Stuart Hall, the New Left, and the Labour Party

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ABSTRACT This article examines the complex relationship between the New Left and the Labour Party in the United Kingdom during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Many existing accounts have for the most part focussed on the New Left’s ideational concerns. In contrast, we detail the New Left’s attitude to Labour politics, demonstrating that it was an issue that consumed its central figures, especially Stuart Hall, first editor of New Left Review, and its grassroots participants. We locate our analysis within the concept of ‘parallelism’: the extent to which figures on the New Left could hold an ambiguous position on Labour, one that might be simultaneously critical and supportive. We detail the New Left’s advocacy of nuclear disarmament: A particular focus for our empirical material concerns This Week, a daily bulletin produced by New Left Review at the Labour Party conference between 1960 and 1962. In our conclusion, we draw out the implications of our account for the historiography of both the New Left and the Labour Party. We emphasise the importance of political engagement within the New Left during the late 1950s and early 1960s in terms of an ongoing discussion about its relationship with the Labour Party.