A new Party of the left. The case of the Independent Labour Party in 1893. A new grassroots socialism could not emerge from ‘London Head Offices’
The first conference of Your Party takes place in Liverpool this weekend. As a long time socialist activist I obviously have my views but they are just one perspective in an organisation of many thousands even if I, as many others, would back certain proposals and not others.
An historical perspective is slightly different. While conclusions can be argued about there are established details and facts. They can inform current debates although decisions are for the present not the 1890s!
The ILP was formed in Bradford in January 1893 and many of the debates about the name of the party (should ‘socialist’ be included) and its organisation (a federal structure or not) are familiar in 2025. Another issue was the construction of a representative leadership.
The principle was that there must be leaders representing different areas of the country.
Cunningham Graham, Scottish Labour Party
HH Champion, Scottish United Trades Council
Tom Mann, London ILP
H Quelch London SDF
Ben Tillett, Yorkshire ILP
Stephen Fay, Manchester & Salford ILP
‘In addition the Midlands and the North of England could nominate some Midlander or Northerner provided they lived in London’. Indeed all of the leadership lived in London. When a provisional leadership did appear after the 1893 conference it met in Manchester
W H Drew President of the Bradford Labour Union noted of the London plan ‘what you should set your face to is a conference of provincial men and Londoners, and you cockneys ought to unbend and come say to Bradford. The idea that a representative leadership should all live in London didn’t work. As E P Thompson noted in Homage to Tom Maguire the new leadership of labour emerged not from ‘London Head Offices’ but from ‘those shadowy parts known as the Provinces’
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