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Manchester and Salford Politics and the Early Development of the Independent Labour Party

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 December 2008

Jeffrey Hill
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The grass-roots activities of the Independent Labour Party have been the subject of increased scrutiny from historians over the past few years, especially in the pages of this journal. Consequently we can now be a little surer about the contribution of the party to the development of an independent labour movement in Britain at the end of the nineteenth century, though with every fresh case-study a different local strategy seems to come to light. The one outstanding profile in this field is the closely observed account of the ILP in Bradford by J. Reynolds and K. Laybourn, who identify several key features in the party's growth in that city, notably the reformist nature of ILP socialism and the close associations with local trade unionism. “From the outset”, they tell us, “Bradford trade unionism and the Bradford ILP were seen as two aspects of a single homogeneous labour movement aimed at the emancipation of the working class from poverty and exploitation.”

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , August 1981 , pp. 171 - 201
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1981

References

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92 In 1897 the Trades Council-ILP alliance had returned Nuttall and Brocklehurst to the School Board, Manchester and Salford Trades Council, Annual Report, 1897. The journal Manchester (from 1901 The Social Reformer) was launched in the summer of 1899 to promote the idea of municipal socialism, and in October 1900 the United Workers' Municipal Election Committee arose out of discussions held the previous July among a wide range of local working-class groups.Google Scholar

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95 Ibid., 1903.

96 Ibid.

97 Ibid.

98 Justice, 8 August 1903.

99 Cited in Bather, , “A History of the Manchester and Salford Trades Council”. op. cit., p. 166.Google Scholar

100 Manchester and Salford Trades Council, Annual Report, 1903.Google Scholar

101 Ibid.

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103 Ibid., 1905, 1908, 1910 and 1912.

104 Ibid., 1906; Cotton Factory Times, 6 11 1903.Google Scholar

105 Between 1906 and 1914 the Labour Party representation in Manchester City Council (including ILP members) was as follows: 1906 – 11; 1907–11; 1908 – 10: 1909 – 8; 1910 – 10; 1911 – 14; 1912 – 16: 1913 – 16: 1914 – 15. During the same period Conservative strength ranged from 38 to 57 and Liberal from 19 to 33. This information kindly supplied by the Local History Library, Manchester Public Library.

106 Reynolds, and Laybourn, , “The Emergence of the Independent Labour Party in Bradford”, pp. 336–37.Google Scholar