Independent Labour Party: members papers

Papers of Independent Labour Party (ILP) Branch members: File 1. Papers of R W Rawlins, Secretary of the ILP London and Southern Counties Division 1930-1959. File 2. Press cuttings of the ILP and communism in Britain, probably collected by R W Rawlins 1908-1959. File 3. Papers of Ernst Spencer, ILP Rochester Branch. Includes papers on the Rochester Municipal Election 1908 and a letter to R E Dowse about Rochester ILP 1908-1959. File 4. Papers of R E Muirhead, Glasgow. Includes resolutions of the Scottish Provisional Conference and correspondence with Central Office regarding General Election results 1918-1924 with statistical annexes 1918-1926. File 5. Letter from Benjamin Sachs to Robert Edward Dwose regarding the ILP 1959.

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

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