ABSTRACT

On the extreme Left the Communist Party began to emerge as the dominant group although throughout the decade the ILP had more electoral and parliamentary influence. By November 1934 the conciliatory attitude of the Communist International had caused the Labour and Socialist International to modify its earlier warning against entering into United Front agreements with national Communist Parties.1 The ‘Pact for Unity of Action’ had already been signed between the Communist and Socialist Parties of France. In Britain the Communist Party returned to its attempts to work with sections of the Labour Party. Pollitt, speaking in October 1934, proposed an electoral agreement with the Labour Party and the ILP in the approaching municipal elections.2 The ILP leadership continued to regard co-operation with the Communists as a preliminary to the extension of the United Front to the rest of the labour and trade-union movement. At a meeting with Communist leaders on 12 December 1934, Fenner Brockway laid down three conditions for continued co-operation:

(a) Neither Party was to interfere in the internal affairs of the other (b) The Communist Party should state clearly whether it would oppose

Labour Party or ILP candidates at elections (c) There should be no attempt to unify the ILP and the Communist

Party into a single organisation until the next Annual Conference had discussed the matter.3