See, notably, D. Weinbren, ‘Labour's Roots and Branches’, Oral History, vol. 24, no. 1 (1996), pp. 29-38
See J. Lawrence and M. Taylor, ‘Introduction: Electoral Sociology and the Historians’, in J. Lawrence and M. Taylor (eds), Party, State and Society: Electoral Behaviour in Britain since 1820, Aldershot, 1997. Amongst these surveys were W. Fienburgh MP and the Manchester Fabian Society, ‘Put Policy on the Agenda’, Fabian Journal, 6 (February 1952); T. Brennan, ‘The White House’, Cambridge Journal, vol. VII, no. 4 (January 1954); J. Gould, ‘Riverside: A Labour Constituency’, Fabian Journal, 14 (November 1954); D.V Donnison and D. E. G. Plowman, ‘The functions of Labour Parties: Experiments in Research Methods’, Political Studies, vol. II, no. 2 (1954); Manchester Guardian, The Future of the Labour Party: A Stocktaking, Manchester, 1955; R. T. Mckenzie, ‘Labour Party Organisation: A Note on its Future’, Fabian Journal, 16 (July 1955); W. Fienburgh, ‘The Future of Labour's Organisation: A Comment on the Wilson Report’, Fabian Journal, 17 (November 1955); J. Blondel, ‘The Conservative Association and the Labour Party in Reading’, Political Studies, vol. VI, no. 2 (1958)
M. Jenkins, Bevanism: Labour's High Tide, Nottingham, 1979, p. 115
Bevanism: Labour's High Tide
115
Manchester Guardian, Future of the Labour Party, p. 12. Labour Party Research Department (LPRD) R.322, ‘Progress Report on Party Education’ (December 1953); H. Croft, Party Organisation, 1950
The Guardian (22 June 1999)
In Labour Annual Conference Report (LPACR), 1955, pp. 63-105. The Sub-Committee was appointed by Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC minutes, 22 June 1955), Labour Party Papers, National Museum of Labour History (NMLH), Manchester. Harold Wilson was chair and the report researched and written by Wilson, Margaret Herbison, Arthur Skeffington and J. Cooper between July and September 1955. All eleven Labour Party regions were visited, meeting with regional organisers, women's organisers and party agents. 527 questionnaires were returned by election agents. Pages 63 and 93
CPGB, Report of the Commission on Inner-Party Democracy, 1957. A dissenting minority report was appended
The workings of the commission were themselves an indictment of the CPGB's democratic centralism. See M. MacEwen, ‘The Day the Party had to Stop’, in R. Miliband and J. Saville (eds), Socialist Register, 1976
Co-operative Independent Commission Report, 1958. R. L. Leonard, ‘The Co-ops in Polities’, in G. Kaufman (ed.), The Left, 1966. Criticism came from left and right in 1959; M. Abrams and R. Rose, Must Labour Lose?, Harmondsworth, 1960; D. Potter, The Glittering Coffin, 1960; also M. Phillips, Labour in the Sixties, 1960, pp. 15-21; K. Jeffreys, ‘British Politics and the Road to 1964’, Contemporary Record, vol. 9, no. 1 (Summer 1995), p. 138
R. Hattersley, A Yorkshire Boyhood, 1991, p. 37
Gould, ‘Riverside’, p. 18; Merton and Morden Constituency Labour Party (CLP), Annual Report 1960, British Library of Economic and Political Science, Merton and Morden papers (MM) 1/13; Bethnal Green CLP, Agents Report 1962; Tower Hamlets Local Studies Archive, Bethnal Green Labour Party Papers, TH/8488/15
Len Hill, ‘Comrade Camera can help the Party’, Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 364 (August 1952), p. 146; Peter Moyes, ‘Bitten by the Property Bug’, Labour Organiser, vol. 35, no. 412 (September 1956), pp. 167-8; Roma Waldegrave, ‘Back to the Street Corner’, Labour Organiser, vol. 35, no. 413 (October 1956), p. 187
‘Comrade Camera can help the Party’
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146
W. Fienburgh, No Love for Johnnie, 1959, pp. 166-8. Fienburgh was Labour MP for Islington (1951-8)
See Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 468 (June 1961), p. 106 and vol. 41, no. 447 (March 1962), p. 44
C. Hughes Stanton, ‘Brighter Premises Results’, Labour Organiser, vol. 41, no. 485 (November 1962), pp. 208-9
‘Brighter Premises Results’
Labour Organiser
41
208
9
In Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 368 (December 1952), p. 238
N. Loewi, What is Wrong with Ward Organisation? (1955), Socialist Union papers, Modern Records Centre (MRC), Warwick University, MSS. 173, box 11
‘Quair's Page’, Labour Organiser, vol. 34, no. 393 (January 1955), p. 3. The personage of Quair is unknown
Loewi, What is Wrong with Ward Organisation?; Waldegrave, ‘Back to the Street Corner’, p. 187
C. A. R. Crosland, Can Labour Win?, 1960, pp. 15-16; Aitken in The Guardian (4 March 1997); ‘Inside Transport House’, Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 364 (August 1952), p. 148
THMOA, ‘General Elections 1945-1955’, Files 4/g, Kensington North; 4/d, Hendon North; J. Gorman, Knocking Down Ginger, 1995, p. 209
F. Bealy, J. Blondel and W. P. McCann, Constituency Politics: A Study of Kewcastle-under-Lyme, 1965, p. 407; J. McGrandle, ‘Organising in the Shadows’, Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 368 (December 1952)
Wilson Report, p. 80; Nottingham half-yearly report, 1955. NMLH LP/Cons/55/311; E. Shaw, Discipline and Discord: The Politics of Managerial Control in the Labour Party, 1951-1987, Manchester, 1987, pp. 78-83
Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 380 (December 1953), p. 223; Chippenham CLP, Agents half-year report to Len Williams, National Agent, 20 January 1956, NMLH LP/Cons/55/397; Report, Midlands District CPGB Committee to Bill Lauchlan (4 January 1960), Communist Party Papers, NMLH, CP/Cent/Org/1/8
Jenkins, Bevanism, pp. 115-16; Donnison, Plowman, ‘The Functions of Labour parties’, p. 162; Fienburgh, Manchester Fabian Society, ‘Put Policy on the Agenda’, p. 28; Gould, ‘Riverside’, p. 14
‘Political Education’ (15 November 1951), Crossman Papers, MRC MSS. 154/3/LP/2/1; D. Jay, Change and Fortune, 1980, p. 157; B. Matthews, ‘Report on Party Branches’ (February 1958), p. 5, London District Congress, CP/Cent/Org/1/8
V Feather, ‘Out in the Cold, Cold, Snow’, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 387 (July 1954), pp. 123-4
‘Out in the Cold, Cold, Snow’
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123
4
Webb quoted in McKenzie, ‘Labour Party Organisation’, p. 13; Shaw, Discipline and Discord, pp. 144-5. On the payment of higher ‘subs’, ‘Woolwich is Right’, Labour Organiser, vol. 36, no. 417 (February 1957), p. 27
NMLH LP/Cons/55/394; J. Heardley Walker in Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 388 (August 1954), pp. 146-7
Gould, ‘Riverside’, p. 14; Merton and Morden, Annual Report, 1960, MM papers 1/13. ‘Meteorites’ was a common term for election fodder. See also ‘Quair's Page’, Labour Organiser, vol. 8, no. 45 (June 1959), p. 105
For the breadth of activity, see ‘Work of 21 Districts’ (10 January 1953); NMLH, CP/Cent/PC/2/11; CPGB, The Role of the Communist Party (Basis for Branch Education), 1957, p. 23; CPGB, Forging the Weapon: A Handbookfor Members of die Communist Party, 1955, p. 24
LPRD, R.292, ‘Notes on the 1952 Discussion Pamphlets’ (July 1953). Problems of Foreign Policy sold 79,600. By contrast there were Our Daily Bread and The Future of Private Industry (which sold 10,160)
S. Lamb, ‘Vitalise Inactive Supporters’, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 381 (January 1954), p. 14
‘Vitalise Inactive Supporters’
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14
G. G. Farner in Labour Organiser, vol. 35, no. 411 (August 1956), pp. 153-4
The Argus: The Journal of Merton and Morden Labour Party (June 1953), MM papers 4/3
‘Quair's Page’, Labour Organiser, vol. 37, no. 436 (September 1958), p. 165
Labour Organiser, vol. 34, no. 399 (August 1955), pp. 135-6; D. Robertson, ‘Agents Leave Because’, Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 474 (December 1961), pp. 230-1; Helen Bastable (agent in Basingstoke), ‘Eighty Hours a Week!’ and Ron Brewer in Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 360 (April 1952), pp. 66-9
J. Barnes in Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 361 (May 1952), p. 88; A. H. Birch, Small Town Politics: A Study of Political Life in Glossop, Oxford, 1959, p. 65
See Labour Organiser, vol. 34, no. 99 (August 1955), p. 136, Labour Organiser, vol. 39, no. 456 (June 1960), p. 116. Tory agents were not only better renumerated, but often supplied with accommodation, Wilson Report, p. 76
R. South, Heights and Depths: Labour in Windsor, Windsor, 1985, p. 67
Heights and Depths: Labour in Windsor
67
H. M. Drucker, Doctrine and Ethos in the Labour Party, 1979, p. 16
H. Underhill, ‘Planning an Election Machine’, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 383 (March 1954), pp. 46-7. ‘A Local Labour Party: All Colours of the Political Spectrum’, Manchester Guardian (9 November 1954); Poplar Labour Party ‘Agent's Report’ (July-December 1951), TH/8488/12
‘Planning an Election Machine’
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46
7
M. Jones, Chances, 1987, p. 133; Morden Women's Section minutes (9 January 1958), MM papers 3/7
On this point and the left's historiography see S. Fielding, ‘Socialism’ and Society since 1951, Manchester, 1997
D. Garnett in Labour Organiser, vol. 31, no. 366 (October 1952), p. 177; R. Samuel, ‘The Lost World of British Communism I’, New Left Review, 154 (1985), p. 46
Labour Organiser
31
177
Drucker, Doctrine and Ethos, p. 16; also Labour Organiser, vol. 36, no. 424 (September 1957), p. 166
Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 373 (May 1953), pp. 92-3; L. Hilliard, ‘Paid Collectors are a Success’, Labour Organiser, vol. 35, no. 408 (May 1956), p. 85
Morden ward minutes (16 December 1954, Heardley-Walker lost the vote 5-1). The Argus: The Journal of Merton and Morden Labour Party (June 1953), M M papers 3/5, 1/13
R. Samuel, ‘The Lost World of British Communism III’, New Left Review, 165 (1987), pp. 80-1
‘The Lost World of British Communism III’
New Left Review
165
80
1
‘Quair's Page’, Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 375 (July 1953), p. 139
D. Weinbren (ed.), Generating Socialism: Recollections of Life in the Labour Party, Stroud, 1997, pp. 173-4. Symptomatic was Horner's erroneous belief that this was the FA Cup Final
Generating Socialism: Recollections of Life in the Labour Party
173
4
S. Lamb, ‘How to learn the Canvassing Art’, Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 378 (October 1953), pp. 190-2; Anon, ‘Care will save time’, Labour Organiser, vol. 38, no. 441 (February 1959), pp. 28-9
‘How to learn the Canvassing Art’
Labour Organiser
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190
2
M. Rosenbaum, From Soapbox to Soundbite: Party Political Campaigning in Britain since 1945, 1997, p. 227
R. S. Milne and H. C. Mackenzie, Marginal Seat, 1955: A Study of Voting Behaviour in the Constituency of Bristol North East at the General Election of 1955, 1958, p. 6; S. Watling, ‘Report by a paid Canvasser’, Labour Organiser, vol. 38, no. 444 (May 1959), p. 94
Lamb, ‘How to Learn the Canvassing Art’, pp. 190-2; D. Lessing, The Golden Notebook, 1962, p. 159
See Labour Organiser, vol. 38, no. 441 (February 1959), pp. 28-9; Lamb, ‘How to Learn the Canvassing Art’, pp. 190-2. For a discussion of the language, psychology and ‘self-recognition’ of activism, J. Hinton, ‘1945 and the Apathy School’, History Workshop Journal, 43 (1997), pp. 266-73
I. Mikardo, ‘New Ideas from Reading South’, Labour Organiser, vol. 301, no. 356 (November-December 1951), p. 203, ‘Know and Deliver your vote’, Labour Organiser, vol. 38, no. 448 (September 1959), pp. 170-1
‘New Ideas from Reading South’
Labour Organiser
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203
R. Wevell, ‘How to make Socialists’, Labour Organiser, vol. 38, no. 448 (September 1959), pp. 174-5. Wevell edited Labour's Western Voice.
‘How to make Socialists’
Labour Organiser
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174
5
‘Work of 21 Districts’ (10 January 1953), pp. 1-3, CP/Cent/PC/2/11; R. Samuel, ‘The Lost World of British Communism II’, New Left Review, 156 (1986), p. 97
‘Around the Regions’, Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 379 (November 1953), p. 218; G. Williams, ‘TV opens better Propaganda Prospect’, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 385 (May 1954), p. 90; Bealy et al., Constituency Polities, p. 406
Jenkins, Bevanism, pp. 171-2
D. Alger, ‘Why the Value of Brains Trusts is Limited’, Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 374 (June 1953), p. 111
‘Why the Value of Brains Trusts is Limited’
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111
T. Ives, ‘You can Compete with TV’, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 384 (April 1954), pp. 68-9. On the CPGB, THMOA, Topic Collection, ‘General Elections 1945-1955’, File 4/d, Hendon North (1950)
‘You can Compete with TV’
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68
9
V Thomas, ‘A New Look for May Day’, Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 464 (February 1961), p. 29. See the reply of A. N. A. Gent, Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 465 (March 1961), p. 54
‘A New Look for May Day’
Labour Organiser
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29
British Library, National Sound Archive, Don Mattheson C/609/12/01; Fienburgh, No Love For Johnnie, p. 173
CPGB, Forging the Weapon, p. 17. On Pollitt, Gorman, Knocking Down Ginger, p. 209; Samuel, ‘The Lost World II’, pp. 82-9, CPGB, Forging the Weapon, 1961, p. 26
Fienburgh, Manchester Fabian Society, ‘Put Policy on the Agenda’, p. 28; ‘How to Prepare the Agenda’, Labour Organiser (February 1956), p. 36; South, Heights and Depths, p. 59; Lowestoft CLP, Contact 2:2 (April 1962)
NMLH NEC minutes (28 October 1959); Phillips, Labour in the Sixties, p. 24; Donnison, Plowman, ‘Functions of Labour Parties’, p. 159; Quair, Labour Organiser, vol. 32, no. 379 (November 1953), p. 205
R. Huzzard, Half a Century of Orpington Labour Party, Orpington, 1993, p. 6; S. Goss, Labour and Local Government: A Study of Changing Interests, Politics and Policy in Southwark 1919-82, Edinburgh, 1988, p. 45
Half a Century of Orpington Labour Party
6
‘A Local Labour Party’, Manchester Guardian.
Nelson and Colne CLP Circular (2 February 1958), EC mins (27 January 1958). Working Class Movement Library, Salford; Bethnal Green CLP, Agents Report 1962, TH/8488/15
Merton and Morden GMC minutes (25 January 1957). MM papers 1/8; Bethnal Green Ents Committee minutes (17 March 1954, 25 March 1958), TH/8488/18; Wilson Report, pp. 86-8, 99; Phillips, Labour in the Sixties, p. 22
Birmingham Borough half-yearly report to National Agent (30 January 1956), NMLH, LP/Cons/55/378; Chippenham report (20 January 1956), LP/Cons/55/397; Swindon Report (30 August 1955), LP/Cons/55/399; Chichester Report (n.d.), LP/Cons/55/375; D. Howell Thomas, Socialism in West Sussex, 1983, p. 18
Labour Organiser, vol. 135, no. 406 (March 1956), p. 53
Drucker, Doctrine and Ethos, p. 15; Dulwich CLP NMLH, LP/Cons/55/208
Grey, Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 473 (November 1961); Evans, Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 474, p. 206 (December 1961), pp. 226-7
Wilson Report, p. 85. Faversham, as described by Tony Benn during a 1964 by-election, Out of the Wilderness: Diaries 1963-1967, 1987, p. 114
See Reynolds News (30 August 1953, 26 August 1956); Faversham CLP Records, County Hall, Maidstone; L. Black, ‘"The Best Organised Constituency in Britain": A Short Introduction to the records of the Faversham Labour Party, 1918-1994’, in Local Labour Party Records on Microfilm, Series II, Wakefield, 1998
Manchester Guardian, Future of the Labour Party, p. 16; B. Elliot, ‘A House for Young Socialists’, Labour Organiser, vol. 39, no. 453 (March 1960), p. 54
Labour Organiser, vol. 41, no. 478 (April 1962), p. 76
S. Barker, Labour Organiser, vol. 33, no. 382 (February 1954), pp. 32-3
Labour Organiser
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32
3
S. Paige, ‘Lotteries can be Dangerous’, Labour Organiser, vol. 36, no. 425 (October 1957), p. 197
‘Lotteries can be Dangerous’
Labour Organiser
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197
See Morden's very ‘political’ bulletin, MM papers 4/1; Labour Organiser, vol. 35, no. 413 (October 1956), pp. 190-1. Chichester had an alternative planned should its present lottery be outlawed, NMLH LP/Cons/55/375
Manchester Guardian, Future of the Labour Party, pp. 14-16
‘A Local Labour Party’, Manchester Guardian. Details of Out of Bondage in Bethnal Green Papers TH/8488/4. Faversham CLP, AGM Report (1959)
Huzzard, Orpington Labour Party, p. 6; Labour Organiser, vol. 40, no. 464 (February 1961), p. 25; Stanton, ‘Brighter Premises Results’, pp. 208-9; CPGB, The Communist Party and the Role of Branches, 1955, p. 12
Birch, Small Town Politics, pp. 61-3; Labour's Northern Voice (November 1958), p. 4; Fienburgh, Manchester Fabian Society, ‘Put Policy on the Agenda’, pp. 28, 32
See the YS plea for rights in Merton and Morden EC minutes (14 June 1960), MM papers 1/8; Elliot, ‘A House for Young Socialists’, pp. 54-5; Paul Rose in Labour's Northern Voice (August-September 1959), p. 3
Rose, Labour's Northern Voice (August-September 1959), p. 3; Labour Organiser, vol. 39, no. 461 (November 1960), pp. 216-17; ‘A Local Labour Party’, Manchester Guardian.
‘Agents Report’ (January-June 1959), Bethnal Green papers TH8488/12; P. Rose, ‘Guts and Fun’, Labour's Northern Voice (July-August 1959), p. 6
YS minutes (25 May 1960 and 18 March 1963); MM papers 2/1, 2/2; P. Rose, ‘How to Attract the Young’, Labour Organiser, vol. 39, no. 452 (February 1960), pp. 32-3
O'Dee, The Failure and Salvation of the Labour Party, Manchester, 1938, p. 15; Morrison quoted in J. Gyford, National Parties and Local Parties, 1983, p. 47; Wilson Report, p. 65