The Importance of the ILP on its 130th Anniversary

Events to mark the ILP’s 130th anniversary continue this month with a free public meeting to discuss the organisation’s importance in Scotland organised as part of the Scottish Morning Star’s Our Class Our Culture series.

The ‘hybrid’ in-person and online event is on Monday 13 November at 19:00. It will be chaired by Labour Party peer Pauline Bryan while speakers include MSP Richard Leonard and Dave Watson, secretary of the Keir Hardie Society.

“The ILP’s role in the formation of the Labour Party and the Red Clydeside is well known in Scotland. However, after it disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 1932 it continued to influence the wider Labour movement,” says the organisers’ publicity.

“In contrast to the mainstream of the Labour Party, leading ILP activists such as James Maxton and Fenner Brockway took seriously the issue of anti-colonialism and internationalism in discussions that are still relevant to the left today.

“In 1936, for example, the ILP issued a policy statement supporting efforts to build a ‘united front’ of Arab and Jewish workers and promote a sense of class unity in Palestine. But although the ILP commended the work of Jewish socialists, it nevertheless argued that they should “give up the idea that they have any right to establish a predominantly Jewish State”.

It should be a lively discussion.