The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports an ...

published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again.

19th century

The origins of the paper lay in ''The Miner'', a monthly paper founded by

Keir Hardie James Keir Hardie (15 August 185626 September 1915) was a Scottish trade unionist and politician. He was a founder of the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, and served as its first Leader of the Labour Party (UK), parliamentary leader from 1906 to ...

in 1887. Its main purpose was to advocate for a federation of Scottish

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

s."Hardie, (James) Keir",

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

The first issue contained an influential programme for labour, co-authored by Hardie and

Chisholm Robertson Robert Chisholm Robertson (1861 - March 1930) was a Scottish political activist. Born in Limerigg, then in Stirlingshire, Robertson started working in a coal mine at the age of eight, but after the Mines Regulation Act 1872 prohibited children ...

,David Howell, ''British Workers and the Independent Labour Party, 1888-1906'', p.146 marking Hardie's switch from support for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

to advocating independent labour candidacies. The paper was used as Hardie's platform in the 1888 Mid Lanarkshire by-election, following which Hardie became a founder member of the

Scottish Labour Party Scottish Labour ( gd, Pàrtaidh Làbarach na h-Alba, sco, Scots Labour Pairty; officially the Scottish Labour Party) is a social democratic political party in Scotland. It is an autonomous section of the UK Labour Party. From their peak of ...

and relaunched ''The Miner'' as the ''Labour Leader''. In 1893 the Scottish Labour Party affiliated to the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

(ILP). Hardie became the party's first leader and began using the ''Labour Leader'' as a forum for the development of policy for the new party. In 1894 he was able to increase the paper's frequency from monthly to weekly.

20th century

Hardie continued to publish and edit the ''Labour Leader'' until 1904, when he sold it to the ILP, amid some controversy on the appropriate recompense due to him. The ILP appointed John Bruce Glasier to replace Hardie as editor in January 1905. Glasier was able to take sales from 13,000 at the start of his editorship to 43,000 in 1908, but attracted criticism from some ILP members for consistently endorsing all the actions of the party's leadership. He stood down from the post in April 1909. In 1909 party members were encouraged to write for the ''Labour Leader'' rather than rival publications. For example, Frederick William Jowett's parliamentary column was transferred from '' The Clarion''. Throughout this period the paper was known for

investigative reporting Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

and high-quality journalism. As early as 1899 an investigation by Hardie had sensationally exposed poor conditions at the Overtoun Chemical Works, while in 1913 and 14, Walton Newbold worked on a lengthy article exposing the interests of the defence industry.

First World War

In 1912 the editorship passed to

Fenner Brockway Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a British socialist politician, humanist campaigner and anti-war activist. Early life and career Brockway was born to W. G. Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey in ...

, who imposed a policy of strident

pacifism Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigne ...

, opposing the First World War with front-page

headline The headline or heading is the text indicating the content or nature of the article below it, typically by providing a form of brief summary of its contents. The large type ''front page headline'' did not come into use until the late 19th centur ...

s such as "The War Must Be Stopped" and "Down With The War".
Fenner Brockway
'', Learn Peace (

Peace Pledge Union The Peace Pledge Union (PPU) is a non-governmental organisation that promotes pacifism, based in the United Kingdom. Its members are signatories to the following pledge: "War is a crime against humanity. I renounce war, and am therefore determine ...

) In 1915 the paper's offices were raided by the police and Brockway was charged with publishing

seditious Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or insurrection against, establi ...

material. Brockway won the case, but commented, "if we weren't dangerous to the government we were failing in our duty!" However, his work in the No-Conscription Fellowship led to his repeated imprisonment and by 1916 he felt unable to continue as editor.Brockway, (Archibald) Fenner, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Katherine Glasier took over the editorship."Glasier, Katharine St John Bruce", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography In 1917 the government prohibited the export of the ''Labour Leader'' from the UK. By 1918 Glasier had increased circulation to 62,000, but she became increasingly at odds with the prominent columnist

Philip Snowden Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden, PC (; 18 July 1864 – 15 May 1937) was a British politician. A strong speaker, he became popular in trade union circles for his denunciation of capitalism as unethical and his promise of a socialist utop ...

. His opposition to the

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

was vocally resisted by Glasier, and in the ensuing dispute sales fell away. The stress of the dispute may have contributed to her

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

Inter-war years

After Glasier resigned from the paper

Clifford Allen Clifford Robertson Allen (January 6, 1912 – June 18, 1978) was a Tennessee attorney and Democratic politician. Early life and career Allen was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and graduated from Friends High School (now Sidwell Friends) in ...

, then the Treasurer of the ILP, decided that a new approach was necessary. The paper was renamed the ''New Leader'' and H. N. Brailsford was appointed editor. Alarmed at Brailsford's

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

reputation,

Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...

ensured that Mary Hamilton was appointed as his more moderate deputy, although she soon left the post. Brailsford championed articles on cultural topics alongside an increased proportion of theoretical pieces, and contributed numerous articles proposing a programme for a

living wage A living wage is defined as the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet their basic needs. This is not the same as a subsistence wage, which refers to a biological minimum, or a solidarity wage, which refers to a minimum wage tracking labor ...

. Brailsford also managed to obtain several noted contributors to the ''New Leader'', including

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ar ...

Hugh Dalton Edward Hugh John Neale Dalton, Baron Dalton, (16 August 1887 – 13 February 1962) was a British Labour Party economist and politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1945 to 1947. He shaped Labour Party foreign policy in the 19 ...

Norman Angell Sir Ralph Norman Angell (26 December 1872 – 7 October 1967) was an English Nobel Peace Prize winner. He was a lecturer, journalist, author and Member of Parliament for the Labour Party. Angell was one of the principal founders of the Union ...

and

C. E. M. Joad Cyril Edwin Mitchinson Joad (12 August 1891 – 9 April 1953) was an English philosopher and broadcasting personality. He appeared on '' The Brains Trust'', a BBC Radio wartime discussion programme. He popularised philosophy and became a celebr ...

.Clare Leighton and Patricia Jaffé, ''The Wood Engravings of Clare Leighton''. Cambridge, England : Silent Books, 1992. (p. 9)F. M. Leventhal, "H. N. Brailsford and the New Leader". ''Journal of Contemporary History''. Vol. 9, No. 1 (Jan., 1974), (pp. 91-113)

E. M. Forster Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author, best known for his novels, particularly ''A Room with a View'' (1908), ''Howards End'' (1910), and ''A Passage to India'' (1924). He also wrote numerous short stori ...

and H. W. Nevinson contributed book reviews to the ''New Leader'', while

Julian Huxley Sir Julian Sorell Huxley (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century modern synthesis. ...

wrote science articles. The magazine also added a literature section, with poems by

Frances Cornford Frances Crofts Cornford (née Darwin; 30 March 1886 – 19 August 1960) was an English poet. Life She was the daughter of the botanist Francis Darwin and Newnham College fellow Ellen Wordsworth Crofts (1856-1903), and born into the Darwi ...

and

Charlotte Mew Charlotte Mary Mew (15 November 1869 – 24 March 1928) was an English poet whose work spans the eras of Victorian poetry and Modernism. Early life and education Mew was born in Bloomsbury, London, daughter of the architect Frederick Mew (18 ...

, and stories by T. F. Powys. Illustrators for the ''New Leader'' included Jack B. Yeats,

Muirhead Bone Sir Muirhead Bone (23 March 1876 – 21 October 1953) was a Scottish etcher and watercolourist who became known for his depiction of industrial and architectural subjects and his work as a war artist in both the First and Second World Wars. A fi ...

Käthe Kollwitz Käthe Kollwitz ( born as Schmidt; 8 July 1867 – 22 April 1945) was a German artist who worked with painting, printmaking (including etching, lithography and woodcuts) and sculpture. Her most famous art cycles, including ''The Weavers'' and ''T ...

and Clare Leighton. By 1926 circulation had fallen and Brailsford had fallen out of favour with the ILP leadership. Brockway returned to the helm, supporting James Maxton's call for the ILP to stand for "socialism in our time". In 1929 Brockway was elected as the

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members ofte ...

for Leyton East and stood down from the paper. He was replaced by John Paton. Paton was also an advocate of the living wage policy, but gave only reluctant support to the idea that the ILP should split from the Labour Party. Out of Parliament again in 1931, Brockway returned to the editor's chair, remaining in the post until 1946, when he resigned from the ILP and rejoined the Labour Party. On 11 March 1938, the magazine published an editorial (titled ''Stalin-Stop!'') calling on

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet Union, Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as Ge ...

to end the

Moscow Trials The Moscow trials were a series of show trials held by the Soviet Union between 1936 and 1938 at the instigation of Joseph Stalin. They were nominally directed against "Trotskyists" and members of " Right Opposition" of the Communist Party of th ...

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...

's essay "Why I Joined the Independent Labour Party" was published in ''New Leader'' on 28 June 1938.

After the Second World War

Facing a severe decline as many of its activists defected to Labour, the ILP relaunched the paper as the ''Socialist Leader'' in 1946, with Douglas Rogers as editor. F. A. Ridley and George Stone were appointed joint editors in 1947, Ridley standing down the following year, but continuing to write regularly for it. Stone pursued a " third force" policy, opposing both

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. The ILP continued to decline, but remained able to publish a weekly newspaper. A

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

politician, Cyril Wilson Black, successfully prosecuted the paper for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defin ...

after it described him as a

racist Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race over another. It may also mean prejudice, d ...

. In 1975 the ILP decided to dissolve itself into the Labour Party, renaming its paper as the ''Labour Leader'' once again and moving back to monthly publication. Relaunched with a claim to be "Labour's Independent Monthly", it was published by Independent Labour Publications until 1986.
Labour Leader
'', Arbejdermuseet & Arbejderbevægelsens Bibliotek og Arkiv

Editors

:1888:

:1905: John Bruce Glasier :1909: J. T. Mills :1912:

:1916: Katherine Glasier :1922: H. N. Brailsford :1926:

:1929: Ernest E. Hunter :1930: John Paton :1931:

:1946: Douglas Rogers :1947: Frank Ridley and George Stone :1948: George Stone :1960: Wilfred Wigham :1963: Jack Ellis :1964: Douglas Kepper :1966: John Downing :1970: Robin Jenkins :1970s: Alistair Graham

References

{{Authority control Publications established in 1888 Publications disestablished in 1986 Defunct newspapers published in the United Kingdom Independent Labour Party Socialist newspapers published in the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) publications 1888 establishments in the United Kingdom 1986 disestablishments in the United Kingdom