Abstract
From the emergence of the 'modern' Socialist movement in the 1880s through
to the First World War, the majority of socialists in Britain regarded the
achievement of particular reforms and the ultimate goal of Socialism itself, as
being realisable only through the ballot box. The subject of this thesis is how
that movement, i.e. for independent labour representation, was conducted and
with what success in Glasgow prior to the First World War. The whole basis
of this electoral strategy, however, is called into question by the sex and
class biases inherent in the franchise system, as defined by the Reform Acts
of the nineteenth century.
The focus of the study falls upon local, municipal politics and particular
attention is paid to the Independent Labour Party (ILP), as the largest socialist
organisation and the body most associated with the movement of
independent labour representation. Glasgow was chosen because of its
working class complexion, the militant reputation it receive during and
immediately after the First World War, and its emergence as an electoral
stronghold of the Labour Party in the post-war period.
To achieve its aim of securing elected representation, the ILP sought to
promote alliances with other democratic' forces which were regarded as part
of the working class movement: the trade unions, the co-operators, and the
Irish. An alliance of this group was achieved in the 1890s and secured a level
of Labour representation on Glasgow Town Council. The elements of this
alliance, however, were fissiparious and the coalition eventually collapsed and
with it Labour representation, until a more structured Labour Party was
established in Glasgow in 1910-12.
Even at its most successful, this electoral challenge was limited. This
limitation is examined in relation to the franchise system. The class bias of
the system operated most forcefully against the poorer working class, and the
failure of British Socialism, and particularly the ILP, to campaign for complete
democracy is seen as emanating from respectable' fears of the residuum or
'slum dwellers'. The limited impact made by Labour prior to 1914 is thrown
into sharper relief by the massively expanded support it enjoyed post-1918
amongst the new mass electorate, which meant that Britain, for the first time,
at least approximated to being a full democracy. That the forces of Labour
had signally failed to make adult suffrage an important plank of its platform is
seen as indicative of a Labour movement and politics unable to transcend the
divisions within the working class, and posing only a limited and self-limiting
challenge to the established order.
