming minority governments in 1924 and again in 1929, the ILP found its own identity under siege. On one side stood those who wanted the ILP to subordinate itself to an increasingly cautious and conventional Labour leadership; on the other stood those who felt that the ILP should throw its lot in with the Communist Party of Great Britain. After the ILP disaffiliated from Labour in 1932 in order to pursue a new, “revolutionary” policy, it was again torn, this time between those who wanted to merge with the Communists and those who saw the ILP as their more genuinely revolutionary and democratic rival. At the opening of the 1930s, the ILP boasted five times the membership of the Communist Party, as well as a sizeable contingent of MPs. By the end of the decade, having tested the possibility of creating a revolutionary party in Britain almost to the point of its own destruction, the ILP was much diminished—although, unlike the Communists, it still retained a foothold in Parliament. Despite this reversal of fortunes, during the 1930s—years that witnessed the ascendancy of both Stalin and Hitler—the ILP demonstrated an unswerving commitment to democratic socialist thinking. Drawing extensively on the ILP’s Labour Leader and other contemporary left-wing newspapers, as well as on ILP publications and internal party documents, Bullock examines the debates and ideological battles of the ILP during the tumultuous interwar period. He argues that the ILP made a lasting contribution to British politics in general, and to the modern Labour Party in particular, by preserving the values of democratic socialism during the interwar period.

The Blair Supremacy

The Blair Supremacy
Author: Lewis Minkin
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 856
Release: 2014-06-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1847799019

Lewis Minkin has immense experience of the Labour Party and has acted as adviser to two major internal reviews of the internal party organisation. As the author of two widely acclaimed and original studies on the Labour Party, The Labour Party Conference and The Contentious Alliance, he possesses an unrivalled grasp of the subtleties and nuances of Labour’s internal relationships. The Blair Supremacy is groundbreaking in its investigation of the processes, methods, character and politics of party management, during a period when Blair strengthened his own position as he and his allies and managers drove the party through a ferment of new developments under the name ‘New Labour’. For this book Minkin has been able to draw on a wealth of sources unavailable to other scholars. What is uncovered here is revealing and at times startling. It includes an extensive covert internal organisation, a culture which facilitated manipulation and what can be described as a rolling coup. These developments are rigorously and critically examined with a strong focus on three fundamental questions: How were these changes achieved? Was it, as it was often represented, a complete supremacy? Why did it end so badly with Blair being forced, in effect, to step down? The study challenges many misconceptions and sheds new light on the Blair legacy and on the intense controversies surrounding him. It also adds greatly to our understanding of some acute contemporary problems in British political life.

The Dignity of Labour

The Dignity of Labour
Author: Jon Cruddas
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2021-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509540806

Does work give our lives purpose, meaning and status? Or is it a tedious necessity that will soon be abolished by automation, leaving humans free to enjoy a life of leisure and basic income? In this erudite and highly readable book, Jon Cruddas MP argues that it is imperative that the Left rejects the siren call of technological determinism and roots it politics firmly in the workplace. Drawing from his experience of his own Dagenham and Rainham constituency, he examines the history of Marxist and social democratic thinking about work in order to critique the fatalism of both Blairism and radical left techno-utopianism, which, he contends, have more in common than either would like to admit. He argues that, especially in the context of COVID-19, socialists must embrace an ethical socialist politics based on the dignity and agency of the labour interest. This timely book is a brilliant intervention in the highly contentious debate on the future of work, as well as an ambitious account of how the left must rediscover its animating purpose or risk irrelevance.

Interpreting the Labour Party

Interpreting the Labour Party
Author: John Callaghan
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2003
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780719067198

The book begins with an in-depth analysis of how to study the Labour Party, and goes on to examine key periods in the development of the ideologies to which the party has subscribed. This includes the ideology on inter-war Labourism, the rival post-war perspectives on Labourism, the New Left, and the "contentious alliance" of unions with Labour. Key thinkers analysed include: Henry Pelling; Ross McKibbin; Ralph Miliband; Lewis Minkin; David Marquand; Perry Anderson; and Tom Nairn. Each chapter situates its subject matter in the context of a broader intellectual legacy, including the works of Sidney and Beatrice Webb, Theodore Rothstein, Stuart Hall and Samuel Beer, among others. This book should be of interest to undergraduate students of British politics and political theory and to academics concerned with Labour politics and history, trade union history and politics, research methodology and political analysis.

The Third Way

The Third Way
Author: Anthony Giddens
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2013-05-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0745666604

The idea of finding a 'third way' in politics has been widely discussed over recent months - not only in the UK, but in the US, Continental Europe and Latin America. But what is the third way? Supporters of the notion haven't been able to agree, and critics deny the possibility altogether. Anthony Giddens shows that developing a third way is not only a possibility but a necessity in modern politics.