ABSTRACT
The Labour Party had grown out of the combination of three minor political groups with the trade unions. Although in a permanent minority, the ILP, the Fabian Society and, more erratically, the British Socialist Party, continued to infuse new ideas into the growing party. The Left in the 1930s consisted of groups tracing their descent from these three pioneering socialist societies and of individuals who accepted policies largely emanating from such groups. The Labour movement was very conscious of its past. Ideas were transmitted in political propaganda and discussion from one generation to the next, shaped by the peculiar circumstances of the times but remaining fundamentally unchanged. The internal life of the Left was intellectually self-contained. Arguments were based on unstated assumptions and actions were often governed by organizational loyalties rather than by externally dictated realities. The Left had a history and tradition which was as consistent and coherent as that of the Labour movement as a whole.
