Democratic Ideas and the British Labour Movement, 1880}}}1914 [Hardcover]

The first detailed study of an important debate in the history of the Labour movement.Issues of democratic principle and form were of major importance in the pre-1914 socialist, trade union and labour movements. This is the first detailed study of that debate, which centered around socialists of the British Radical tradition and which reflects on the current argument over democratic structures and electoral reform.Issues of democratic principle and form were of major importance in the pre-1914 socialist, trade union and labour movements. This is the first detailed study of that debate, which centered around socialists of the British Radical tradition and which reflects on the current argument over democratic structures and electoral reform.Issues of democratic principle and form were of major importance in the pre-1914 socialist, trade union and labor movements. This is the first detailed study of that debate, which centered around socialists of the British Radical tradition, the Fabians, and the Independent Labour Party leadership, and which reflects on the current argument over democratic structures and electoral reform. Democratic Ideas and the British Labour Movement assesses attitudes to democracy at a formative period in the history of socialist ideas and the British Labour movement.Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part I: 1. The survival of Chartist assumptions; 2. Democracy and socialism in the 1890s; 3. Democracy and the industrial struggle; Part II: 4. Conflicts in the ILP; 5. The pressure to federate: the industrial struggle in the late 1890s; 6. The rise and fall of the Clarion Federation; Part III: 7. The early 1900s: a hinge period; 8. Socialists and the state; 9. Parliamentary socialism? Labour in parliament; 10. Parliamentary democracy? 'Fred's obsession' and the path to the Bradford resolution; 11. Background to sydicalism: the legacy of the NIGFLTU's failure; 12. Avoiding the 'Servile State'. The impact of syndicalism and guild socialism; 13. 1914: lÔ