ABSTRACT
The initiative for ending the split in the international labour movement was taken by the British Labour party. The unexpected dissolution of the Communist International had, indeed, brought about new conditions, and the Labour party acknowledged the necessity of a reassessment when it convened an extraordinary executive meeting on 28 May. In a new statement the Labour party executive went so far as to admit that 'certain circles' appeared to assume that no valid objection remained to Communist affiliation and that this could henceforth be regarded as inevitable. The Communists were professing their loyalty to the idea of labour unity, but the true test of their sincerity, in the view of the Labour executive, lay in their attitude to maintaining themselves as a separate organization. The debate at the 1946 Labour conference was brief and concerned only with conflicting assessments of the value of the Communist party's declaration of loyalty.
