The Real Social Democratic Federation: Rank and File Branch Activities and Responses in Mill Town Lancashire 1884-1918

Fyles, Peter John (2022) The Real Social Democratic Federation: Rank and File Branch Activities and Responses in Mill Town Lancashire 1884-1918. Masters by Research thesis (MPhil), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

The historiography of the Social Democratic Federation (SDF) is one which is stereotyped and based primarily on general and national accounts of the party. The caricature is one of a party led by H. M. Hyndman, wherein Marxist ideology dominates and the development of the party is characterised by a disregard of women issues, a refusal to cooperate with trade unions and a tirade of internal in-fightings which led to dismal defeat, little contribution to the labour movement and a final transformation into the British Socialist Party. This, the first local study of the SDF, investigates four local SDF branches in Lancashire. The cultural and historical tradition of the county provides a unique picture of the early twentieth century labour movement and provides a more detailed and complex picture of what local politics was vis a vis national developments. A distinct Lancashire workers’ culture and extensive social and commercial changes impacting lifestyles offer novel influential structures and arguments that affected the progress of a political party. The findings in this study have uncovered evidence and events which provide a more nuanced interpretation of the infamous ‘stage army’. Key aspects, previously overlooked, are that the party was not one homogenous entity but more a collection of semi-autonomous ‘islands’ led by forceful individuals who often acted independently. In addition, the party implemented a strategy of ‘fighting the good fight’ and placed an emphasis on utilising education to convert weavers. The former proved most ineffective, more so in national than local elections, and the latter fell foul of a weavers’ culture that did not value learning and focused more on immediate IV day-to day concerns and pleasure. Finally and unwittingly, perseverance and over thirty years of propaganda would aid the next party of the Left, the Labour Party.