Howell D British Workers & the Independent Labour Party (1984)
Attempts to pull together a new force on the left are complex and fraught with difficulty. I write here about the early 1890s rather than 2025. The Independent Labour Party was founded in January 1893 but before then a process of formation had been gone through.
Above is an 1892 attempt to form a national leadership of the ILP. Many areas of England and Scotland were included as was at this stage the Social Democratic Federation (it did not join in 1893 despite protracted discussions). The key point was that wherever the leadership hailed from they must live in London.
As a Londoner this seems to me perfectly sensible. ‘Our Friends in the North’ did not agree. It was a non-starter. The 1893 conference was held in Bradford or as E P Thompson, himself a determined non-Londoner ‘those shadowy parts known as the provinces’ (Homage to Tom Maguire). He had a good point. London Head Offices are not the basis for a new grassroots movements of the left
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