This thesis examines the united and popular front campaigns in the north east of England. The region was important for the national success of both projects since it was dominated by a moderate and loyal labour movement. Chapter one examines united and popular front activity in the region in 1936 and provides an explanation of why there was so little of it. The second chapter focuses on divisions within the labour movement which provided significant barriers to united and popular front supporters. Chapter three examines the divisions related to the significant number of Catholics within the labour movement. It argues that Catholic disquiet over the labour movement's attitude to the Spanish civil war did not provoke serious internal divisions, though Catholics remained opposed to Communism and therefore to the united and popular fronts. The Unity Campaign of 1937 and its effect is discussed in chapter four. This campaign drew very little support from within the labour movement and failed to improve relations between the left parties. Its effect, however, was not as damaging as some have claimed. The following four chapters deal solely with aspects of the popular front. Chapter five discusses the 1938 United Peace Alliance campaign and examines the fresh potential that the aftermath of the Munich settlement offered. The 1939 Cripps Petition campaign is examined in chapter six. Both campaigns failed to mobilise significant labour movement support in the region. Chapter seven considers the attitudes of Conservatives and Liberals to the popular front. Liberal support was almost non-existent. Liberal attitudes were generally characterised by opposition to both socialism and communism, therefore their natural allies were the Conservatives, who largely supported Chamberlain and thus opposed the popular front. Chapter eight, on the Tyneside foodship, assesses the argument that the 'Aid Spain' campaigns constituted the closest thing to a popular front in Britain. Generally speaking, these campaigns cannot be seen as de facto popular fronts as they were humanitarian and not political. The thesis concludes that the united front was not very united, nor was the popular front very popular in the region, reflecting their failures at national level.

Throughout its history, internal conflict has divided and threatened to rupture the British Labour Party. Yet even by the standards of a party accustomed to internal dissension, conflict during the period 1951-59 was particularly intense. It becomes the purpose of the thesis to consider the sources and nature of conflict during the period, and in particular to examine the character of the Bevan/Gaitskell relationship relative to that conflict. It was found that Bevan and Gaitskell were both intellectuals and advanced theoreticians whose analyses led them to adopt different if not always opposing policy positions. On occasions these differences heightened the rivalry between them, and provoked conflict. However, Bevan in particular was willing to restrain his radical, fundamentalist insticts in the interests of preserving party unity. He was also prepared, on occasions, to attempt the influence of policy development not through rebellion, but rather as a participating member of the party leadership group. Just as it is possible to overestimate the importance of ideological difference as a source of conlict between the two men, so too the importance of rivalry between them for power and position is easily overestimated. The research indicates that conflict within the party was created not so much by direct rivalry between Bevan and Gaitskell as by the reaction of Gaitskell, Morrison and most particularly the trade union leadership to the threat posed by organized Bevanism, and by the subsequent reaction and interaction of the fundamentalist and social democratic associates of Bevan and Gaitskell.

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This study examines the process by which the British Labour Party is transformed into New Labour Party, under the leadership of Tony Blair. Tony Blair declared that the Labour Party Government was elected as New Labour and that they would be govern as New Labour in 1997. How did Tony Blair as leader seek to define New Labour to win an election for the Labour Party after four successive defeats? ¡§New Labour¡¨ the term used to describe the project of Tony Blair to continue the modernization of the Labour Party to enable it to win power. ¡§New Labour¡¨ attempted to break with ¡§Old Labour¡¨ by revising Clause ¢¼ of the Party Constitution, introduced direct democracy to rediscover their members, rebuild the party structure and policy-making process, weakening links with the trades unions, and accepting the Thatcherism agenda of lower levels of social protection and deregulated labour market. ¡§New Labour¡¨ went on to gain a landslide victory in the 1997 election, but there were criticism that ¡§New Labour¡¨ had abandoned the historic aim of an equal society.

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Berlin, Staatswiss. Diss., v. d. Phil. Fak. genehmigt, v. 2. März 1934.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1927. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [309]-317).

Many studies of the British Labour Party have emphasised disputes within the Parliamentary Labour Party and attempted to explain them. There has, however, been no attempt to apply the concept of factionalism, with criteria detailing how a faction might be identified, to a study of the Parliamentary Labour Party over a period of time. It is the aim of this paper to succinctly define the term faction; to establish criteria for the purpose of identifying factions, and to determine to what extent parties to Parliamentary Labour Party disputes could be identified as factions. Prom the definition of a faction employed, six criteria were established, against which to assess a group as a faction. Employing histories of the Labour Party, biographies and autobiographies of contemporary Labour politicians and contemporary newspapers and journals, major disputes during the years 1945-1970 were isolated and examined. It was found that there were four periods of intense Parliamentary Labour Party dispute. Application of the six criteria to groups involved in each dispute showed that four factions could be clearly identified. The policies expounded by three of these factions were identified as left-wing. One faction was identified as of the right-wing of the Labour Party. A number of implications of factionalism in the Parliamentary Labour Party were drawn. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

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