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Labour Representation Committee (1900)

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Labour Party Plaque from Caroone House, 14 Farringdon Street

TheLabour Representation Committee(LRC;Welsh:Pwyllgor Cynrychiolaeth Llafur)[1]was a pressure group founded in 1900 as an alliance of socialist organisations and trade unions, aimed at increasing representation for labour interests in theParliament of the United Kingdom.TheLabour Partytraces its origin to the LRC's foundation.[2]

Formation

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In 1899, aDoncastermember of theAmalgamated Society of Railway Servants,Thomas R. Steels, proposed in his union branch that theTrade Union Congresscall a special conference to bring together all left-wing organisations and form them into a single body that would sponsor Parliamentary candidates. The motion was passed at all stages by the TUC, and the proposed conference was held at theCongregational Memorial Hallon Farringdon Street, London on 26 and 27 February 1900. The meeting was attended by a broad spectrum of working-class and left-wing organisations — trades unions represented about a half of the unions and one third of the membership of the TUC delegates.[3]The LRC is the direct predecessor of the modernBritish Labour Party.

Keir Hardie,one of the Labour Party's founders and its first leader

In addition to varioustrade unionleaders, organisations present at this conference were theIndependent Labour Party(ILP), theSocial Democratic Federation(SDF) and theFabian Society,After a debate all the 129 delegates passedKeir Hardie's motion to establish "a distinct Labour group in Parliament, who shall have their own whips, and agree upon their policy, which must embrace a readiness to cooperate with any party which for the time being may be engaged in promoting legislation in the direct interests of labour."[4]This created an association called the Labour Representation Committee (LRC), meant to coordinate attempts to support MPs sponsored by trade unions and represent the working-class population.[5]To make this possible the Conference established the LRC. This committee included two members from the ILP, two from the SDF, one Fabian, and seven trade unionists.

Operation

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It had no single leader, and in the absence of one, the Independent Labour Party nomineeRamsay MacDonaldwas elected as Secretary. He had the difficult task of keeping the various strands of opinions in the LRC united. TheOctober 1900"Khaki election" came too soon for the new party to campaign effectively; total expenses for the election only came to £33 and between them they won 62,698 votes.[6][page needed]Only 15 candidatures were sponsored, but two were successful;Keir HardieinMerthyr TydfilandRichard BellinDerby.[7][page needed]

Support for the LRC was boosted by the 1901Taff Vale Case,a dispute between strikers and a railway company that ended with the union being ordered to pay £23,000 damages for a strike. The judgement effectively made strikes illegal since employers could recoup the cost of lost business from the unions. The apparent acquiescence of the Conservative Government ofArthur Balfourto industrial and business interests (traditionally the allies of theLiberal Partyin opposition to the Conservative's landed interests) intensified support for the LRC against a government that appeared to have little concern for the industrial proletariat and its problems.[7][page needed]

In the1906 election,the LRC won 29 seats—helped by a secretGladstone–MacDonald pactin 1903 betweenRamsay MacDonaldandLiberalChief WhipHerbert Gladstonethat aimed to avoid splitting the opposition vote between Labour and Liberal candidates in the interest of removing the Conservatives from office.[7][page needed]

HistorianEric J. Evansargues:

The MacDonald–Gladstone pact proved to be a turning point. It gave the LRC a bridgehead in parliament, with twenty-nine of its candidates elected in 1906. By the end of 1910, the Labour party (as it was known from 1906) had forty-two MPs....With the benefit of hindsight, the MacDonald-Gladstone pact looks to have been a tactical disaster for the Liberals....On deeper investigation, Gladstone's decision is defensible and might even have been the best option.[8]

The Labour Party

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Leaders of the party in 1906

On 15 February 1906, at their first meeting after the election, the group's Members of Parliament decided to adopt the name "The Labour Party" formally.

Keir Hardie, who had taken a leading role in getting the party established, was elected as Chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party (in effect, the Leader), although only by one vote overDavid Shackletonafter several ballots. In the party's early years the Independent Labour Party (ILP) provided much of its activist base as the party did not have individual membership until 1918 but operated as a conglomerate of affiliated bodies. TheFabian Societyprovided much of the intellectual stimulus for the party. One of the first acts of the new Liberal Government was to reverse the Taff Vale judgement.[7][page needed]

The Labour Party itself regarded 2000 as itscentenaryyear, though it also marked the founding of the party with the singing of "The Red Flag"in parliament at the end of Commons business on 9 February 2006.[9]

Archive

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ThePeople's History MuseuminManchesterholds the minutes of the first Labour Party meeting in 1906 and has them on display in the Main Galleries.[4]Also within the museum is theLabour History Archive and Study Centre,which holds the collection of the Labour Party, with material ranging from 1900 to the present day.[10]

Chairmen of the LRC

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The following served as Chairman of the LRC:[11]

Election results

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Election Seats won ± Total votes % Position Leader
1900
2 / 670
Increase 41,900 (#5) 1.3% Third party Keir Hardie
1906
29 / 670
Increase 254,202 (#3) 4.8% Third party Keir Hardie
Became theLabour Partyin 1906

References

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  1. ^"BBC - Cymru - Hanes - Themau - Twf y Blaid Lafur".www.bbc.co.uk.
  2. ^Reid, Alistair J. (Jan 2016)."Labour Representation Committee (act. 1900–1906)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.Oxford University Press.
  3. ^‘The formation of the Labour Party – Lessons for today’Archived2008-06-22 at theWayback MachineJim Mortimer,2000
  4. ^ab"Collection highlights".People's History Museum.Archived fromthe originalon 20 August 2017.Retrieved2 June2015.
  5. ^Thorpe, Andrew (2008).A History of the British Labour Party(3rd ed.). Macmillan. p. 8.ISBN9781137114853.Retrieved2 June2015.
  6. ^Wright T. & Carter M, (1997)"The People's Party"Thames & Hudson,ISBN0-500-27956-X
  7. ^abcdThorpe, Andrew (2001)A History Of The British Labour Party,Palgrave,ISBN0-333-92908-X
  8. ^Eric Evans (2014).The Shaping of Modern Britain: Identity, Industry and Empire 1780–1914.Routledge. p. 433.ISBN9781317862376.
  9. ^Nick Assinder (23 May 2006)."Commons Confidential: 2006".BBC News.Retrieved16 June2016.
  10. ^The Labour Party Archive Catalogue & Description,People's History Museum, archived fromthe originalon 2015-01-13,retrieved2015-12-26
  11. ^"Leaders of the Labour Representation Committee and the Labour Party (1900–2012)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2006.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/92819.ISBN978-0-19-861412-8.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
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