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Can Labour remain the party of labour?
On the 90th anniversary of the Independent Labour Party’s disaffiliation from the Labour Party, following the formation of the ‘national government,’ VINCE MILLS examines the significance of the trade union link
Labour

“TOO many socialist parties. Not enough socialists” — Tony Benn.

Readers of the Star will not have failed to notice that since Sir Keir Starmer blagged his way into the leadership of the Labour Party, there has been a lot of soul-searching about whether socialists should remain in the Labour Party or even help build a left-wing alternative — less, I notice, consideration of joining existing left alternatives — more of them later.

The British left inside and outside the Labour Party has faced this dilemma time and again, but perhaps the consequences of adopting such a strategy have never been more dire than the Independent Labour Party’s disaffiliation from the Labour Party in 1932, exactly 90 years ago. 

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