The party was established in 1906 as a social democratic organisation, bringing together leading white trade unionists and some socialist activists.
[1] Unlike the British party, it had nationalist sympathies, and the majority of its members held openly racist views, opposing Indian and Chinese immigration in particular.
The main exceptions to this were Archie Crawford, Arthur Brittlebank and John Campbell, who argued that the party should admit non-whites.
These racist views created difficulties in 1907, when Keir Hardie of the British ILP visited the colony as part of a speaking tour, but the party's leaders decided that their support for his socialist views trumped their opposition to his anti-racism speeches.
Other key leaders included James Thompson Bain, Tom Matthews and J. J. Ware.