ABSTRACT
In 1914, when the First World War began, the Labour Party had been in effective existence for only eight years. Right up to 1914 the Labour Party neither stood, nor professed to stand, for Socialism. The Fabian leaders, intent on their policy of “permeation” and sceptical of the Labour Party’s prospects, were hardly more than lukewarm supporters right up to 1914. No doubt the Labour Party had been since 1904 affiliated to the Socialist International, to which the leading British Socialist bodies—the I.L.P., the Fabian Society, and the British Socialist Party—also independently belonged. In 1914, the Labour Party itself had no individual members, though in a very few constituencies—notably Woolwich and Barnard Castle—there were local Labour Parties or Associations which enrolled individuals as members. The Labour Party had some sort of local organisation in only 158 areas, except where it was in effect represented by a branch of the I.L.P.
