ABSTRACT
With the affiliation of an increasing number of trade unions to the Labour Representation Committee (L.R.C.) or Labour Party, an examination into the principles on which political parties are based became inevitable. The Labour Representation Committee is a federation of trade unions, trades councils, the Independent Labour Party, and the Fabian Society. Co-operative societies are also eligible for membership. The new movement was filled with masses of recruits who needed training in independent Labour politics and social reform, while the Social Democratic Federation members who could have undertaken that training made strenuous efforts not to let their doctrines pass into the hands of the heathen. All the delegates of the trade unions and the Independent Labour Party spoke against binding the L.R.C. candidates to socialism. It was simply impossible for the Labour members to maintain their independence and to attack a Government which was engaged in a battle for democratic and social reform progress.
