The National Labour Press (NLP) was founded in 1909 to undertake printing for 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). It published the ''Labour Leader'' as well as other ILP material. It was originally located at 30 Blackfriars Street. In July 1915

Herbert Nield Sir Herbert Nield PC, KC, DL (20 October 1862 – 11 October 1932) was a barrister and Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. Biography Born in Saddleworth, Yorkshire, Nield was admitted a solicitor in 1885, called to the bar ...

, Conservative MP for Ealing, raised in parliament his concerns about the activities of the

Union of Democratic Control The Union of Democratic Control was a British advocacy group, pressure group formed in 1914 to press for a more responsive foreign policy. While not a pacifism, pacifist organisation, it was opposed to military influence in government. World War ...

(UDC) and the ILP were holding "over 200 meetings weekly" and distributing literature. Following police raids, censorship was imposed on the ''Labour Leader'', but the police in Manchester were cautious in seizing only sample copies of UDC literature. As it happened the

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

magistrates did not deem the material to be illegal. From March 1916 the NLP printed ''The Tribunal'', a weekly newspaper, for the

No Conscription Fellowship The No-Conscription Fellowship was a British pacifist organization which was founded in London by Fenner Brockway and Clifford Allen on 27 November 1914, after the First World War had failed to reach an early conclusion. Other prominent suppor ...

. The police raided the NLP and dismantled the press, but ''The Tribunal'' continued to be published via a secret press which the police had not found.

Blackfriars Press

The Blackfriars Press Limited was formed as a subsidiary in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

in 1914 to undertake work. It moved to Leicester in 1922.

Annie Maxton Annie Drummond Maxton (9 February 1888 – 1981) was a Scottish socialist politician and trade unionist. Born in Pollokshaws, Renfrewshire in February 1888, Maxton was convinced to join the Independent Labour Party (ILP) by her elder brother, Jam ...

(the sister of

James Maxton James Maxton (22 June 1885 – 23 July 1946) was a British left-wing politician, and leader of the Independent Labour Party. He was a pacifist who opposed both world wars. A prominent proponent of Home Rule for Scotland, he is remembered as on ...

) and

Emrys Hughes Emrys Daniel Hughes (10 July 1894 – 18 October 1969) was a Welsh Labour Party politician, journalist and author. He was Labour MP for South Ayrshire in Scotland from 1946 to 1969. Among his many published books was a biography of his father ...

were both one time members of the management committee. The company was the first in the UK to print

Nescafé Nescafé is a brand of coffee made by Nestlé. It comes in many different forms. The name is a portmanteau of the words "Nestlé" and "café". Nestlé first introduced their flagship coffee brand in Switzerland on 1 April 1938. History Nestl� ...

labels. The contract was arranged following a chance meeting of the then managing director, W. M. Stafford. He met with a member of the

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other metrics, since ...

family whilst on a mountaineering holiday in Switzerland in the 1940s. The business was registered as a

friendly society A friendly society (sometimes called a benefit society, mutual aid society, benevolent society, fraternal organization or ROSCA) is a mutual association for the purposes of insurance, pensions, savings or cooperative banking. It is a mutual ...

and in the early 1980s the ILP gave the business to its employees to trade as a co-operative. Lack of finance and bad debts caused the company to close in 1984.

Archival resources

* Correspondence, minutes, papers and accounts are held by Glasgow City Archives, based in the

Mitchell Library The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the City Council public library system of Glasgow, Scotland. History The library, based in the Charing Cross district, was initially established in Ingram Street in 1877 following a ...

. *Other material is kept in the ILP archive at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

References

British companies established in 1909 Defunct companies based in Manchester Companies based in Leicester Co-operatives in the United Kingdom Defunct companies of the United Kingdom Independent Labour Party Printing companies of the United Kingdom Publishing companies established in 1909 {{UK-company-stub