Independent Labour Party: Welsh Divisional Council

Scope and Content

Press cuttings, printed material and typescript duplicated circulars sent to Welsh Independent Labour Party (ILP) branches by R Stanton, the ILP Welsh Divisional Secretary: Volume 1. Press cuttings and leaflets 1922-1924, includes some copies of the 'ILP Chronicle'; Volume 2. Circulars, 1923; Volume 3. Circulars, 1924; Volume 4. Circulars, 1925, includes list of branches and their secretaries, and rough list of contents of the volume; Volume 5. Circulars, 1926; Volume 6. Circulars, 1927; Volume 7. Circulars, 1928.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Independent Labour Party: The activities of the Manchester Independent Labour Party (established in 1892) inspired Liberal-Labour MPs to consider setting up a new national working class party. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was consequently formed in 1893 under the leadership of James Keir Hardie (1856-1915). The chief objective of the ILP would be "to secure the collective ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". The ILP had 35,000 members at the time of the 1895 General Election, and put forward 28 candidates, but only won 44,325 votes. The party had more success in local elections, winning over 600 seats on borough councils. The ILP joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1898 to make West Ham the first local authority to have a Labour majority. On 27th February 1900 representatives of all the socialist groups in Britain (the Independent Labour Party, the Social Democratic Federation and the Fabian Society, joined trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee.

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Archivist's Note

Output from CAIRS using template 14 and checked by hand on May 8, 2002

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Geographical Names