The left by numbers. From the Independent Labour Party to Your Party
Size isn’t everything. As a (now retired) trade union General Secretary once told me strike ballots were one thing but if there was a small well organised group of workers who wanted to do something and would make an impact that might work as well.
The membership of Your Party which held its founding conference in Liverpool at the weekend is reported to be 55,000. According to The Times (December 1st) 22,000 of those are verified (you had to be verified to attend the conference in person or on-line) and 9,000 joined on-line and 2,500 in person. The figures presumably came from the current Your Party centre but believe anything in the Murdoch media at your peril.
For comparison the Communist Party of Great Britain reached 55,000 members in 1942 when Russia joined the Allies in the Second World War.
The Independent Labour Party does not seem to have reached anywhere near that figure. My researches are work in progress here (David Howell’s history of the early ILP being a good guide) but the peak figure I’ve found was 9,556 in 1905/6. This was based on certified membership fees to the ILP centre. However Howell notes that while Keir Hardie once claimed in a rhetorical flourish that there were 50,000 members it was true that supporters didn’t always pay their subs, or had the money to. In addition members of labour and socialist clubs may well have seen themselves as or been members locally
The Green Party currently has 170,000 members, but the question might reasonably be asked how many are active in the way most of the organisations I’ve referenced above are, at least on occasion.
The Your Party conference also occasioned discussion, not all of it in temperate and comradely tones, about far left groups. Membership numbers are not disclosed (though no doubt the State when interested finds out-see the Spycops Inquiry) but they are much smaller than any of the above. On the other hand many are in way or another active. Reference my first paragraph above…
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