Life

Born in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

, MacDonald trained as a tailor

Tailor

A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...

 and moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1881. He joined the Central Marylebone Democratic Association and the Manhood Suffrage League

Manhood Suffrage League

The Manhood Suffrage League was a nineteenth century ultra-radical and, later, socialist club.The organisation was founded in 1874 as the Democratic and Trades Alliance Association...

, but it was reading Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...

' articles in the Labour Standard that convinced him of socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

. As a result, he joined the Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

 (SDF), but left in 1885 to join the Socialist Union

Socialist Union (UK)

The Socialist Union was a British political party active from February 1886 to 1888.The group was formed by socialists around C. L. Fitzgerald who left the Social Democratic Federation in protest at SDF leader H. M. Hyndman's acceptance of money which Maltman Barry had obtained from the...

. However, he rejoined the SDF in 1887.

In 1888, MacDonald worked with Lewis Lyons to united both East End and West End

West End of London

The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...

 tailors, which became the Amalgamated Tailors' Union. He then founded a newspaper, Journeyman

Journeyman

A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....

, and joined the Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

 (ILP).

In 1891, MacDonald was elected to the executive of the London Trades Council

London Trades Council

The London Trades Council was an early labour organisation, uniting London's trade unionists. Its modern successor organisation is the Greater London Association of Trades Councils...

, and in 1896 he became its Secretary, a post he held until 1913. Despite being based in London, he twice stood for Parliament in Dundee

Dundee (UK Parliament constituency)

Dundee was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1950, when it was split into Dundee East and Dundee West....

 as an ILP candidate, failing to win a seat. He also spent some time on the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress

Trades Union Congress

The Trades Union Congress is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in the United Kingdom, representing the majority of trade unions...

 and in 1893 successfully proposed an amendment requiring it to support only those Labour candidates who accepted the principle of collective ownership.

In 1898, MacDonald organised merger talks between the SDF and ILP, but these proved unsuccessful, the ILP withdrawing. Increasingly radical, in 1900 he proposed a motion that the ILP should be an organisation of class war

Class conflict

Class conflict is the tension or antagonism which exists in society due to competing socioeconomic interests between people of different classes....

, but this was voted down. He was also elected to the first Labour Representation Committee (LRC) as a representative of the SDF. Some reports claimed that Ramsay MacDonald

Ramsay MacDonald

James Ramsay MacDonald, PC, FRS was a British politician who was the first ever Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government for two terms....

 was elected Secretary of the LRC in part because he was confused with James, although Arthur Henderson

Arthur Henderson

Arthur Henderson was a British iron moulder and Labour politician. He was the 1934 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and he served three short terms as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1908–1910, 1914–1917 and 1931-1932....

 strongly denied that this was the case.

MacDonald launched the London Trades and Labour Gazette in 1901, editing it until 1913. Initially publishing it personally, it became the official journal of the London Trades Council in 1903.

In 1905, he left the Amalgamated Tailors' Union to found the London Society of Tailors and Tailoresses.