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The Labour Party: a complicated birth
The formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900 marked the beginning of interconnected and contested strategies — parliamentary and industrial — seeking ways to advance working-class interests, writes KEITH FLETT
Leaders of the Labour Representation Committee in 1906. From left to right: Arthur Henderson, G N Barnes, Ramsay Macdonald, Philip Snowden, Will Crooks, Keir Hardie, John Hodge, James O'Grady and David Shackleton

125 YEARS AGO on February 27 1900, a meeting took place at the Memorial Hall in Farringdon St to form the Labour Representation Committee (LRC).

The building still stands although today it is a modern office with a plaque to mark the founding of the Labour Party. For many years I represented workers there as a union officer.

The meeting marked the start of a decade and more of events that still provide much of the framework for the Labour Party, the labour movement and the left today.

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