Overview

Labour and the Caucus provides a new, innovative pre-history of the Labour party. In the two decades following the Second Reform Act there was a sustained and concerted campaign for working-class parliamentary representation from a range of labour organisations to an extent that was hitherto unseen in British political history. The franchise revolution of 1867 and the controversial introduction of more sophisticated forms of electoral machinery, which became known as the ‘caucus’, raised serious questions not only for a labour movement seeking to secure political representation but also for a Liberal party that had to respond to the pressures of mass politics. Through a close examination of the interactions between labour and the ‘caucus’ from the 1868 general election to Keir Hardie’s independent labour candidature in 1888, this book provides a comprehensive and multi-layered picture of the troubled relationship between working-class radicals and organised Liberalism. The electoral strategy of labour candidates, the links between urban and rural radicalism, the impact of the National Liberal Federation, the influence of American and Irish politics on the labour movement, the revival of socialism, and the contested identity of a ‘Labour party’ are all examined from fresh perspectives. In doing so, this book challenges the existing teleological assumptions about the rise of independent labour, and explores the questions that remain about how working-class radicals and Liberals shared and negotiated power, and how this relationship changed over time.

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9781846319440

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Important and fresh, this book presents new material on the pre-history of the Labour party, bridging a gap between the years of the Reform League in the 1860s and the so-called revival of socialism in the 1880s. -- Professor Miles Taylor

Important and fresh, this book presents new material on the pre-history of the Labour party, bridging a gap between the years of the Reform League in the 1860s and the so-called revival of socialism in the 1880s. -- Professor Miles Taylor This is a study of the relationship between working class radicalism and the Liberal Party between 1868 and 1888 - that period between the 1867 Reform Act and the establishment of independent socialist organisations - the Social Democratic Federation, the Socialist League and the Independent Labour Party, This period has largely been ignored by Labour historians since G D H Cole's 1941 study of British Working Class Politics between 1832 and 1914 and Leventhal's 1971 biography of George Howell. Owen presents the narrative of the attempts of working class leaders, mainly leading trade unionists, to get into parliament and onto local councils and school boards. He traces the failed attempt of working class candidates promoted by the Reform League in the 1868 election and the subsequent establishment of the Labour Representation league, set up by Howell and other trade unionists in 1869 and their attempt to get trade unionists adopted as Liberal candidates in the 1874 election, with the miners Thomas Burt and Alexander Macdonald elected in Morpeth and Stafford respectively, to be joined the TUC parliamentary secretary and stonemason, Henry Broadhurst in Stoke on Trent. Owen follows the less successful campaigns of trade unionists such as Thomas Mottershead (silkweaver), William Randall Cremer (carpenter), Howell (bricklayer and Reform League secretary), George Odger (shoemaker and republican) , Ben Lucraft (cabinet maker), all of whom had been active in the First International, the co-operator Edward Owen Greening, the O'Brienite land nationaliser Alfred Walton, the engineer's union leader, William Newton, John Kane of the ironworkers , Thomas Holliday of the miners union, George Potter, carpenter and editor of the Beehive, and George Shipton of the London Trades Council, all of whom stood as Liberal candidates in 1868,1874 or 1880. By 1885, there was a group of twelve Lib-Lab MPs, including Randall Cremer, by now secretary of the Workman's Peace Association and Howell, the agricultural labourers leader, Joseph Arch, the miners leaders Ben Pickard, William Crawford, John Wilson, Charles Fenwick and illiam Abraham (known as Mabon), together with the printer John Durant and glassmaker Joseph Leicester. In 1885, Broadhurst was appointed to the post of under-secretary in the Home Department in Gladstone's government - the first working class minister - John Burns was to become the first working class cabinet member in 1906. To readers of Chartist this may just seem a list of names from the past, but these individuals, most of whom are now forgotten, are part of our history. The Lib Lab MPs have often been derided because they were members of the Liberal Party, but in every case as Owen shows, they were genuine working class leaders who had to fight to get recognised within the Liberal party - challenging the local Liberal Party leadership, the Liberal caucus that tried to exclude working class politicians from positions of power. Owen's focus is on local politics rather than the Lib Lab MPs achievements in parliament, which have also been ignored by most Labour historians, with the notable exception of John Shephard. Owen's focus is largely away from London - he includes case studies of Nottingham, Sheffield and Northumbria. He therefore tends to ignore the London radical clubs and their radicalisation of London liberal politics and capture of some of the Liberal constituencies, which enabled Howell, Randal Cremer, Leicester and Durant to be returned to parliament. He makes no reference to the shortlived National Liberal League, set up by Broadhurst, Howell and William Morris in 1879 in an attempt to radicalise the Liberal Party, and he does not cover the role of the Metropolitan Radical Federation in radicalising London politics and collaborating with the SDF and the Socialist League on supporting the Irish nationalists and campaigning for the Eight Hours Day. Owen's narrative ends with the radical/Labour alliance of 1888 which established the Central Democratic Committee to run a combined slate in the London School Board elections, which led to the election of Annie Besant, (Ben Lucraft had actually been elected to the first London School Board in 1870 - an election not covered by Owen). The CDC was a precursor to the Progressive Alliance in the first London County Council elections the following year. This is a well researched and important study and despite its price, deserves to be widely read. Hopefully Liverpool University Press will recognise this book, and the other excellent volumes in this new Labour History Studies series, is not just for a specialist academic market and will publish cheaper paperback editions. Chartist, No 268 This is a well researched and important study ... deserves to be widely read. Chartist, No 268

Author Information

Dr James Owen is a Research Fellow on the History of Parliament, House of Commons, 1832–1945 project.

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