The Labour Solidarity Campaign was a British political organisation associated with the Labour Party, founded in February 1981.
Born out of the right wing of the Labour Party's struggles with its left wing, it saw itself as protecting the mainstream democratic tradition within the Labour Party, to ensure an electable future party of government while countering undemocratic forces of the far left. It was seen as a successor to the Manifesto Group. Its name was based on that of the Polish independent trade union.
It was a reaction both to the Labour Party conference in January 1981 which changed the system for electing the Labour Party leader, and to the Limehouse Declaration which led to 28 Labour MPs eventually joining the Social Democratic Party. Initial leading members included Roy Hattersley, Peter Shore, Ken Woolmer, and Austin Mitchell, and over 100 Labour MPs attended its launch meeting. [1]
The campaign successfully enabled the close re-election of Denis Healey as Labour's deputy leader. While frequently successful in getting its supporters elected to the Shadow Cabinet, it was less successful in constituency elections to the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. It campaigned on the issue of "one member, one vote" for the constituency section for elections of the Labour leadership, achieved after its dissolution. After the 1987 United Kingdom general election, it became clear that Labour Solidarity's direct influence in parliament had weakened and that its supporters would need to work with the moderating Kinnockite soft-left to pursue their objectives. It dissolved itself in 1988, with many of its themes being taken up by a rejuvenated Labour First campaign. [2]
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats.
The Socialist Campaign Group, officially the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs and also known as the Campaign Group, is a left-wing, democratic socialist grouping of the Labour Party's Members of Parliament in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It was formed in December 1982 following the 1981 Labour Party deputy leadership election when a number of soft left MPs, led by Neil Kinnock, refused to back Tony Benn's campaign, leading a number of left-wing Benn-supporting MPs to split from the Tribune Group to form the Socialist Campaign Group.
Tribune is a democratic socialist political magazine founded in 1937 and published in London, initially as a newspaper, then converting to a magazine in 2001. While it is independent, it has usually supported the Labour Party from the left. From 2008 it faced serious financial difficulties until it was purchased by Jacobin in late 2018, shifting to a quarterly publication model. Since its relaunch the number of paying subscribers has passed 15,000, with columns from high-profile socialist politicians such as former leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn, former Second Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Pablo Iglesias and former Bolivian President Evo Morales. In January 2020, it was used as the platform on which Rebecca Long-Bailey chose to launch her Labour leadership campaign.
The New Zealand Social Credit Party is a political party which served as the country's third party from the 1950s through into the 1980s. The party held a number of seats in the New Zealand House of Representatives, although never more than two at a time. It renamed itself the New Zealand Democratic Party from 1985 to 2018, and was for a time part of the Alliance from 1991 to 2002. It returned to the Social Credit name in 2018.
An electoral alliance is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections.
In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP) is a Scottish nationalist, centre left, social democratic political party which campaigns for Scottish independence. The SNP has controlled Scotland's devolved legislature since the 2007 election as a minority government, and were a majority government from the 2011 election and have been a minority government, since the 2016 election. Its current leader, Nicola Sturgeon, is the First Minister of Scotland.
The Democratic Labour Party was the main opposition party in Trinidad and Tobago from 1957 till 1976. The party was the party which opposed the People's National Movement (PNM) at the time of Independence. After several splits brought about by leadership struggles, the party lost its hold on the Indo-Trinidadian community in the 1976 General Elections and was displaced in parliament by the United Labour Front under the leadership of Basdeo Panday, a former DLP senator. The party was the representative of the ethnic Indian community in the country; however Indian Muslims and Christians were said to be less loyal to the party than Indian Hindus.
Eric Samuel Heffer was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the construction industry and its employment practices, but was also concerned with trade union issues in general. He changed his view on the European Common Market from being an outspoken supporter to an outspoken opponent, and served a brief period in government in the mid-1970s. His later career was dominated by his contribution to debates within the Labour Party and he defended the Liverpool City Council.
The 1988 Labour Party leadership election saw Tony Benn, identified with the left wing of the British Labour Party, challenge the incumbent leader Neil Kinnock identified with the more moderate social democratic wing.
The Campaign for Democratic Socialism or CDS was a social democratic and democratic socialist organisation in the British Labour Party, serving as a pressure group representing the right wing of the party. Established in 1960, the CDS was composed of Gaitskellites, Labour members who supported the then-party leader, Hugh Gaitskell.
Socialism in the United Kingdom is thought to stretch back to the 19th century from roots arising in the aftermath of the English Civil War. Notions of socialism in Great Britain have taken many different forms from the utopian philanthropism of Robert Owen through to the reformist electoral project enshrined in the birth of the Labour Party.
Entryism is a political strategy in which an organisation or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. If the organization being "entered" is hostile to entrism, the entrists may engage in a degree of subterfuge and subversion to hide the fact that they are an organization in their own right.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist to centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. The party supported a mixed economy, electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within the industrial sphere. The SDP officially advocated "social democracy", but its actual propensity is evaluated as close to social liberalism.
The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the Militant newspaper, which launched in 1964. According to Michael Crick, its politics were based on the thoughts of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky and "virtually nobody else".
Labour Party Black Sections (LPBS), commonly known as Black Sections, was a caucus in the United Kingdom, made up of African, Caribbean, and Asian Labour Party members from 1983 to 1993.
Open Labour is an activist group in the British Labour Party which acts as a forum for members to discuss ideas, tactics and campaigning. It is in the soft left political tradition, to the right of left-wing groups like Momentum and to the left of New Labour groups such as Progress.
Labour First is a British political organisation associated with the Labour Party. It was originally founded in 1980 but refounded in 1988. Born out of the right wing of the Labour Party's struggles with its left wing, it sees itself as protecting the tradition of the "old Labour right". It organises petitions, endorses likeminded candidates, and runs events.
The Rank and File Mobilising Committee (RFMC) was an umbrella group which coordinated left wing groups to campaign for increased democracy within the Labour Party.