The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. The Elections and Parties Series Democracy Representative democracy History of democracy Referenda Liberal democracy Representation Voting Voting systems Ideology Elections Elections by country Elections by calender Electoral systems Politics Politics by country Political campaigns Political science Political philosophy Related topics Political parties Parties by country Parties by name Parties by...

The party was formed in 1893 making it one of the earliest democratic socialist political parties operating in the United Kingdom. Its founder chairman was James Keir Hardie who had been elected as independent labour MP for West Ham South in the previous years General Election. 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Democratic socialism is a broad political movement propagating the ideals of socialism within the context of a democratic system. ... James Keir Hardie (August 15, 1856 - September 26, 1915) was a Scottish-born socialist and labour leader, and the first Labour MP to be elected to the UK Parliament. ...

The early years of the ILP were characterised by a number of amalgamations with small socialist and leftist groups, and in the 1895 General Election they contested 28 seats. The party polled well in some urban centres but Hardie lost his seat. 1895 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The ILP played a central role in the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and when the Labour Party was formed in 1906 the ILP affiliated to it. This affiliation allowed the ILP to continue to hold its own conferences and devise its own policies which ILP members were expected to argue for within the Labour Party. Also, as the Labour Party did not operate individual membership until 1918 the ILP provided much of Labour's activist base in the early years. The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) was formed on February 27, 1900, at a conference at which representatives of the main socialist groupings in the United Kingdom were present. ... 1900 is a common year starting on Monday. ... The Labour Party is a centre-left or social democratic political party in Britain (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ...

The relationship between the ILP and the Labour Party was characterised by conflict. Many ILP members viewed the Labour Party as being too timid and moderate in their attempts at social reform, and consequently many ILP branches chose to amalgamate with the Social Democratic Party of H. M. Hyndman in 1912 to found the British Socialist Party. However the new party was little more than the SDP rebranded and the ILP soon resumed its position as the largest of a number of small socialist parties and groups in Britain. This article is about the British political party. ... Henry Mayers Hyndman (March 7, 1842 - November 20, 1921) was a British writer and politician, and the founder of the Social Democratic Federation. ... The British Socialist Party was a socialist party founded in Britain in 1911. ...

The coming of World War I in 1914 exposed the gulf between the Labour Party, based on the trade union bureaucracy, and the ILP when the latter opposed war on ethical principles based on a pacifism grounded in the Christian beliefs of much of both the leadership and rank and file membership. World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ...

In 1920, the ILP rejected (but only after the intervention of Ramsay MacDonald) a proposal to affiliate to the Third International. None the less, a great deal of sympathy was evidenced within the ILP for Soviet Russia. Few members of the ILP left the party to join the new Communist Party of Great Britain although a small grouping did so in 1920. The Right Honourable James Ramsay MacDonald (12 October 1866–9 November 1937), British politician, was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. ... The first edition of Communist International, journal of the Comintern published in Moscow and Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) in May 1919. ... The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1920 to 1991. ...

At the 1922 general election several ILP members became MPs (including future ILP leader Jimmy Maxton) and the party grew in stature. The ILP provided many of the new Labour MPs, including John Wheatley, Emanuel Shinwell, Tom Johnston and David Kirkwood. However, the first Labour government (returned to office in 1924) proved to be hugely disappointing to the ILP. Their response was to devise their own programme for government but the Labour Party leadership rejected this. The UK general election of 1922 was held on 15th November 1922. ... James Maxton was a Scottish politician. ... John Wheatley (May 19, 1869 - May 12, 1930) was a Scottish socialist politician. ... Emanuel Shinwell (October 18, 1884-May 8, 1986) (familiarly known as Manny) was born in London, but moved with his Jewish family to Scotland. ... Thomas Johnston (1882-5 September 1965) was a prominent Scottish-born socialist and politician of the early 20th century, a member of the Labour Party, an MP and government minister – usually with Cabinet responsibility for Scottish affairs. ... David Kirkwood, 1st Baron Kirkwood, PC (1872 - April 16, 1955) was a socialist from the East End of Glasgow, Scotland, viewed as a leading figure of the Red Clydeside era. ... 1924 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

For the duration of the second Labour government (1929-31) 37 Labour MPs were sponsored by the ILP and they provided the left opposition to the Labour leadership. The 1930 ILP conference decided that where their policies diverged from the Labour Party their MPs should break the whip to support the ILP policy. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

It was becoming clearer that the ILP was diverging further away from the Labour Party and at the 1931 ILP Scottish Conference the issue of whether the party should still affiliate to Labour was discussed. It was decided to continue to do so, but only after Maxton himself intervened in the debate to speak up to continue to do so. 1931 is a common year starting on Thursday. ...

At the 1931 general election the ILP candidates refused to accept the standing orders of the parliamentary Labour Party, resulting in them standing without official Labour Party support. Five ILP members were returned to Westminster and created an ILP group outside the Labour Party. In 1932 the ILP held a special conference and voted to disaffiliate from Labour. The same year, it co-founded the "London Bureau" of left-socialist parties (later called the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre). The UK general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... The International Revolutionary Marxist Centre was an international association of left-socialist parties. ...

The Labour left-winger Aneurin Bevan described the ILP's disaffiliation as a decision to remain "pure, but impotent", and in the long run his criticism was arguably vindicated, as once outside of the Labour Party structure the ILP's political influence went into decline. Some members of the ILP who chose to remain within the Labour Party were to be instrumental in creating the Socialist League. Aneurin Bevan, usually known as Nye Bevan (November 15, 1897–July 6, 1960) was a Welsh Labour politician regarded as a hero of the left, primarily for his formation of the National Health Service. ... The Socialist League was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. ...

In the 1930s the party suffered a massive decline in membership owing to the decision to disaffiliate from Labour, but they remained active. Moving to the left as a result of pressure from the more active layers of the membership in the Depression they also recruited many young people and workers as a result. But while winning new members they also lost members to the right, to the Labour Party, and to their left to the Communist Party and to the Trotskyists as well as losing a breakaway in the north west the Independent Socialist Party in 1934. // Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... The Independent Socialist Party (ISP) was a former political party in the UK. It was formed in 1934 as a breakway from the Independent Labour Party (ILP) in 1934 in protest at the increasing power of the Revolutionary Policy Committee within the ILP. The ISP was led by Elijah Sandham...

They were particularly active in supporting the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, and around twenty-five members and sympathizers (including George Orwell) actually went to Spain to assist the POUM as part of an ILP Contingent of volunteers. From the mid-1930's onwards the ILP also attracted the attention of the Trotskyist movement with various Trotskyist groups working within it. This was in addition to the presence within the party of a group of members sympathetic to the CPGB, the Revolutionary Policy Committee, who eventually left to join that party. History of Spain series Prehistoric Spain Roman Spain Muslim Conquest of Iberia Timeline of Muslim Occupation Medieval Spain Age of Reconquest Age of Expansion Age of Enlightenment Reaction and Revolution First Spanish Republic The Restoration Second Spanish Republic Spanish Civil War The Dictatorship Modern Spain Topics Economic History Military History... George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by the pen name George Orwell was a British author. ... The Workers Party of Marxist Unification (POUM, Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista) was a Spanish political party around the time of the Spanish Civil War. ... The Revolutionary Policy Committee (RPC) was a faction within the former political party Independent Labour Party of the United Kingdom. ...

As in 1914 the ILP opposed the Second World War on ethical grounds and turned to the left. One aspect of its leftist policies in this period was that it opposed the war time truce between the major parties and actively contested Parliamentary elections. In one such bye-election in Cardiff this was with the result that Fenner Brockway, the ILP candidate, found himself opposed by a Conservative candidate for whom the local Communist Party actively campaigned. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

The end of war can be said to mark the final descent of the ILP into the political wilderness as its conference rejected calls to reaffiliate to the Labour Party. The final blow came in 1946 when the party's best known public spokesman, James Maxton MP, died. 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...

Despite these blows the ILP continued and throughout the 1950s and into the early 1960's pioneered opposition to the nuclear bomb and sought to publicise ideas such as workers' control. The small party also maintained links with the remnants of its fraternal groups, such as the POUM, who were in exile, as well as campaigning for de-colonisation. // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the height of the baby-boom from returning...

In the 1970s the ILP reassessed its views on the Labour Party, and in 1975 they renamed themselves Independent Labour Publications and became a pressure group inside the mainstream Labour Party. This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1970s. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Independent Labour Publications is a left-wing pressure group inside the British Labour Party. ... A special interest is a person, group, or organization attempting to influence legislators or other public officials in favor of one particular interest or issue. ...