2023 marks 130 years since the formation of the Independent Labour Party. Its formation was brought about by the growing demand for working class representation in Parliament. January's Object of the Moment features two items from our ILP collection.
On the initiative of several smaller socialist groups mainly from Scotland and the North of England a conference was held in Bradford on the 13 January 1893 and the Independent Labour Party was formed. The library holds a copy of the report from that conference now on display at the library.
Its original object agreed at the conference was stated as:
The original object of the ILP shall be to secure the collective ownership of all the means of production, distribution, and exchange
Below you can see a pamphlet from the second conference held on 3rd February 1894 at Manchester's Free Trade Hall and featuring the ILP leader, Keir Hardie.
Initially the party had limited success nationally but did well in local elections. The party realised that it would be necessary to join with other left-wing groups. On the 27 February 1900 representatives of all socialist groups in Britain joined trade union leaders to form the Labour Representation Committee, this became what we now know as the Labour Party in 1906. The two groups existed alongside each other until 1918 when the Labour Party introduced its own individual membership. The souvenir pamphlet below was produced for the 1914 ILP conference held in Bradford.
Divisions increased and in 1932 the ILP disaffiliated from the Labour Party. Thereafter membership fluctuated and started to decline, however the party remained active in campaigns against colonialism and continued to fight for workers rights and welfare reform.
In 1975 the ILP changed to become Independent Labour Publications, a political pressure group rather than a party and they still exist in that form today.
If you would like to visit the library to see our ILP Object of the Moment display alongside our other exhibitions, our drop in opening times are Wednesday - Friday 1pm - 4.30pm.
We have a large library and archive collection relating to the ILP which is available to view by appointment in our reading room. Please use our online catalogue to find out more. WCML | Catalogue Introduction | Search the Catalogue