Socialist Labor Party (1903)

The Socialist Workers' Party ( Engl. Socialist Labor Party , SLP) was a socialist party in the United Kingdom . It split off in 1903 from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), initiated by James Connolly , Neil Maclean and other SDF members who were impressed by the American socialist Daniel De Leon and his Socialist Labor Party of America .

A tendency towards secession emerged within the SDF in 1902 around Connolly's magazine The Socialist , and when a leading party member was expelled in 1903, the majority of the Scottish SDF members resigned and formed the Socialist Labor Party as a new party. Despite the clear support in Scotland , the majority of the members always came from England .

The party was initially called the Glasgow Socialist Society , but renamed itself in August 1903 to express its nationwide claim. It saw itself as fundamentalist and refused to cooperate with reformers like the Independent Labor Party .

In 1919 the SLP had over 1,000 members and was active in promoting the struggle for national self-determination in Ireland . The party was proud to have one of the leaders of the Irish liberation movement, James Connolly , among its founders.

After the successes of the Russian Bolsheviks in the October Revolution , the SLP began talks with the British Socialist Party (BSP) with the aim of founding a British Communist Party. However, the party leadership could not agree to a planned affiliation with the Labor Party by the BSP and therefore rejected the union with the Communist Party of Great Britain .

Remnants of the SLP were reorganized by William Cotten and were still active for years. Although the party was on its last legs by 1960, it was revived by younger members and did not disband until 1980.