THOMAS BAILEY SEMINAR GROUP A
Account for the rise of the Labour Party between 1890 and 1914
I have chosen to look at the rise of the Labour Party from 1890 to 1914. I think the main issues which need to be discussed in order to provide a complete story on how the Labour Party came about are in particular the role played by the Trade Unions, especially new unionism; the Fabian Society, and the decline of the Liberal Party.
A good starting point is to set the political scene in the 1880's onwards. As far as Socialism went in these early years, there was no real set movement for people to get involved in, the only talk of socialism was in working men's clubs which were mostly in London.
Although it was not long until two socialist societies existed in Britain, these being the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. This was really the beginning of a complete resurgence of socialism in the 1980's. This resurgence has been put down to the beginning of the decline of the Liberal Party as well as the influence of an American economist and social reformer Henry George. His book 'Progress and Poverty' was first published in 1870, containing statements such as 1'so long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes to build up great fortunes, making sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent'. This book had influenced many people in Britain at the time such as Bernard Shaw, Henry Hyde Champion, Keir Hardie, and importantly Henry Hyndman who went on to found the Socialist Democratic Federation in 1884. The Social Democratic Federation helped to give rise to the Labour Party by serving in strike actions, putting candidates up for parliamentary elections and leading demonstrations in London. It was said that the Social Democratic Federations contribution to the rise of the Labour Party was 2'to provide an introduction to the labour movement and a training-school for a succession of the most gifted working class militants'.
The early 1880's were beginning to show real promise for socialists in Britain, as this time period also gave rise to another group, which was hugely influential in the creation of the Labour party, this being the Fabian Society. The Fabian Society was set up in 1884, which saw a split from Dr Thomas Davidson, who brought the prominent members of the Fabian Society together. Davidson wanted a society based on regeneration and progression, 3'his aim seems to have been a group which would progress gradually to a utopia, by a change taking place in several stages'. Members of this group became sceptical of Davidson and separated to form the Fabian Society. 4'The fission was decided upon at a meeting of the original body held on 4th January 1884'. The Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation, both set up in 1884, were very influential in setting up the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, which six years later became the Labour Party. Members of these two groups were relatively young compared to union leaders, and had been deeply effected by the high unemployment rate in the 1880's. However, these so called 5'state socialists', turned to critics of the free market like Karl Marx, who believed in equality for people, saying 6'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs'. This situation can be perceived to be a bit strange, as most of the Fabian Society were 'middle class' or 'bourgeois' intellectuals, but yet were fighting for representation in parliament for labour individuals.
Account for the rise of the Labour Party between 1890 and 1914
I have chosen to look at the rise of the Labour Party from 1890 to 1914. I think the main issues which need to be discussed in order to provide a complete story on how the Labour Party came about are in particular the role played by the Trade Unions, especially new unionism; the Fabian Society, and the decline of the Liberal Party.
A good starting point is to set the political scene in the 1880's onwards. As far as Socialism went in these early years, there was no real set movement for people to get involved in, the only talk of socialism was in working men's clubs which were mostly in London.
Although it was not long until two socialist societies existed in Britain, these being the Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation. This was really the beginning of a complete resurgence of socialism in the 1980's. This resurgence has been put down to the beginning of the decline of the Liberal Party as well as the influence of an American economist and social reformer Henry George. His book 'Progress and Poverty' was first published in 1870, containing statements such as 1'so long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes to build up great fortunes, making sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent'. This book had influenced many people in Britain at the time such as Bernard Shaw, Henry Hyde Champion, Keir Hardie, and importantly Henry Hyndman who went on to found the Socialist Democratic Federation in 1884. The Social Democratic Federation helped to give rise to the Labour Party by serving in strike actions, putting candidates up for parliamentary elections and leading demonstrations in London. It was said that the Social Democratic Federations contribution to the rise of the Labour Party was 2'to provide an introduction to the labour movement and a training-school for a succession of the most gifted working class militants'.
The early 1880's were beginning to show real promise for socialists in Britain, as this time period also gave rise to another group, which was hugely influential in the creation of the Labour party, this being the Fabian Society. The Fabian Society was set up in 1884, which saw a split from Dr Thomas Davidson, who brought the prominent members of the Fabian Society together. Davidson wanted a society based on regeneration and progression, 3'his aim seems to have been a group which would progress gradually to a utopia, by a change taking place in several stages'. Members of this group became sceptical of Davidson and separated to form the Fabian Society. 4'The fission was decided upon at a meeting of the original body held on 4th January 1884'. The Fabian Society and the Social Democratic Federation, both set up in 1884, were very influential in setting up the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, which six years later became the Labour Party. Members of these two groups were relatively young compared to union leaders, and had been deeply effected by the high unemployment rate in the 1880's. However, these so called 5'state socialists', turned to critics of the free market like Karl Marx, who believed in equality for people, saying 6'from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs'. This situation can be perceived to be a bit strange, as most of the Fabian Society were 'middle class' or 'bourgeois' intellectuals, but yet were fighting for representation in parliament for labour individuals.
