Labour's Left •
Though the Independent Labour Party has dwindled to a small affair numerically, it has always contained a good deal of the brains of the Labour Party. This year's Easter Conference has shown the I.L.P. to be gravely distracted. It exists primarily to protest against the Labour Party's philosophy of gradualness and demand the most precipitate transition possible (or, indeed, a precipitate trtmsition without much regard tin• possi- bilities), from Capitalism to Socialism. The immediate issue,. which looked like ,splitting the Party completely, WM.whether to break away from the Labour Party com- pletely or not, the difficulty about continued association with it being that the Labour Party has definite ideas shout party discipline and the I.L.P. claims the right to vote and speak against the party or put down hostile uttiendments to Labour Party measures. In the cud a temporary compromise has been reached. No motion was carried at the Blackpool Conference for or against disaffiliation from the Labour Party, though Mr. Maxtor was for breaking away at once, but negotiations are to he ,resumed with the Labour Party executive and the result reported to a special conference of the I.L.P. It is only when Labour is in office that the attitude of the LL.P. greatly , matters, but the Blackpool discussions provide one more example of the fissiparous tendencies of British political parties at the present time.
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