The Metropolitan Radical Federation: London working class politics in the transition from radicalism to socialism
Socialist History - ISSN 0969-4331
Volume 2022 Number 61
The Metropolitan Radical Federation: London working class politics in the transition from radicalism to socialism
Duncan Bowie pages 5-30
Abstract
This article reviews the political activities of the Metropolitan Radical Federation (MRF), an influential political organisation based on over fifty politically active working-class clubs across London between 1886 and the First World War. It examines the evolution of the relationship of the club movement to the established Liberal Party organisation and to emerging socialist organisations such as the Social Democratic Federation and the Independent Labour Party – first competing with socialist organisations, then collaborating with them, before reverting to Liberalism in its declining years. It considers the role of the MRF in the campaign against coercion in Ireland, the Eight Hours movement, the free speech campaign, the campaign for free and secular education, and its role in local electoral politics, including its involvement in the London School Board and the London County Council as well as in parliamentary contests.
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To cite this article
Duncan Bowie (2022) The Metropolitan Radical Federation: London working class politics in the transition from radicalism to socialism, Socialist History, 2022(61), 5-30