Waiting for the Workers

Waiting for the workers is based on the extensive research and interviews conducted by Peter Thwaites over 40 years ago when he was writing his thesis. He was given special access to the Party's papers and introduced to former Party members. Dr Thwaites’ book describes in detail how World War II affected the Party’s activities and the subsequent impact of the war on the Party itself.

In 1932 the Independent Labour Party split from the Labour Party but was badly damaged as a result and by 1938 it was considering rejoining. But the outbreak of the Second World War, which the ILP believed was solely a struggle between rival capitalist powers, made that impossible. As a result the ILP became the only political party with parliamentary representation that consistently opposed Great Britain’s participation in the war; and it fought by-election and propaganda campaigns putting forward its revolutionary socialist proposals for ending the war and winning the peace. Post-war defections to the Labour Party, however, removed its parliamentary and local government representation and decimated its membership so that by 1950 it had become a spent force. This book examines this largely forgotten aspect of the history of the war years and details the ILP’s political beliefs and policies, and describes both its opposition to the war and the internal disagreements over its relationship to the Labour Party which eventually tore it apart.