The Failure of Socialist Unity in Britain c. 1893–1914

Abstract

SOCIALIST unity became an issue for the British left with in a year of the formation of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1884. The secession of William Morris and his supporters from the SDF and the formation of the Socialist League in reaction to the autocratic leadership of Henry Mayers Hyndman brought about a fundamental division within British socialism. Subsequently the creation of other socialist parties, most particularly the Independent Labour Party (ILP) led to further disunity within die British socialist movement. Nevertheless, notwidistanding die proliferation of British socialist societies with their distinctive socialist credentials, diere were several attempts to form a united socialist party between 1893 and 1914. They were normally encouraged, on the one hand, by advocates of the ‘religion of socialism’ such as William Morris, Robert Blatchford and Victor Grayson, and, on the other, by Hyndman and the SDF. The aim of these efforts was to strengdien socialist organisation in times of both political failure and success, but in every instance diey failed due to the intractable problem of bringing together socialists of distinctively different persuasions under the umbrella of one party. These failures have led recent historians to debate two major questions connected with socialist unity. First, diey have asked at what point did socialist unity cease to be a viable alternative to the Labour Alliance between the ILP and the trade unions? Stephen Yeo feels that socialist unity became impossible after die mid 1890s, David Howell suggests that this ‘suppressed alternative’ became unlikely about five to ten years later, as die leaders of die Independent Labour Party opted for the trade union rather than socialist alliance,