The Socialist Societies are the Fabian Society, which, in 1921, returned a membership of 1,770; the Herald League with a membership of 500; the Independent Labour Party with a membership of 35,000; the Jewish Socialist Party (Poale Zion) with a membership of 3,000; the Social Democratic Federation with a membership of 2,000.
By the accounts of the Party the total receipts for the year ending December 31, 1920, were £62,000 odd, of which £49,000 represented affiliation fees.
The Trades Union Congress
Turning from the Labour Party to the Trades Union Congress, “Labour’s Annual Parliament,” this, when founded in 1868, consisted of 34 delegates, representing about 20 societies with an affiliated membership of 118,367. In 1919, although all Trade Unions were not included, it had grown to 851 delegates, representing 266 Unions and an affiliated membership of 5,283,676. In 1921 it consisted of 810 delegates representing a membership of 6,417,910. It may now be taken to represent industrially the organized labour of Great Britain, and has the largest Trade Union affiliated membership in the world.
The Trades Union Congress must be distinguished from the General Federation of Trade Unions which was created under its auspices in 1899—now representing an affiliated membership of about 1½ millions—and the chief object of which is to maintain Trade Union rights, and to assist financially or otherwise affiliated Unions involved in disputes with employers or employers’ organizations.
The National Joint Council
A scheme for co-ordination of Labour forces was recently worked out by a Joint Co-ordination Committee representing the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and the Executive Committee of the Labour Party. A National Joint Council has been constituted representing the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, the Executive Committee of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Labour Party. Its duties are to consider all questions affecting the Labour movement as a whole, and to make provision for immediate action on questions of national emergency, and to endeavour to secure a common policy and joint action, whether by legislation or otherwise, on all questions affecting the workers as producers, consumers or citizens. The expenditure of the Council is met in equal proportions by the General Council of the Trades Union Congress and the Executive Committee of the Labour Party. The scheme also provides for the establishment, under joint control of the General Council and of the National Executive, of four departments organized to deal with research and information, international affairs, publicity and legal matters. In the memorandum which recommended the scheme for the National Joint Committee, it was pointed out that in view of the enormous growth of the Labour movement and the importance of presenting a united front upon the great problems which lie before it, the need for co-ordination was becoming daily more important. “If Labour is to realize its ideals it must formulate a common policy and secure the maximum of common action. The effectiveness of the Labour movement has in the past been dissipated by overlapping functions, by duplication of effort, and by confusion arising from conflicting policies.” The scheme is described as one which enables Labour to speak with one voice on all questions of national importance, and to pursue one uniform policy in support of its common ends.
The Parliamentary Labour Party
What the Parliamentary Labour Party is, must also be explained. In 1906, 29 Labour members were, we have seen, returned to Parliament; they were then constituted into a distinct Parliamentary party, Mr. J. Keir Hardie, M.P., being elected Chairman, and a Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Whips being also appointed. It is the practice of the Parliamentary Party at the beginning of each session to review the resolutions passed at the various conferences of the Labour Party and to take them as indicating the principles on which the Parliamentary Party should proceed. About the commencement of the session there is a joint meeting between the Parliamentary Party and the National Executive of the Labour Party for the purposes of deciding the various objects in respect of which Bills should be introduced into Parliament or motions made. A general review of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s activity since 1906 will be found in the Labour Year Books for 1916 and 1919.