ABSTRACT
The Labour Church has a place in history synonymous with the foundation and development of the political working-class movement and the early days of the Independent Labour Party (ILP). It sits alongside the emergence of other Nonconformist and socio-religious movements such as Socialist Sunday Schools and the Salvation Army. From its inception, one of the primary challenges of the socialist movement was to communicate its message to the wider working classes. As a propaganda tool, the Labour Church undertook this role, providing a familiar social platform. As capitalism was increasingly presented as a ‘sin’, so people required what Keir Hardie termed ‘social redemption’ or ‘social salvation’. The Labour Church was thus one of the means by which the socialist movement and early Labour Party came to reach those who found themselves isolated from orthodox churches and party politics.
