Under Siege: The Independent Labour Party in Interwar Britain

Under Siege: The Independent Labour Party in Interwar Britain
ISBN-10
1771991550
ISBN-13
9781771991551
Series
Under Siege
Category
Political Science
Pages
430
Language
English
Published
2017-11-30
Publisher
Athabasca University Press
Author
Ian Bullock

Description

During the period between the two world wars, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) was the main voice of radical democratic socialism in Great Britain. Founded in 1893, the ILP had, since 1906, operated under the aegis of the Labour Party. As that party edged nearer to power following World War I, forming minority governments in 1924 and again in 1929, the ILP found its own identity under siege. On one side stood those who wanted the ILP to subordinate itself to an increasingly cautious and conventional Labour leadership; on the other stood those who felt that the ILP should throw its lot in with the Communist Party of Great Britain. After the ILP disaffiliated from Labour in 1932 in order to pursue a new, “revolutionary” policy, it was again torn, this time between those who wanted to merge with the Communists and those who saw the ILP as their more genuinely revolutionary and democratic rival. At the opening of the 1930s, the ILP boasted five times the membership of the Communist Party, as well as a sizeable contingent of MPs. By the end of the decade, having tested the possibility of creating a revolutionary party in Britain almost to the point of its own destruction, the ILP was much diminished—although, unlike the Communists, it still retained a foothold in Parliament. Despite this reversal of fortunes, during the 1930s—years that witnessed the ascendancy of both Stalin and Hitler—the ILP demonstrated an unswerving commitment to democratic socialist thinking. Drawing extensively on the ILP’s Labour Leader and other contemporary left-wing newspapers, as well as on ILP publications and internal party documents, Bullock examines the debates and ideological battles of the ILP during the tumultuous interwar period. He argues that the ILP made a lasting contribution to British politics in general, and to the modern Labour Party in particular, by preserving the values of democratic socialism during the interwar period.

Get the book

Amazon.com
Amazon.com
Search the book
eBay.com
eBay.com
Search the book

Other editions

Similar books

  • Under Siege
    Under Siege
    By Stephen Coonts

    In a Washington, D.C., under siege by drug lords, Jake Grafton is assigned to hunt down an assassin bent on eliminating the President and his entire cabinet

  • Under Siege: P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War
    Under Siege: P.L.O. Decisionmaking During the 1982 War
    By Rashid Khalidi

    Using many usually inaccessible sources, such as P.L.O. telexes and government messages, and interviews with key military officials and diplomats, he tells the story from the compelling viewpoint of those living amid the fighting.

  • Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence
    Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence
    By Nicole Archambeau

    In Souls under Siege, Nicole Archambeau explores how the inhabitants of southern France made sense of the ravages of successive waves of plague, the depredations of mercenary warfare, and the violence of royal succession during the ...

  • Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics
    Local Democracy Under Siege: Activism, Public Interests, and Private Politics
    By Dorothy Holland, Catherine Lutz, Lesley Bartlett

    —Lynn Mann, dairy farmer, Chatham County, 1996 There were over three hundred farms in Thornton [in Halifax County]. There are no black farmers there today. They [the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture officials] treat us like fourth-class ...

  • Under Siege!: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg
    Under Siege!: Three Children at the Civil War Battle for Vicksburg
    By Andrea Warren

    Chapter 5 : At the Battle Front 45 “ I was to remain ” : Frederick Grant , “ Recollections , ” p . 46 “ I asked General Thomas to let me ” : Frederick Grant , “ Recollections , " Chapter 6 : The Yankees Are Coming ! 54 “.

  • Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry
    Bodies Under Siege: Self-mutilation and Body Modification in Culture and Psychiatry
    By Armando R. Favazza

    The second edition of Bodies Under Siege is the major source of information about self-mutilation, a much misunderstood behavior that is now coming into public awareness.

  • Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism
    Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism
    By Stephen Graham

    From the slums of the global South to the wealthy financial centers of the West, Cities Under Siege traces the spread of political violence through the sites, spaces, infrastructure and symbols of the world’s rapidly expanding ...

  • Solidarity Under Siege
    Solidarity Under Siege
    By Jeffrey L. Gould

    Depicts the rise and fall of the militant labor movement in modern El Salvador.

  • Under Siege (Science Fiction)
    Under Siege (Science Fiction)
    By Janice Greene

    Can they stop ?ghting long enough to outwit the alien invaders? Written specifically for struggling readers to explore genres, like mysteries and science fiction, these fast-paced books hold student interest until the last page.

  • Castle Under Siege!: Simple Machines
    Castle Under Siege!: Simple Machines
    By Andrew Solway

    Looks at the simple machines used to build and defend castles, including pulleys, levers, wheels and axles, wedges, and screws.