Labour left
[14] It has been characterised as a broad church with a wide range of competing political factions, parliamentary groups, and ideologies.
[20] Fearing that the Labour leadership was moving away from the party's constitutional commitment to socialism as outlined in Clause IV, the Labour left called for a total overhaul of the British economy, intending to defend the party's socialist principles against the leadership's more pragmatic tendencies.
[23]: 26 Instead, his government chose to play down or ignore Labour policies such as nationalisation, the capital levy, and public work programmes to alleviate unemployment as a result of its parliamentary position.
During the MacDonald government, the Labour leadership's goal was not to end capitalism but to improve its conditions through social reform and wealth redistribution.
[25] The main achievement of the Labour government was the 1924 Wheatley Housing Act, which MacDonald dubbed "our most important legislative item".
[30] Also in 1925, Clifford Allen, the moderate chairman of the ILP, was ousted by the Labour left and replaced by the militant James Maxton.
[31] It authorised six policy commissions in 1925 to "develop a programme for the abolition of poverty within the broader context of an advance towards socialism".
[17]: 43–44 This proposal evolved into a programme known as Socialism in Our Time, published in 1927, which called for the redistribution of income to reduce unemployment and poverty by creating a demand for housing,[33] the creation of a statutory minimum wage, the nationalisation of banks, transport, utilities and inefficient industries, and the introduction of family allowances and workers' control.
[34] These policies were based on Hobson's theories of imperialism and underconsumptionism, which became a doctrine of the Labour left and the ILP during the interwar period.
[35] MacDonald publicly condemned the political beliefs surrounding the proposals, comparing them to "milestones around the parliamentary party's neck".
Ultimately, the ILP lost several policy votes at the conference and Labour and the Nation became a simple outline of the party's goals.
[29]: 289, 230 A party rebel, Lansbury was committed to socialism and clashed with the MacDonald leadership for its moderate and gradualist ideology.
[38] This caucus met regularly, sponsoring joint amendments on the Order Paper and campaigning for support in the Labour Party using the ILP's large individual membership.
[29]: 224 In 1925, Lansbury's Labour Weekly repeatedly reported on one particular topic, the issues faced by British miners.
In turn, Lansbury and his paper would become direct participants in the crisis that was occurring in the coal industry at the time.
The Labour left responded to this by arguing that a gradualist approach would never achieve its goal, and that gradualism did little to help the workers who needed relief from their suffering and an improved society immediately.
[46] Lansbury was appointed as the first commissioner of works, an insignificant role with little economic resources available, where it was believed he could not harm the government's moderate reputation.
From the beginning of his leadership, Lansbury was challenged by losses and defections from the party caused by the tumultuous relationship between Labour and the ILP.
[17]: 44 [44] It had increasingly viewed the Great Depression as the beginning of the collapse of capitalism and saw the mainstream Labour Party as insufficiently committed to socialism.
Lansbury had been a leading figure in the ILP before 1914 and was typically aligned with Maxton in criticising the Labour leadership of MacDonald during the 1920s.
[50]: 40 On its founding, they committed itself to mostly undertaking research, complete loyalty to the Labour Party, and avoid the missteps of the ILP.
[52] During its short existence, the Socialist League was led by several noted members of the Labour left, including Charles Trevelyan, Frank Wise, Barbara Castle, G. D. H. Cole, William Mellor, and H. N. Brailsford.
Other Labour left-wingers who involved themselves with the league included Aneurin Bevan, Harold Laski, and Ellen Wilkinson.
[52] On its establishment, the league had six Labour MPs: Clement Attlee, Seymour Cocks, Stafford Cripps, David Kirkwood, Neil Maclean, and Alfred Salter.
[2] In Parliament, politicians from the Labour left include Diane Abbott,[54] John McDonnell, Clive Lewis, Richard Burgon,[55] Dan Carden, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Nadia Whittome, and Zarah Sultana,[56] among others.
