Clause Four was a group in British student politics in the 1970s and 1980s, set up to oppose

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin " ...

in the

National Organisation of Labour Students Labour Students is a student organisation within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom. It is a network of affiliated college and university clubs, known as Labour Clubs, who campaign in their campuses and communities for Labour's values of e ...

(NOLS). It backed the

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

group of Labour MPs, working in the mainstream of the Labour Party, and had a range of views on the democratic socialist left of the Labour Party. It supported the Alternative Economic Strategy, the liberation movements in Southern Africa and

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, and deepening equality in society on grounds of sex, race and sexual orientation. Clause Four won the

from Militant in December 1975,Michael Crick ''The March of Militant'', London: Faber, 1986, p.97 turned NOLS towards the mainstream in the student movement, and had a presence in the

Labour Party Young Socialists The Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) was the youth section of the Labour Party in Britain from 1965 until 1991. In the 1980s, it had around 600 branches, 2,000 delegates at its national conferences and published a monthly newspaper, ''Socia ...

. People who were involved in Clause Four include

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

MPs

Fraser Kemp Fraser Kemp (born 1 September 1958) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Houghton and Washington East from 1997 to 2010, and previously a full-time employee of the Labour Party. Early life He attended ...

Mike Gapes Michael John Gapes (born 4 September 1952) is a British former politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Ilford South from 1992 to 2019. Born in Wanstead Hospital, Gapes attended Buckhurst Hill County High School. He studied eco ...

Alan Whitehead Alan Patrick Vincent Whitehead (born 15 September 1950) is a British politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Southampton Test since 1997. A member of the Labour Party, he has been Shadow Minister for Green New Deal and Energ ...

, John Mann,

John Denham John Denham may refer to: * John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury * John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges * John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet * John Denham ...

Mark Lazarowicz Mark Lazarowicz ( ; born Marek Lazarowicz; 8 August 1953) is a British Labour Co-operative politician and lawyer who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh North and Leith from 2001 to 2015. Early life Lazarowicz was born in Romfor ...

and

Margaret Curran Margaret Patricia Curran (born 24 November 1958) is a Scottish Labour Party politician. She served in the British House of Commons as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Glasgow East from 2010 to 2015 and was Shadow Secretary of State for Scotl ...

, and MSPs

Johann Lamont Johann MacDougall Lamont (; born 11 July 1957) is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and Dep ...

and

Sarah Boyack Sarah Herriot Boyack (born 16 May 1961) is a Scottish Labour politician who has served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Lothian region since 2019, and previously from 2011 to 2016. She formerly represented the Edinburgh Cent ...

. Many of those involved in Clause Four subsequently became active in the

Labour Co-ordinating Committee The Labour Co-ordinating Committee (LCC) was a faction in the British Labour Party, established in 1978 and wound-up in 1998. It moved from a group established to challenge the leadership of the party from the left to the vanguard of Tony Blair's ...

. Clause Four was wound up at a special meeting in London in 1991 and its remaining funds donated to Tribune and the Labour Party.

References

History of the Labour Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) factions {{UK-poli-stub