Living in Battersea, Carmichael joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in 1903, and served on its executive committee from 1909 to 1911.
[2] The SDF became the main component of the British Socialist Party (BSP), and Carmichael was elected to its first standing orders committee, alongside C. T. Douthwaite, E. C. Fairchild and Peter Petroff, the four working together to ensure voices within the party which opposed British re-armament were heard.
[3] The BSP affiliated to the Labour Party, and this enabled Carmichael to win a seat in the Winstanley ward, which he held until his death in 1924.
While regarding himself as a revolutionary Marxist, proposed only motions which he believed had the support of a large number of local workers.
[5][6] Carmichael was one of the leading members of the National Union of Shop Assistants, Warehousemen and Clerks in London.