Arthur Henderson And The British Labour Party(1912-1934)

Arthur Henderson(1863-1895)was one of the most prominent labour leaders in the early period of the British Labour Party.He witnessed the whole process of the British Labour Party from 1900 to 1935.He had accumulated rich political experiences from his early political practices in the party.The reasons were that he had once been a member of the House of Commons,the chief whip of parliamentary Labour Party(1908-1910,1914-1917 and 1931-1932)and Secretary of the British Labour Party(1912-1934).He had also been a member of the Coalition government in the wartimes(1915-1917).Meanwhile,He had appointed as Home Secretary in the First Labour government(1924)and Foreign Secretary in the Second Labour government(1929-1931).He had a clear mind about the problems existed in the early British Labour Party,which he got from his rich political,experiences.In view of Labour Party was built by trade unions and socialist societies,there are very complicated fractions in it and which always brought conflicts in the organization.Labour Party was a very weak force h the House of Commons and had an incomplete structure.At the meantime,it had no individual members.It was more like a pressure group rather than a national political party.These defects existed in the British Labour Party making it might be broken if something unexpected happened.Arthur Henderson would not let it happen.Henderson kept good relationship with Trade Unions and acted as the Secretary of the party for a very long time.Therefore,He could be the one who could lead the party to overcoming difficulties and make the party transforming from a pressure group to a real national political party.Henderson was the key person in the early British Labour Party.Henderson thoroughly knew that trade unions were the basis of Labour Party.However,its critical defect was that it was a loose political federation.Therefore,He did his best to develop good relations with Trade Unions,protect their interests and exerted all his energies to win their support.Trade Unions were indifferent to the party’s political activities and accustomed to calling strikes when fecing industrial disputes.In terms of the trade unions’ dominant position in both party members and finances in Labour Party,Henderson taken an active role in solving industrial disputes.Henderson himself was a trade union politician and deeply influenced by Wesleyan Methodism,thus he thought the best way to solve disputes were conciliation and arbitration.Henderson represented workers in the negotiation with employers during disputes and protected their interests.Taking industrial disputes aside,there were several unfair judgements occurred in Labour Party,which deprived Trade Unions’ legal rights.Trade Unions lost its legal rights,which not only prevented those attending political activities but also prevented the development of Labour Party.Henderson maintained that Labour Party should protect trade unions’ legal rights.He did all his best to reverse unfair judgements and created good environments for the development of Labour Party.He also cared about the problems of unemployment and made policies to protect workers’losing their jobs.Thus,Henderson won Trade Unions’ supports,united them around the party and made them a strong foundation for the future development of Labour Party.However,the defects of its organization limited the development of the party.Incomplete structure was one of the most important obstacles for the future development of Labour Party.The party in its early period carried out the collectivesystem,which means members of trade unions or socialist societies were also members of the party.The premise was that these trade unions affliated the party.At the same time,local organizations also were the party’s grass roots.In the short term,it seemed to be conducive to the expansion of the campaign machine.Nevertheless,when it ran,problems occurred occasionally.A lack of individual party members was not conducive to the expansion of Labour base and was not conducive to transform the party from a pressure group into a national party.Local organizations kept close touch with their respective national organizations,which resulted in local organizations lacking the enthusiasm at elections.Therefore,Henderson devoted himself to the organizational construction of the party.He encouraged absorbing individual members and building constituency labour parties.When he replaced MacDonald as the Secretary from 1912 to 1934,Labour Party became a real national party.The increasing members of parliamentary Labour party reflected its progress.In addition,it was Henderson’s work that Labour Party had the chance to take office in 1924 and 1929.Henderson made Labour Party one of the mainstream parties,like Conservative and Liberal,in Britain.Henderson performed actively in Labour’s foreign affairs and made an independent foreign policy,which differed the party from the other two main parties.Having a clear foreign policy was a sign of Labour’s maturity.The party did not make a clear foreign policy out of the defects of the party before the First World War.However,this did not mean Labour was unwilling to attend foreign affairs.Henderson opposed the British government to developing relationship with Russia and equipping with more arms before the First World War.When the war happened,he joined the Coalition government and following the government’s war policy.In 1917,he broke the cooperation relationship with the Liberal and left the Coalition.From then on,he took the party to an independent foreign policy.When the war ended,he promoted the party to receive a foreign policy of pacifism and tried all his best to build a security framework at the center of the League of Nations.Thus,Labour differentiated itself from the two main parties whose foreign policy were the strategy of balance of power and the policy of aggression.This highlighted the independence of Labour.To conclude,Henderson transformed the Labour from a loose federation into a national party.Henceforth Labour ran steadily.Henderson was a key figure who brought the party to a smooth transition and made the party what it was like today.